127 Hours
The image that I am analyzing is a documentary film called 127 hours. It is a film about a man who films his journey hiking across Americans canyons where he finds himself in an awkward position which leads him to making a video diary of himself, This film could be put in the observational documentary category as it where life is lived and observed and how people react in different situations. From the image on the front of the DVD cover we the audience can clearly see that this man is in danger due to his posture and the position that he is in, We can see that he is faced with various challenges as he has to overcome a series of events such as making his way across to the other side of the canyon, whilst in the midst of the heat from the canyon. This sense of danger is also shown through colours as from the Bright Red/orange colours; we the audience can tell that already you get a sense of jeopardy and danger as those types of colours tend to represent danger/risk.
From the Image I can tell that the genre the film documentary belongs to would be action adventure, this is already hinted within the image as we can see that he has found himself in an awkward position due to him hiking in the canyons and that he has to find a way of getting himself out of it.
The slogan that has been put on the bottom of the image ‘there is no force more powerful than the will to live’ this slogan almost sends out a message to people and makes people have a rethink about life and make people think about the things they take for granted in the sense that it makes them think about how people would do anything just to be alive. Also from the caption about what the New York Times thought of the film ‘Dazzling and perpetually surprising’ would interest/almost persuade customers to go and see/buy the film as most documentary films don’t have much appeal about them however this film being ‘a triumphant true story’ and being directed by the academy award-winning director of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ This Documentary films seems to have a big appeal about itself almost selling itself to customers/potential audiences.
The type of shot used for this DVD cover would be a long shot, this is used to get everything in perspective and to show to position that he has got himself into, It also signifies/informs of us the dangers of hiking without proper supervision/equipment as the rock in between parts him from his death and may indicate a ‘stepping stone for him’ as it may infer that he has been given a second chance.
The use of natural low-key lighting gives the image more of an appeal as it makes it stand out and puts all the focus on the man being trapped between the two parting canyons. The soft lighting on the edges of the canyons make it appears as if there glowing and again putting the focus on the man trapped almost putting us the audience in the characters shoes making us think about what we would do in that situation.
Overall I think this DVD image does a great job of selling itself, it doesn’t give away too much of the film leaving the audience intrigued to find out more. It also does a good job at putting documentary films on the market as people wouldn't really tend to go watch documentary films due to escapism, People would rather hide away from true stories/events, However due to the positive feedback received from this film as we can see by the front cover with the caption from the New York Times, I can tell that there may be a gap in the movie industry for documentary type films.
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