Unit 2: Understanding the Media
Assignment 1: The Packaging of DVDs
Comparison and analysis
of…
What is the genre of each
film?
Who is the primary target
audience?
Is there a secondary
target audience?
Title of the film
How does it match the
genre? How does it
engage the audience?
DVD Cover 1: Back to the
Future
The genre of Back to the
Future is a sci-fi adventure
film. The primary audience
is people who are quite
interested in the topic of
time travel. The secondary
target audience are
people who enjoy a classic
film with a pinch of
humour and a cup of sci-fi.
DVD Cover 2: Cast Away
The genre of Cast Away is
an adventure, drama film.
The primary audience is
people who enjoy seeing
films where one person
recovers from a massive
hardship. The secondary
audience could be people
who are associated with
FedEx, because this film is
about a man who works
for FedEx in a high rank.
‘Back to the Future’
‘Cast Away’ requires a bit
matches the genre by the of thinking to get the title
‘Future’ part. The word
right for people who don’t
‘future’ is usually
quite understand the plot
associated with time,
of the film. The ‘cast’ part
science etc. matching the of the title represents the
genre of this film, science person (Tom Hanks) as
fiction. It engages the
being the systems
audience by the ‘Back to
engineer in the film and of
the’ part. This part of the
the FedEx organization in
title makes the audience
the film. The ‘away’ part
feel like the characters of
of the title represents the
this film are going ‘back
fact that Chuck Noland
to’ something, in this case, (Tom Hanks) crashes on a
the ‘future’. This makes
deserted island after
the audience think that
experiencing a plane
this film is a sci-fi, and the crash. All of this matches
primary audience includes the genre with what
people who are interested Chuck does on the
in sci-fi films, engaging the deserted island in order to
audience and making
survive. It engages the
them want to watch the
secondary audience by
film.
making the main character
a part of the FedEx
organization, and the
primary audience by
giving the audience an
idea that someone with
great power over an
organization (cast) has
gone away, the reason
being he witnessed and
experienced something
terrible (away).
Colours and fonts
Do they suit the genre? Do
they appeal to the target
the audience? What genre
conventions are used?
The colour and the font of
the logo of ‘Back to the
Future’ match the typical
sci-fi colour and font of
other titles. The font has a
sort of futuristic feel to it
according to its shape.
The colours in the logo
include red and yellow,
the colours most
associated with time
travel. The logo appeals to
the audience in this way,
because as mentioned
before, the audience for
this film are for people
who are interested in sci-fi
films. The arrow in the
logo represents going
back, since it is pointing
away from left to right,
which is usually the
direction of how one
would read English. This
relates to the film title,
‘Back to the Future’.
The film title ‘Cast Away’
features quite a calm and
peaceful font, in
conjunction with the
colour white. This tells the
audience that this film is
quite peaceful, and since
the title is quite light, the
film will be bright. The line
through the title
represents one being
forced to separate from
something. The
denotation of this is the
word ‘Cast’ being
separated from the word
‘Away’. The connotation
of this is that Chuck is
being separated from his
family, technology and
everyone and everything
he knows. However, the
spine logo directly
contradicts the white
‘peacefulness’ of the
original title found on the
front of the DVD cover, for
it is black. The spine title is
black because the
background of the spine is
white. Black would stand
out more than white, and
since there is more white
than black on the spine,
the peacefulness the
white gives off in the
background very heavily
outweighs the darkness
given off from the black
title, making everything
seem peaceful, just like
the original title found at
the front of the DVD
cover.
Images
How and why are they
effective? What are the
conventions or
connotations? Do they
appeal to the TA?
Language
Are there any words used
that suggest the genre?
Comparison
Summarise how effective
you think each DVD cover
is in appealing to the
target audience and using
genre conventions
In the ‘Back to the Future’
DVD cover, the image
shows Michael J. Fox
checking his watch. This
represents him checking
the time, which is
practically what the film is
all about: time, which is
why this image is effective
on the identification of the
genre. It appeals to the
target audience in the
same way, by relating the
image to ‘time’. The image
also includes fire,
representing the hint of
action and adventure in
the film. The image also
includes the delorean that
is used in the film to
commit time travel.
In the ‘Cast Away’ DVD
cover, the image features
Tom Hanks’ close up. This
makes the audience feel
sorry for Chuck, since he
has to go through all this
trouble to survive and
escape from the island of
which he crashes on. At
the same time, Chuck’s
eyes seem like they’re
shining, which emphasises
this idea. The back image
shows Chuck making fire
and standing on top of a
cliff, which is usually
mostly done on a deserted
island, making the
audience think more of
the plot and genre.