Btec Tv and Film Portfolio: Unit 29 - Advertisement production for television

Unit 29 - Advertisement production for television

Task 1 [P1 M1 D1]

I am analysing the new Whiskas Advert. The first shot is of a man sat on his front porch and a cat comes and jumps on his knee. This is the signifier that the advert is something to do with cats and also aimed at cat lovers or people who at least own an cat. The man starts talking to his pet as though he adores and relates to as though it is human. He is laid on the decking when a

neighbour interrupts the 'snuggling' and asks him to go golfing. The man is very embarrassed, but then snuggles the cat once more. It is cat food which is been advertised and this is revealed at the end of the advert. After seeing how happy the cat is and how domesticated and loving, this makes us want to go and buy the brand of cat food been advertised. The caption at the end of the video quotes 'Cat Love. Get More With Whiskas', this is to show that the more Whiskas your cat eats, the more love and respect you get from the cat. Also it tells us that Whiskas is full of protein and most people know protein is needed to help keep healthy. This would also attract healthy people who take care of themselves as they would also like to keep care of their pets. In order for this advert to reach its targets audience it would be shown on the television which pretty much everyone has access too, on both Subscription and digital television. Also vets have small television usually in their surgery's so the advert may be shown there to as people will come in with their pets.

When advertisers are creating adverts, they use certain techniques which they know will communicate with the audience. Lines of appeal is one of these which means they use images of or references to these things to tap into our desires and fears. When watching this video I feel the advertisers definitely went along the line of comedy as they attracts a wide spectrum of audiences as most people have a pet which does funny things. Another line of appeal I would say the advertisers have gone down is to show reality. Many people who own a pet of any sort will usually find themselves talking to the animal in a childlike way and mothering it in a sense which is shown in the video. By showing a handsome man, on a porch of a high quality house in the perfect weather makes the whole situation seem almost perfect. He has a great house, live and also the perfect healthy pet. This will create a desire for the audience to go out and treat their cat to Whiskas as people who maybe more wealth them then can, but as Whiskas is affordable, people of lower income can still chose to spoil their cat. Also by using a man who is obviously quite proud and loves his cat, it gives the audience a sense of pride and protection over the animals and by feeding their cat Whiskas they can be proud of their pet. I felt after watching this advert, and owning a cat myself and often talk to it like the scene in the advert, I wanted to go buy some Whiskas as I felt my cat deserves it. This is a good affect as adverts are created to make the audience do they something they feel they need to, this is while 'line of appeal' is a great technique as it feeds and deals with the audiences social needs.

Another technique advertisers use is 'Factor of persuasion'. This means in the advert they highlight certain things which make the audience take in some or all of its content and the viewer must have a reason for doing so. An example would be someone who is interested in fitness, or getting fit and an advert shows an energy drinks that shows to improve performance. There are five types of persuasive influence: Reward power where the product promises some positive benefit, Coersive power which the product is presented on pain of threat or punishment, Referent power which means the message associated with the product fits into the reader's value system, Expert power where the product it presented by an expert, and Star power which the product is presented by a star. When watching the advert chose, I think the factor of persuasion used was Reward Power, it promises that if our cat has Whiskas, we will get more cat love and many people would die for a cuddle of their unsociable pet. This is probably the best one too use for this advert as because it is cat food it needs to be kept quite mellow and realistic.

In the Whiskas advert, there is no music bed at all just the ambience of the outside world. This makes the atmosphere very peaceful and calm but also very realistic to the viewer. There is a voice over at the end of the clip as a new cat is shown walking around a Whiskas voice and the voice over explains 'Cat love, get more with Whiskas. The highest level of protein. More Whiskas, more love'. There is also non diagetic music playing so only the audience can hear. It is very cheerful and positive music, so this ends the advert on a high and also makes the product seem very positive which will persaude the audience to go buy it. There are only two human characters in this advert and the cat. I feel the pet owner, could be portrayed as the damsel in distress, he looks very bored and lonely then his cat comes and rescues him from his boredom and gives him some affection and timee. The pet owners friend could be viewed as the villian as he breaks up the tender moment. Apart from this though, Propps is not used obviously.

There are a range of camera shots used in this advertisment, first of all we have an establishing shot of a young man sat on his porch reading the newspaper, this shows the scene. Then that cat runs up the steps with ease and jumps on the mans lap. The establishing shot is alos a long shot as when the cat is laid of the mans tummy we can see them from a short distant away. We are then shown a close up body shot of the man and his cat from a high angle veiw. This shows how close the man and the cat are and how comfortable they are together, this making the audience feel engaged with the partnership. As the cat kisses and paws the mans face there is a side shot of this so exagerrate the cats affection, again proving to the audience, Whiskas does really makes cats loving! We then go back to the close up body shot of the pair, this shot also shows the mans facial expressions so we can see how relaxed and natural he is with his pet. Then as we hear the voice of the pet owners freinds, we are taken back to a long shot to see how the man reacts, which is slightly embarrassed as he'd been caught out. The shot of the man is from a high angle though making him seem small and inadequate compared the uplifting and heroic shots used on the man and his pet. This makes the pet owner look better and more important, reflecting people who have cats who eat Whiskas are better than ordinary people. At the end of the video we are shown a close up side shot of the pet owner and cat again just to remind us 'More Whiskas means more cat love'.

The second advert is have chosen to do is the New Warburtons Bread Advert. The advert is advertising Warburtons bread, not any type in particular just their bread. At the beginning of the advert it is a man in a white suit, usually related to bakers, sat in an office eating a slice of perfect looking toast. He receives a phone call and drops his toast on the floor. The camera follow the toast as it hits to the floor almost to signify the importance of the toast. The music bed is also very glum and sad music which reflects that the phone call obviously revealed some bad news. The man then jumps to his feet and screams, but as the advert is in slow motion at this point it adds tension and also an enigma as we do not know what is so catastrophic. We then see a room full of people in a clean, factory setting all in bakers uniforms looking devastated as they look over to the oven. A large, yet gentle looking man is cradling something in his arms, but the audience can not see it clearly enough to know what it is. As a burnt loaf of bread is placed on a clean chrome, very surgical like table it is covered with a white cloth as though a dead corpse would be! After seeing the look of a grief on all the workers face and the burnt loaf wheeled of respectively, then the logo of Warburtons and a caption saying 'We care because our names on it'. This is what make the product important and seem of a great standard. Warburtons has been round for a long time and a well known name, the fact they treat a burnt loaf like this shows they have high standards and when mishaps do happen like this, it is very rarely and devastating. I feel this approach to the bread helps sell the product as it is a reminder that the company care about their products but also their customers as they want to give them the highest possible standard of bread.

When relating to Gillian Dyers 'Line of appeal' it goes down the route of showing that the people at Warburtons all work as a team and are highly trained experts and love the job they do, hence the devastation as a burnt loaf of bread. To lighten the advert goes down the line of comedy as it is very comical as we know in real life people would not be so devastated at the loss of a loaf of bread but because of the exxageration it reminds us how much effort and time Warburtons take. Another line of appeal used effectively to communicate with its audience would be a sense of Self Importance and Pride. As the workers and the factors looked very clean cut and professional and other bread which is shown been created around the factory looks perfect, it again remind the audience Warburtons takes great pride to deliver quality products and it is a still a trusted brand after all the years it has been running. The sense of self importance it feel is reflected by the high standards of the bread the factory are producing, this showing that us the audience deserve the right to good quality products.

Different types of advertising may have different proportions of informative and persuasional content. When relating to Hermerens theory of 'Factors of Persuasion' I feel this advert uses a range of different powers. The first one I feel is coersive power as it shows the fear in the bakery workers eyes as they accidentally burn the loaf and even though no one seems to get hurt, the bread did which makes us feel that the bread the bakery produces is almost part of the family of Warburtons as it is a massive effect when one loaf essentially 'dies'. Referent power is all the way through as the audience already know that Warburtons is a bakery that produces great quality bread and the fact that one loaf has been burnt and the advert is a joke, we know it could never happen. Even if the bread was not featured, the slice of toast at the beginning shows that the bread is of a high quality as the toast looks good and the environment it will have been created from is full of devoted workers. And the last and most effective factor of persuasion is feel was used is expert power. The bread is advertised in a factory full of (actors) experts on how to work and created delicious products in a bakery. This give the audience confidence in the product as we all like to think our loafs of bread, breadcakes, teacakes etc have come from a shiny clean factory produced by bakers in perfectly white uniforms who have a great passion for the product they are making.

In order for this advert to be seen by its target audience it would be shown on television on all channels to reach a broader target audience. Also in supermarkets they will sometime have small televisions around store advertising certain products and this advert may be shown on them.

In the Warburtons advert there is non diegetic music bed all the way through it and no actual dialouge at all. The music bed is of orchestral music creating a eery and very sad atmosphere so we can tell something terrible has happened. The silence of the people in the advert connotes badness and mystery. Until we see the loaf of bread we have no idea has happened. The characters in the advert are all bakers in a factory. They have all be steretyped as bakers as they have perfect white coats on and small hats to cover thier hair. They looks like ordinary plain people, this should give the audience comfort though as they be ordianry middle class people. There is slight evidence of propps theory been used as the person who rings the main baker to inform him of the burnt loaf could be a the villian and he has burnt the bread by accident, or the villian could be the man who retreives the burnt bread from the over. The damsel in the distress would be the main baker as he seems to react the worst to the situtation. The hero could be portrayed as the woman who lies the white cloth over the loaf. This is a sign of respect and also to prove the loaf is out of its misery.

The advert begins with an establishing shot of a man in a white coat sat in an office eating toast. This then cuts to a close up shots of the mans face as he answers the phone. The use of this close up reflects the horror and expression in the mans face. Then a shot low angle shot looking up to the desk is used to show the man dropping a peice of toast, this moves then to a panning shot to watch the toast hit the floor. The next shot used an en establishing shot of the factory but also shows wheres the main bakers office is as we can see him through a window. This then reveals more people looking shocked and disgusted but we still do not know why. This creates enigmas and keeps the audience hooked. There is a long shot through a crowd of people to show a big, gentle looking man cradling a loaf of bread and behind we see an oven full of other loafs, the location has been given away now, we are in a Bakers. We see a close up of the burnt loaf been gently put down on a trolley, and more shots of people looking distraught at the happenings. All these shots exagerate the hard work and passion which has been wasted on this burnt loaf. There a lot of shots used in the video, they mostly consist of close up and long shots so the audience know what is going on all the time. The close up shots show the upset of all the people and this connotes how important perfection is to the veiwers. This is used to make them know Warburtons is a trusted brand and its customers should only accept the best out of their products.

Young and Rubicam suggest that audience types can be categorized, below is a table explaining these different types of categories and what characteristics they have.

From reading the classification table I would rank my target audiences for each video to be 'Mainstreamers'. This group tends to be domesticated and conventional. They are attracted to well known brands and seek security in the products they buy. Both Whiskas and Warburtons bread are well known brands, popular and good value for money and this is exactly what a 'mainstream' audience look for. Main stream makes up most of the audience classification I feel this is because even wealthier people or people of a different social class still seek security in products they buy and tend to be attracted to well known, trusted brands.

Task 2 [P1 M1 D1]

Just as films and television programs have narrative structures to follow, so do television adverts. TV advertisers main goal is to convince consumers to buy products and in doing so they create stories surrounding them.

Narrative structure is a reference as to how a story is told. As there are different ways to tell stories, there are different narrative structures; the different types can create different effects. The most commonly used and easiest structure to use is a Linear or Sequential narrative structure. This would be a version of events as they happened with a beginning, middle and end presented in this order. Soap operas give us an endless linear narrative to keep the series going and most films do also, especially films aimed at younger children so it is easy for them to understand.

Non-linear is the opposite to linear so the sequence of events can happen in any order. This may mean the end of a film is shown at the beginning and the reason for this is explained as the film runs though, a successful of this would be the thriller Donnie Darko. Usually when a film or program has a non-linear narrative there is an element of flashbacks. A flashback involves details of the past being revealed before us on screen.

There is also realist and anti-realist narratives which are both quite self explanatory. A realist narrative is something that will draw its power from non-fictional events. Anti-realist is a narrative that will have the freedom to indulge in the inclusion of aliens, vampires and all kinds of beastly CGI nonsense.

Endings are part of the narrative so therefore highly important. They can be left open or closed. Having an open ending means it is open for a sequel and a sense that the story is unfinished. A closed ending is a definite end to the story being told.

When discovering a narrative there is a range of information to be shared with the audience, this can either be restricted or unrestricted. If the range of information is restricted this means the audience are introduced to information and the plot at the same time as the characters. This is apparent in the film ‘The Ghost Writer’ as the character solves the problems and the audience have no clue what is going on. Having a narrative, which has a range of information that is unrestricted, this means the audience hears and see’s everything and often they already know the ending an example would be the film Titanic following the events of a large cruise ships and its journeys and perils faced.

In every narrative structure there will be a hero, helper, villain and a damsel in distress. This is the very famous Propps theory and is apparent in practically every film and television show. It works well and makes the story flow. Every narrative also involves Todorovs Theory. This means each narrative, which involve a equilibrium, disruption and resolution. They do not have to appear in this order though.

In some films, programmes and adverts there can be narration. There are two types, subjective and objective. Subjective has three types of subjective narrations: sound perspectives, perceptual subjectivity and mental subjectivity. Sound perspective means the audience will hear sounds as the characters might. Perceptual subjectivity means the audience hear what sound relations as the characters might and mental subjectivity is the narration of inside the characters thought. This is used in the film ‘Mean girls’ as the main character does this a lot. Objective narration is external behaviours of characters only.

Narrative structures are used in adverts to help sell the products. I have chosen to analyse the Guinness Advert - Evolution. First of all as the advert begins and starts to go back in time we can tell the narrative structure is non linear as the events go back in time. This affect keeps the audience hooked on watching the advert as we want to see how the three men in the bar have come to this place. The non linear is in a chronological order which makes it easy to understand so this will appeal to a broader target audience.

As the film starts when the three men are drinking their Guiness, after the first sip we are taken back through time and how people have evolved. This first ‘sip’ of the drink could represent the men having a flashback how they ended up in the bar. The use of this keeps the audience guessing and creates enigmas which keeps them interested. Flashbacks are used to reveal snippets in the past to the audience.

The advert is based on non fictional facts but is an anti realist view. The evolution is non fictional as it shows how people have developed over the years but the anti realist view is shown at the beginning as the small fish like creatures are disappointed with the taste of water, revealing that they have been searching and developing through the centuries to find a great tasting draught stout. This anti realist narrative allows the advert to exaggerate and indulge in overstretched ideas.

From the watching the advert I feel it has a restricted narrative. Even though many people will understand how the theory of evolution works they will not know which stage came in which order. This is revealed gradually through the advert as the audience are introduced to information and the plot the same time as the characters.

In most narrative structures there will be evidence of Propps theory, so a hero, helper and a damsel in distress. In this advert I feel this narrative structure is not used. The only way I could consider it would be to say that the Guinness is the hero as shown in the slogan ‘Good things come to those who wait’. Apart from that though I feel the structure is not used. Todorovs theory is also used as a narrative structure heavily. This involves a equilibrium, disruption and resolution. I feel this is used but not in this order. The resolution would be at the beginning as the men are drinking Guinness as they look happy and content with their drink. The disruption would be at the end of the advert as we are shown the small fish like creature tasting the horrible water and obviously been disappointed. The equilibrium would be also at the beginning as the men seem to have no worries in the world.

Endings of adverts are highly important as they can either be open or closed. This ending is feel is closed. Any enigmas which may have unfolded through the advert after it has finished and we know how the men have ended up drinking their Guinness.

Task 3 [P1 M1 D1]

Forms of TV advertising
There are many different forms of TV advertising just as their are many different products on the market and people that they appeal to. Some of the most common forms can be referred to as ‘Talking Heads,’Documentary’ and ‘Animation’.
Below is the advert about Elnette Loreal Hair spray. The advert begins with a very surreal feel about it and also the use of animation is used as Jennifer Anniston is floating around. The use of the animation makes it seem very futuristic and new which draws in the audience as we want to know more. The advert feels surreal as we know that normally a woman can not float about in a normal room as gravity would make us stay on the floor. The form of advertising which is used I feel is 'Talking heads' as she is talking to the camera and there is very little long shots used which make the main focus on the upper body and face of the actress. The advert seems to become more documentary style as the science behind the hairspray is used. It shows more animation of futuristic and high technology products which make the product seem out of this world and people would be missing out if they did not buy it, and also the facts about the product are spoken from a posh narrator but the focus is still on Jennifer Anniston and her soft and perfect looking hair.
By using a talking heads theme mixed in with a documentary style advert it used a celebrity to endorse the product as this give the audience comfort and confidence, they feel if they buy it they will look the same, this promotes the product. The documentary style of the advert which gives facts and figures gives us more confidence in the product, and then when Jennifer Anniston describes the feeling of having controlled hair but not been able to feel the hairspray it again gives the product more positivity and proving all the science facts correct.

Compared to the 'Head and Shoulders, anti hairloss' advert they use a completely style. The whole advert is a parody as it humorous all the way through. It describe our hair as a seperate person and as if it has a life of its own. The advert begins with a man chasing a large mass of hair, with legs, so it is personified to help the audience engage with it. He is begging the hair not go on a train, then he starts to reminis about what they could do together. The advert changes from black and white to colourful which signifies that the hair is happy when been treated correctly. The relationship between the man and his hair is very strong and this is reflected as the romantic, slow orchestral music begins and they walk off hand in hand out of the train station. At the end of the advert, there is a narrator telling us some facts about the shampoo so this does include facts but is not a documentary. Also as the man is been fondled by his girlfriend and has a full head of hair it connotes that the man and his hair are joined again and not separate people. I feel this surreal take on the advert works well as its target audience would be young, adolescence people so it will attract them well as the humor will work on them.

Compared to the advert involving Jennifer Anniston the 'Vortex' advert on bleach is all documentary. It is set out in the style of interviewing the scientists and finding out their findings on the tests which they have run on the different bleaches on the lavatories. As all the people are in white lab coats in a science room, it seems more believable and extremely reliable as it has come straight for the lab. By showing all the different experiments going on around the lab, it gives us confidence in the product as it makes us think a lot of care and effort has gone into this product. If we see something in a documentary style, it gives the impression that all the facts and things that are in it, must be true. Also by showing comparisons on other brand name bleaches, it gives ultimate guarantee that it should work better than the bleach you are currently buying. I feel this is a effective way to promote bleach as because it is cleaning products, facts and figures need to be used as the cleaning products can be sold by most domestic companies, so it gives the brand a better look and gives the audience more confidence in the product been sold.
Task 4 [P1 M1 D1]
There are many codes and conventions in media. They are used to help interact with the audience and create the best possible end result. The codes adn conventions can range from if there is a music bed within the video, to which types of line of appeal they use from the Uses' and Gratification theory. Below I will explain a few as to how and why they are used.
In the Elnette advert with Jennifer Aniston, the first code is we are met with a 'Star vehicle'. This means using a celebrity to endorse a product, so which ever fans the celebrity already have, they follow them into buying a product they advertise. This is an effective method of guarenteeing a fixed audience. As Jennifer Aniston is talking to the cameras, this bulds personal relationships with the audience. This is when the Uses and Gratification theory comes into play. It helps people feel a sense of 'Personal Identity' as it gives them someone to aim to be. If Jennifer has great hair from this product, the audience will feel the same. Also is give the audience a sense of 'Information' not only will this make the product sound high-tech and futuristic, it gives the audience confidence in the product, despite the fact half of the words will make no sense to them. Close up shots are used also which keeps the audience engaged and make them feel more involved within the advert.
In the Vortex Bleach advert uses different methods to bond with the audience. It is based in a documentary style so this gives the facts and figures will gives the audience confidence in the product, this is one of the conventions to engage customers. There are no celebrities endorsing the product though but there is a woman talking to the scientist about the product in an interview style. This makes it seem professional but also it will most probably be women using the bleach so this will give the women at home a sense of personal identity as they will have someone to relate to. The whole advert is very informative and when regarding the Uses and Gratification Theory this will satisfy curiosity and general interests and also help the audience gain a sense of security through knowledge.
Task 6 [P1 M1 D1]

The ASA stands for Advertising standards authority. The ASA is the UK’s independent watchdog committed to maintaining high standards in advertising for the benefit of consumers, advertisers and society at large. The ASA apply 'The codes of advertising' to all adverts so that when and if they are shown they do not offend, remain legal and honest. These codes are mandatory and must be applied to every advert which is produced. The ASA also deal with complaints and deal with adverts which have seemed to be misleading or false, harmful or offensive. They can also deal with the sales promotions and direct marketing of adverts. The ASA view ads which the whole general public will see so they have to make sure there are no issues with the adverts. The ASA is independent but also recognized by the Government, the courts and Ofcom, this is because the other organizations take an interest in consumer protection.

The ASA cover a range of adverts for different organisations. This is what they include:

Magazine and newspaper advertisements

Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship)

Television Shopping Channels

Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters)

eaflets and brochures

Cinema commercials

Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally)

Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on)

Advertisements on the Internet, including banner and display ads and paid-for (sponsored) search (not claims on companies’ own websites)
Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads
Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes

We regulate sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appeal

There are a few types of commercial messages they don't deal with due to the fact the codes they use do not cover the type of advert or problems which has been complained about. This can include: Claims on websites, discrimination against race, sex or age, fly posting, in-store advertising, medicines or political advertising.

Each year the UK sees millions of adverts, direct marketing and digital communications. Most of these are responsible and comply with the existing advertising rules. Last year the ASA received just over 26,000 complaints and assessed thoroughly every one of the concerns, investigating adverts which seemed to have breached the rules.

Thanks to the ASA over 2,500 of these adverts were either edited or withdrawn due to a range of effective sanctions at the ASA disposal and the cooperation of advertisers who respect our decisions.

The ASA try and deal the complaints as quickly as possible in a fair and thorough way. When the ASA receives a complaint it is assessed against the codes. If there actually is a problem it will be pursued. Most complaints are dealt with through dialogue with advertisers and most problem ads are dealt with in this way. If there is no case to answer under the codes, the complainant is informed to be told why there is no further action to be taken. If the complaint falls out outside the ASA remit they can usually suggest another body to help deal with the complaint.

When the ASA receives a complaint, we will first establish if the complaint is within our remit. It is then assessed against the Advertising Codes. If there is no case to answer under the Codes, we will inform the complainant and explain why further action is not needed. If after assessing the complaint and the marketing communication against the Codes is is felt that further action should be taken, then depending on the nature of the objection we will decide how to best resolve the complaint. The courses of action are: no case to answer; no case to answer after a Council Discussion; informal resolution; or formal investigation. For further details, go to Complaints & investigations process page.

In order for the ASA to help deal with complaints about adverts, the advertisers must agree to a range of codes. I will explain a few of the codes, there are 15 codes but not all apply for television advertisements. The first code is under section 1 ‘Compliance’ this means that all the advertisers must comply with the law and licensees must make that a condition of acceptance. Another code is section 1 ‘Program and advertising’. The back ground of the this code is:

(1) Section 2 has two purposes. The first is to ensure that viewers know at all times whether they are watching programming or advertising. The second relates to editorial independence and is to ensure that programmes are not distorted for commercial purposes; links between advertisers and programme properties are restricted for that purpose.
(2) Unless otherwise stated, Section 2 also applies to programme promotions.
(3) ‘Programme’ in this rule is defined as any current or recent programme on any UK television service. ‘Current’ refers to series still running or likely to be resumed. ‘Recent’ is defined as any programme or series last transmitted (including repeats) in the previous two years.
(4) The Ofcom Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising and the BCAP Rules on the Scheduling of Advertising contain rules on specific separations of programmes and advertising.

Another code which advertisers must agree with is Section 5, ‘Misleading Advertising’. This means No advertisement may directly or by implication mislead about any material fact or characteristic of a product or service or No advertisement may mislead by omission about any material fact or characteristic of a product or service.

Task 7 [P1 M1 D1]

In order for advertisers to create adverts they must have a target audince, therefore know which social group to aim the adverts at. I have already cover this is previous work so below is a hyperlink to task 6 on my single camera drama unit.

http://hollyarnoldbtectvandfilm.blogspot.com/2009/06/unit-21-single-camera-techniques.html

Task 8 [P1 M1 D1]

Our aim is to create an advert to show case the great features our Performing arts department has to offer. In order to do this we had to create a brief. Below is our brief which states the aim of the advert and what equipment we need:

Client Brief

PROJECT:

Advertisement for the Performing arts department in School.

Prepared by:
Niamh Park, Holly Arnold, Elliot Woods and Sally Cartmell.

PGS Marketing and Communications
Mount Pleasant road, Pudsey, Leeds, LS28 7ND
Background / Overview
The school is advertising the departments to Year 8 students who are due to take their options for GCSE.
What is the objective and purpose of the ad?
The purpose of the advert is to persuade the young people to take performing arts as one of their options.
Target Audience. Who are we talking to?
The primary target audience is the students of the school to show the potential of the department. The secondary target audience is the parents of the students who want the best for their children throughout school.
What’s the single most important thing to say?
That the performing arts department achieves high results and allows children to show their full potential.
What are the supporting rational and emotional ‘reasons to buy?’
The performing arts department has a high success rate and is recognized for putting on great shows.
It allows students of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and sex’s to build up their confidence and succeed.

Details that will assist the creative team…
Possible detail
Consumer insights: Box-pops of local people saying positive things about the department.

“The department has really allowed me to blossom and make some great friends, I now have more confidence and enjoy performing – which I never used to like.”
Description of brand personality:
Studying, educational
Creative thought starters:
Reach for the sky, and you’ll land among the stars.

Mandatory Details:
Budget: £1500
This will cover…….
Interviews
With people who are involved with the department.
Camera hire =
Panasonic Professional Camera (mini dv) = £70 per day (2 days) = £140
Microphones = Boom Mike + Boom Arm = £20 per day (2 days) =£40
MP3 Sound Recorders =
Edirol R-09h £30 per day (2 days) = £60
Recording Studio = £30 per hour (2 hours) = £60
Editing Suite = (imac) £10 per hour ( 10 hours) = £100
Technical Team = Sound Assistant = £10 per hour (5 hours) £50
Camera person £20 per hour = (5 hours) = £100
Actors= £50 per hour (Std equity card) (2 for 5 hours) £500
Total £ 1050

Task 9 [P1 M1 D1]

When creating an advert, I need to do some primary research so I know which type of audience will appeal to me target audience, it will help me gain information on the audiences prefences. In order to gather this information I am going to create a questionnaire ranging of around 5 - 10 questions about adverts. This is a quantative research, Quantitative research is used to measure how many people feel, think or act in a particular way. These surveys tend to include large samples - anything from 50 to any number of interviews. Structured questionnaires are usually used incorporating mainly closed questions - questions with set responses. There are various vehicles used for collecting quantitative information but the most common are on-street or telephone interviews. The results from these questionnaires will help me notice any trends or patterns about peoples interests.

If the questions are not clear in the print screen above it have copied them below also:

Questionnaire

Circle applicable answer
1. Do you like to see celebrities endorsing products in adverts?
Yes No

2. If an advert is showing an educational message, would you prefer to see students or teachers in the advertisement?
Students Teachers

3. Which genre of advert is most memorable to you?
Comedy Action Romance Horror Sport

4. Do you like to see adverts which have a narrative (a story line)?
Yes No

5. Do you feel tag lines/slogan are important in adverts?
Yes No

6. Out of the choices below, which advert is currently your favourite? And please say why.
Evian Water Compare the market Autoglass Premiere Inn Barclay Card
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Above is the questionnaire I created. I asked 10 students, 5 year 8 females and 5 year 8 males as it will be these students that the advert will apply to as it to help them decide there options for key stage 4. After asking 10 people this questionnaire I then had to analyse them. I did this by firstly typing the questions and answers into a table on word.

After I have put these results into a table I then put a few of my answers in to graphs to compare the results. I used the same type of graphs so I can compare and see weather there is a pattern or trend within my results.

Do you like to celebrities endorsing products?

It is clear that the audience choose 'Yes' to having the products endorsed by celebrities. Even though I do not have access to get celebrities to feature in my advert, I can use quotes from famous Actors or Actresses to help promote the performing arts department. Also as it is just 60% who enjoy seeing celebrities in adverts, I do not want to make it a huge part of the advert.

If an advert is showing an educational message, would you prefer to see students or teachers in the advertisement?

This graph shows me clearly that the audience would chose to see students explaining the benifits of the Performing arts department. I would agree as it will be the older students we chose to use as they will have experienced the educational rollercoaster of what happens in the Performing Art department as school. They will be able to give the positives and why it is beneficial.

Which genre of advert is most memorable to you?

From looking at this graph I can see that overt 50% of the audience would remeber an advert if it had a comedy genre. My advert is going to educational but I think I wil merge the two aspects together. You can still have an advert that it funny and educational, and as it is funny the educational facts will be more memorable also.

Do you like to see adverts which have a narrative (a story line)?

Judging from this repsonse it is apparent that audiences enjoying seeing an advert with a narrative so they have something to follow while watching it. I think I will try and use this aspect in my video, maybe show the transition from year nine up to year eleven and show the progress of how the performing arts has helped the students develop.

Do you feel tag lines/slogan are important in adverts?

This is positive reaction to having slogan or tags line in adverts. When I asked people why they like to see slogans, they said it makes the advert more memorable. A good example of this would be the 'Compare the market' the little tag lines is 'Simples' spoken by a meerakat making it very easy to remeber. We had already chosen a tag line which would be 'Reach for the sky and you'll land among the stars' so this repsonse means we will definitely chose to use it.

Out of the choices below, which advert is currently your favourite? And please say why.
Evian Water/ Compare the market /Autoglass/ Premiere Inn/ Barclay Card

The most popular choice was 'Compare the Market' which is an advert involving meerakats remindong the audience it is 'Compare the market' not 'Compare the meerakat'. This is a play on word and very affective as it is memorable and original. When asked why this is was the most popular choice it was becasue of the humour and originaltiy of the advert, there is nothing like it on television and the involvement on animals makes it extremely different.

From these results I now know which aspects to include in my advert and how it produce an advert which will please my target audience.

Task 10 [P1 M1 D1]

I asked three people to answer some questions about what types of things they like to see in adverts. There are a range of open and closed questions, this helps me get more information out of the people taking part but the closed question mean I am not taking alot of their time. I asked it to three people who were in upper sixth form who have actually taken drama in previous years so i feel this will help me when creating my advert.

What types of characters do you like to see in adverts?

Zeeshan, 18 from Bradford: I enjoy seeing women in adverts as they attract me to watch it. I also like to see a diverse community of ethnicities and showing cultural differences. Slight nudity keep the target audience of men interested.

James, 17 from Pudsey: I prefer to see to animals in adverts rather than humans. I especially enjoy the Compare the Market advert with the Meerkat. I also love the Andrex puppy advert as I feel animals sell the products better.

Matty, 17 from Pudsey: I like adverts with people who are around my age as I feel I can relate to them as they will have the same type of views on life as me. I like the new Muller yogurts, with the cow pretending to be a horse.

Conclusion: From these answers I can see that the people do prefer to see actual humans but also people my age. I will use this in my advert as the advert is aimed at younger children, so i will use people of the same age to promote it.

Do you prefer adverts with a narrative?

James 17, from Pudsey: Yes, this way I understand the advert more and feel I have something to follow. A favourite of mine is the BT advert with the growth and development of a family.

Zeeshan 18, from Bradford: No I don’t like adverts with a narrative because I like been able to figure things out rather having something to follow. I enjoy seeing enigmas in adverts.

Matty 17, from Pudsey: No because I look forward to seeing something unexpected and surprises which keep the advert fun and interested. Narrative often confuses so I prefer not to see them.

Conclusion: From these results over 60% of the answers show that people do not prefer to see narratives in adverts as it complicates them. This has worked out well for me as I would not be using a narrative in my advert anyway.

Do you enjoy seeing celebrities in adverts?

James 17 from Pudsey: I don’t really like to see them in adverts as they do not interest me. I have no interest in celebrities as I don't really look into their culture or lifestyle.

Matty 17 from Pudsey: NO, it makes me feel as though they are not interested in the product and they are just interested in the money they get paid to promote it.

Zeeshan 18 from Bradford: No because they seem very shallow and fake and it is not realistic as most of the people watching it do not have as much as a celebrity and they never will.

Conclusion: I will definitely not use celebrities to promote my advert. It would not have financially possible to recruit a celebrity for our advert due to lack of funding. We had considered using inspirational quotes from celebrities but we decided to come up with our own to be more original.

Has an advert ever caught in the past?

James 17 from Pudsey: The meerkat advert because it was different and the involvement with cute animals kept me interested.

Matty 17 from Pudsey: Weetabix advert makes me laugh. The horse is personified which makes me feel more obliged to watch this advert. It is also very humorous and the relationship between the horse and the jockey signifies how owners and pets might get along.

Zeeshan 18 from Bradford: The Virgin advert with the air hostess’s. This would make me want to fly with virgin if the air hostess’ were really like this.

Conclusion: Analysis of these results show that people do prefer to see animals personified or at least involved in the advert. I can not do this though as animals bare no relevance in my advert. I will however remeber this when I create adverts later on.

Task 11 [P1 M1 D1]

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members . Me and my team set up a focus group to see what types of adverts people enjoy to see which are currently on television. By doing this we will be able to produce something that will please a broad audience. It will also make the focus group feel more involved with the creation of the advert. We did the focus group with a handful of pupils aged from year 7 to year 13. By using younger years and older years we can discover which age groups prefers to see. There are Variants types of focus groups, these include:

*Two-way focus group - one focus group watches another focus group and discusses the observed interactions and conclusion
*Dual moderator focus group - one moderator ensures the session progresses smoothly, while another ensures that all the topics are covered
*Dueling moderator focus group - two moderators deliberately take opposite sides on the issue under discussion
*Respondent moderator focus group - one and only one of the respondents are asked to act as the moderator temporarily
*Client participant focus groups - one or more client representatives participate in the discussion, either covertly or overtly
*Mini focus groups - groups are composed of four or five members rather than 6 to 12
*Teleconference focus groups - telephone network is used
*Online focus groups - computers connected via the internet are used

Traditional focus groups can provide accurate information, and are less expensive than other forms of traditional marketing research. There can be significant costs however : if a product is to be marketed on a nationwide basis, it would be critical to gather respondents from various locales throughout the country since attitudes about a new product may vary due to geographical considerations. This would require a considerable expenditure in travel and lodging expenses. Additionally, the site of a traditional focus group may or may not be in a locale convenient to a specific client, so client representatives may have to incur travel and lodging expenses as well.

Like any form of market research there will be advantages and disadvantages, below I will explain a few of each veiw point.

Advantages:

-As there is a moderator there, it means the group stay focused and they will not get off track.

-Group discussion produces data and insights that would be less accessible without interaction found in a group setting—listening to others’ verbalized experiences stimulates memories, ideas, and experiences in participants

-In traditional focus groups it is possible for the client personnel to watch the whole discussion behind a one-way mirror. The client personnel can provide their thinking to the moderator, which may help the moderator better handle the direction of discussion, and improve the quality of output.

-The expression, attitude of individual, the intensity of the conversation etc. can be perceived by the researcher, which can modify the moderator’s decision and also can be counted in the research result.

Disadvantages

-The moderator plays an essential role in handling the situation, but if the moderator is not experienced enough, it is very easy for the whole discussion to be dominated by a few people.

-Some peoeple believe that the number of members of a focus group is not large enough to be a representative sample of a population; thus, the data obtained from the groups is not necessarily representative of the whole population .

-People may be influences by others so change their answers making focus groups ineffective. In focus groups people are collected in a meeting room thus they might behave differently from how they behave when they are not watched and it will effect the quality of research results.

-It is difficult to have the participants share their real feelings towards some sensitive topics publicly. This can in turn influence the output data.

Below are te results of the focus group I created and which adverts they preffered and why.

John Lewis advert -

90% thinks it is an effective advert. Shows progression of how people and it shows the journey. Everyday situations, typical lifestyle of married, children and retired. Transitions run smoothly, sophisticated transitions showed aging of the family. Music chosen well as it explain the growth of a woman and how life changes.

The negatives are that for people who do not know what John Lewis is, they will have no further knowledge as it does not explain what they sell. Some people did not understand how the story line of a woman promoted John Lewis and its features.

Compare the Market -

75% felt it was effective. Opinion has changed over the time it has been played. Over played now, so not funny, slightly irritating. The animal is very cute and addictive and the audience like the character. Play on words 'Market' - 'Meerkat'. Using a storyline in the advert as the product can be increased, so they created a narrative to go with it. Very unique and original, nothing around like it. Has an effective tagline, it is very memorable as there is an accent and repetition doesn't let you forget. People try to immitate the Meerkat as it is almost like a catchphrase: 'Simples'.

Negatives of the advert are it seems to appeal to the lowest intelligence of people.

Evian Baby Advert -

10-15% think this advert is effective. It has a humorous element and the music bed is catchy and makes up feel upbeat. The tagline line 'Evian, Live Young' and as it is babies in the advert this relfects that if you drink Evian, you will feel young. Also by using CGI it is pushing the boundaries of how adverts can be created. The babies rollerskating is special, this shows that the Evian brand special and unique.

The CGI looks fake and unrealistic some people said. If Evian wanted to be sophisticated, they should have rather than try mix the humour and sophistication. Also there could be racial stereotypes as it only involves racial minorities and shows that only races other than white can dance. It is unrealistic for people who have babies as they will know babies do not do this, they cry and do not drink water at a young age or rollerskate.

Task 12 [P1 M1 D1]

When looking at the ASA codes of Advertising and Broadcasting there is one which stands which I feel, when regarding my advert, is very important. It is comes under section 5 of the BCAP which is 'Misleading Advertising:. The background behind this advert goes as follows:

Television advertising can be a powerful medium for communicating advertising messages but is unsuited to providing consumers with detailed, permanent information about products and services. The rules in this Section are therefore designed (amongst other things) to ensure that advertising does not misrepresent the nature, benefits and limitations of advertised offers.

This code is important to be as I am trying to promote the schools drama department for exactly what it is. It is a fun environment which enable students to grow. I would not like to promote the drama department in any other light as this will leave many student unhappy with their year 9 options and also insult alot of the parents. I myself was misold a A level class and I am still annoyed at taking it so I know how it feels. In order to create a fair advert, I will follow the rules which will mean my advert will not seem misleading:

No advert may directly or by implication mislead about any material fact or characteristics of a product or a service
No advert may mislead by omission about any material or fact or characteristic of a product or serviceor advertisement
Advertising must not omit, hide or provide in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner material information if that omission or presentation is likely to affect consumers’ decisions about whether and how to buy the advertised product, unless the information is obvious from the context. If the advertisement is limited by time or space, the ASA will take into account steps that the advertiser has taken to make that information available to consumers by other means.
For advertisements that quote prices for advertised products, material information

Task 13 [P1 M1 D1]

Obviously my advert will be placed in-between programs, but making sure my adverts get the maximum audience will depend on which programmes I will put it between. My advert genre is educational but also comedy, it is aimed at children between the ages of 11 - 13 so I will place it between programmes with the same audience.

The programmes I think I will place it between would be Hollyoaks and Glee. They are both aired on channel 4 and this is a channel which attracts all ranges of teenage years so will definitely hit grasp my target audiences attention. Also these programmes do have an adult audience which is an advantage, so the secondary target audience which is the parents.

The content of the programmes I have chosen to place my advert between are about teenagers and the everyday issues which come up in their school live as well as personal live. My advert only contains teenagers from around the school so having it inbetween series which are all about teenagers is a good move to receive the most views from my primary target audience.

From the classification table above, our target audience would generally be from the c2 category to the E category. Although there may be some anomalies, these type of working backgrounds all generally watch the same types of programs such as soaps and read tabloid newspapers. This shows they enjoy an informal yet direct mode of address which is again what would be portrayed in my advert - this therefore would be an important factor in my advert.

BBC 2 also show educational yet humorous programmes so I could place my advert inbetween them, however I am still sticking to use channel 4 as when looking on BARB both E4 and channel 4 have a reach of over 70% of the whole population over the United kingdom. 'The Reach' reflects how many people have watched this channel and watched it longer for more than three consecutive minutes.

Task 14 [P1 M1 D1]

This is the plan for our advert. We have included the narrative, plot, genre, character and music. This will help us plan the advert and keep to the schedule.

Task 15 [P1 M1 D1]

Treatment of my advert:

Another technique advertisers use is 'Factor of persuasion'. This means in the advert they highlight certain things which make the audience take in some or all of its content and the viewer must have a reason for doing so. An example would be someone who is interested in fitness, or getting fit and an advert shows an energy drinks that shows to improve performance. There are five types of persuasive influence: Reward power where the product promises some positive benefit, Coersive power which the product is presented on pain of threat or punishment, Referent power which means the message associated with the product fits into the reader's value system, Expert power where the product it presented by an expert, and Star power which the product is presented by a star. I feel when watching the advert I created, it portrays a 'Referent Power' but also a 'Reward power' as the product does promise some form of benefit as Drama is an amazing subject to take.

The style of the advert I have created is almost in the form of talking heads with the close up shots and the subjective narration make it very informative and dramatic. The advert is not in a documentary type as you would suspect if it was showing something educational, my advert is almost in the form of a film trailer. I have done this as it relates to the drama department as our drama department may produce people who end up starring in films and they may one day be in a film trailer. Also it makes the department seem grand and important, we are trying to promote the drama department so doing it in such an expressive way works really well.

As our advert is educational it does not really follow a narrative. It does build up to an anti climax though. By the use of orchestral music which builds up until the end and we have used an effective and very personal talking head shot which makes it seem very believable. The aim of the advert though is to take the audience a sort of journey through the drama department as we show snippets of a production the school put on but also students in masks and doing pirouettes. This shows how there are different aspects and it is not all about just acting, but also dancing and singing, it includes all aspects of the performing arts area.

Characters which will be in my advert are all non-fictional as they are all real pupils who have taken Drama at Pudsey Grangefield. This is a way of making the advert more personal to the students it is aimed at. This way if the students have further questions to ask, they have this option of asking the people who are in the advert who have actually taken the subject. This also shows the talent which the Performing arts department has to offer.

There is a range of camera shots used, all which create different effects. The most commonly camera shot used are close ups. We have a mid close up shot at the beginning which also acts as an establishing shot as it reveals a student wearing a drama mask and a top hot. Both props which would usually be seen within a drama production. We then have long shots of pupils holding the letters which spell out 'DRAMA'. Each shot of each letter is separate and they are placed slides apart to add tension and keep the audience hooked as to what the word will reveal. This long shot also reveal a little more of the drama room and the type of environment the students wold be working in if they were to chose 'Performing Arts' as a GCSE. We then use a wide shot of a dance student going a pirouette. This allows the audience to see the talent of the school again and by adding a range of different shots it makes the advert run faster but also not seem boring. We then have a clip of a school performance which reveals the actually stage area the school has to offer, this should impress the parents of the students at it is equipped with the latest pyrotechnic equipment. The last shot is of a close up of a student reminding us of what the advert is about but also because it is a close up it makes the advert very personal again and draws in the audience.

The editing is fast paced, but the titles we have used are very dramatic and the transitions between clips are slowed down slightly so people and younger students have time to read them. We chose to do the titles in is called 'Zafino' it is a script font and appears to look hand written and very elegant. This works well with out drama theme, as very scripty type font is often associated with classical or theatrical elements. Each title last around 3 seconds. The actual clips inbetween are only around 6 seconds long. By using shot titles and clips, this makes the video move quickly and run more smoothly. We need the video to be engaging as it is aimed at children aged 11-14 and the decision they make is crucial for the school and for them. The transitions we used on the titles is called 'Fade in', this is where the clip is revealed gradually over 2 seconds. This adds an element of mystery and just makes the product seem very smooth running and flows well with the genre of the video. We did not use any transitions on the actual clips, they just cut into each other which makes the advert run quickly and not drag. The clips have however been slowed down to seem more dramatic and add suspense, this has in turn made them longer which is what we needed to make the advert last around 30 to 45 seconds. No effects have been used on the clips e.g turning to sepia rather then full RGB colours. They are filmed in low lighting which makes them look very effective anyway. The font on the last title: 'Reach for the sky, land among the stars' has been made into the colour pink though rather than just pink like the rest of the titles. We have done this as it is the most important title and should give people confidence, it needs to be memorable.

Task 16 [P1 M1 D1]

Below I have enclosed a report of all the equipment I will be using, the software I will be using, the people involved and the Props, costumes and locations.

Equipment: Rather than use a camera on a tri-pod or a normal HD hand held camera, we chose to use a 'Flip Ultra video camera'. The camera is easy to walk around with, so when trying to find students this was ideal. It can hold up to 60 mintutes worth of video which was ideal for us as we were only filming shots which were around 5 - 10 seconds longs. It has a USB built in so is extremely easy to import straight to the computer after filming. It is easy to use as it only need to double AA batterys so there is no fuss of having to charge it, if the battery goes all we have to do it replace them rather then wait for it to charge which is time consuming. The exposure is automatically adjusted to any light so there is no need mess around with settings.

We used the flip camera to film all the clips for our advertisement but the voice over was recorded on an Edirol R-09. This is again a hand held device which is light weight and very accessible and I can chose which type of wav. file I record in. Some files are more appropriate for Garage band rather than been straight inserted to iMovie. The device can use batteries but also comes with an adapter. So if we forgot to charge the device on a night, we could slip some batteries in the morning. This convenient and gives us different methods of keeping the device charged. It has two omni-directional microphones so at either side of the device to record pristine sound. If I do not feel like I have the best sound quality, there is also the option to plug in an external microphone.

After I recorded all my clips I need to import them to the computer. The clips from the FlipUltra camera will import when I attach them to it to the computer. I can watch them on iMovie and import the clips I want. Once the clips are on iMovie I can cut out the parts I do not like and change the volume of the shots if certain areas are hard of hearing. I can also edit the clips so: change the colour of them, change the speed and add transitions to them so how they follow each-other. When importing the voice clips of the Edirol R-09, I first need to find a USB cable to attach it to the computer then import the recordings. Once my recordings are on Garageband I can add music, sound effects and edit the volume and speed of them. In order to put the recordings to run on top of my clips which are on iMovie, I save the file on Garageband, then insert it into iMovie. A very simple process and quick.

When we filmed all the characters under the spot light in our drama room, we had lighting technicians who change the brightness and dullness of this as it is a special spot light which we are not used to using. The only props we used were white drama masks which we borrowed from the drama department.

Task 17 [P1 M1 D1]

Below is the story board of our video and say what clips we are going to use, the music bed and which clips have titles before them.

Task 18 [P1 M1 D1]

In order to make sure each member of the team knew what was going on, like who was filming what and what work still needed to be completed we created a production schedule and each team member has a copy of this.

Then when all over the tasks had been completed, we created an editing table.

Task 20 [P1 M1 D1]

Task 21 [P1 M1 D1]

Evaluation for Performing Arts Department

Purpose:

Our video was an advertisement for the students to encourage them to take Performing Arts as a BTEC for GCSE. I feel with how we presented the video we did achieve this purpose. It was aimed directly at our primary target auidence of year nines for when they were picking there options for year ten and eleven. The secondary target audience was their parents. I played the video to a range of ages and audiences to gain some feedback to see if they thought we had achieved our purpose.

Audience:

After the audience watched our video we had a range of comments:

'It is very dramatic and keeps the suspense all the way through'

'The use of the spot light makes the characters stand out and tie in with the theme of the advert very we'

'I like how it is just students who are in the video rather than teachers and older people'

'The music is really theatrical and the masks look really effective. It reminds me of the two face of drama which is the symbol for performing arts. Very memorable'

The audience definitely got our preferred reading to feel they wanted to take Performing arts as a BTEC and also to find the video interesting and think it seemed professional. When regarding the Uses and Gratification theory, we wanted to create 'Diversion' so they were taken out of the real world and into the drama world we had created, just for a few seconds so they could feel how it is to be dramatic. The audience also felt this as the atmosphere of the room was dedicated to the video and eveyone was involved with it. Our primary target audience all found the video interested and many look to take Performing Arts as a GCSE. The secondary target audience felt our preffered reading too, many of the parents and older students felt they would definitely take or consider a subject like this if it was available. The all felt the video was strange and abstract but it got the message across. 80% of the whole audience said they would take Performing Arts as a BTEC, 20% said they would if it doesn't interefere with the rest of their chosen subjects.

Representation Issues:

Our video gave a positive message acorss, this would keep the audience more interested and make them want to take the subject. If we had advertised performing arts in a negative light people would not want to take it as it would be of putting. Our video was aimed at both genders so to keep them both interested, we used both boys and girls in the video. Boys and girls have different qualitys they can bring to drama, some boys also think it can be seen as a slightly more 'feminine' subject so we wanted to remind them it isn't. We used a range of ethnicities in the video but you could not see them because they all had drama masks on. I think it was infact our music which created the whole atmosphere for our video. We used a orchestral peice with sound affects in which me and my team created on Garageband. The peice created alot of suspense and it enphasised in places where we had quick shots of when titles changed so it make the video look very powerful and stuck with the target audience. The location of my video was perfect, we filmed all the shots in the drama studio used some of the pyrotechtnics which are available. This made our video extremely effective as we were selling the department and not falsely advertising anything, if the students do take the subject, they will have the use of all these facilities. We used simple language and not big words incase some of the younger years were of a low intelligence but we also did not need to use intelligent vocabulary as it was about the subject, not the words. We used a voice over which were all dramatic speech like: 'The worlds a stage, and the people - merely players'. Here is simple words being used but it has a powerful impact and with the use of the music bed behind it, it was extremely effective.

Technical Issues

The levels of the music and the voice over worked perfectly, the music was lowered as the voice over was played but gradually turned back up as the voiceovers finished. The voices overs were loud and very clear, no crackly parts and they were all of the same level as we recorded them in quiet places but also did not put the microphones too close to the narrators voice. The music was loud through out but not too, just enough to be easy to hear and add a dramatic effect, as though in a cinema. The camera work was great, we used a hand held 'FlipUltra video camera'. Even though it was not resting on a tri-pod it is not shaking and the quality is very high, it looks just as good as what we could get on a HD camera. We used a range of shots including: long shots, wide shots and close ups so they will keep the audience interested and adds variety. An external microphone was used to record the voice overs but that is it, there is not sound in any of the actual video clips. The editing of the video was great, we didn't use transitions, we just cut from clip to clip as this kept the video fast paced. We did use transitions from the clips to titles though as they needed to to be up a few seconds in order for people to read them. We used a script style font as we thought it was very fitting for the genre and sctipts for plays centuries would have been handwritten in this style so we were adding a sense of history to the video. We kept the titles in black and white to make them stand out apart from the last one which quotes: 'Reach for the sky and land among the stars', this was in colour to make it extra important and thrust the point that everyone has the talent to be fabulous and it should have given them a boost of confidence.

Conventions and Narrative:

The genre of our video was Edcational. I think we hit the educational genre perfectly as it showed all aspects of the drame department and by showing clips from previous productions shows that the school has real talent and they are not afraid to show it off.Our film involved a constant enigma which was used to keep the audience interested. This was similar to that of a professional product as enigmas are constantly used in today’s dramas to keep the audience interested. We used some typical conventions of our drama which were: the loud music, the shouting voice over, dark lighting, and the enigma. The video was a single strand narrative as we were only advertising the drama department and showing what happens in the area of the school.

Own Performance:

I did not learn any new skills but reminded my self of old skills. I used iMovie alot more in this production and use the flip camera. The did some of the editing on the titles like changing the font and picking the transitions for inbetween the titles and the recorded video clips. My strengths are that I came up the quote: 'Reach for the sky, and land among the stars' as this is acts as a tag line and is effective as it isb easy to remeber. I feel my input to the video was good as I came up with some of the ideas. My weaknesses were probably to voice my opinion abit more, some of the things I did we changed, but then changed back and other people got credit for them which is irritating. I feel I was a good team member as I quite happily listened to other peoples opinions and take them on board but would voice my own aswell.

Future Targets:

My future targets are to make sure my ideas are taken seriously and used.
Also to make sure my video is promoted better I will make sure it is aired in all school within the consortium

Btec Tv and Film Portfolio

Archive

Unit 29 - Advertisement production for television

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