Website Analysis 2 - American Honey

This website allows viewers to find the key features and information about the film such as watching the trailer and seeing the poster. They can also find links to all of their social media relating to the film. These features have many benefits to their companies and the film itself by how the visitors use it. I will be discussing the features of the ‘American Honey’ website.

The colours used on the website are mainly red, white and blue. This colour scheme corresponds with the text and pictures used on the site’s homepage. These colours are obviously linked to the American flag and it gives a sense of patriotism for the film- this can give some context to the atmosphere and attitudes of the film. This scheme would appeal to certain audiences, as the patriotism may not be felt by all audiences, they may also think that it could reflect some of the negative morals or issues of some Americans.

There is a large photo on the side of the homepage; this is what would draw the majority of the visitor’s attention. The photo consists of a woman who is either dancing or waving whilst looking at something. The movement of the woman would presume that there could possibly be a light-hearted nature of the film.  Her actions and the way that her clothes are falling seem like she is partying or she is living a care free life, which could possibly reflect the 'freedom' that Americans have The direction that she is facing in is towards the navigation side bar, this could be intentional or a pure coincidence, however it does help draw the attention the text which does have all of the key information and features on it. The main colour predominantly used in the photograph is blue; this colour has many connotations, some of which being that it relates to calmness, clarity and peace; this could highlight the tone or some themes of the film. The photo is also overexposed, which makes it look somewhat dream like (this could also be a connection to the American dream). Another small detail that is in the background of photo is white faded stars in the sky. This once again links to the patriotic tones prevalent throughout the homepage and the pride that American citizens would have over their flag.

The text on the site is very minimal and the colours used are mostly white, but with the title having the pattern resembling the American flag.  The title is made of two different fonts – one per word. The word American is in a rather formal font which links well as America is a respected country and has a corporate feel to it. The font used on the word 'Honey' is much more rounded and looks like a font from the seventies within the disco and hippy movement. This also gives a more relaxed and carefree feel that links to that time period and it links to the actions of the woman in the photo. The release date is in a large font and is a light blue, once again following the colour scheme. This use of colour helps it stand out over the grey background of the navigational bar. This helps to draw the attention of the visitor. There are also stars in the middle of the cast list, which are coloured to match the colour placement of the title. The director's name is below the title and their name is in a bold red, which makes it stand out amongst the rest of the text. The cast and crew list is a useful asset to the homepage as, if they are an actor or director that the visitor is familiar with, they will have certain expectations if the film (whether it be good or bad). If they do not know any of the actors or the director they can research them, and as it is online, researching is easily accessible on the Internet with sites such as IMDB.

There is an award made known on the website; the Jury Prize. The award being visible to these visitors they will realise that it was a good film due to its critical success. This would make them expect the film to be to their tastes as they received an award for it.

There are a variety of social media links that are included on the website; these include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Tumblr. The large amount of sites appeal to several different age ranges, this then means that the film can be shared over many platforms to many potential audiences. For example adults more commonly use Facebook so it would be shared around on there and teens and young adults use Instagram so it would be shared through a different type of audience. This use of marketing helps to spread the film fast in an inexpensive way, as it does not cost the companies to put the trailer and posters online as these sites largely focus on allowing everyone to post their own content and media. All of these also generate a lot of traffic to the site, increasing the revenue that they would get for the film. It would also make the film more popular, engaging their interest in the film and persuading them to go and watch it in the cinema when it is released. There is also a form field link, which allows the visitor to sign up to a subscription by email to find out more about the film. These features allow the site to be more interactive for the user, making them feel like they are participating in sharing and learning about the film.

There is a feature to watch the trailer and to look at the poster. These are simple things that allow the visitor to look at more content linked to the film. The poster is essentially similar to the layout of the homepage where it features the same information such as cast, crew and release date. The video on the site is the trailer and it shows snippets of the film. This would help people to make their mind up about whether or not they are going to like what they see and whether they want to see the film or not when it is released.

In conclusion, I think that this website in effective in the means of showing the basic information of the film, such as a title and poster. However it would be better if it features more information such as a synopsis. I do think that the vast use of social media links is a good way of branching out to a wider audience and it can be easily shared which is extremely good for their cost effective marketing. I do think that to improve the engagement of the visitor, there needs to be more interactive features on the site to fully immerse the viewer into the film and want to find out more by seeing it in the cinema. It would also improve if there were some audio features such as sound effects or music in the background that would relate to the film's genre or tone well and not distract the viewer's interest.