Task 4

Task 4: Mainstream, Niche and Alternative

In the report I am going to be discussing whether the audience for Bowling for Columbine and The Lift has a mainstream, niche or alternative audience. I am also going to be discussing the technique and differences and similar that these films have used to target their audience.

 After watching Bowling for Columbine I think that this documentary could be mainstream film because it is a documentary talks about an international problem even though it is focus on America. Gun issues are a current problem throughout America and I don’t think that this issue is aimed at one particular race or state. This documentary also talks about another general and current issue which is racism, in the documentary you have a section where Michael Moore show the way Media portrays other cultures as threats to America like the show ‘Cops’.  Another reason I think that this is a mainstream documentary because this documentary talks about how we change America and for you to this you need a large audience for their to be a drastic change, this documentary also did very well in the Box office it earned $58,008,423 not only in America but in other countries like Finland, Australia, UK and Germany which suggest that this documentary is meant for a large scale of people.

Bowling for Columbine could also be a alternative film because Bowling for Columbine also includes contents that wouldn’t be normally in a documentary like this, current affairs documentaries would normally be very serious whereas a Michael Moore made aspects of this documentary very comical for example he includes a south park style clip of how Americans are very paranoid and fear everything that they excluded themselves and bought large amounts of guns. Another reason that I think that Bowling for Columbine could also be alternative is his interview techniques. He uses a bit of sarcasm and is very persistent, he makes some of the people he is interviewing look a bit ridiculous for example the man that work in a bomb factory.

The Lift is an alternative film. This documentary didn’t talk about current issues or was discussing a worldwide issue like Bowling for Columbine but it was simply analysing and finding information of the residents that lived in a flat in east London. I don’t think that this documentary would interest a large amount of people because it simply doesn’t sound very interesting, when asking people if they would watch this type of documentary a large amount of people said they would not watch this documentary. Also it takes a while for the residents in this documentary to open up and build a relationship with the director and I don’t think a lot of people will have patience to watch the whole of this documentary because the director doesn’t cut to the parts where they start interact but he builds up the tension. I also think that this is a niche documentary, I don’t think that a large scale of people would go and watch this documentary.

A technique that shows that Bowling for columbine is Mainstream documentary is that this documentary was released in a cinema, this show that this documentary was meant for a large scale of people to watch this. In the trailer for bowling for columbine he uses a bit of humour I think to attract a teenager audience to watch this at the cinema, this trailer also makes American seem at a bit stupid and gun crazy. At the beginning of the trailer you see Michael Moore acting like he is some type of a police and shows a very funny side to the presenter/directors, which is not normally seen in documentaries like this. The technique I think that Michael Moore is trying to show is that this isn’t just a normal documentary it is different and to also generate people that normally don’t watch documentaries. Bowling for columbine also received many awards for best foreign film, best documentary of all time and best picture of the year, these awards would have brought bowling for columbine a lot of publicity. The poster shows Michael Moore holding a global which shows America and it looks like Michael Moore is about to go bowling, this is a clearly way to show who and where Michael Moore is generally targeting he’s audience at. The poster background is also a map of some of the places that Michael Moore is going to visit of his journey.

The Lift doesn’t have any posters and trailers, I think this shows that this is aimed at a smaller audience because it doesn’t really broadcast and try to receive large media attention. The lift does has a lot of positive reviews from magazines and website like Sick chirpse, Brooklyn film and Gorilla film magazine this show that even though this is a meant for a niche audience these reviews helped this documentary to get some audience. The lift was also realise online on YouTube which makes it easy to access and watch this film and it also show that this documentary was meant for a small audience and is also for normal people like the ones in documentary. This film is more of a word of mouth film, it is not really promoted as how bowling for columbine was. A technique that makes this an alternative is that it is a very weird and bizarre approach to a documentary.

Bowling for Columbine targets their audience by broadcasting on TV, radio and posters whereas The Lift uses the word of mouth to gain it's audience. The lift was shown on channel 4 so it's targeted at a more smaller and British audience, whereas Bowling for Columbine was released at a cinema where a large amount of people from different countries can watch. The lift is also shown at a certain time but bowling for columbine was shown all day at cinemas.