SubscribeI just thought this was a cool link for anyone interested in learning more about the process or strategies for creating conservation related films.
About Conservation Filmmaking
http://www.filmmakersforconservation.org/conservation-filmmaking/about-conservation-filmmaking.html
King Corn: The Next Kong?
After watching the 11th hour in class on Tuesday, I started thinking about what it takes to make a good environmental documentary. Besides Avatar and a few other select movies, most of the film media created about the environment is in the form of documentaries, which, for the purposes of this blog, I view as the alternative media form to feature films.
For this week’s blog topic, I decided to explore the documentary King Corn as an example.
I don’t have enough room to provide a synopsis, but you can read one here:
http://www.movieweb.com/movie/king-corn/synopsis
and there is also a 20 minute clip available here:
The documentary is filmed in a style that combines humor, informative narration, footage of everything they experience throughout their journey, and a ton of interviews with various people from corn farmers to nutritionists to their relatives to Richard Butz, the man who calls “cheap food the cornerstone of our affluence.”
I felt the film was effective for a few different reasons:
1) It’s an interactive and hands-on approach to what could easily be summarized into a research article. This is important because if the goal of such a film is to captivate the audience’s interest long enough to internalize the message of the film, it has to be engaging. Especially when the real target audience is a group of people that aren’t particularly worried by the issues plaguing our environment and ourselves.
2) The main “characters,” Ian and Curt, are very relatable. The fact that they go into the project without any knowledge of the corn industry or the huge web of complications that they are about to discover places them on the same level as much of their audience, which eliminates the intimidation factor that many people fear when they transition into a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Personally, this made me more inclined to continue until the end because I didn’t feel like I was being lectured at, more like I was there with them on the journey and I wanted to find out what happened with them. I was able to make a connection with a part of the film, which is especially pivotal when dealing with environmental communication, because the audience is more easily influenced when they have a connection to the environment as we have discussed in class.
3) According to Jacobsen’s article, “A communication will affect public opinion primarily if its relationship to the audience members’ interests is clear…people will first fulfill their physiological needs for food and health as well as safety and security…Knowing where your target audience fits in this hierarchy can help you develop appropriate messages to influence their attitudes” (15). This is in perfect accordance with the subject of this documentary, because the very basic message that one can take away from it is that our food and health is in danger, which lies in the first two hierarchies. No matter who watches this, whether they are on the first hierarchy or fifth, there are many different messages that are relayed in this film. If people feel that their personal safety is at risk, they are more likely to take a stand, which will hopefully also benefit the environmental issues at stake.
4) I researched more into the film and learned a bit about their communication strategies. The creators of the film knew that most of the people who would watch were people that were at least already interested in environmental issues. They knew that if they wanted to reach out to people less inclined to watch their film, they would have to develop a good press strategy. According to an article on Valley Advocate, “They pitched stories about the film beyond the entertainment page…appeared on Good Morning, America, CNN…the filmmakers engaged a national audience on issues of sustainable agriculture regardless of whether ornot any of those people actually see the film at all.” Another interesting tactic that they took was to “develop a community screeing strategy targeting people directly involved with the issues the film explores.” This allowed them to have numerous opportunities for public feedback and create trust within the group of people most affected by these issues. All in all, they had a “multi-tiered, hands-on outreach” press strategy, and in order to test its effectivness, a survey was given to 35 leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement to find out. “80% found the film ‘extremely effective in bringing media attention to the issues of food and sustainability…57% [were] convinced that the film could change consumer buying behaviors.” Pretty impressive for a documentary made by two college grads, no?
“It takes more than one great film to create change, but a great film can push the movement forward,” Sheila Leddy. Give it a watch if you have the time J
By: ISHITA MITRA
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