12. My Final Production

Wave Advert 1

Wave Advert 2

11. Production Review: My Production and My Intended Improvements

Once I finished my adverts, I wrote down some questions, then I asked the media staff and some of my peers to review them, and as a result I had a rethink about a few things.

From my talk with Mrs B I decided to re-record my voice-over with both female and male voice actors. I decided I needed to steer my adverts more to the female side of the market as they are a bit 'blokey'. I plan to make this change shortly and will have a female voice over for my first advert and a male voice over for my second advert.

My talk with Sam the media tech was a bit more technical; he knew I wasn't very happy with my split screens and he gave me some advice on how to sort the issue. I also decided to do some more colour correction and to fade in some colour as I think it will look much better with a fade.

After my review with Mrs Dymioti I originally decided to rethink my slogan, but in the end I left it as it as it is.

My overall feedback from a variety of people in my target audience range group was that they liked my adverts and they thought they were good. They did however have ideas about how I should make my split screen more central and to adjust my audio balance, which I had already thought about, so it just confirmed this for me. 

10. My Planning Evidence

In order to make sure that this project was successful I planned it out thoroughly in advance and made detail lists and ideas about what I wanted to accomplish and when.

My Production list and risk assessment

I created this list so that it was clear when and where I was going to film, which was useful for me when I was informing my actors about the schedule for our shots. This list was also useful as it gave a brief overview of the risks that we might encounter, and enabled me to plan a way around these risks to try and reduce the probability of them happening.

My Storyboard

I created my storyboard so that I could have a visual representation of all my shots, which obviously made it easier to plan out and visualise during shooting. This helped me to cut out a lot of time during the actual shoots as I already had the ideas for what I wanted my shots to look like, as well as reducing time wasted in post production. Blue representing MS and LS and pink representing CU.

My Timeline

Pictured above are the timelines for my two adverts, these time lines were one of the very first things I did and they helped me plan my project, with me basing my shot lists and storyboard off of it.

My Shot Lists

These are my shot lists which were very useful during my actual filming for the trailers. As you can see on the left page I ticked off the shots once I had completed them, I also labelled the best shots I had taken to reduce time wasted during editing looking through clips.

My Test Shoot

For my trailers I also conducted a test shoot and created a rough edit of those shots to see how my actual trailers would turn out, I was however very pleased with the outcome of my test shoot and decided to keep the footage and use it in my actual trailers.

My Brand Design

My brand design as seen above, was coloured and designed so that the blue matches the colour of the waves you would see in places like Hawaii where people regularly go surfing, so that it ties in with my tagline 'Don't Crash Out, Ride The Wave.' The letters are placed vertically above eachother so as to connote a wave building up and coming towards you, they are also in silver so that they stand out from the background.

9. The practicalities of filming/recording/photographing: when and where production will take place and who with.

The practicalities in terms of my shoot are very simple and easy to follow from this table below, on all of the days I am shooting, I will be with both of my actors.

8. The planning I intend to complete in order to ensure a successful outcome for my production.

To ensure that my production has a successful outcome, I intend to complete a series of pre-production planning for my two adverts.

My intended plans are:

• To create a timeline of my shots-completed 13/01/18
• To complete a risk assessment for my shoots-completed 23/01/18
• To complete a location report and test shoot-completed 24/01/18
• To create a shot list/schedule-completed 03/01/18
• To create a brand name design-completed 03/02/18
• To create a storyboard-completed 04/02/18

7. My Statement of Intent

My statement of intent written on 02/02/2018.

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6. What I have learnt about the ASA, copyright and other industry standards in relation to television, and how I intend to use this knowledge and understanding, to ensure my production is appropriate to the media industry context of the set brief I have chosen.

The Advertising Standards Authority, ASA, is the body that controls and regulates the adverts that are shown on British television. Therefore I have to make sure that my two adverts follow the strict rules and guidelines set by the ASA, to ensure that my adverts are suitable to be shown on British television.

Rule 3.12: Advertisements must not mislead by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product or a service.
The Nivea Black or White ad is an example of an ad that follows this rule as it has been rigourously tested and proven to keep white clothes white and black clothes black, as it will not stain them. This is beneficial as it brings in revenue for them from people seeing the advert but it means they also wouldn't have lost money like they would have if the advert was banned.

In relation to this my product is designed simple and gives the idea that it will keep you fresh no matter what you are doing. Therefore my advert won't break the aforementioned rule and will be fit to be shown on TV.

Copyright Rules Another rule that I have to make sure I follow is the law around the copyrighting of music, as I plan to have two soundtracks playing throughout both of my adverts. The law with regards to copyright infringement protects the composers work until 75 years after it was released. This creates a problem as there isn't a lot of music that is 75 years old that would fit my adverts, let alone two songs. Therefore I have decided to use copyright free music that I've found online on audio library, these two songs are; Rock Angel by DJ Fuzz and Happy Rock by Bensound. This allows me to still have music in my two adverts, but I won't be breaking any rules whilst I use them.

E4's Target Audience
E4's target audience is made up of 59% females and 41% males, this results in the shows being shown on E4 to be slightly skewed towards women with shows such as 'New Girl' and 'How I Met Your Mother,' highlighting this fact and making it quite prevalent. The shows however do have appeal for men in the characters shown such as Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris on 'How I Met Your Mother'.

As a result, I have decided to place my female character on the left side of the split screen as this is where the audiences eyes are more likely to focus, therefore making the my adverts skewed slightly more to females. However, I will have an inspirational male character who is shown to be a relatable guy, so that there is something for my male audience. My adverts will be shown between 7pm and 9pm on weekdays and I believe the way my characters have been presented will attract my audience into buying my product.

5. What I have learnt about the representation of events, issues, individuals, and social groups in television, and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate meaning successfully.

The representation of individuals and issues in television adverts has changed greatly over the past few years. As society has changed to become more politically correct, which means TV advert makers must also change their adverts so that they retain their audience, while also attempting to expand it.

An example of this is the lynx ad campaign, which has changed massively over the past few years, from being the 'get the girl' ad to the much more toned down version of this, while also becoming a unisex brand.

This change in Lynx' advertising is very significant as it shows just how the representation of individuals and social issues in TV advertising has changed. I have decided to follow this change to an extent with my female protagonist being very self sufficient and denoted as a strong independent woman, which also plays to E4's female target audience, while my male character is still similar but a lot less brash as the men were in earlier lynx adverts.

Another challenge to gender stereotypes and how they are portrayed in the media can be seen very clearly in the Channel, Coco Mademoiselle advert which features Keira Knightley and Alberto Ammann. Kiera Knightley is portrayed as the strong independent woman and is supposed to be a representation of all women in society. This bodes especially well with the soundtrack that Channel used, 'It's a man's man's man's world,' to help get their point across of challenging stereotypes and the representation of women in TV adverts.

For my TV adverts I have decided to keep my male actor as the fairly stereotypical male, however my female actor will be challenging the traditional female stereotype, as I plan to include scenes of her throwing and american football, playing sport in the park. These scenes will come together to form a character that challenges gender norms and and individual's identities.

4. What I have learnt about the content and appeal of television and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate successfully with the target audience.

From my research of existing TV adverts I have found that the vast majority represent the average man and woman, they do however usually enhance their deodorants appeal by including extra, inspirational features and characteristics to their actor's, so that they attract more of the audience to come and buy their deodorant.

In TV adverts a common convention is to create a realistic character that represents the general public, but they almost always include an obtainable but appealing feature of what will happen to the audience if they use the deodorant.

In the screenshots and video above, from the Hugo Boss 'Man of Today' advert, you can see that Gerard Butler is presented a cool guy who takes the day as it comes and just takes everything in his stride, he doesn't let anything phase him. This is inspirational for the audience as it connotes across to them the idea that they can do anything they want, nothing can stop them, if they use Boss. I plan to use this idea in my adverts as I believe it will play well with my intended audience and will attract them to the thought of buying my product, as my product has the theme of being able to take on the world. You live your two lives, one active, one professional with Wave keeping you fresh between them.

Another appeal of TV adverts is the style of the actors in the adverts. As I said above, this attracts people to the adverts as they want to look good, they enjoy the idea of being able to live their lives to the fullest, and this is connoted through the way the actors dress as it denotes to the audience that they have money, if they're in a suit for example. 

In this lynx advert the man is dressed rather well and is shown to keep his composure even though he has made a mistake, and that he will inevitably get the girl because of this. This connotes the emotional appeal across to the audience, that they can do whatever they want if they use the product, but that they will also be able to get the girl/man and the connotations surrounding that by using this product. This will be connoted in my adverts through the way both actors stay calm throughout the adverts with the man always smiling to himself a little bit because he is in the right state of mind for what is about to happen and anything that could possibly go wrong.

3. What I have learnt about the codes and conventions of television, and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate meaning successfully.

In the TV advert industry there are many codes and conventions that the producers follow as these are sure fire methods and give good results for the company making the product as it entices people very well into buying their product. I plan to use these codes and conventions to accurately aim my product towards E4's target audience of 16-25 year olds from both genders although slightly skewed towards females as they represent the larger proportion of E4's viewers.

I have found, looking through lots of deodorant adverts that a common convention is that the deodorant bottle is very central to the filming and is at the forefront of what the actor is doing. This is to ensure that the audience remember what the product looks like and that the image of it is fresh in their head. The product designers however do have to make sure that what they are selling is eye-catching, so that it produces good results.

As a result I have planned for the bottle in my advert's to be very prominent, especially at key moments when the audience will remember what it looks like this is why it features at the start of my advert 1 and at the very end of both of my adverts, so that it is the first and last thing they see, as this is a convention of TV adverts. Another convention is to have a sound effect of the deodorant being sprayed, I will be sure to put spraying sound effects into both of my adverts, to follow these codes and conventions accurately.

Another convention of TV adverts is to have the actor use the product that they are promoting as this plays well with the audience, because the actor is representing them and how they would be using it. Therefore the audience will identify with the actor and see themselves as that person.

In the above screenshot from the Dove and Nivea adverts, the convention is to show the actors using the deodorant. As a result I have included three shots, one of the male actor and one of the actress, spraying the deodorant on. These adverts also have the convention of having written text on the screen and a pack shot of the bottle at the end. I will make sure to do this as they are both major conventions for deodorant adds.

In most deodorant adverts the focus of the commercial is on you, as seen in the screenshot below, with 'you' being referenced a lot. Their use of speaking in the second person is very effective as it denotes to the audience that this could be them, they get a real sense of involvement and can identify with the actor/character very easily. This advert also includes conventions such as voice over, which will feature at the end of my adverts as well as music that plays throughout this advert as it will in both of mine.

My adverts will contain the sense of 'you' in them. It will feature in my adverts through the way the characters are portrayed so that it is an accurate representation of E4's target audience in both my adverts, to have the maximum possible effect on the audience. I am following this convention as it represents who the deodorant is actually for, 'you,' and I believe that this is one of the most effective ways of getting your message across, especially as my slogan is, "Don't crash out, Ride the Wave." It is all about you, even though that isn't explicitly mentioned in the slogan it is connoted in the phrasing.

2. Existing adverts/campaigns I have researched and how these have influenced my ideas.

I have spent a lot of time researching the Gold Blend ad by Nescafe that was made in 1980. This series of adverts have a continuous story line running through out all of the adverts. This influenced my ideas and as such my two advert's will be one story that was split into two, however unlike the Nescafe adverts there will be a much shorter time gap that has passed between the advert's.

These two screenshots are from two different ads but as you can see the story line continues over as I plan to do in mine.

Another advert that has influenced me is the Lynx 'Black: Bring the Quiet'  advert which is very focused on the man, who is representing the target audience and portrays to the audience that if you use the deodorant, you can be relaxed and cool like him too.

The advert is all about you and that is a very clear theme throughout, as it is part of the deodorant's brand identity and the connotations it gives to its audience are very straight forward and that is why I've decided to portray my character's as 'cool guys' and have them be inspirational to the audience through the things they do, as it is a convention of deodorant brands to have the people using the product to be 'cool guys.'

The third advert I looked at was the Coco Mademoiselle Chanel advert that features Keira Knightley. I used this advert for inspiration because it was a very famous advert and it has two conventions in it that represent the perfume industry quite well.

The advert is very focused on sexual appeal, which attracts in a lot of viewers and convinces people to buy the perfume as maybe they can be like that, but the advert is also focused on the actual physical perfume bottle, as it is the first thing she sees in the morning and is very dominant throughout the advert.

I plan to include some shots of my actor's using the deodorant in my own adverts, while still following the ASA's rules and regulations. I also plan to include a very dominant deodorant bottle in mine which will feature in the title card at the end of both adverts. Another thing I like about the Chanel advert is the variation in shot types as I plan to copy some of the styling of the shots they have used, which gives me a good basis of media language to use and understand.

Below you can see the mood board I have created and the shots that I have included from these adverts, and you will hopefully be able to gain a better understanding of my ideas and why these adverts influenced me.

1. How I intend to fulfil the requirements of the brief I have chosen.

I intend to fulfil the requirements of the Television brief I have chosen by creating two 30 second television adverts for my new unisex deodorant, called Wave by UK deodorants. I will design and create these adverts so that they are suitable to be shown on E4, between 7pm-9pm on weekdays and they will target both the male and female 16-25 demographic who are my target audience.

My adverts will be defined by its active, youthful and unisex branding, which will be connoted through my editing of the footage I take and sound FX, to fit the brand identity and conventions, as well as a range of camera shots to also accentuate these conventions. Both my adverts will feature a strong consistent brand identity and have the same slogan appearing in both, Don't Crash Out, Ride The Wave, which will be said in the voice-over of my adverts, as well as appearing on screen as text in the final shot. These will appear as my title card and will therefore also feature a pack shot of the deodorant, in each advert.

My adverts will include such techniques as intertextuality as the adverts will change from black and white into colour as an homage to The Wizard of Oz, generic hybridity will also be connoted through the change from the action genre of the actor's running to the romantic genre of them going on a date together, humour and emotional appeal  from the way the characters are portrayed and played, to engage the target audience and make my adverts memorable, compelling them to buy my deodorant.

As my advert will be on TV I must adhere to the rules of the Advertising Standards Authority, ASA, and make sure my advert is suitable to be played on TV, especially as it will be airing pre-watershed. I will also be sure to use only original footage shot by me and copyright free music so as to not break any of the ASA's guidelines.

Across my two adverts, I will have a range of different settings, and at least 3 which are significantly different from the other settings I film in. In my adverts I plan to have two characters, one male and one female and that they will both be from different ethnic backgrounds, to increase my adverts appeal to the audience that will see them, especially my target audience of 16-25 year olds, both males and females, and interest them into buying my product.

I have already made a timeline for my two adverts, as seen below, and I am planning to stick to it and make very little changes as I move forward to keep it simple and easy to understand, as I believe it will already feature media language, from the range of camera shots I use, my advert also targets a specific audience group and will represent that group well through the actors in my advert's, I am also following the rules of the ASA and the industry with my ideas.

Homeland Continuity Task

1. What was your role in the task and what did you actually do?
     My role in the production of our Homeland continuity task was to be the camera operator, i worked very closely with Alize who was the director and together in pre-production we came up with the shot list, which had all the details of the camera work such as, where it would be located, who it would be focused on and what type of framing it would be. In the actual production of our task i was mainly operating the camera and setting up the shots and getting the framing right, referring back to the shot list we had previously made. I also helped set up and organise where things were going to go in the room for the investigation scene, and occasionally chimed in with some comments which i thought would make our shoot more successful.

2. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, filming and editing?
     When planning our shoot i had to pay particular attention to the 30 degree rule and the 180 degree rule, which in certain areas of our shoot created a large problem for instance, the hallway scene where Derek and Harvey turn from greeting each other to entering the room. Alize and i spent quite a large chunk of our time working out how to shoot this scene while still following those rules. During filming it was fairly easy to follow these rules as we had already planned out our shots, we also had the interrogation table close to the wall which made it really easy to follow the 180 degree rule as it would've been difficult to film the scene from the other side of the 180 degree line. When i was editing the footage the most difficult part was getting match-on-action as the sound audio overlapped at places and so i had to use sound bridges and and overlay sound from one shot over another to give the task a better continuity flow.

3. How successful was your sequence? Did you manage to demonstrate match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule? Did you achieve continuity overall?
     I believe that my sequence was very successful and i created a good edit of our footage for my Homeland continuity task. I believe i managed to demonstrate match-on-match action very well with all of the movement scenes, from Harvey's entrance through the white doors all the way til he leaves with Derek at the end of the interrogation. Another thing that i believe i managed to do well was the shot-reverse-shot between characters during the interrogation, which helped to build tension and also show the actor's facial expressions while still following the 180 degree rule and staying on the same side of that line. I firmly believe that i achieved a good standard of continuity over all, however a few of the cuts between shots look a bit jumpy but with the time i had i believed they were quite good and that my edit had a flow to it throughout its entirety.

4. What have you learnt from completing this task?
      From completing this task i have learnt the importance of good camera work withing a shoot, especially the framing of the shots. However the biggest thing i learnt, was the importance of planning because our shoot was very smooth and flowed very well and i believe this was because we split up into teams and each planned what we were going to do on the day of filming and what our specific jobs were, which made it a lot easier to get nice shots and not waste too much of our limited time, on our filming day.