Advert Evaluation

Pre- Production

The brief for this project was to create two adverts, lasting 10 seconds and 4 seconds, that could be used in an online platform such as YouTube. The adverts had to be for a product that would help people in a dystopian future. Before we could come up with the idea for our advert, we first had to come up with an idea for a product to base the advert on. To do this we decided to make a mind map of potential dystopian issues and the solutions that could be used to combat them. From the mind map we decided that we wanted to create an advert for a plastic depollutant.

Once we had decided on the product we created a survey on the theme for market research purposes. From this survey we established that our target audience would be young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 with a small majority being women. We also found out that, whilst our idea is for a fictional, future world, the advert would be relevant in today's society.

We then needed to come up with the idea for advert. We watched a number of adverts and decided that the best format would be to ask the audience a rhetorical question in a way that many charities do. We felt that this method best suited the genre and product of the advert. We then felt it necessary to show the product in use as well as the issue that it could potentially solve.

My role in the pre production stage of the project was to come up with a way of making our fictional product seem as if it were real. This was a real challenge because our product supposedly worked by dissolving plastic but nothing exists that can do this. I initially thought that I could put a piece of bath bomb in a plastic bottle or in a balloon and show the water fizzing up. We did some test shots for this idea and quickly realised that this would not work. After this, I remembered a technique I used in a previous video called a Luma fade. I felt that it would be better if we used something smaller than the bath bomb, such as a Berocca tablet, that would fizz up more. I then decided that we could use the luma fade technique if we simply stopped recording and removed pieces of plastic between each shot, so that it seemed as if the plastic was dissolving. After we screened the advert we asked the audience their thoughts and the majority said that they felt the idea was clever and imaginative.

After we had finalised the idea and done test shots we had to complete all of the pre production paperwork. The location recce was extremely important for this project because we needed to find somewhere that had a plain background as well as needing to have stable lighting. The audience liked the simplicity of our advert and much of that was to do with the location.

In the next project I would like to work on storyboarding for test shoots and other ideas rather than just the main idea so that we can speed up the production process. Although this didn't actually effect the end product it would have made the entire project a lot easier.

Health & Safety

The health and safety of everyone involved in a project is always a priority and therefore risk assessments become extremely important. The risk assessment for this project was particularly vital as there were a number of high risks. The biggest risk was that we had water near electrical equipment. To combat this we kept the water as far away from the equipment and outlets as possible whilst also using plastic bags to protect camera equipment. There was also a trip hazard from the cables for the lighting. To reduce this risk we made sure that the crew all new about the hazard and we made any members of public in the vicinity aware.

Production

For this project I was both co director and in charge of lighting during production. Filming for this project was quite mixed as the initial shoot did not go as planned but reshoots went smoothly. During the initial phase of filming we ran into a number of problems that meant the footage was not what we wanted. We had issues with the props that we used and the set up of the scene. We also had a few issues with lighting which I took responsibility for as I hadn't quite got the hang of the lights we used. However, when we did the reshoot we tweaked the idea and set up slightly which meant that this phase of production went smoothly.

After we showed the advert an overwhelming majority of the audience said that they liked it with several people liking the camera angles and simplicity of the shoot. There were, however, a couple of people that felt we needed more shots of the product itself as well a few people who wanted a more interesting background.

For the next project I would like to spend a little more time working on set design so that we don't run into issues in post production and have to do reshoots. I would also like to spend a bit more time setting up the lighting beforehand so that there are no issues during the actual production.

Post Production

As well as being co director, I was also in charge of editing the advert which meant that I was involved for the whole post production process. Editing was the most challenging and time consuming aspect of this production as it required a lot of technical skills. For example I used luma fades which requires layering several clips on top of each other and then using a luma key, cross dissolve transitions and changing the opacity throughout the clip. It was worth the work, however, as 81% of the audience liked the way that I edited it. Several people also liked the choice of music that we used and felt that it suited the tone of the video, which is pleasing as we deliberated long and hard over this. The audience also liked the use of stock footage to make the product relevant. A number of people, however, didn't like the text we used and felt that the logo we created was not up to standard. The text was a big issue for us as we originally wanted to do it slightly differently but the footage did not lend itself to what we wanted. The logo that I created was also poor and I think that, because it was an after thought, I probably didn't spend as much time on it as I should have.

I think that in the next project I would like to allow for more time to work on the small details such as text and logos as they can make the video seem so much more professional. I would also like to improve my colour grading skills as I was only able to do a very rudimentary grade.

Media Processes & Skills

Before this project I had some experience in areas of the process so this project was simply about furthering my skills in each area. I think that the biggest improvement I underwent was in the setting up of the lighting equipment and creating the right lighting for the tone of the project. I also enjoyed developing my editing skills and using more complex techniques that aren't commonly used in other projects. This project also taught me to be more patient during production and to not panic when something goes wrong.