Research for Posters

 Night Stalker – This is a poster for a Netflix Documentary series ‘Night Stalker’. The poster has an overall sense of mystery and drama which fits perfectly for the genre, being a True Crime. One element of the poster is the font; the sans serif used for the main title. Sans serif fonts are often minimalistic, making it look contemporary and the high legibility makes it good for advertising and grabbing attention. It is written in an asymmetrical fashion, it’s messy but still legible, which adds to the mystery, additionally, the sharpness of the font creates a sense of danger. The bold sans serif of the subheading ‘the hunt for a serial killer’ is serious, matching the tone of the documentary. The other subheading ‘lock your doors’ has a typographical design which reinforces the effect of the full stops, making you read each word slower, meaning every word has a more powerful impact on the audience, further creating a sense of threat and lethality. 

Furthermore, the colours of the poster add to the overall theme. The most prominent colours are black, red and dark smoky greys. The use of black creates mystery by veiling the man and not fully revealing his identity which is typical for True Crime documentaries. The stripe of red across the man’s eye very informative as it conveys his role in the story, likely of the stalker. It also conveys the idea of looking through a crack in a doorway and the light hitting a face. The use of a bright red instead of white is symbolic, as red often shows danger, blood or general violence. It’s sharp and eye catching and makes the audience curious and want to read more into the documentary. 

The image of the single person gives them the sole authority in the poster and allows the audience to picture their role as the stalker in the documentary. 

The main target audience for this kind of documentary is likely to be young adults as it focuses on more serious topic and is likely to be upsetting to a younger audience. 

This is a 4-episode documentary series that follows a racehorse trainer in his time training horses that go onto the racetrack. The layout of the poster is very simplistic with a horse and its jockey as the main focus. Putting them front and centre amplifies the main theme and focus of the documentary, it also highlights the connection between trainer and horse, which is a key element of the documentary. The title at the top of the poster conveys a sense of authority, it’s bold and underlined, mirroring the wealth and power of the horse racing industry which rakes in roughly £4 billion a year for the UK economy. The times the series is running being put on the poster could hint at the type of target audience, suggesting this genre could be popular with older people as they would appreciate the bold white lettering spelling out when to see it instead of having to go look on a website. Additionally, we know the target audience wouldn’t be a younger generation as the time’s when this would be showing is 10-11PM, which is usually bedtime for a lot of younger children. Blue in media often portrays things like power, reliability and confidence, which fits perfectly for the racing industry and the hooves powering it. This genre of sport documentaries are often very popular to their target audiences, and this one was no different. Praised for its exceptional camera work and engaging episodes, Horsepower proved to be a popular watch for both avid fans of the sport and newcomers to the industry. 

 This is a poster for the wildly popular ’mockumentary’ Cunk on Earth. It follows Philomena Cunk, a witty and dopey interviewer who questions real life experts in their fields with a constant deadpan expression and demeanour. The documentary was beloved by many with a 100% approval rating based on 23 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 7.7/10. As for the poster, it’s simple yet effective with Cunk being the main focus, which reflects how she was truly the star of the documentary. In the background, we can see blurred out ruins of an ancient building, which would be a familiar background choice for an audience that regularly watches similar historical documentaries. This familiar layout helps to draw in the usual crowd who would show interest in these types of documentaries. Additionally, the large recognisable Netflix logo in the corner helps to push it to an audience that have a Netflix subscription and want to watch any new additions. The main target audience for this documentary was adults, mostly young adults to millenials, who enjoyed dry humour and would be familiar with the actor or character portrayed. Additionally, the series had an international reach as it was a unique twist on traditional ’boring’ historical documentaries and the quick, ironic sketches were often turned into short video clips that were then spread around the internet. This genre was very popular with the right audience as they enjoyed the satirical humour.

Popularity of TV Documentaries 

True Crime

True crime documentaries are a wildly popular genre of documentary with 49% of adults admitting they regularly watch it. This genre primarily focuses on the more ‘exciting crimes’ such as murders due to the morbid nature of them. True crime documentaries are very popular with the audience because of humans’ natural curiosity and their desire to know about things, even things some might consider macabre. True crime is often presented in an expository manner, meaning that they use narrators and interviews to make a clear and argued point. This use of expert opinions and victims of the crime themselves make these documentaries more interesting to watch as the audience has a professional and emotional inside view of the crimes. Another reason this genre is so popular is because it provides a thrill to the audience in a safe way and satisfied a need for puzzle solving. By covering morbid and gruesome crimes, documentaries allow their audiences to feel their own emotions in reference to the crime whether they are positive or negative without stigma. 

Nature Documentaries

Wildlife documentaries are popular among all age groups, ranging from young children all the way up into adults due to their breathtaking cinematography and compelling storytelling. Audiences who watch nature documentaries are fans of the up-close interactions with animals as it’s not a world people often get to see, this paired with famous narrators such as Sir David Attenborough, who aid in giving the films a legitimacy and sophistication, help to push this genre of documentation into one of the most popular genres of today. 

Sports Documentaries

This is a type of documentary that focuses on sports and the athletes that push it forward. These kinds of documentaries have exploded in popularity over the past few years, especially with streaming giants such as Netflix creating hit documentaries such as the 2017 series Icarus, which revolved around drugging in sports. These documentaries help audiences to get exclusive behind the scenes access to sports and athletes that would’ve otherwise remained a distant viewing on sports channels. Additionally, the framing and storytelling of sports documentaries is what differs them from regular sports channels as they act almost like a reality TV show, focusing on the drama, emotion and suspense of these sports. Sometimes, these documentaries focus on sports scandals instead of actual athletes, which also helps to bring in audiences as the shock of the scandals allows for an entertaining watch. Sports documentaries often draw in a wide range of audiences, from sports fans and enthusiasts who are deeply devoted to their chosen sport and want to watch media surrounding it, to casual watchers who may be instead compelled by the storytelling, narrative and perspectives of the documentary.

History of Documentary Filmmaking

In the modern world, a documentary is often a long form, sometimes multi episode media that, as the name suggests, documents certain events, people or places with the goal of educating, entertaining and informing, but the history of documentaries is large, spanning over the last hundred years or so. In the beginning, documentaries, which were at first called actuality films, only lasted for a minute or less and were simply used to document simple events. Although they faithfully documented true events, they had little interest and no narrative structure. Over time, documentaries became lengthier, featuring narration, educational aspects and featuring a director's own vision while still maintaining truthful information. One documentary hailed as a classic is the 1998 film The Thin Blue Line which follows Randall Dale Addams, a man wrongfully convicted of shooting a police officer. The documentary was revolutionary at the time as it not only combined intense journalism with stylised cinematography but was also able to expose the inconsistencies surrounding the case, eventually granting the suspect an admission of innocence from the original suspect of the case.  

This documentary skyrocketed into fame due to its compelling narration and, although this received criticism at the time, reenactments of the crime. These exciting techniques helped to push it out to an audience that wanted to see the extent and aftermath of the case. It was nominated and won several awards over the years including the most recent being in 2014 with the Cinema Eye Honours where it won the Influential Honours Award. 

Numerical Data of Documentaries

As documentaries are one of the most popular forms of media, they accordingly make a lot of money. As of May 2025, the highest grossing documentary ever made was Micheal Jackson’s This is it, having a lifetime gross of $267’983’588. Although this documentary was wildly popular, the success of a documentary depends highly on several different factors such as the production costs, audience size and overall revenue. The highest budget multi episode series can cost upwards of $1’000’000 per episode and these kinds of huge budgets would be mostly used by massive companies such as Netflix who have the funds for it. Streaming platforms such as Netflix rely heavily on having a mass audience that pay for subscriptions and clearly it has been as success as Netflix has 325 million subscribers globally, making it the largest streaming service in the world. Streaming services revenue depends less on the documentary and more on subscription counts and ad revenue. According to crossscreenmedia.com, Netflix makes around $0.64 per hour streamed with ads. Combined with over 300 million subscribers, these small numbers add up and soon make huge portions of companies' profits.