BACK New Media Applications
One of the main things that determine the successfulness of a documentary film or series is its identity through branding. Often, documentaries display their logo in various ways whether it is through posters, flyer, business cards, or ad online. In this section I will be exploring the ways in which big companies such as Channel 4 promote their documentaries through the use of branding. This will help me get a better idea as to what influences we could apply to our own promotion of our documentary. Of course being a small student company we cannot brand ourselves to the extent of Channel 4 but we can still look into things that they do and practice them in our own scale.
 | I will be looking at the Channel 4 series, One born every minute. It looks at the drama and emotion that is found in the maternity ward. In this groundbreaking series the viewers sees the act of childbirth through the perspective of the parents-to-be and the maternity staff. I will be looking at how channel 4 has attracted their audience to this particular series. One of the things channel 4 is best known for is their wide assortment of documentaries ranging from documentaries such as Fighting on the frontline to My big fat Gypsy wedding. This means that Channel 4 is able to reach a wide spectrum of viewers as everyone has different taste in what they watch. According to a research site, BARB channel 4’s weekly reach is 37,659 people. According to Shine International the series is now BAFTA award winning. |
Teaser Trailers and Promotional videos
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Social Networking Social networking has become one of the most popular ways of branding and promoting in the media. Many companies and business are now using websites such as Facebook or Twitter to advertise. One born every minute has also done this. Their Facebook page has 153, 801 nd they are able to discuss the show and get more information about the documentary series. Channel 4 has done this with all of their series as it helps promote their documentaries and gain a wider audience. We have applied the use of social network promotion to our own documentary as we have created a Facebook fan page(https://www.facebook.com/SilverLineProductionsuk?sk=wall&filter=12) and a Twitter page(https://twitter.com/SilverLineWinch) to better promote ourselves and our film. We hope this use of promotions will be successful.
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Promotional material for our documentary
As
we are conducting ourselves as a professional production company it is
important for us to taking into account the ways films are promoted in the
industry such as channel 4’s one born
every minute. We have applied these tactics to our own film by creates
promotional posters, flyers, social network sites, business cards, and we are
planning on creating short teaser trailer to reveal closer to the festival. As our film will be focusing on Greyhound
racing we are using the debate about whether it is cruel or ethical as our
unique selling point. During research into Greyhound racing I came across a lot
of negative press. Such as, YouTube promo videos that depict, in quite a
horrific way, how bad the racing industry is. Our aim is to not just focus on the
negative portrayal but to give our audience a positive side to look at. This is
what will promote our documentary as we are aiming to be unbiased and present
both sides of the debate. We have come up with the tagline “Would you take a
Gamble?” and displayed it on the posters.
Poster design and Business card:
Along with the social networking sites we are using the promote our film(as mentioned previously on this page), we have also made posters and business cards. As seen, this poster does not show a particular side of racing; it just questions it. This will be our main poster used when promoting the film. Also seen on the right hand side is our business card; these will be handed out during the presentation and also given to our primaries so they can be made aware of us.
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