Documentary Research
Secondary target audience: 16 – 24 yr. olds. Discovery through viral social media clips.
Genre: is mockumentary, with comedy aspects, but retains many aspects of a documentary.
Colour scheme: Dry colours, yellow, beige, orange. Reflection of style of comedy in the documentary, being deadpan and dry.
Layout: Title and logo to the left, meaning audiences read the Netflix logo and title before seeing Philomena.
Font: the font used in the poster is Futura. The choice of Futura is a deliberate part of the show's satire. Futura is designed to look modern and authoritative. It is used by the BBC and PBS and The Apollo 11 Moon Plaque. By using this font, the show tricks audiences into thinking they are about to watch a highly intellectual, high-budget history program before Philomena Cunk begins her absurd and satire narration.
Ratings: Rotten Tomatoes: 100% Critic Score. IMDb: 8.0/10. Metacritic gave Cunk on Earth a "Universal Acclaim" score of 82/100.
Financial data: While there are no specific statistics on Cunk on Earth’s revenue, the budget of the programme seen through the international travel within, suggests that the revenue produced was a highly respectable sum. Alongside this, the billions of views on short-form social media like TikTok further suggests a financial success from Cunk on Earth.
Fandom: The Philomena Cunk series of documentaries has gathered a large online subculture and fandom, praising the satirical humour and the acting ability of Diane Morgan. This assisted in the viewership of Cunk on Earth, as there was already a large audience that was almost guaranteed to immediately watch the documentary.
Secondary target audience: "Unaware" Consumers - People who shop impulsively but haven't considered the environmental or psychological costs.
Genre: Investigative documentary, with aspects of satire and sci-fi with the narrator being a fictional AI.
Colour Scheme: Colourful and vibrant, reflective of the nature of consumerism. Attention drawn to the woman at the desk – use of yellow and blonde to draw attention. Brings attention away from the clutter and clothes in the room.
Font: The use of Brandon Grotesque and this colour palette replicate the visual language of limited-time offers and Black Friday banners. You are seeing the "BUY NOW!" command in a font and colour that usually triggers an impulse to shop, but the content of the documentary is telling you to stop.
Ratings: IMDb: 6.7/10. Metacritic: 5.6/10, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Financial data: There is no direct data for Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, however, upon release the documentary reached the top 6 most watched on Netflix, and was praised for its radicalising effect on viewers before Black Friday. It was additionally nominated for the News and Documentary Emmy Awards, highlighting its immense success.
Secondary target audience: Ages 25–54, True crime/social justice interest.
Genre: Psychological thriller, nature/environmental doc.
Colour Scheme: Use of dark blue to contrast the black and white of the orca. Represents the water. The dark of the blue may reflect the darkness of captivity.
Font: The contrast between the white text and the dark blue background mimic the orca itself, and this high contrast highlights a clinical coldness, which is reflective of the subject matter of Blackfish. The thin letters spread out additionally mimic the nature of keeping animals in captivity, as they are spread thin and wide.
Ratings: IMDb: 8.1/10. Metacritic: 83/100. Rotten tomatoes: 98%
Financial Data: Produced on a budget of $76000, Blackfish brought in $2.35 million from the global box office, while additionally making another $1.89 million through DVD and Blu-ray sales. Furthermore, the documentary’s influence led to Seaworld’s stock price dropping by roughly 60%, which amounts to $1.7 billion in market capital. Alongside this, there was a reported 84% drop in second-quarter profits, which the media attributed the influence of Blackfish to.
Blackfish scored big with younger viewers, averaging 472,000 viewers in the adults
25-54 demographic and 688,000 viewers in the adults 18-49 demographic on CNN.
History of Documentaries:
Origins: The roots of documentary filmmaking can be traced back to the late 19th
century with short films called “actualities.” These short films captured real life events without narrative structure. The first feature-length documentary was produced by Robert Flaherty, known as: “Nanook of the North.” This documentary focused on the lives of the Inuit people, with major dramatization. Despite this, the documentary gave way to immense commercial success.
Developments: In the 1930s and 1940s, documentaries became effective propaganda tools, particularly pictures such as “Triumph of the Will,” which highlighted Adolf Hitler as Germany’s saviour, intended to install a common pride and unity among the German people under his regime. This documentary was widely popular among contemporaneous German people, and additionally very effective in emotionally manipulating the populus.
Innovations: The documentaries of the 1950s and 1960s focused on raw and observational storytelling, with little to no direct interferences by the filmmakers. This was able to occur due to the improvements in camera and microphone quality throughout the 50s and 60s. These technological developments made documentaries feel much more real and immersive, leading to audiences having a much greater experience and being more open to seeing more documentaries, which led on to an increased commercial success of documentaries in the media landscape.
Renaissance: Through the 1980s to the 2010s, the rise of television and networks such as the Discovery Channel made documentaries much more commonplace, rather than a unique theatre experience. Micheal Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 remains as the highest grossing documentary of all time, reaching $222 million in the box office in 2004, further highlighting the rapidly rising desire in the media landscape for non-fiction content. Contrastingly, the popularity of Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line displayed how audiences also appreciated non-fiction presented in a more dramatized and thriller-like style.
Contemporary documentaries: The rise of short-form media has altered the documentary landscape, with there being much more freedoms in what and how people document. They continue to play an important role in shaping public discourse and raising awareness about important issues in society, however, the oversaturation of documentaries has alleviated the impact that documentaries had in previous generations, particularly with true-crime documentaries, which have seen a monumental popularity surge with young adult audiences in recent years.
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