On the Backburner: an Analysis of Documentary
ON THE BACKBURNER: AN ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTARY STYLES THROUGH AN ANTHOLOGICAL CULINARY DOCUSERIES A CREATIVE PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ART BY ASHLEY MULLEN MR. CHRIS FLOOK - ADVISOR BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA MAY 2020 2 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION With the arrival of streaming content platforms, such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, an increasingly significant number of new fictional and non-fictional programs are being offered to audiences. Within this novel abundance of content, audiences can find many new documentaries (as well as “docuseries”). The increase in documentaries as a percentage of all new content on streaming platforms is a response to the documentary’s popularity among the average viewer (HotDocs, 2018). For instance, some of the most popular documentaries series recently debuting on streaming services include Making A Murderer (Ricciardi, Demos, Nishimura, & Deo, 2015), Blackfish (Cowperthwaite & Oteyza, 2013), Fyre (Smith, Purzycki, & Gabai, 2019), Explained (Klein, Rozansky, Mumm, Nishimura. Posner, Spingarn-Koff, & Townsend, 2018), and Tiger King: Murder, Mayhen and Madness (Chaiklin, Goode, Smith, & Stevens, 2020). These are only a few in the ever-increasing list of popular documentaries and docuseries appearing on streaming services. Among these popular films and series are several culinary documentaries, including Chef’s Table (Gelb, Fried, McGinn, & Weaver, 2016), Salt Fat Acid Heat (Cotner, Gibney, Lawrence, Nishimura, Nosrat, Offman, Suh, & Biraghi, 2018), and Ugly Delicious (Cotner & Del Deo, 2018). The interest in culinary docuseries has been substantial, so much so that in July of 2019, Netflix debuted its very own “Netflix Food” category and corresponding Twitter account (@NetflixFood), which advertises the streaming platform’s food programs.
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