America the Beautiful - Research into...

The title:

Coloured using the national colours of the American flag. The “I” in “America has been made into a lipstick for humour but also to emphasise the nature of the documentary. Making the Statue of Liberty hold a lipstick apart from the torch makes a mockery out of American culture and how it has become so obsessed with looking ‘perfect’.  ‘America the Beautiful’ is the name of a well known patriotic song. Naming the documentary this is both ironic and humorous as again, it is making a mockery of American tradition and culture.

The image:

The image has been edited for the effect of the documentary. The fact that such an influential and respectable landmark has been drawn all over and changed to what is seen as ‘perfection’ both emphasises the light-hearted feel to the documentary, but also highlights the seriousness of it. The statue has been changed to fit the idea of the American man’s perfect woman. Some Americans may find this image offensive, but the producers of the film poster have cleverly used the image to represent the narrow-minded, productised characters of the American population. The annotations are written using a font that looks like someone’s handwriting to represent that it is so easy for anyone to highlight someone’s imperfections and how superficial people are becoming.

The slogan:

The slogan is a rhetorical device which intends to address the audience and draw them in. Using a question causes the reader to want to find out what the advertisement is about, therefore encouraging them to watch the documentary. ‘Obsessed’ has been highlighted and brought above the other words to emphasise it and also make a suggestion as to what the product being advertised is about. The colour is identical to that of the colour of the lipstick that the Statue of Liberty if holding to intensify the plasticised personality of Americans and also of the product.

Super Size Me - Research into...

Super Size Me

Super Size Me is a documentary film that was released in 2004 to highlight the issues of over-eating of fast foods (fatty foods) in America. The documentary follows Morgan Spurlock as he attempts to eat nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days. The documentary explores into the fast food industry’s influence on poor nutrition for it’s own benefit and how this mass intake of unhealthy food has an effect on people’s health both physically and emotionally. Spurlock’s inspiration for the documentary was the fast increase in obesity in America.

 

Analysis of the opening of Super Size Me

Even from the beginning of the documentary, we are introduced to what the topic of the programme is. We are met with a track shot of a group of children of all different sizes (some displaying extreme obesity) singing a song based upon fast food. The connotations that we can gather from this snippet it that eating food is fun and enjoyable and that, even from a young age, children are introduced to the fast food industry which could potentially kill them. The screen fades to black, for which then a quotation from McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc claiming “look after the customer and the business takes care of itself” which is completely ironic as fast food companies do not take care of their customers, yet the businesses are booming. The black screen then fades out into an image of the American flag to show the culture of the documentary, also ironic as American’s are well-known for being a stereotypically ‘fat nation’. A voiceover (Spurlock) then begins to speak, glorifying the ‘big’ nature of the USA with “the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food and finally, the biggest people!” This creates a shock factor as all the other items mentioned are something to be proud of, whereas obesity is not. The voiceover begins to supply the audience with hard-hitting statistics that take the light-hearted nature of the documentary to a realistic, shocking level. The documentary presents both audio and visual information that coincide with each other to strengthen the message of the documentary. Spurlock then gives a personal account of his experience with food growing up, which adds to the realistic nature of the documentary. The reason for choosing McDonald’s as the primary target for this documentary is that it accounts for 43% of the fast food market.

The documentary is of a light-hearted and slightly humorous nature in order to attract a wider audience, especially the younger generation of whom can prevent this trend from furthering. The first few minutes of the documentary are focused on giving all the facts about obesity and setting the foundation for the narrative of the storyline to evolve. We are met with Spurlock about 4 minutes into the documentary where he talks directly to the audience and explains his mission.

How is this method/structure effective?

Presenting the audience with the harsh reality of what the fast food industry is doing to people not only draws them in and encourages them to watch the programme, but also sets a ‘no mercy’ message to the documentary. It almost suggests that there is no escape from the truth of fast food, just as there is no escape from the harmful effects that it can manifest. This documentary will be especially shocking for parents, specifically those that allow their children to eat large amounts of fast food. Inflicting harsh truths at the beginning of the documentary also prepares the audience for harsher events to come. Just as with a horror film, the narrative always becomes scarier as the story progresses. This is the same in Super Size Me; the situation being presented is bound to get worse, more shocking and grotesque as we progress further. The documentary is presented in a child-like quality to address the primary audience but also to make the information being presented more understandable for all ages. This is an appealing idea to use in my own documentary as it is targeted at a younger audience. My documentary needs to be made fun and entertaining to maintain the attention of the audience. This could be achieved using animations and more visual aspects (different video snippets changed often) as opposed to overloading the audience with too much information (including statistics) that will bore them and lose their interest. 

Budget: $65,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$516,641 (USA) (9 May 2004) (41 Screens)
£264,843 (UK) (12 September 2004) (82 Screens)
AUD 718,003 (Australia) (6 June 2004) (26 Screens)
€76,911 (Italy) (10 April 2005) (60 Screens)
SGD 70,861 (Singapore) (11 July 2004) (5 Screens)
KRW 18,900,000 (South Korea) (12 November 2004) (28 Screens)

Gross:

$516,641 (USA) (9 May 2004) - $11,529,368 (USA) (26 September 2004)

£264,843 (UK) (12 September 2004) - £809,046 (UK) (26 September 2004)

AUD 718,003 (Australia) (6 June 2004) - AUD 1,343,074 (Australia) (13 June 2004)

€76,923 (Italy) (10 April 2005)
€69,517 (Netherlands) (22 August 2004)
€124,500 (Spain) ( 2004)

Release Dates:

For the UK:     10^th July 2004, at Cambridge Film Festival (premiere)

                        19^th August 2004, at the Edinburgh Film Festival

                        10^th December 2004

For France:     13^th May 2004, at the Cannes Film Market

                        30^th June 2004

For USA:          17^th January 2004, at the Sundance Film Festival

                        13^th March 2004, at South by Southwest Film Festival

                        10^th April 2004, at Philadelphia International Film Festival

                        7^th May 2004, limited areas

                        29^th August 2004, video premiere  

Also released in: Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Netherlands, Thailand, Iceland, Israel, Philippines, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Mexico, South Korea, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Argentina, Greece, Italy, Estonia

Ratings:

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated the original version of the documentary as PG-13 for language, sex and drug reference, graphical medical procedures.

The educationally enhanced version was rated as PG for thematic elements, a disturbing medical procedure and some language.

Broadcasting

My documentary is eligible to be broadcast on Channel 4 as it is not the purpose of the documentary to gather ratings, it will be broadcast based upon public interest. For example, if the number of news stories/broadcasts are focused on underage drinking and the effects of underage drinking, then the documentary will be of more interest to the public. The recognition of the topic across the media as a whole is important to the intake of the documentary.

Channel 4 broadcasts documentaries such as:

Coppers (2010)
A documentary that attempts to capture the work of the police in the UK. The camera follows them in their day-to-day routines and allows the audience to understand how the police force works.
The Family (2008)
An observational documentary that captures everyday family life of different families in the UK.  
The Secret Millionaire (2006)
A documentary that follows a millionaire as they go undercover into struggling communities and choose individuals to give away tens of thousands of pounds to help them exceed in their current lifestyles.
Seven Days (2010)
Follows and documents the lives of individuals living and working in Notting Hill.
How The Other Half Live (2009)
A documentary featuring two families; one rich and one poor. The programme focuses on the children of the two families. The child from the poor family will send a DVD to the rich family in order for them to see what life is like for them. The rich family will normally then send money to the poor family in order to help them improve their way of life.
3 Minute Wonder (2007)
A short slot in Channel 4 prime-time programming that allows first-time directors to broadcast their 3 minute TV programmes in an attempt to help new talent break out in the very competitive television industry.

Taken from  http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyViewing

Channel : Channel 4/S4C
Weekly views (000's) : 38,924
Reach : 67.9%
Av. Weekly Viewing (time per person) : 01:54
Share : 6.3%

Channel : BBC3
Weekly views (000's) : 16,614
Reach : 29.0%
Av. Weekly Viewing (time per person) : 00:23
Share : 1.3%

Channel : More4
Weekly views (000's) : 11,499
Reach : 20.1%
Av. Weekly Viewing (time per person) : 00:17
Share : 0.9%


Taken from  http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?

Channel 4

w/e 29 Aug 2010

		000's
1	BIG BROTHER: THE FINAL (TUE 1959)	4,287
2	ULTIMATE BIG BROTHER (WED 2205)	3,617
3	ULTIMATE BIG BROTHER (THU 2203)	3,513
4	ULTIMATE BIG BROTHER (FRI 2100)	3,309
5	BIG BROTHER (MON 2203)	2,977
6	ULTIMATE BIG BROTHER (FRI 2237)	2,782
7	ULTIMATE BIG BROTHER (SAT 2100)	2,750
8	HURRICANE KATRINA: CAUGHT ON CAMERA (THU 2102)	2,248
9	ULTIMATE BIG BROTHER (SUN 1959)	2,216
10	CUTTING EDGE: MY NEW BRAIN (WED 2102)	2,144

As shown in the table above, during the craze that was Big Brother, the programme received the most viewing hits on Channel 4. Excluding all Big Brother programmes in the chart, the two other most popular programmes on Channel 4 were both documentaries. Channel 4 is reknowned for its broadcasting of documentaries and for this, the programmes get more recognition. It is evident that if the documentary addresses public interest, for example; people were intrigued to know how it would have felt to experience Hurricane Katrina and because it was such a global catastrophe, they tuned in to the documentary 'Hurricane Katrina: Caught On Camera', then the documentary is more likely to recieve higher viewing rates.  




Channel 4


w/e 6 March 2011
                                                        000'S
1        FILM: TAKEN (2008) (SAT 2103)                                                                      3,716
2        EMBARRASSING BODIES (FRI 2100)                                                             3,244
3        ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE (MON 2100)                                                     2,891
4        JAMIE'S DREAM SCHOOL (WED 2101)                                                          2,539
5       COME DINE WITH ME (MON 1659)                                                                 2,529
6       COME DINE WITH ME (FRI 1659)                                                                    2,521
7       COME DINE WITH ME (TUES 1659)                                                                2,501
8       COME DINE WITH ME (THUR 1659)                                                                2,447
9       COME DINE WITH ME (WED 1659)                                                                  2,280
10     HESTON'S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE (TUES 2102)                                         2,224


As shown in the viewing figures above (taken from http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?) Come Dine With Me was the most commonly watched programme on Channel 4 during the week stated above. However, what I found most noticeable and in relation to my own media production was that the film Taken was the most watched programme during that week by a clear margin.





Taken (2008)
(Image and information taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/)


Taken is a film written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Pierre Morel which tells the story of a father's struggle to save his estranged daughter after she is kidnapped whilst on holiday and sold into the slave market. The former spy relies on the skills he picked up during his service at the CIA to help uncover the whereabouts of his daughter and track down her kidnapper. 


The popular viewing rates of such a film that tackles issues similar to the ones that I wish to portray in my own short film suggest that it will be a great hit amongst viewers on Channel 4. Although Taken stars many famous actors that may or may not attract certain audiences to watch the film, it is the way that the film approaches the issue of kidnapping in such a realistic and shocking way that truly makes the film a hit. Channel 4 is also renowned for airing short films before the beginning of certain programmes in order to give new-time directors the chance to be recognised amongst the general public. 


Country: France, USA, UK
Language: English, French, Albanian, Arabic
Release Dates: 
France         27 February 2008
South Africa   12 September 2008
UK             26 September 2008
USA            30 January 2009
Egypt          4 March 2009
Greece         18 June 2009
Japan          22 August 2009


Budget: $25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend

$24,717,037 (USA) (1 February 2009) (3,183 Screens)
£1,165,986 (UK) (28 September 2008) (396 Screens)
PHP 4,522,977 (Philippines) (15 March 2009) (30 Screens)

Gross

$145,000,989           (USA)          (5 July 2009)
$144,989,009           (USA)          (28 June 2009)
$144,977,147           (USA)          (21 June 2009)
$144,924,285           (USA)          (7 June 2009)
$144,783,869           (USA)          (24 May 2009)
$144,540,399           (USA)          (17 May 2009)
$144,197,013           (USA)          (10 May 2009)
$143,623,907           (USA)          (3 May 2009)
$142,607,741           (USA)          (26 April 2009)
$142,088,804           (USA)          (19 April 2009)
$141,107,779           (USA)          (12 April 2009)
$139,416,323           (USA)          (5 April 2009)
$137,068,886           (USA)          (29 March 2009)
$133,096,403           (USA)          (22 March 2009)
$126,752,054           (USA)          (15 March 2009)
$117,933,922           (USA)          (8 March 2009)
$107,796,273           (USA)          (1 March 2009)
$95,034,161            (USA)          (22 February 2009)
$80,496,557            (USA)          (15 February 2009)
$53,610,944            (USA)          (8 February 2009)
$47,487,241            (USA)          (6 February 2009)
$24,717,037            (USA)          (1 February 2009)
£6,277,639             (UK)           (2 November 2008)
£5,525,386             (UK)           (19 October 2008)
£4,527,090             (UK)           (12 October 2008)
£3,104,042             (UK)           (5 October 2008)
£1,165,986             (UK)           (28 September 2008)
PHP 7,110,684      (Philippines)      (22 March 2009)
PHP 4,522,977      (Philippines)      (15 March 2009)