Between reality and fiction: voice over and archival footage in Narcos

Authors

  • Marcel Vieira Barreto Silva Universidade Federal da Paraíba
  • Melissa M. Fontenele Mestranda no Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal da Paraíba

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/fem.2017.191.06

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze the modes of intersection between reality and fiction in the first season of Narcos, launched on Netflix in 2015. Once the show uses resources traditionally assigned to the documentary gender in order to build its style, the paper aims to observe how this strategy legitimizes the narrative, since the main characters of the series are recognized in the historical world as real. Through film analysis and based on the concept of “the reality effect”, proposed by Roland Barthes, of style, by David Bordwell and Jeremy G. Butler, besides the studies about documentary by Bill Nichols, Silvio Da- Rin and others, two major categories were defined to articulate the analysis: the voice over, as a structure pattern and a narrative guide, and the archival footage, used both as a complement to the image, and as legitimization of the speech.

Keywords: Narcos, serial fiction, documentary, style, Netflix.

Author Biographies

Marcel Vieira Barreto Silva, Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Professor Doutor do Departamento de Comunicação e do Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Melissa M. Fontenele, Mestranda no Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Graduada em Comunicação Social - Jornalismo pela Universidade Federal da Paraíba e mestranda no Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação da Universidaede Federal da Paraíba.

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Published

2016-10-26

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2017): january/april

Section

Articles

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