This is, of course, a very funny film (it's Albert Brooks, after all). But it also shows the quantum uncertainty in "reality" television. By attempting to observe the experiment, the experiment is altered.
Albert Brooks and his film crew follow the hapless family in "Real Life", dressed in bizarre helmet-cams. Charles Grodin, his wife and children can't help but be constantly aware that cameras are present, and this leads to all sorts of atypical behaviour.
I mention CBS' reality shows in my summary because I remember seeing one of the Survivor contestants on "Politically Incorrect" claim that after a short while they forgot the cameras were on the island with them. What she couldn't grasp -- but Albert Brooks does -- was that while the cameras weren't foremost in their minds all the time, you can't help but be influenced by the peripheral knowledge that a big Betacam camera and mike boom are just a few feet from your so-called "reality".
Albert Brooks and his film crew follow the hapless family in "Real Life", dressed in bizarre helmet-cams. Charles Grodin, his wife and children can't help but be constantly aware that cameras are present, and this leads to all sorts of atypical behaviour.
I mention CBS' reality shows in my summary because I remember seeing one of the Survivor contestants on "Politically Incorrect" claim that after a short while they forgot the cameras were on the island with them. What she couldn't grasp -- but Albert Brooks does -- was that while the cameras weren't foremost in their minds all the time, you can't help but be influenced by the peripheral knowledge that a big Betacam camera and mike boom are just a few feet from your so-called "reality".
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