Frankenbite

Frankenbite

English

Etymology

franken- +‎ bite, where "bite" refers to a sound bite.

Noun

Frankenbite (plural Frankenbites)

1. A clip on reality TV that appears to be a single shot, but is in fact several recorded clips edited together.
   • 2007, Ben Elton, Chart Throb, →ISBN, page 424:

     In time-honoured Chart Throb Frankenbite style she uses cross-fades and jumpcuts and different camera angles, all stitched together with moody music and distant traffic noises to cover the cuts.

   • 2015, Peter B. Orlik, Media Criticism in a Digital Age, →ISBN:

     Editors work together with writers to splice together lines in what are known as "Frankenbites" to help create storylines with more comedic or dramatic impact.

   • 2016, Leisa A. Clark, ‎Amanda Firestone, & ‎Mary F. Pharr, The Last Midnight: Essays on Apocalyptic Narratives in Millennial Media, →ISBN:

     In order to prove her sanity, she consistently emphasizes in interviews that she understands how "crazy" her creative storage techniques may seem; nevertheless, the show provides something of a Frankenbite that frames and devalues her testimony.

   • 2018, Lucas Mann, Captive Audience: On Love and Reality TV, →ISBN:

     The "they sign up for this" part of the quote seems to refer specifically to cast members, but Pozner uses the Frankenbite example to reinforce the fact that viewers are being lied to as well, manipulated into seeing a reality that was never really there and buying into whatever moral judgment is neatly manufactured by that contrivance.

Verb

Frankenbite (third-person singular simple present Frankenbites, present participle Frankenbiting, simple past and past participle Frankenbited)

1. To edit the footage of a reality TV show to combine several clips into what appears to be a single shot.
   • 2010, Katherine Lapworth, Get On TV, →ISBN:

     People can be 'Frankenbited'; their words taken out of context and edited in a certain way.

   • 2012 September 19, Steve Pond, “'Survivor' Host Jeff Probst: Who Needs Emmys When You've Got 25 Seasons?”, in The Wrap:

     We don't Frankenbite things, meaning we don't take 10 words from 10 different sentences and put them together.

   • 2016, Annette Danto, ‎Mobina Hashmi, ‎& Lonnie Isabel, Think/Point/Shoot: Media Ethics, Technology and Global Change, →ISBN:

     I don't know anyone who feels that it is wrong to Frankenbite if the essence of what is being said matches the essence of the story.