Textual analysis ancilleries

Textual Analysis

Ancillaries

Introduction

In the following slides I will analyse and explore three different poster,

which relate to the documentary genre we

are trying to target. This research will aid our team

to take inspiration from the posters, and to try

and incorporate them in our poster ancillary task

for our own documentary.For the three posters, after a lot of research I

choose to analyse the film Connected by Tiffany Shlain, DSKNECT by

Dominic H. White and Downloaded by Alex

Winter.

Connected by Tiffany Shlain

The documentary is advertised in the poster by boasting about its

selection and premier at the famous Sundance film festival. The

documentaries engagement with the festival is located at the immediate top of the poster

making it one of the first things the viewer sees. This allows him to

recognise the potential quality of entertainment this film can

provide.

Below the Festival the poster contains a quote from the famous American politician Albert Arnold also known as ‘Al Gore’. Due to our primary audience being in the A-C income bracket the relevance between politics and this film would increase the interest the viewer would feel towards Connected. Also in our target audience are looking for acceptance of facts and problem solving as shown in Maslow's hierarchy. This need will seem to be fulfilled due to politicians such as ‘Al Gore’, representing just these characteristics.

The poster portrays hegemonic manipulation through the short summary of the film. Love, death and technology effecting every person in the world the poster indirectly tries to saturate their market by approaching an extremely saturated audience.

The word ‘CONNECTED’ being made out of a collage of different pictures

connotes the documentaries controversy and creative approach to

the topic, as is represented in the different letters. The audience is engaged by this font, due to it’s

exciting and different style.

Including a photo of the director of the (Tiffany Shlain) makes the film

appear more personal, and as it shows that anything displayed in the film can be related back to her, it is not just advertising for the film, but

also for Tiffany Shlain.

The poster also includes web 2.0 at the bottom of the page, were the twitter and Facebook reference is mentioned. This targets a younger audience, as people between the ages of 15- 40 are most likely going to have either Twitter or Facebook.

Dsknectd by Dominic H. White

At the top of the poster some mind-blowing facts are given to the viewer, such as there being

6,5 billion cell phones or that there are over 500 million

websites. These figures are meant to amaze the viewer, to

make him crave further information about the data given. Also the statement

‘Connecting with the human race’ is quickly turned around

by the poster saying ‘Or disconnecting it‘. This again

challenges the way an average viewer would look at the poster,

as they would assume that the invention of social networks and

E- mail would help connect the world. This again encourages

the viewer to find out more about the subject. Similar to ‘Connect’ , the poster

mentions the film festivals and prizes the ‘DSKNECTD’ won, in order to promote their product. Including the success of the film, shows the viewer that the film is worth watching as it connotes the prizes quality and high level of entertainment.

The picture being very simple allows the viewer to focus more on the facts at the top of the page, the awards the film won on the right side of the page, and the actual title of the documentary. Due to the background consisting from different shades of grey, the blue power button stands out. The power button is a representation of the title, due to the power being switched off leading to being disconnected. Due to the power button being lit, the button connotes the actual psychological power button in our heads which is on 24/7 encouraging us to keep using our phones and other technology. The picture is trying present the idea of shutting of the mental power button, and to take a break from technology.

The title ‘DSKNECTD’ represents the way people communicate with each other using digital messaging services. Especially teenagers who

like to abbreviate everything to save time and use phrases like ‘lol’,

‘tmrw’ and other alike, will be attracted by this title. The title

connotes the waste of language, due to it’s indirect complaint about

losing the art of conversation.

Downloaded by Alex Winter

Following the first two posters of documentaries, the ‘Downloaded’

poster also promotes their production by showing evidence of

film festivals were the documentary played a role, by either being

nominated or winning. For example this documentary was in the official

selection for the Hot Docs awards, and the Full Frame awards. These prestigious awards advertise the

film through their representation of quality, professionalism and

innovation which attract their audience.

Due to the whole film being about Napster and topics involved with

the music downloading company, the picture and title summarize

the documentary. The font of the title is very plain and in capitals

adding to the technological theme. Downloads being a huge

topic the world of the internet, which effects every person owning

a phone computer or gaming console, the title speaks out to all those billions of people, and there

by saturating their target audience.

The background picture shows the Napster logo, which is surrounded by what seems to represent pixels on a screen. The picture as well as he title tries to tell the viewer what the documentary is all about. The company Napster being iconic for downloads connotes the extreme impotence of downloading and the internet in general. Also the Napster logo being recognized world wide, it attracts a variety of people, and has some kind of effect on anyone who recognises the logo.

The subheading of the poster is intended to capture and define the whole concept and point of the documentary. Also the chosen words of music which represents the business, battle which connotes excitement and power and revolution which is a symbol of change and new starts all engage the audience through the emotions and thoughts carried by those three words.

Conclusion

After looking at all three poster in great depth and analysis the purpose of certain aspects of the different posters, I have found some things which I thought to be especially useful for our own production.

1. Mentioning awards and festivals which the documentary won or participated in is a great way to promote the quality of the production

2. Having an innovative title helps to attract attention to the poster, which leads to an increased interest in the documentary

3. We should also consider attracting our audience using social media, and either create a Facebook or twitter page. Using Web 2.0 marketing proved to be very effective with other products such as in the film ‘Les Miserable’.

4. Also we should add in a short summary of our documentary, which literally consist out of a few words or a brief sentence giving the viewer a clear idea what the film will be about.