Final Advert: Basketball

Final Advert: Football

Ancillary Task: Sponsorship Sequence

Ancillary - Sponsorship from Charles Doyle on Vimeo.

Ancillary Task: Radio Advert

Radio ad from Charles Doyle on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 1

QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of a TV advert... ü  Using a celebrity to sell the product à ü  Using a common song to help catch people’s attention ü  Can’t be too long – need to be short and grab viewers attention ü  Good effects to remember the ad – leading to remembering the product ü  Voice over – delivering useful information and facts to sell the product

WHAT WAYS I HAVE USED CONVENTIONS..

Length of the advert

Charlie and I decided to not make the TV commercial long. The reason for this is because its a convention of an advert, and we wanted it to be easy to remember. The length of the advert below is 0.32 seconds, this is a good length to use and is follows the codes and conventions of making a good TV advert. The reason for this is because it means the viewers will not get distracted from the length of the advert and they will be able to remember the important, beneficial parts of the commercial.

Voice over

The voice over and narration in this advert is very important, it allows to have other shots and scenes come up and for them to give informative information over the top - if they didn't have it cut back to them in action, it would be boring for people to watch.

The ways in which we used a voice over was at the end of our advert. We decided to use it then because it allowed us to express the name and slogan of the product. Without it, the Pulse drink wouldn't have been easy to remember, as there is no dialogue in our TV advert, meaning the product wouldn't have been mentioned at all. We were looking at other adverts and what voiceovers they were using, and we thought the ending of the advert would be the best time to have the informative dialogue.




Setting
Deciding the setting of our TV advert was a big part of our planning. The reason for this is because the setting can 'make or break' the advert, and sets the mood throughout. We decided to go for the 3G all-weather pitches and the studio for the football advert.

3G Football Pitch:-
We decided to use this as a location for our TV advert because the football pitch represents the football in our advert, it is both appropriate and effective to the viewers, as it looks more realistic and professional. We had access to the goals and other sport equipment to help us make it look to a high standard. The pitch is all weather, so this didnt affect the access levels or the availability, as we could use it no matter the weather, so this is a contributing factor to why we used the pitches. In other adverts, you see them use either an all weather pitch or a studio.

The studio:-
The studio was the most similar setting we could find to what people often see in other sports drink commercials. The studio allowed us to use filters, which you see in a lot of adverts. The filter meant we could add colours on the character, this helped us follow the codes and conventions of TV adverts because we wanted to show off the character - this relates back to the Lucozade adverts as they make the famous characters well noticed.

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?

With our main product and ancillary tasks, we tried our best to keep the conventions and the rules the same. As we have a football advert for our main task and for the ancillary - we made a sponsorship sequence including the sports drink and that was football related too.

In order to continue some of the conventions and the rules, we made sure we used the same type of shots and the length of the shots. An example of this would be when it cuts to me (the main character), dribbling with the ball and shooting, as we used medium shots when i take the touch to set myself and shoot. 
Linking all three also meant our audiences could make the connection between the three, and we had the slogan - "Pulse, for the game" in each tasks and this meant it is more likely to be remembered by the people either watching it, or listening to it on the radio.

The costumes are also similar and doing the main task was effective because it made Charlie and I realise how good and realistic it looked using plain colours throughout the both tasks. We also have the same characters involved in each tasks. The reason for this is because we wanted it to look familiar and also the characters fit the sport and the role well.

The radio advert was effective because it allowed us to express the key information well and meant we could really sell the product. An example of this would be when we inform the people listening about the prices and where they could find one of the energy drinks. It links well with the other tasks because the radio advert allowed us to present it in a different way and we used different information. Whereas when we did the main text and sponsorship sequence, we did it visually and used the drink to show that it improves performances of people who drink it. 
The sponsorship sequence was effective and linked well with the other tasks because it had similar content to the TV advert we made. The reason being that it was both football related and both have similar codes and conventions. They both also involve the main character scoring a goal and the performance of him improving because of the Pule energy drink. 
                                                                                                    
The image (left) is a screen grab from Corel Studio Pro, and it is from my ancillary task which involved the character (me) on the football pitch and it is a sponsorship sequence. It is advertising the Pulse energy drink and this is an image of me taking a penalty - and I score. This is showing the drink to be positive and effective in peoples performance.









 

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience research?

From my audience feedback, I learned a lot of key things that I changed to make my final product better. People with a strong Media Studies background gave us both positive feedback, and ways in which we could improve our final product. The positive feedback was important for me because it motivated me, it also shows that the test footage etc has been worthwhile. The area to improve feedback was the most useful though, as it gave me and Charlie the information we needed to make our TV commercial better.

The first strength they spotted about my TV commercial was that we had good and interesting lighting affects. They liked the green affects shown on the characters face in both football and basketball adverts. We decided to use this in the first place because the colours from the filter both represent the colours of the product that is being advertised, which is the Pulse energy drink. With the filter, all we had to do was to use the studio room and put a green or any colour over the filter and it came out like a normal light. We also thought it made the advert look more proffesional - as I have seen other commercials using the same idea as us.

The second strength they found was that we clearly advertised the product and narrative was good. We believed from the start that we need to make sure the viewers have a good view of the drink and clearly see what it looks like. The image below is one of a few shots which show us advertising the product well and letting the people watching see what it looks like.                                                                      

A third strength they found was that the slogan was catchy and easy to remember. When Charlie and I came to decide what we wanted as the slogan, we knew it had to be short and snappy. The reason for this being that other competitors in the market have the same and they have proven to be very successful. From the image below, you can see Lucozade now have the slogan 'release the energy', which is both short, and very easy to remember, so this is why we decided to make ours 'Pulse, for the game'.

The fourth strength they found was that they liked the variety of shots that we used during both TV commercials we made. I knew from the start that I have to ensure that we use a wide range of shots, as it makes it easier to watch and more interesting. If we used just one or two different shots, it would look basic and the viewers wouldnt enjoy watching it. Also, during the football advert, you see the main character shoot and score late on, this had to be a long shot, as we needed to see the character, the ball and the goal.

The TV advert below is a Lucozade advert, which is advertising there new sports drink. The use a lot of shots, including; close ups, medium close up, long shot, tilt, and more. These all work together to make the advert look professional. From watching this advert, we thought the tilts are very affective, so we used them in our own TV advert, in both football and basketball commercials.



With the feedback, we also got given some constructive crititism and areas in which we could improve our advert.
The first area to improve on was to add music. At the time, we didn't include music, but we knew we were always going to at some point. The reason for this was because we looked at a lot of other similar adverts, and the majority of them had music in the background. I believe the music creates a certain mood within the advert. It helps give off the right message to viewers. Energy drink commercials usually have a heart beat over the top or they will have upbeat music, as it all relates to peoples fitness and energy.
A second area to improve on was to make the shot of the character drinking the drink a little longer. We took this on board and decided to make it longer. The reason for this was because it will it more clear to why his performance changed dramatically afterwards.

From getting the audience feedback, it helped me a lot as it meant I was getting feedback from people with a good level of Media background, and the comments they gave back benefited me in two ways; it allowed me to learn how I can make my product better, and it also lead to me making changes that made my TV commercial better. We edited the shot lengths and looked into what music we needed to make the advert look better. If it wasn't for the constructive feedback, we wouldn't have noticed the areas we need to improve in.



Evaluation Question 4

QUESTION 4

How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning an evaluation stages?

Blogger

Blogger has helped me with the construction of my media product this year for many reasons. One being that it allows me to browse and look through my class mates work, to see how I can improve my blog and the entries on there. 

It also allows me to enter any text, images and videos I want to add, to make my blog look to a better standard and up my grade. Also, you can easily save, and edit any work, so if I think I need to improve any work, it is easy to access and change, this has meant I have had the chance to make my work a higher grade. 

Also with Blogger, it has allowed myself to put all my work into one folder and one piece of work, meaning it is therefor easier for people to read, as it's all together and won't get miss-placed. 

The layout of Blogger is easy to use and is easy to work around, it has side labels and tabs, meaning you can open up previous work and it wont delete any work that isn't saved. It's especially helpful now, as with the final evaluation, some people, including myself will want it separately to our other entries, so it will be easy to view and will not be with the previous work. 

The image below shows that you can edit and personalise your blog, it allows you to add a theme and a background image to your blog, so with my blog, I have decided to have a Media related picture, as it gives the readers and early indication to what my blog is about. 

 

Although it did help me a lot, Blogger did have some negatives, one being that sometimes it was difficult to add images in the areas you wanted too, an example of this being that I could not drag the images to the place on my blog that I wanted too, it sometimes got frustrating as the appearance of my blog could be to a better standard.

Coral Video Studio Pro X3- 

This has helped a lot with my final piece of work for this years work, as it has allowed me and my working partner, Charlie Doyle, to edit any footage we have made and it has meant we can easily save our work to it, as we will definitely want to come back to it at some point and make amendments. This software enabled us to edit and put together out entire TV Advert and our other tasks, as it let's us edit the tempo, the colours, the effects, the sound, everything. The pace was a very important tool as it allowed us to edit the length of shots used, especially as we made a TV advert, as one of the conventions is that they have short, quick shots - and lots of them, almost like a 'mini film'. 

Coral Video is also very quick and effective, we had no trouble with it and once you get used to the software, you can make an average film, a very good film, as it allows you to crop out any shots you don't want and you can insert another, or you can just simply add affects which it lets you use. 

Effects - The effects on this software we very beneficial and helped me a lot to make the advert we did, as you can insert text onto the screen, so this was very useful for the end of the advert, when the shot has the main character, (me) and the football and the energy drink. The text allowed Charlie and I to put the name of the drink on the screen, so it became easier for the viewers to see what was being advertised. 

 

 

On the other hand, Coral Video Pro was sometimes difficult and confusing. An example of this is because when I first used this software, it wasn't set out for a 'beginner', like myself, as nothing is easily explained or labelled. I had to get a lot of help from Charlie, but once I got used to the programme, it was a lot more simple and I enjoyed using it. 

Video and Still Camera  

For my research and project, the video camera and still camera was key, and a huge part towards me making my blog and TV advert.

The still camera enabled me to take pictures of the setting, the characters, the facilities, and other parts used in the advert. I needed to do this because we need to give evidence and show what we have been using to create out project. So the still camera allowed me to do this. It has also let me do the animated story board, as I have taken still images of the storyboard and put them together. This has meant it's a higher graded piece of work, instead of just copying a picture of the storyboard on a piece of paper. 

The video camera was just as important, as it was used for the entire of our project. As Charlie and I were using it for our advert. Also, it allowed me to interview certain people to use that as evidence and I could them use that footage on my blog, to help answer some of the questions that was listen to do.  

Finally, it allowed us to collect together 'Test Footage', which I have put on my blog as an entry, this will help back me up as it will show we have looked as different ideas and tried new things, as the test footage enabled us to take more risks, as we knew we wouldn't be using it at all for our final piece. It was very helpful when it came to using the colour filters for the shots of me, as we wanted to see what colours would look suitable, and what colours wouldn't look right. 


Infogr.am

For my research, I used a website called infogr.am. I used this because it allowed me to display and show my results in a better way. It looks more appealing to people looking through my blog, and the charts are also a lot easier to see results. Also, there was more than one type of charts available, there were many I could choose from, this enabled me to show my research in more than one way.

The site is also easy to use, as its all set out well and structured so anybody can get used to it.

Shooting Schedule

Above is the shooting schedule for our TV adverts. This helped us with our tasks because it meant we knew what we had already completed - and it gave us an idea on what we need to do next. This lead to us being more organised and meant we had more time to edit, becasue it was time consuming as it meant we already knew what we needed to do next.

Audience Feedback

Lewis - Completed Feedback from Matt Davidson on Vimeo.

With the audience feedback, I got Lewis to analyse my TV advert and I asked him to give both positive and negative feedback. Lewis said that the good parts of our project was that we used very good shots and length of shots. Charlie and I knew that we had to stick to the conventions of a TV advert by making sure we had short, quick shots.
With the improvements, Lewis suggested that we should have used music that suited the flow of what was going on in the advert and the action - as the music didn't match with what the character was doing. The reason for this could have been that we were editing the footage for a long period of time and didn't have much time left to pick a good enough track for the advert.

Actor / Model Profiles

Why we chose this character:

- Main interest is football

- Good at the sport

- The right age and is the same as our target audience

This is the character we chose to be in the TV advert advertising the Pulse energy drink, (me). The reason being is that Matt has a huge interest in football and is his main hobbie.

Also, after looking at other sport energy drink commercials, we thought that this character has the same attributes to do the advert. This include his appearance and his age. Also, the character will help attract the younger target audience, as it will be similar with the age.

We decided to pick a character who is good and comfortable with the sport because we believe it will make the commercial look more professional and believable. The scene in the football advert when the character scores a goal wouldn't have looked so good and wouldn't have helped sell the product as much if the quality of the player wasn't to a high standard. We knew we had to try and make the footballer as good as possible after he had the Pulse energy drink because it makes it seem that people's performance increases when they drink it.

Why it's important to have the right character...

It is important to have the right character because it can have an affect on how people look at the advert itself. In this Pepsi commercial below, you can see David Beckham is advertising the drink, and the majority of footballers will see him as a role model and is giving off a positive impression for the product being advertised.

How this has helped me...

Doing an actor profile has helped me with the project because it has allowed me to look into what the characters into our TV advert should be wearing. It meant I had to research and look at other adverts on the internet and on the TV to see what people are wearing.  

Costumes Board

The costumes in a TV advert are very important, and we had to make sure the shirt, shorts and boots all went together well. In commercials, if costumes aren't correct and relevant, it will make it all look out of match and will also give the product that they are trying to advertise a bad name and the reputation will not be as good as it could be. 

 

Above, is a Lucozade image from one of their adverts, and as you can see, professional football Ashley Young is wearing all appropriate clothing, and dull clothes, so it doesn't take peoples attention away from the bottle being advertised in the corner of the screen.

My costume for the adverts...

A white t-shirt was used in the TV advert as it is plain, and has no other advertising logos on it - meaning it doesn't draw viewer's attention away from the character or the product that is being advertised. The plain t-shirt also goes together well with any other sport clothing, i.e, any colored shorts. 

 


With the footwear, we had to make sure the characters were wearing appropriate and correct attire, so I decided to wear my Nike football boots. This was used because they are up-to-date and are what many professional role models wear. This will appeal to younger audiences as they will recognise the boots and are more likely to be interested in the advert. 





With shorts, we decided to make them black. The reason for this was because it is plain, and won't take peoples attention away from the product or what is going on in the advert. 

Settings Board

There are a few settings chosen throughout both commercials of my project, the reason for this is because other professional advertisements online and on television tend to use more than one setting, so Charlie and I decided that having two in each was a good idea, as it helps bring it all together, and saves people from watching the advert all in one place - this meant people weren't bored and were more interested seeing a different setting. 

The video below from YouTube shows you how adverts on Television use more than one setting, and with this, you can see the relevance, with it all linking to the Brazil theme. 

SPORTS HALL

The Sports Hall was used in my project for many reasons, and below I will list the reasons to why Charlie and I decided to use in our Basketball Advert. 

The good things about using this as a setting was the fact it is a very large facility, which we had access to a lot of the time. This meant that Charlie had a lot of room to dribble with the basketball and it also allowed us to use medium shorts and long shots of him. This meant the advert looked a lot more professional and to a better standard.

Also, the Sports Hall is very bright, so this enabled us to have clear footage throughout our advert, and it prevented our commercial looking dull and boring. The bright lighting looks clear, and this came out better on camera and the basketball shots looked very good.

The Sports Hall also had correct equipment and facilities for us to use, so we didn't need to move anything around. This lead to us creating a more realistic and better looking commercial, as we had access to basketball hoops etc throughout.

STUDIO

The studio was used in our adverts for different reasons that the other setting, and I'll now explain why...

The studio was used as a setting for both adverts because we needed to have colour filters in our project this year, as we wanted to make it look as good as possible. The colours used depended on the colours used on the drink packaging and that was then represented in the commercial.

The studio also has both black and white curtains running all the way around the Studio room, this allowed us to have an all black look in the background, which we figured out was very popular in sports commercials, so we decided to do the same. This also matched the black tops we both we wearing throughout the adverts. The studio is also a second setting in both football and basketball adverts, this is because it also helps break down the advert and allowed us to cut to different settings, and made it look a lot better to view and watch.

 

This is a screen grab of the shots from the studio that we used. as you can see, the green filter is on the characters face. This is why using the studio was so important as the shots look more professional.

 

 

 

 3G FOOTBALL PITCH

We decided to use the 3G football pitch as a location/setting in our advert because it is the perfect place to do the football commercial, in which you see me as the main character throughout.

The good things about choosing the 3G pitches was that we had the whole pitch to ourselves, so we didn't have to worry about limited space. Also, the all weather pitch meant we could film the footage no matter the weather, and we didn't have to delay it if it was raining - this allowed us to get a lot more footage, and we had some test footage we used.

Another reason to why it was important we used this as a setting was because it is a relevant and realistic setting to use, especially as we had a commercial based around football, and how the drink enhanced the performance of the character, so using football pitches and having the correct facilities meant it looked more professional and to a better standard.