The Pursuit of Happyness

It has a neutral colour scheme, accented with red and other occasional brighter colours.
Transition between different pages is effective, it fades to a light wash then a shine spreads out from the background where the father and son are holding hands. All done whilst fading in the new page and corresponding background picture.

White is the predominant colour used on the website and poster, nearly all images on the background, of the website, has a soft glow around the edges. This is purposefully used to signify hope and happiness. Red is used to grab your attention and highlight not only the internal website links but important parts relating to the movie. The site is not packed with a lot of information and pictures it has a lot of space and flows easily as it is balanced well. The site and the poster and simple and effective.

The website is balanced well due to having characters in the background picture on one side whereas the links and drop down boxes are on the other side. You eye moves towards the picture then moves to the information. On every page of the website, the focal point is a picture of the characters. Emphasis is made on these main characters as the audience wants to know wow the main characters are and they are meant to get clues as to what they are like from how they are represented on the website. You shouldn’t have to watch he trailer to know anything about the characters, some things are meant to be picked up on. There isn’t any obvious repetition of anything, apart from the colours used, but that is the colour scheme rather than something they are repeating. The overall feel developed by this website and poster is light, clean and crisp. This works well with the genre of the film as it is a drama with a happy ending. There is only one official poster for the film that I have been able to find. What is on the poster is the first page of the website basically, it’s that same image and feel.

The website is laid out a little differently to others I have seen. On the very first page before entering the site, it shows you DVDs for purchase and the gallery, about the film, the trailer and then it gives you the option to enter the site. When you enter the site there is a large picture in the middle then over to the left it offers you “menu” when you hover you curser over this the whole menu folds down. This is so the menu doesn’t subtract from the image in the centre. This is the same for most of the other pages, the main links are visible but to get to the sub links (for example, gallery is a sub link of media) you have to click on the main links. The font is slightly different to the font used on the poster, it is more cursive rather than the more block like appearance. In terms of promotional stuff, once you entre the site, in the top right hand corner of every page is a DVD that you can click on and which glows when you hover your curser over it. Also above the background of the site are release details of the DVD.

The target audience is who ever might be interested in watching the movie, anyone from ages 14 will understand the film. The idea of a website and poster is promote the film, get people interested in watching it or to keep their interest, provide them with information about the film as well. I like the way they have incorporated the shining light from the poster into the website transition and picture borders. I also like how off the poster, red is used as an accented colour. The promotional materials overall, are very effective. The brightness of the poster and website portrays a happy ending and hope for the characters yet at the same time evokes curiosity in the viewer. There is nothing I dislike about the promotional material. I think they have done a great job.