wall fly - meaning and definition. What is wall fly
Diclib.com
Online Dictionary

What (who) is wall fly - definition

STYLE OF DOCUMENTARY-MAKING USED IN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Fly-on-the-wall; Fly on the Wall; Fly on the wall documentary; Fly On The Wall; Fly-on-the-wall documentary; Fly-on-the wall documentary
  • A camera up on a wall recording what is happening in the room

wall fly      
When a group excludes one unliked member by forming a tight circle and the person doesn't get the idea and leave.
Look at Pasty, he's nothing but a wall fly.
fly-on-the-wall         
A fly-on-the-wall documentary is made by filming people as they do the things they normally do, rather than by interviewing them or asking them to talk directly to the camera.
...a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the Queen's life.
a fly on the wall: see fly
ADJ: ADJ n
fly on the wall         
see fly

Wikipedia

Fly on the wall

Fly on the wall is a style of documentary-making used in film and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, the camera crew works as unobtrusively as possible; however, it is also common for participants to be interviewed, often by an off-camera voice.

Decades before structured reality shows became popular, the BBC had broadcast fly-on-the-wall film Royal Family (a 1969 documentary produced in association with ITV), while 1974's The Family, is said to be the earliest example of a reality TV docusoap on the BBC. In the late 1990s, Chris Terrill's docusoap series The Cruise made a star of singer and TV personality Jane McDonald, while Welsh cleaner Maureen Rees became popular after her appearances on BBC One's Driving School.

Other British examples include Dynamo: Magician Impossible and Channel 4's Educating... series, while in the United States popular examples include American Factory, Cops, Deadliest Catch, Big Brother and Weiner, a film about a political sex scandal which developed during a mayoral election in New York.