DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS - Marketing Movies

TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY

This documentary was mixed. It included Archive Material, interviews, footage on location, voiceovers, an exposition and observational evidence. 

THEMES

Withing 'Marketing Movies', themes of Advertising are explained to different audiences. We were told about how mouse trap could appeal to different audiences depending on how the film is promoted to others.

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

This documentary follows a linear narrative. At it beginning, The promotional strategies in which a film could gain publicity are presented to the audience at the start. It discussed material such as toys and posters and how they can help a new film to attract a larger audience. The film's attention is most likely created thanks to other successful films. At the end, the audience was left to decide whether the film was a success story or just another flop to stay on their shelves. 

CAMERAWORK

Close ups of people who were related to the film industry emphasize their relationship to the exposition. There are some Panning Shots of Leicester Square at the premiere of 'Mouse Hunt'. It helps demonstrate how marketing has had a big influence on attracting an audience for the opening night of the film. Interview cameras were static and at close to medium range from the subject. At one stage, there was a high shot looking down at people walking down the stairs. 

MISE-EN-SCENE

The Mise-En-Scene in the interviews was relevent and backdrop image from Mouse Hunt, Babe and Little Mermaid are easily visable to the viewer. It is worth mentioning that all of these interviews were made in the UK rather than Hollywood. There is some location footage from the premieres of each film. The documentary also shows how marketing has been a success for films involved with retail. This is because there are some shots of the disney shop in London. Away from the success, there are some scenes where a man edits the trailer for a film and he explains how much of an important marketing tool they can be to attracting an audience.

SOUND

In 'Marketing Movies', the digetic sound of interviews and educational voiceovers led the narrative of the documentary. Some of the sound came as part of the archive footage and was shown in the clips from the movies. There was also some ambient sound which came from the interviews around Leicester Square on the night of the film premieres.

EDITING

'Marketing Movies' had slow paced editing and was there to give meaning to the documentary as it was educational. Cutaway shots kept the viewer interested in what was going on in between each interview. The documentary kept cutting to the archive footage. The interviews were edited to inter-cut between people to quickly make brief statements about an event. This is something that occurs not just in this documentary but in some others as well.

ARCHIVE MATERIAL

There was some film footage from titles such as 'The Lion King', 'Little Mermaid', 'The Lost World'. This was to document how they have had similar successes to 'Mouse Trap'. In relation, the footage from 'The Lost World' was part of a teaser trailer for the film, which is part of a giant franchise. A lot of the footage from Film Premiers was also archived material. 'Mouse Trap' had interviews in this documentary that once more, were part of the archive.

GRAPHICS

With a similarity to most documentaries, there were white graphics documenting a person's name and relation to the exposition below them. This is an attempt to not be too distracting to the viewer. There were some raphics which led sections of the documentary. Noteably, a graphic of a man holding a clipboard to try and structurise a description of social marketing to the audience. These were part of graphics to introduce each section of the documentary to every individual viewer.