The Orchestration of Project Films and the
Engineering of Consent
It is one example of how hegemonies exert their influence and can be seen as a way
to either speed up, spotlight or mask political processes by strategically designing the
way reality is perceived. Project films connect the interests of those responsible for
the project with those of the consumers by illustrating the benefits a project will have
on the stakeholders. Within this process, patterns of national and local identity building
are set in motion that record for future generations the discourses of power that
surround the project and lead to the engineering of consent. Using acquired visual
literacy skills, it would be a valuable objective for consumers to achieve a “negotiated”
reception of project films: a combination of grasping the “big picture” and relating the
real-life consequences to themselves on a local and personal level.