Task 1: Write an analysis for 2 or 3 advertisements. Use the questions below to help you...
Wall’s Sausages – Dog Fight TV Ad
The line of appeal that is apparent to me in this advert is; Comedy & humour. I can’t see any other lines of appeal come through in the shirt advert because the advert is basically a comical fight between a man and a dog over some Wall’s sausages. The advert is basically trying to entertain the viewer into buying Wall’s sausages with a hilarious struggle between a dog and a man who are both clutching the sausages for dear life. The man uses various kitchen utensils to try and fend the dog off but the dog seems to posses ‘super-dog’ powers, obviously because the sausages are so good it can’t let them go. The music is fast-paced to blend with the pace of the fight sequence. The words I would use to describe the music are: Up-tempo, racy, comical, bouncy, generic e.t.c. I can imagine this advert would be aimed at ‘main streamers’ because it’s advertising sausages in a comical way, which would apply to most people sat at home on their sofas thinking about what to buy in the weekly big shop. In the advert we see the man as the ‘underdog’ because he has to keep using kitchen utensils to fight the dog whereas the dog just keeps holding onto the packet, the man being the underdog is also quite ironic being that his opponent is a small dog. The camera shots are fast-paced because the fight is high-tempo along with the music and the general mood of the ad. The man fulfils the underdog position even more at the end of the advert when we see him get pulled across the table then see the dog laid calmly on the table with the packet of sausages at his side as if he is the victor and the sausages are his.
Army – Life In The Army TV Ad
The lines of appeal that are apparent to me in this advert are; Dreams & Fantasy, Elite people or experts, Successful careers, Self-importance and pride. This advert does well in applying to several of these lines of appeal, even if none of them appeal to me personally I can see how they would appeal to people who think differently to me. The voice over is very simple, but at the same time effective because it just says things like “For the teamwork, for the training, for the challenge.” It carries on with this pattern of three highlighting certain things the army experience may entail. The target audience for this advert is blatantly obvious to me as an observer able to look from the outside in; males aged 16 – 25 who probably didn’t stay on at school, who’s favourite lesson was probably P.E. and who believe that joining the army to ‘serve their country’ is one of the best things they can do with their life. For that target audience this advert does a brilliant job of suckering those sort of people in, because it looks like various scenes from war films or like something out of Call Of Duty. There is a whole culture surrounding this sort of thing these days with computer games such as Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honour and the media charade concerning the army and the idea of serving queen and country, it’s almost like sub-conscious conscription, some of the youth of today must feel almost obligated being surrounded by all this, for use of a better word ‘propaganda’. The target audience is definitely mainstream as this is where the most people are so the army recruiters will have more of a chance at recruiting more people.
The sounds in the advert apart from the voice-over are of gun shots, helicopters, men shouting and other typical things that would appeal to the target audience I talked about. The characters in the advert are extremely stereotyped because they’re all supposed to be finely-tuned soldiers in the heat of battle, therefore they all could be viewed as; heroic, strong, brave, courageous e.t.c. Even though I would not associate such words with these people for other reasons.
Task 2: Making reference to a range of the narrative structures outlined above, write a detailed analysis of the different narrative structures employed and try to explain why they have been used to help sell the product.
A narrative is another word for story, the structure is how the narrative unfolds, there are lots of different ways of telling a story therefore the variety of narrative structures is vast. Linear or sequential narratives are one of the easiest narrative structures to understand, to explain, we are presented with a story with a beginning, middle and an end with the events in chronological order. Obviously the majority of productions are produced following this narrative structure because it applies to the most people therefore generating more money for the producers. Non-linear or non-sequential narratives refer to a narrative that is produced in any other sort of way. Flashbacks are a well-known way of enabling viewers to see events from the past in a non-sequential narrative way. Examples of non-linear narrative structures could be where we see the ending of a film at the start and they work towards the ending from there, or it could be where we see the same series of events but from different characters points of view. People make productions with this narrative structure because there are a lot of people who enjoy a non-linear narrative because they are often more interesting to watch than sequential narratives because they step out of the normal conventions making them appeal to a less passive audience.
Realist and anti-realist are also words used to describe narrative structures. A realist narrative structure uses real things that could happen in real life for example; Soaps are realist. Anti-realist is a word used to describe things in a production that could not happen in real life for example; monsters, sci-fi settings and crazy CGI special effects. Anti-realism taken as a way of making productions has had huge success because naturally people are going to want to watch things that could not happen in real life, because it's interesting. So there's a massive industry in the sci-fi/fantasy/anti-real genre of productions intertwined with video games and the internet in order to achieve a more dedicated, loyal audience which goes hand in hand with more money. Patterns of narrative are another format of which productions often adhere to, there are 4 of them; Goal - orientated plot, Search or investigation, Journey, Climax. If you sat and watched television for a day you would see all 4 of these patterns being used because it's what people want/expect from what they watch. The range of information is another important thing to consider when making a production. Non-restricted information allows the viewer to see and hear everything and often they know how the ending will turn out. With a production that uses restricted information the viewers are introduced to information and the storyline along with the characters, this approach is often enjoyed because people can relate to the characters more because they might feel like they're going through the same things as them.
Task 3: Compare the advert below with two other adverts of your choice and explain which of the above styles they employ. Explain why the styles are used and say how effective you think the adverts are. Drop the Youtube links into your blog for the ads you want to use.
The L'Oreal advert follows a very traditional advertising style. It features typical things featured in adverts such as; celebrity endorsement, pros about the product/service, different shots of celebrity looking near-perfect. I think the reasons behind this choice of style are quite obvious; It's a successful and widely used style, it's a 'safe' format to choose, the lack of narrative leaves more room for highlighting good things about the product and for Jennifer Anniston to turn around in slow-motion to show us her shiny, seemingly perfect hair. Honestly I don't think that this is the most effective style of advert because I think it's somewhat outdated and that there are more interesting ways of making an advertisement. I for one like to introduce more of a narrative structure into an advertisement, although this is not always that easy so a more typical advert format could be viewed as a simple path. The advert would be effective to the target audience because if features many things that appeal to 18 - 28 year old women.
The Bacardi advert has a narrative structure and is humorous. I prefer this style of advert to the last one because it makes people laugh and it has a short story as opposed to simply selling a product. This 'Tom Cat' ad campaign was one of Bacardi's most successful, gained them brand identity and popularized them. I think one of the most effective things about this advert is the contrast of environment; it goes from cute old woman's cat being talked to by it's owner about watering plants to charming Tom cat on the prowl dancing at a night club. The cat manages to maintain it's charm in both worlds; in the arms of the old lady it's cute and lovable but then at the nightclub the women are eyeing the cat and he seems to be very popular within the club. This advert certainly secures Bacardi a real place behind the bar and on the shop shelves because of it's effectiveness and individuality as an advert.
The third advert I have chosen is a Nike one made by Terry Gilliam purely to maintain/strengthen Nike's brand identity and to show they have links with world-class footballers hence NikeFootball.com. The advert starts off with a narrator explaining what is going on and essentially the best players from all over the world come together in a dark underground arena to play football with one another under the watchful eye of a man in a suit who seems to be in charge. I think this advert is effective because it introduces an interesting concept of football in a never before seen environment. People who like sport, football and sports wear will like the advert because it's fast-paced, the camera work amplifies the skill the players show-off and it features world-famous people. The man in charge in the suit introduces a slight comedy relief element to the advert through his reactions to the players and the way he orders them about. The advert is given an underground, dark, industrial feeling because the lighting is fairly low-key, everything seems to be made of metal and the whole colour scheme contributes aswell.
Bacardi Ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x47vAoY8Gs4
Nike Ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egNMC6YfpeE
Task 4: For two of the adverts above, explain how the adverts use the common codes and conventions of advertising.
The Halo ODST commercial follows basic codes and conventions right from the off. We open with a funeral scene of a man who seemingly served in the milirary possibly a veteran, we aren't told because the people are talking in a different language. Throughout the funeral scene the camera focuses on one teenage boy more than anyone else, the camera then zooms into his face at which point the story jumps ahead a number of years to him having his hair shaved off because he's serving in the military. We see the man progress through his training and then actually go to war. We see him have his brush with death at which point the story jumps ahead again. The young man is now experienced, respected and seems to be the leader of a regiment, maybe he has earned a higher ranking through his efforts in combat. It is clear that this war is still raging, consequentaly and he stuffs the ODST cloth which can be seen on the coffin in the funeral scene behind his armor, puts on his helmet at which the other men proceed to do the same and returns to the battle.
Now just from that storyline we can see that lots of feelings are being played upon in terms of the advert interacting with the viewer. Right from the start we experience situations of extreme emotion; a funeral and a war. These situations alone are intreaging to viewers because alot of people like to see other people's emotions run high. Then we get the personal identity of the teenager who grows up to serve his military and fight in a war, most teenage boys who are into this sort of game will relate to this scenario because it's seen as heroic, brave and valliant, needless to say the target audience will want to be all these things. The war shows men being pushed to extremes and brushing with death frequently suggesting that the game will be similar, not just the events but the feelings also. The music helps to create an awesome atmosphere that I feel could only be obtained through sci-fi. The track is sung by a female vocalist who's seemingly singing in the same language as the men speak, the music is eerie, moving, serious and fits with what's going on on-screen very well.
For my second advert I chose an original Mr. Muscle advert starring Gerald Home. The commercial is notoriously cheesy right from the off to maintain the humorous element that is achieved through the technique. One common code the advert follows is when it wraps up the advert with their tagline; "Mr. Muscle - loves the jobs you hate." Then zooms out on Gerald Home who then clumsily drops the Mr. Muscle products, ending on a comedic note to excecute a textbook piece of advertising. Another typical convention this commercial falls into is when it shows the product being used on different things around the kitchen, first the over tray then the kitchen tiles and finally the fridge. This helps to reassure the viewer that this product works and is effective because, as St. Thomas said "Seeing is believing." The music bed merely compliments to the humorous mood of the advert with it's upbeat, retro almost fairground style rhythm.
Task 6: Who are the ASA? Write a paragraph about the Advertising Standards Authority, describe...
- What the ASA does
- What types of advertising does the ASA cover?
- How does the ASA respond to complaints?
- Give some examples of the codes for TV advertising
Task 7: Audience classification. Please hyperlink answer for task 5 and from your single camera drama unit and explain how this information could be very powerful to advertisers.
Audiences in today’s media have a much wider variety of sources from which they receive their entertainment. Just to name a few; The Internet, iPhone, Netbook e.t.c. This new technology is generally centralized around the internet since you can do just about anything on it, you can watch TV, listen to the radio, play games, and re-watch your favorite programs. Once upon a time your family all bought the same newspaper, listened to the same radio station and all watched the same Television in the same room. But like everything home entertainment evolved, so nowadays your average home could have a TV, radio and a computer in almost every room. This enables each household member to develop their own tastes in what they want to view and listen to instead of all watching the same thing on the same television.
Even television in itself has expanded vastly. With a package like Sky+ you can browse hundreds of TV channels, pause and rewind live television and even have your own planner where you can set programs up to record even when your Sky+ box is switched off. You can even select something called ‘Series Link’ which enables your planner to record an entire series with you only having to set one episode in the series to record. I think that people who own television networks fear people on the internet who record episodes from TV and then upload them to the web for everyone to watch whenever they want. The people who own the TV networks then get the copyright laws involved which can sometimes spark off massive court cases.
I think that as time has gone on and the media has expanded little by little the average viewer or listener has diversified in general. 50years ago you might have been able to line up 10 people against a wall and they would all like the same music and watch the same TV programs. These days you could do the same thing with another 10people and their tastes could all be entirely different. I think this evolution is a combination of people generally being increasingly adventurous with what they watch and listen to and the media industry expanding to meet their new markets.
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This information would be highly beneficial for advertisers because it outlines the changes audiences and the part new technology has had to play in it. It also explains how the average person's tastes have diversified due to these advancements.
Task 8: Create a brief for your client covering the main aims of the advertisement.
Task 9: Create a questionnaire consisting of 6 - 10 questions. Remember the results that you are looking for should help you when you come to plan your TV advert.
Task 9 Continued: Type up your questionnaire and put the answers into a table in word.
Task 9 Continued: Enter the results from 2 or 3 questions into excel and create some graphs that will help highlight your most pertinent results.
Task 9 Continued: Take pictures of your table and charts and upload them onto your blog.
Task 10: You must interview 3 or more friends and then, document your findings.
Interview Questions
1. What sort of music do you like to hear in advertisements?
2. If you had to pick one thing about geography you like, what would it be?
3. What, in terms of visuals, do you like to see in advertisements?
4. What, in terms of geography, do you like about your local area?
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I thought that the best way for me to document my findings would be to upload the interviews from the voice-recorder onto the computer and compile them into one mp3 file and upload it onto my blog so people can listen to it, this is an example of primary qualitative research.
Task 11: Set up a focus group and document your results. Use your class as the focus group, explain the demographic of the group and pick out some of the more relevant comments and explain how they will help inform your planning. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of running a focus group and how this can effect your results.
In the focus group I commented upon the transitions in the John Lewis advert; I said liked the transitions because the woman of the advert aged with each one, Sir calls it a 'sophisticated use of transitions' and that the transitions signify a change of time and era. This will help us in our planning because we now know that the right choice of transitions can create effect and draw viewers in. I think Mr. Jackson makes an excellent point about using a 'play on words' to create a memorable effect, because the Compare the Meerkat advert does this beautifully and has millions of fans. This then helps us because we can see how successful an advertisement can be using the right pun in the right memorable context.
An advantage of doing a focus group like this is that we now have an example of primary qualitative research under our belts through the input of a group of people. Another advantage that is arguable can be that you get varied information from a group of relitively different characters. The reason this could be arguable is that the group of people you use might not be that varied in terms of interests, persona and their activities. A disadvantage of a focus group is that you could recieve inaccurate information because of the force of peer pressure, to explain, there are leaders and followers, some people might not have an opinion on something but choose something just because someone else has. Or it could be that a person actually likes something but it isn't particularly 'cool' or 'trendy' to like so they don't say anything. Another bad thing about focus groups is that disputes may ensue between people with opposing opinions, this could then prove to be anti-productive for the entire focus group.
Task 12: Consider the advertising codes for TV and pick out one code that you think you must be conscious of when producing your advertisement. Explain why and explain how you will make sure that you do not contravene the code.
For our advertisement production I am going to take into account the ASA codes outlined above, and pick out several that could apply to our production and explain how breeching the codes can be avoided.
Section 4 - Political And Controversial Issues
Due to the nature of the advert and the political mind set of myself and the team, it is essential that we do not give a bias or oppositional reading of the school or the surrounding environment. We will need to present the school as a shining example of modern education, rather than a slightly negative subjective point of view. Furthermore, the surrounding area is an example of an independent market town build on the backs of small business, which is unfortunately beginning to struggle to due competition with bigger companies and the recent recession. Its is important that we do not blame anyone and distract from the main point, especially considering the recent developments in parliament that might see the team arrested if we were to express our opinion.
Section 5 - Misleading Advertising
When producing an advert for a respectable client (In this case the school) it is important to maintain a sense of trust and ensure that the client’s reputation is not damaged. Misleading the audience would be an example of betraying that trust and if caught, wrecking the reputation of the client. Specifically, our client is the Geography department of our school, if we were to film the media studio and present it as a part of the geography dept for example, this would be false advertising.
Task 13: What type of programme would your advert be placed inbetween?
I can picture our advert being at home on something like the discovery channel due to it's emphasis on the outside world and geography in general. I can also imagine it being played during an educational programme due to the fact it's centered around school. I think it could be played through the likes of; Deadliest Catch, Planet Earth e.t.c. I think the advert would also be at home on Channel 4 at times when '4 Learning' is on and E4 seen as E4 brings a large teenage/young adult audience. On E4 it would be amongst Smallville, Hollyoaks, Skins e.t.c. The genre of the advert would be closely related or have things in common with the programmes I have mentioned. In terms of genre I'd say the advert interlinks with; educational, geographic and serious future-contemplative aspects. I think the psychographics of the target audience will tend to be typical of teenagers, to explain, they'll probably be thinking about what they want to do in terms of careers and maybe some of the younger ones will be thinking about what subjects they want to take GCSE's in and henceforth the one's choosing A-Levels.
Task 14: Produce a record of your initial ideas that covers...
- Factors of persuasion and lines of appeal
- Narrative
- Music
- Characters
- Style
Task 15: Complete a treatment for your TV advert that covers the following in detail...
- Factors of persuasion
- Lines of appeal
- Style
- Narrative
- Narrative goals
- Characters
- Camera shots
- Editing
The primary line of appeal would be; Nature & Natural World because the subject is Geography which centralises upon nature and the natural world. The advert talks about how Geography is an integral part of the earth and plays a key role in our basic survival. The adverts style is heavily promotional of the Geography subject as a whole and the things it can offer in terms of; knowledge & understanding, career oppertunities and pursuit of interests. In a way the advert also has an educational element to it, in the sense that it talks about Geography and what it involves and what it can offer the target audience in the future. The narrative in the advert is essentially the journey from the back of our school gates to the top of Post Hill (a half an hour walk). We intend to speed up this constant shot to around a minute to make the journey seem faster to the eye. The journey will obviously be interrupted by shots of other things and interviews. The goal of the narrative is to show the adventure side that Geography can offer because at the end of the advert there is a beautiful view over Post Hill and Pudsey from some rocks that stick out at the end of our walk. We also thought we should do some filming of the local area and seen as Post Hill is a local favourite of ours we decided to make the journey to the top of it ours.
The characters featured in our advert are;
Eddie: The person who does the voice-overs, he can be heard saying things such as;
"The environment is a living, breathing organ in the celestial body that is our earth, and is instrumental to all life on the planet."
He is from Leeds so his accent does come through in his speech but he pronounces all his words correctly and uses Standard English. Eddie's voice has a somewhat soothing and reassuring tone along with a rhythm that I think is good for this kind of production. He finishes with the line (including our slogan);
"Personal Decision - A Life Changing Impact. Geography; Travel, Learn Discover, Live."
Year 8 Girl: This girl says; "I get to learn about the entire world." this is a simple yet effective statement because it incapsualates our planet as a whole. Hearing something like that come from a student of that age might interest other children of the same age or possibly interest parents in wanting their child to attend Pudsey Grangefield school.
Matthew Popple: Matthew is a 6th former at Pudsey Grangefield and A-Level Geography Student he says; "I really care about the environment, this subject gives me the knowledge, skills and understanding I need to pursue my dreams." Matthew looks cheery and generally happy, this compliments his tone of voice and makes him appeal to people of the same age and parents of the students.
Mr. Holloway: Mr. Holloway is a senior Geography Teacher at Pudsey Grangefield School and he talks about the different avenues of the subject and what careers and industries they can lead to. He mentions such things as; Oceanography, Tourism Business e.t.c. He emphasises the amount of flexability geography enables and the number of industries and avenues it can lead to. We thought Mr. Holloway simply looks like a man who knows what he's talking about which is what we needed for an advert like this.
The most seen camera shot in our advert is probably the journey one, the camera-work is shaky due to some rough terrain and the motion of walking with a hand-held camera. The Interviews are done mostly in close-ups apart from Mr. Holloways who is shot from the waist up. There's two shots that were done in the library, one is a shot moving right to left on some books about Geography and the other is a shot of a spinning globe on an axis. The editing was done on a mixture of iMovie HD and Final Cut Express. iMovie was used for importing the footage from the cameras, the transitions and for cutting up and placing the footage whereas Final Cut Express was used to; Add subtitles where needed, add super-imposed images and allow us to fade both the end shot and image to white. We already have experience with iMovie HD but this was the first time we'd used Final Cut Express in any of our productions and I think it served its purpose because it allowed further editing to be done outside the fields of iMovie along with subtitles and super-imposed images.
Task 16: Write a report with screen-shots, detailing the equipment and software you will be using and how you intend to use it.
Equipment, Software, Talent & Locations
To start our production we shall need a camcorder (Canon MD205) with a fully powered battery. The reason we need a full powered battery is because it will take 20 - 30 minutes to walk to our destination point and a constant shot means constant use of the battery. It is nescessary we have a practical camcorder that can be carried with ease because our journey includes a very tiring walk up a very steep hill, the wriststrap of the Canon camcorder will indeed be useful. Obviously a tripod would solve these problems but due to our choice in journey the terrain does not allow us to use one. There will be rocks sticking out of the ground and narrow paths the tripod will be too wide for. The Canon MD205 is purpose-made for this type of shot because it has a long-lasting battery, it's durable, lightweight and has an adjustable hand strap. These qualities make it ideal for our creative choice.
Product Description: Canon MD205 - Camcorder - Mini DV - Lithium-Ion Battery (BP-2L5)
Item Weight: 382 g
Dimensions (WxDxH): 6.8 cm x 12.7 cm x 8.2 cm
Digital Zoom: 2000 x
Display: LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.7" - colour
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Digital-Camcorder-Optical-Widescreen/dp/B00127IMDW
Software
We used two programs in the process of making our advert. We used iMovie HD to import the footage, chop it up and place it where it needed to be. iMovie does well when it comes to simplicity, hooking up with hardware and chopping up footage to place it wherever but fails for more in-depth editing. This is where Final Cut Express comes in, this was out first time using this program, at first it was hard but with time our knowledge grew and it added to the success of our advert. Through Final Cut we were able to super-impose images on the start and end of the advert in order to establish the school and the subject, aswell as promote it through things like the slogan. This more technical program allowed us to feature subtitles stating Mr. Holloway's job role and name. Essentially Final Cut is a harder program to get your head around than iMovie but has a much wider choice of effects and transitions.
People
Me and Danny were the creators of the advert, aswell as producers, editors, camera men and writers. We didn't get the name of the girl we think is from year 8 however her input is greatly appriciated and is well needed to offer some balance in age throughout the advert. Matthew is the 6th former we interviewed about why he likes Geography, he talks about the environment and pursuing his dreams, other people of the same age might relate to Matthew's enthusiasm in terms of the environment and his education in general. Our reason for featuring other people in our advert is to that we can gain knowledge and listen to opinion because hearing it from people who are involved in the subject is better than hearing it from just anyone. The people we interview are informed educated individuals which is usually made clear by the content of the interview.
Props, Costumes & Locations
The locations in our advert are key to its success because they incapsualate; adventure, excursion, nature & the natural world e.t.c. People can relate to scenery from the local area, because of this they may appriciate the advertisement more. There are no costumes involved in our advert, however the Pudsey Grangefield uniform the girl is wearing is useful because it helps anchor meaning. There were no props except when we filmed the books in the library aswell as the spinning globe. These objects were used as basic filler and they also relate to Geography, it additionally shows people briefly what facilities the school has to offer.
Task 17: Create a storyboard for your production. Or create a shooting script for your drama and make sure everyone in your production team has a copy.
Task 18: You must create a production schedule, this will help you set some targets and will also keep everybody who is in the production, informed of what is happening when.
Task 20: Complete version of your TV advert.
Task 21: Evaluation.
I believe our purpose was achieved, which was to create an informative aswell as persuasive advertisement promoting one of the subject departments round our school. I think we do well in appealing to our target audience aswell as reaching out to parents out there to tell them "This is the school you should send your kids to." Our primary target audience was obviously kids who are looking to take Geography as a subject weather it be at GCSE or A-Level. Another part of the target audience was the younger kids in year 7 and 8 because it may influence their GCSE decisions and the amount of effort and interest they currently have in Geography. The advert also caters for ther parents of these young students because it shows what a great school Pudsey Grangefield is aswell as showing it's students are enthusiastic and care about what they're doing. In our advert we gave purely positive messages in relation to Geography, the outside world, Pudsey Grangefield and it's students. We noted to include both girls and boys in our advert, which we did, however there is only one girl.
I think the music we picked was an excellent addition to the advert because it was easy-listening, worldly, happy e.t.c. It compliments the atmosphere the advert brings with it very well. Also there isn't that many instruments being used in the track so it doesn't overcrowd the audio waves, additionally the music isn't loud so people can easily talk over it. The locations are intentionally appropriate to the video, in fact they make up an integral part of the persuasive element. To ellaborate, the locations bring about a sense of adventure and love for the outside world, in turn this suggests that Geography is adventerous and could also grow to be something you love. We briefly filmed a class been taken by Mr. Holloway, this adds to the realism of the advert aswell as showing Pudsey Grangefield has a suitable learning environment. I think the majority of the language is appropriate for the target audience, there are a few instances where some of the things being said may fly over a younger, less educated person's head but they can be appriciated by other sectors of the target audience who understand them. Our video looks very realistic for the genre, infact I don't really see how our advert could be anymore grounded.
The levels for the voice and music were easy to level out, we just had to lower the overall volume of the music in iMovie and raise the voices where needed. The camera work on every shot apart from the journey video we were satisfied with, we simply didn't like the amount of shakiness that was going on in the journey video. Though we knew this would be the outcome it was still disappointing to see a speeded-up wobbly recording, I think this is pretty much the only small gripe we had with the end result. I think there is enough variety to keep the viewer interested, we begin with the journey moving forward, the viewer should want to stay tuned for more of the journey because people like to see things progress and get to a climax. There is also interviews, shots of classes, shots of objects related to Geography and a good use of transitions, I would like to find somebody who would say our advert lacks in variety. The transitions are used well to create effect and we even related the transitions to the objects, for example; there is a circular transition before and after the shot of the spinning globe. I think our choice of fonts was suitable, I especially enjoy the Geography super-imposed image at the end because it uses playful, arty fonts that blend well with the video. I think that based upon what is seen as typical in this genre we made a reasonably typical advert because we feature interviews from teachers and students, a narrative voice-over, shot of a class in action, unprovoking music bed e.t.c. In a similar professional pdoduct I imagine there would be still a music track of the same mood, shot of a classroom in action and possibly shots of facilities in and around the school, I don't know if they'd have the creative and organic edge we had though with our journey video. As professionals they would have many advantages over us, for example; well-paid skilled actors, professional quality cameras, software, hardware and editing tools, their money e.t.c.
In terms of learning new skills I suppose a small amount was learnt about Final Cut Express because we used it to do things like add subtitles and super-imposed images to the advert. This was also our first ever time using the Flip cams, I found it simple and easy to use. However I didn't like the size of the screen, I thought it made it difficult to work out if the camera was shaky and weather I was getting the right things in shot. If we were to do this again I think we'd find a way of steadying the camera so that our journey video looks better on the final outcome. Also in the shots of Matthew and Mr. Holloway we have the camera facing towards the light coming in from the windows which makes the people look darker and less defined than if we'd have stood the opposite way.
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