Unit 8 Evaluation

For my final project, I created an

advertising campaign for the brands
‘Stoneglow’ and ‘The Soap Story’, sold
by the independent company ‘Aromas
for You’. The intention of this advertising
campaign was to the adverts in a 3 part
series that showcase an everyday
family, like the adult /young adult target
audience customers with families. The
adverts all share the one narrative of the
mother going to the shop, buying
products from the brands, bringing them
home. Only to have her families lives
changed by the aromas of the products. The Daughter
and the father take on important roles in the adverts.
The narrative references the mother wanting the stay at
home father and daughter to keep the house clean so they’re able to use the spare time
together having fun with the ‘Soap Story’ products. This is unfortunately ruined by the two
having too much fun at home and crushing the mother’s wishes. As she walks away
disappointed, Kyla, the daughter, opens and shares the products with her father and the
aromas magically take influence them to clean up. Which goes even further and makes the
family the ‘ideal family’ that many desire to have. The adverts finish off with Kyla hearing a
knock at the door and finding a mysterious trail of eggs and products on an Easter egg hunt.
To which her parents follow and help her towards the end. Finishing with ‘wow, these
products really do bring aromas to our lives’.

I worked with a family friend

who owns the shop ‘Aromas
for You’ and mutually agreed
to be my client so I could do
work for her and in turn, use
the work for my final project.
Imogen Ninnis is the owner of
the independent company
and is based out in Duck
farm court, Aylesbury by

Morrisons. Imi wanted an advert that advertising

something other than her most popular brand ‘Yankee
Candle’. Plus, the two brands I chose out of many had
kid and adult friendly products that are
both bright and mature themed.
Stoneglow have the mature side in the
day and night-time reefs and The Soap
Story, which are multi-coloured and kid
friendly by being jelly or ‘roly-poly’ soaps.
 My role was to create the entire advertising campaign and pitch it to my client and college
to be able to produce, direct and finalise the 3 part series. To complete this project, I
researched the advertising campaign medium + existing examples from ‘Yankee Candle’,
the genre / styles in advertising, the codes and conventions with 3 existing examples of
advertising campaigns with the ‘series’ genre/style, persuasive techniques, strategies and
methods. For contents I looked at independent companies, stereotypes in advertising, target
audience, posters/ flyers and what scents/ products work best. For practical skills, I looked
into slow motion, colour correcting and Foley sounds for my editing specialism and did test
shots/ examples of them. For artists and professionals I looked at ‘Yankee Candle’ and ‘BT’.
For the last part of research, I focused on the social media platforms ‘YouTube’ and
‘Facebook’ and their benefits and how I’ll use them. To promote my advertising campaign, I
wanted to use a website where the audience could go to watch and find behind the scenes
of the adverts. To make it as believable as possible, I researched the following websites
‘Yankee Candle’, ‘Aromas for You’ and ‘St Evals’. In terms of primary research, I did 2 vox
pops, a survey and a separate tally survey that was completed by some customers in the
shop.

The genre of my advertising

campaign was ‘series’. The
genre was specific to
advertising and was among
the many genre types/
styles I had to choose from.
To research my genre, I
looked into the codes and
conventions of ‘series’.

The following codes and conventions were concluded from previous examples that I
analysed under the same section. The first example was the ‘BT Infinity’ series. This example
was very successful for its repetition of characters, settings and sequence of problems to
solve in the narrative. The second example that I analysed was the ‘Compare the meerkat
(market)’ movie series. This series had the same use
of repetition in characters, settings, sequence of
problems and even casual daywear costumes. The
use of repetition was used in my own series with the
costumes, locations and narrative to appeal to the
realism behind the characters. Costumes had to be
casual or owned by the actors in real life to show
individual expression in each character. My characters were over-dramatized versions of the
actors and their names and house were used in real life to help relate the characters to the
target audience of adults with families. The locations had to be consistently used to suit the
narrative of being in and then outside the house from advert 2 to 3. Also, to show how a
everyday families realistic scenario of being at home most of the time. Helping to place the
products and where they’re meant to be seen/ used.
The main mood of my series was meant to resemble
an everyday scenario that relates to the general
public of adults. My advert series was cheerful and
upbeat at sight of the solution and slightly mundane at
the introduction/ middle of the problem. I found that
my two analysed examples had done the same and I
took inspiration from them.

At the start of each feedback survey, I asked the audience if the intention of each advert
came across clearly with the techniques I chose to represent it. The respondents had very
positive responses to give with almost all the techniques selected. Proving that the genre was
definitely visible throughout the narrative and representation from my chosen techniques.
For my content, I made sure each advert
linked together. The first advert ‘The shop’
was used to introduce the customer
‘Amy’ and the mention of the family. As
the advert went on, the employee gave
Amy a tour of the products and
explained the non-candle products as
she didn’t want any more candles. When
talking to my client’s husband Tim, an
acting director in the company, he
pointed out how many do come into the
shop every day and ask the same question. I used realistic questions for the customer role to
relate the fake customer to the real customers. The employee particularly advertises my two
chosen brands ‘StoneGlow’ and ‘The Soap Story’. The two brands are both individually the
cheapest and most expensive non-candle related brands in store. The ‘Soap Story’ has kid-
friendly appeal and ‘StoneGlow’ has a mature adult appeal.

The content in the first advert was understood by the majority of the respondents when they
chose all the techniques that help to represent the content and my intentions with it. While
Tim introduces the shop, he mentions the fact that the shop is an independent company. I
wanted to include this factor because the 10 people in my research survey had some
interest in shopping at independent shops but half of them had said that they wanted to
support them more often. Pointing out the shop’s status sells the business to be personal and
more likely to sell with a smile. Welcoming people for the unique and thoughtful small
business. However, I added some personal touches of making the actress a female adult.
Which is the most popular age range and category in terms of the target audience. I even
made sure to advertise the adverts online from the survey results that had favour for doing so.
Along with the posters/ magazines.
The second advert ‘Calming the Chaos’ was
used to show Amy coming home to a messy
house that was supposed to be clean. The
intention of this advert was to advertise how
the products work in the home and the type
of metaphorical aromas can cause a physical
behavioural impact to the characters. I
started the advert off with Amy walking from
the car to the front door whilst thinking to herself in a voice-over. The
voice-over was meant to imply that Amy wanted the house to stay clean
because she wants to spend
more family time together in a clean house. Amy is
soon disappointed by the two messing round and
then trying to clean it up. She looks around, puts the
bags down and walks away. What also helped
push the advert’s narrative was John’s line of “I
think we can both agree that this house isn’t tidy?”
The two watch Amy walk away and are left to their
own devices. Kyla walks up to the products and
opens them to show her father. The voice-overs were voted for in the research survey to add
onto the adverts. In addition to this, the second advert’s survey asked the respondents if the
intentions of the daughter and father were clear, to which all 7 agreed. The confirmation of
this reassures any worries of the content not being clear.
The next thing to happen is the magic ingredients overtaking. The products then encourage
a good behaviour of cleaning around the house. The two start to clean and make the house
spotless. The change of snob appeal comes in and has the last object to be put away
change the characters completely. Amy’s accent changes to a well-spoken accent with
the line ‘What’re you doing?”. The father, John turns around and starts to freak out with Amy.
Which brings in a hint of humour at the random change in costume and manner.

The audience had gave their final opinion on the actor’s acting and whether it was
convincing. To which Amy and Kyla joined in 5 out of 7 votes to John who has 6 out of 7. The
out-weigh of votes tell me that John’s character may have been more convincing because
of his character having most of the lines and screen time.
The third advert ‘The Spring Soap Story’ was the final advert of the three and told the story of
how ‘Kyla heard a knock at the door’ and went on a mysteriously set up Easter egg hunt. The
hunt had products included and were a part of the main sequence up until a large reveal of
products and eggs. I wanted to include more of the magic ingredients technique by having
a surreal experience of the Easter egg hunt.

The advert was also meant to bring the family together at the end with the voice-over line
“wow, these products really do bring aromas to our lives”. The ideal family idea was brought
to life with the family crowding in front of the product pile. The use of repetition for the genre
‘series’ was used to show the 3 adverts being one main event, rather than three.

The respondents had rated this advert at a strong average of 9 out of 10. The highest rating
of the 3. The other two had 8 out of 10.
The strongest technique out of 3 for my ‘intentions’ question was magic ingredients. The
technique was meant to surreally represent the content of this advert in an unrealistic
scenario. The other techniques were transfer and emotional appeal which shows the
reactions/ expressions of the characters in a positive light to make the audience get a
positive impression of the products. The actor that was most convincing in their character
was ‘Kyla’. This is most definitely because of her main role in the advert and the fact that
she’s playing herself. She is most convincing at the age she is playing, a three year old. Lastly,
the 7 respondents either strongly agreed or agreed to the slow motion being effective to the
advert. It was a feature I wanted to include as it helps to solidify the moment in time and
focus the audience on what product is being presented.

The poster and magazines were a small

feature to the promotion to the three adverts
and the products. The survey results gave me
honest feedback on each of the 4. The first
poster was for ‘StoneGlow’. The poster was
meant to mimic posters I previously
researched from aroma companies like
Yankee Candle. The company and I both
had the products in the centre with text at
the top or the bottom.

The poster had two questions to focus on what was successful and what needed improving.
“The most successful part of this poster was the clear advertising of the brand, the colour
coordination between the background/ fonts and products and the professional finish of the
poster.

The least successful statements of the poster coincide

with the negative comments on the second question.
Some respondents had commented on the size, spacing and resolution of the photo
shopped products in the centre.” After this feedback, I improved the first draft and made a
second that centred the two products.

The feedback from my client was almost the same and she wanted
the shop’s logo to be larger across the top of the page. I
responded with “I will do this. Having it larger will help remark its
importance over STONEGLOW”.

The second poster was for ‘the Soap Story’. The poster was
still meant to mimic a traditional poster like Yankee Candle
but had personal touch to have summery/ kid like colours to
be child-friendly. The next two questions of my survey had
very positive responses. “The strongest positives were the
clear advertising of the brand and the colour coordination
between the font/ background and the products. The other
three lead slightly behind, notifying me of how successful it
turned out to be. Along with the fourth question's responses
that had no improvements”. The feedback from my client
was that “Products are slightly crowded, needs a bit more
space”. I justified this by responding with “The target
audience had said that they love the poster. Plus the intention was to have a smaller yet
crowded poster”.
The third of the 4 was the first magazine advert for ‘StoneGlow’. The poster was the closest to
my researched adverts by Yankee Candle. “The response from both questions all equalled
out to look professional, well themed in colour and had a clear advertising of the brand with
no negative comments on the sixth question”. The feedback from my client had agreed with
all the options of what made it successful and added “The shop name and brand name are
quite distinct”.

The second magazine advert was for ‘the

Soap Story’. “The positives are the clear
advertising of the brand, the colour theme
and the quality in resolution and
professionalism. However, there was only one
negative comment that I personally don't
agree with about the font”. The feedback
from my client was “The Shop name has
disappeared into the grass – maybe needs
putting onto a white background”. After this
feedback I said I would fix this and made the
exposure of the logo brighter.
The last two questions focused on them as a whole. “The ninth question asks the respondent if
they would respond to the advert as a consumer in the target audience of adults/ young
adults. They all responded to either strongly agree, agree or not have an opinion. Meaning I
might have to improve the first poster to the best of my abilities until its perfect”. “The last
question asked what was clear throughout the adverts from a choice of my other aims. The
strongest were the mention of 'having the brands at their shop', 'the products and what they
do' and the slogan 'bringing aromas to your life'. The other two aims 'The shops location' and
the 'pricing of the products' were weak links and next time i should aim to include them in
future adverts that i may do. “.
The style of this advertising campaign was meant to include hints of kid-friendly, lifestyle and
some comedic light-heartedness. The first advert was mature and sensible to enhance the
everyday scenario of being a customer in the shop. The second advert had the light-hearted
and comedic styles within them because I was inspired by the ‘BT Infinity’ advert campaign.
The campaign uses casual/ everyday costumes/ narratives that appeal to their target
audience of university students. I made sure that my actors used their real clothing to suit
their characters. The actors who play the mother and father, Amy and John, are in the age
range of adults in my target audience.

In addition to this, the two have a child

together like the target audience. The adverts
also have undertones of comedy in their lines
and share the same positioning of solving or
the aftermath of having the products solve the
narrative problem. I made the advert kid-
friendly with the use of a three-year-old actor
and her props. The character was shown to
pick up toys and have a toy-box to put them
in. Which is what most kids have too. The third
advert was mainly upbeat and themed to suit the spring season. The warm tones in the
colour correcting was made to connote the warmth of spring. The multi-coloured range of
eggs were suited to represent the spring season
of flowers and sunshine. The positioning of the
eggs and products were placed in plant pots
and the compost patch to link to the new
growth that happens in spring. Until the grass
that has Kyla picking up the eggs and products.
The grass is also a major part of the spring
season. I made sure the kid-friendly style was
complimented with an Easter egg hunt.

The narrative was made to be in a linear

sequence throughout the three adverts.
From going to the shop, to coming
home, cleaning, freaking out and going
into the garden through the trail.
Nothing goes out of line in the sequence
and is in an expected order that would
happen in an everyday scenario.
Relating to an everyday scenario of
going out and coming home for the target audience of adults. In my research, I made it
clear that I would tell the story through “plot devices, situations, characters and actors
associated with specific genres”. To do this, I concluded the codes and conventions of the
‘series’ genre through finding the general mise en
scene, video codes and audio codes of existing
examples in the same genre. Those existing
examples were ‘BT Infinity’ and ‘Compare the
market’. My props had to be “used throughout the
whole collection of adverts to prove the use of the
genre. The setting must tell a part of the storyline or
suit the scenario that typically gets solved by the
product at hand. The setting can also suit the social rank of the character(s)”. I made sure
that the bags, handbags and products from the shop were used in all 3 adverts. The
costumes, just “like the settings, the props would have to coincide with the scenario/ social
ranking of the characters in order to help sell the product. The props are typically used to set
the scene or take part in the problem/ problem solving of the product”. The costumes
weren’t consistent but were dramatically changed in advert 2 to show the change from the
products. Making the costumes go from casual to formal. The lighting “tends to be suited to
the type of location that the characters are based in”. The inside and outside shots had
natural lighting but I wish I used some artificial lighting for rooms without windows/ good
lighting from the lights.

The visual codes started with camera shots/ angles.

The shots consisted of the over the shoulder shot,
close ups (medium, normal and extreme), medium
shots (medium, normal and cowboy), point of view
shot, long shots (extreme, normal and full), tracking
shots, pans and cut ins and cut- aways. The most
successful type of shots
were close ups because I took time out of the session to focus
on perfecting them. The least successful of the lot was long
shots. They lacked in variation and could have been perfected
more.

The last section was audio codes. The music was a key in representing the narrative all
throughout. “Music depends on the narrative. For example, I've seen happy/ positive adverts
have upbeat happy music, a party scene have hip hop upbeat music and a sad/ negative
advert have slow soft music”. The music tracks in these adverts were upbeat and simple. With
instruments like pianos, ukuleles and
guitars. The sound effects were a main
part to my campaign, with them
being a part of my practical skills. The
sound effects “tend to root from the
product and its actions. For example,
 the candle in the Yankee Candle advert was
lit and had a lighter/ match sound effect over
walking from the family. The audience would
be more likely focused on the product than
the extra actions from the characters.
Meaning only significantly important sound
effects should be made to enhance the
ambience”. I made the sound effects audible
at the start of the advert to enhance the
actions of opening/ closing a door, putting
keys away, walking around the house/ shop and placing the products down onto counters/
surfaces. The dialogue “consist to link to the product or the scenario at hand. The dialogue
can be between one or two characters and they use specific language to evoke a positive
transfer on the product and their experience with it. Although, the dialogue can describe
what is happening in that moment with the scenario/ the characters”. For example, when
Amy says ‘wow, these products really do bring aromas to our lives”. She uses ‘wow’ and
‘really’ which is enhancing language used to boost the quality of an object or mentionable
thing about the products. I also used the shop’s logo in the line to include some
personalization in the advert. Although, I needed to introduce the family in the first advert
with “yes I have a daughter with my husband”. The need for the products was made clear
through the lines “I’m looking for something to do with my daughter in the holidays” and
“yes, what would you recommend? I’m a first-time customer” and “well I’m looking for
something a little different to a candle, I have loads of those already”. Lastly, the voice-over
“can be from a character's POV or a visually unknown narrator that talks about the product/
characters in the narrative storyline. To sell the product success way, the voice-over usually
has to be passionate/ friendly toned so that the audience don't feel creeped out or put off
the advert all together.” My voice-overs were done by Amy for all 3 adverts. The first advert
was originally meant to mention the price of the product with “It’s only £4.99, what’s stopping
me?” In my feedback from my teacher I was told to exclude this as it didn’t make sense to
have it in before the next voice-over
line “after going through each brand, I
settled on ‘STONEGLOW’ and ‘the soap
story’. I’m really hoping this’ll bring some
calm to the chaos at home”. The
second advert only has one voice-over line of “I’m really hoping we have more family time
together today, since we all agreed on keeping the house tidy more often” to introduce the
narrative (what the advert is about) of the advert. The third advert had a couple lines to
narrate what Kyla was doing. The first line
being “Kyla just heard knock at the door”.
The second being “After hearing a knock
at the door, she knew she had to follow the
trail”. The line that my teacher didn’t want
to include was not needed due to the fact
it was obvious in the actor’s actions.
The characters “will depend on what the scenario will do to portray the product solving the
problem. For example, my scenarios will include a family who lives are ultimately impacted
by the 2 brands from my client. One advert will be Easter themed and feature the products
being Easter eggs/ being next to Easter eggs”. The scenarios had very successfully came true
and the characters were voted to be very convincing. With 14/21 votes for Kyla and an
equal 11/21 each for Amy and John. The survey results also had the respondents vote for the
best stereotype smashers. The one with the most votes was again Kyla. Her character was
the ‘intelligent child’ that rules against the ‘noisy/ annoying child’ stereotype that are
typically introduced. The second in ranking is the ‘working mum’. I wanted to introduce this
stereotype smasher to go against the ‘stay at home mum’ stereotype’ that always cleans
and cooks. The message of equal chores is implied from the voice-over line at the start of the
second advert. The last stereotype smasher with 3 votes was ‘stay at home father’. Switching
the roles around of the mother and father helped to support the vote of smashing the
stereotypes in my research survey.
The first advert’s techniques had
positive feedback on representing the
intention of relating “an everyday
scenario being welcomed in a shop
between the talk of the customer and
the employee”. The most popular
choice was the emotive language
technique. “The way the employee
sells the products is visibly shown to
impact the customer to purchase the
products”. The next technique was the
patriotism technique, which was for
“mentioning and highlighting the fact
that the shop is an independent
company”. The next two that go hand
in hand are the transfer and
emotional appeal techniques. They
both make a point of showing happy
and positives attitudes/ expressions
towards a product or other person to
evoke an emotional response that either copies or impacts the audience. The last
successfully voted technique was the plain folks technique. This technique was consistently
used to relate the scenario to the audience when being a customer in the shop. However,
it’s also visible when the employee talks about how the product will “benefit an everyday
audience individual”. The last technique that wasn’t very well portrayed was the USP
technique. Meaning the unique selling point of “pushing” the 2 brands over the others in the
shop wasn’t very successful and my adverts may have been confusing somewhere along the
lines.

The second advert’s techniques even better results for the

feedback and not one wasn’t at least half visible. Again, the
transfer technique and emotional appeal techniques were used
to “they both make a point of showing happy and positives
attitudes/ expressions towards a product or other person to
evoke an emotional response that either copies or impacts the
audience”. The plain folks technique benefited the adaption of
having the products in the families’ house. Where everyday
families would put the products. The next technique is the
emotive technique. This is achieved from a “voice-over from
Amy that makes the absence of control over the cleanliness in
the house clear”. The main technique that appears over the
whole advert is the magic ingredients technique. With “having
the characters reacting to the product with ‘WOW’ and positive
expressions/ actions from the products. For example, cleaning
up the messing, stop messing around etc.”
Although, the next technique, ‘snob appeal’, has the
“characters suddenly be transformed into formal wear
and be talking in a different tone than before. The music
changing to classical music”.

The rhetorical question technique appears when “having John

talk to Kyla at the beginning and making their previous actions
of not keeping the house tidy unanswerable to the question”.
The last technique was having the ideal family. “The modern
looking family being dynamic yet relatable”.

The last advert has 3 techniques present all

throughout. The first one being the transfer technique
showing happy and positive attitudes/ expressions
towards each other. The next technique is emotional
appeal. This technique makes a point of the
products being impacting and bring the family
together. Evoking a response of oneness and love
towards the audiences’ family in reaction. The last
technique is magic ingredients. This technique has
the characters “reacting to the product with ‘WOW’
and positive expressions/ actions from the product”.
The survey results from this question all equal out to
them all being successful. With magic ingredients
being the top, transfer in second and emotional
appeal last.

In terms of camera work, pans and tracking shots were a small part of the 3 adverts. The first
pan appears in ‘the shop’ shows Amy looking at the ‘StoneGlow’ products. This pan was
definitely the best pan of them all because it’s smooth and tracks the still actor at the shelf. In
terms of aesthetic qualities, I wanted the pan to resemble pans in existing adverts that I’ve
seen on TV to create a professional finish.
The other pan that comes to mind is the upwards pan of Kyla in ‘the Spring Soap Story’. She is
shown to pick up the basket in the compost. I hate this shot because the sun shines directly
into the camera, missing her picking up the basket. It ruins the aesthetics of a child having an
Easter egg hunt. Especially in the slow-motion version, it looks very unflattering and ruins the
creative quality of mimicking slow motion in adverts.

The tracking shots were simple yet

effective as they smoothly tracked the
walking pair in the first advert. The next
tracking shot also follows a character,
Kyla, as she starts to walk through the
grass. The aesthetic quality of tis shot
frames the child from afar and captures
the innocence in the advert.

The camera shots/ angles were a small part of the 3 adverts as well. The low angle shots show
the characters wither walking away/ towards the camera or doing an action like picking up
an egg in the egg hunt. The low angle angles shot were a lot easier to shoot than the high
angle shots, that didn’t even work successfully. They were easy to do because I put the
camera closer to the subjects and let them naturally walk or do the scene. The creative/
aesthetic quality comes into this with the natural movements of the actors.

I creatively tried to use the close ups of Kyla picking up the eggs to show progression in the
egg hunt. The high angle shots had been in between two characters and made them more
aware of the camera’s presence. The best angles out of the rest to film were the over the
 shoulder shots. The over the shoulder shot of
Amy looking at the product is focused
properly and shows her looking directly at
the product. Whilst at the same time, puts
the audience in the same perspective as
Amy to see what she sees. I see many over
the shoulder shots in adverts and thought I
could increase the aesthetic quality of the
shots to resemble my adverts to existing
adverts. The worst was the long shots. The
full and extreme long shots weren’t filmed properly into frame and messed up the scene.
Although, I also did this in mid-close ups with Tim, the employee. He’s a lot taller than I am
and towered over us. Filming Tim’s chin and chest wasn’t the best choice to film when it
comes to the aesthetic qualities.

The editing was one of the technical qualities that

took over the production process in this final
project. Starting with the slow motion, when I
chose this technique for my third advert, I knew it
would be easy. The video had advised me to use
the ‘duration’ selection and to slow down the clip
from 100 to 40. With ‘optical flow’ on. This made
my clips smooth and slow so that the audience
could see the clips and be able to grasp what the
scene tells them. Making the aesthetic quality a lot
more accomplishing. Knowing the aesthetic and
creative quality was enhanced by choosing slow
motion for my clips gave a professional finish. It
was also something knew that I tried recently in my
projects too.

The survey results had even confirmed that the slow

motion worked well. The colour correcting was a bit
tricky to complete to an equal standard in editing. I
had to keep the same numbers of the ‘lumetri
scope’ of one clip to another so that the clips were
the same tone/ warmth. I think this went well but I
may need to invest in finding plug in filters or
overlays to create some automatic colour. Instead
of copying the numbers over from one clip to
another. Although, the aesthetic quality was
completed from the warm tones and upbeat music.
The sound quality all starts with the
dialogue/ voice-overs, the two were
recorded with my ‘Rode’ microphone. The
dialogue was recorded with the
microphone on top of the camera to
capture what was said in shot. However,
the voice-over required Amy to be directly
in front of the mic and had her be between
5 to 10 inches away from the mic so it
couldn’t pick up any breathes etc. We also
recorded in a quiet shut room so that the other noises in the house weren’t being recorded
as well. The quality had to be perfect when recording and editing so I wouldn’t mess up like I
did last time I did an advert project. Another technical quality in sound is the Foley sounds. I
showed some process of recording the Foley sounds in the first filming session. I took my
microphone and recreated the sounds I pre-planned to enhance with the sound effects. The
sounds were quick and easy to record and successfully worked over the entering scene. Like
I said previously, I wanted to focus on Foley
sounds to enhance the aesthetic quality of
the whole product. The only sounds I had
to add in the advert was the doors opening
and closing and the knock at the door. The
second advert had to have the door Foley
sound because a weird whisper showed up
and muffled the door closing. Meaning it
was harder to edit. The easiest of the Foley
sounds were the footsteps. The music
accompanied the adverts as a way to build
up a cinematic and professional feel. The
first advert needed calm yet upbeat music to let the dialogue explain the advert. This helped
to achieve the best aesthetic quality of the whole product. The feedback from my teacher
was to lower the volume of the music. I found that the music was dominating the dialogue in
editing. Making me lower the music and raising the dialogue/ voice overs in editing. Just in
case it was still hard to hear. The second advert needed to creatively have an upbeat and
comedic track to appeal to the hint of comedy in my style choices.
The last technical qualities is the lighting and the settings. To be able to pick up the facial
expressions/ actions, the settings had to be accompanying them. The lighting in these
adverts lack some artificial lighting in the darker shots indoors. I should have used the light to
highlight the actor’s features and the products. The aesthetic quality in this sense was lacking
with the lighting. The settings had to be cleaned or set up to take on the illusion of the
narrative. For example, the house had to be dirty to show the fact that the father and
daughter didn’t keep the house tidy. After this, we had to clean the downstairs of the house
to create the illusion of the two cleaning it. The shop set had to be swept clean to create a
professional environment that presents the shop in a formal manner. The aesthetic quality of
settings was successful with the mutual efforts of working with the actors to change the
settings around.

The aesthetic quality also included the characters and their costumes and props. The actors
had to use their real clothing to be able to play
their roles believably. This was also benefited by
the actors and their characters being the same
age. They all wore casual clothing in the house
and shop scenes to relate the narrative
scenarios to the target audience’s everyday
events. The costumes creatively changed to
formal when the product’s aromas changed
their behaviour and character traits. Tim, who
played the employee, had formal attire to
mimic the workers in the shop. Having the
characters in the correct costumes for their situations makes the narrative clearer and gives
them some individuality.

The props were used to enhance the aesthetic

qualities of the characters and settings. The mother
had to use shopping bags and a handbag to show
that she’s been to the shop. The products had to
be in the bags and took out by Kyla to transition
them to opening and placing the products.
Another example is having the eggs in between the
products to mimic an Easter egg hunt for the products. The creative quality falls in line when
the props lead Kyla to the pile that the family find together and crowd around. Showing that
these products bring them together.
The Smooth cuts looked like one scene wasn’t cut together with various shots. This was
achieved by having multiple angles.

The dialogue made sense because of the actor’s success to sticking to the script. The actors
were convincing from their facial expressions and actions.

Kyla with her quizzical facial expressions and profound want to help clean. Making her look
intelligent/ mature for her age. However, she still looks like the child she is from the way she
walks and the childish smiles, speech and actions like bopping her dad on the nose.

John plays a convincing father figure by having a happy expression towards Kyla. Sometimes
he becomes serious and has a dominant pose/ frustrated look on his face to suit the
problem. Amy is consistently happy with her soft smiles and facial expressions. Although, she
is shown to have some disappointed expressions when a problem is introduced in the
narrative.
 For my survey results, the 7 respondents had 3 surveys to do, making them have 3 chances
of picking which characters were most convincing. The character that got the biggest pick
was Kyla, the daughter. With 14 of 21 votes, compared to 11/21 for both the mother and
father separately. This proves that Kyla had an advantage as the youngest. Especially with
having so many comments from people saying she’s ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’ when they watch
the adverts. The positive thing to come out of the equal vote for the parents shows an equal
representation of the two. Meaning my aim of keeping them equal in gender/ stereotype
representation may have been successful.

The shots of the products helped to make their presence known. Therefore, including the
products that are advertised and allowing the audience to recognise the products when
they walk into the shop after watching the adverts.

The idea of stereotype smashing was achieved. Kyla’s ‘intelligent child’ stereotype smasher
had been the most popular choice in my second advert’s survey. The vote had an 85% turn
out to the mother and father who had 42% or 58%.
The slow motion went well with the
help of the tutorial and practicing
beforehand. However, the colour
correcting worked well with my aim
of having a warm and upbeat feel
throughout the adverts. Which was
voted for in the research survey.

I felt the use of better lighting. The artificial could

have been used at times in the first and second
advert to help the quality of the video. Separating
the scenes into multiple filming sessions would’ve
helped Kyla and her when she became tired of
doing the scene. I could’ve made extra time to do
the voice-overs. I had to message Amy for the
voice-over line after the last filming session.

Another thing I should’ve done to improve would be putting the products in the shots when I
was on my filming session for the third advert. The re-shoots I did were believable but I and
my client agree that it would’ve been more believable if Kyla had took them and put them
in a basket.

I wish I had better props for the third advert. An actual basket to put the baskets in and more
space for the hunt. I should have used a park and made use of more space because the
small space made the advert look more ammeter that it should. There should have been
more communication between the employee and me because his long dialogue made the
advert longer to than it should have been. In addition, there should have been more takes of
each scene so I had more opportunity to have the perfect takes. Sometimes the tone of an
actor’s voice or interaction with another actor was off. Which is also something I could have
communicated about.

Having more control over the costumes and making the mother’s costume in advert 1 and 2
the same would show that the two were on the same day in the narrative. I wish I could’ve
made the advert’s scripts and storyboards shorter to the promised length of 30 seconds in my
brief. The 1- 2 minutes are ok but may bore the audience because of the long duration.

One thing I want to do differently next time is my method of setting up the set. The natural
lighting would be enhanced by artificial lighting in darker places indoors and outdoors. The
next thing I would do is separating multiple filming sessions for each scene to establish
anything that needs tweaking or preparing before or in between sessions. However, it may
benefit my actors to reflect and improve on their acting. This might also leave more time to
prioritise voice-overs with the filming itself. Another thing I would do to correct my organising
methods would be laying out the props or pointing the characters around the scene before
going into filming. Prepping my actors may help them to know what they need to do and
say and when. The last thing I want to is explore new editing techniques/ concepts in other
types of filmmaking because as nice as advertising campaigns are, I want to explore
different fields of filmmaking. For example, I want to try the slow motion lip-syncing people do
in music videos. Another example is a short film, I want to give myself less stress on the
research side. The concepts people have done for short films in the same course as me have
inspired me to come up with ideas much better than these advert ideas. Although, I would
use better locations for this project if I were going to do it again. Next time, I want to travel to
London or Brighton to film. Just anywhere away from bucks. I also want to use more actors
next time, 4 is the largest number I’ve had but I want to expand and have a larger number,
including extras and more than 1 main character at a time. Since all 3 characters are the
main characters of each advert at some point individually. I need a better camera too.
 For the first existing example, I
took inspiration from the ‘BT
infinity’ advertising campaign
series. The narrative of ‘BT
Infinity’ inspired me for my own
advertising campaign. They
both share a linear sequence
and genre ‘series’. The adverts
have 3 main characters that wear casual clothing and are shown to live in a house/
apartment. Which is the main setting of the 3 adverts in each series. The shop in my advert
and the café in theirs are the external public setting and the family’s garden and their party
are the third place where something abnormal in their schedule occurs.

The props are also similar as well. The bags in both advert series are visible in the first adverts
and occur once or twice more.

The Daughter character in my advert series is shown to have toys to appeal to her age
group. Like the university students who play computer games like people their age do. The
lighting in both series have natural lighting. However, I recognise some artificial lighting in the
‘BT’ advert. Which is something I lacked in using.

When it came to camera angles, I used longshots to like ‘BT’ to capture what the characters
are doing whilst showing the setting in frame.

The medium close ups were used to “help to capture the dialogue/ facial expressions from
the character/ subject from the chest up. Whilst excluding the setting around them to focus
the audience on the character/ subject. I will use this when filming my characters to capture
their emotions and dialogue on the products/ their impact”.
The over the shoulder shots helped to “put the audience in the perspective of the person
directly with in front (with their back to the camera). This allows the audience to see what the
character is seeing and may have a better look at what is happening/ being said. This
camera shot also takes on the 180 degree rue with the camera work. Making sure that the
cameras capture the perspectives correctly”. The 180 degree rule was used in the 3rd advert
to show the two talking in the café. This helped to capture any emotions or dialogue”.

The close ups helped to capture emotions/ expressions or the products being advertised.
One camera angle that went well was the POV shot. I used a POV shot like ‘BT’ did so that
the audience could see what Amy could see of the shop. Like the characters saw their
rooms in the first ‘BT’ advert.

The last thing I took inspiration from for camera angles was the low angle shots. These shots
“the audience in the perspective of one of the people at the party. Giving the audience an
outsider's view away from the main characters”. The only difference between mine and the
‘BT’ one is theirs is in another character’s perspective on the floor of a party. Whereas mine is
showing the action of Kyla picking up the egg.
 The only similarity between these two series
for pans is the pans. They both showed the
subject doing an action. I never decided
to use the graphics at the end of the ‘BT’
adverts as they may confuse the sequence
of the linear sequence. The dialogue of the
two series both have underlining humour
when having random moments. For
example, when the family change, the two
parents have funny expressions an exclamations.
Whereas the first ‘BT’ advert had the characters
awkwardly express innuendos at the mention of
virtual characters being in the same ‘room’ last
night. This advert series doesn’t have voice-overs
like ‘compare the market’. However, the use of
sound effects was similar with both being “suited
to the actions done by the characters to
enhance the product at hand. In the first advert,
the sound effects help the product in a home setting and shows the roommates moving in
and the progression of the linear sequence. However, both the first and third advert both
share the same gaming sound effects to show the boys playing video games with the use of
the products”. Like my series, the toys had sound effects that were made at the start of the
second advert. The music wasn’t similar as they only used music at the end with the graphics
for the ‘BT’ advert series. I wanted to use music all throughout. The last thing in similar is the
warm tones of colour in the first ‘BT’ advert and constantly throughout my own series.

For the second example, I took inspiration from ‘compare the market’. The narratives are also
the same with the linear and sequence and the genre ‘series’. They also shares the ‘pathos’
method. The characters in the existing example have a special connection that I wanted to
re-create with my two characters, the father and daughter. The characters in the ‘compare
the market’ advert series were mixed with special effects that didn’t think I needed for my
own. The settings were complete opposites in the series.
 The main thing that appealed to me in this example was the snob appeal. The luxury gave
humour and brought the characters to life. Although, like any advert series compared to
mine, uses the props for the characters to use and progress the narrative. For example, the
eggs are a main part to moving Kyla along trail. Like the cutlery in the titanic advert in the
‘compare the meerkat’ series that allowed the characters to eat and finish dinner.

The employee in my series and Sergei in the advert are

both dressed in formal wear to work. Whereas, the
formal wear from the family and alexander connote a
luxurious high-end character. The lighting in these
adverts are digitally added and aren’t added in real
life. Though, I didn’t even add any artificial lighting.

The most consistent camera angles that we both have in common is the high angle shot,
over the shoulder shot, low angle shot and medium shot.
 The music in the ‘compare the market’
series is cinematic and appeals to the movie
style. Where mine is happy and upbeat to
appeal to the positive transfer and
emotional appeal techniques I use to put
positive reflection on the products. Just like
the colours that are consistently warm in
both. The sound effects in the ‘compare the
market’ series are used to appeal to the
movie style. The sound effects include
eating popcorn and slurping a drink.
When my sound effects are used to show
the movement between the shop to the
house with doors and footsteps. The
dialogue in the existing example is very
humorous and has lines like “Sergei, this
Peter rabbit never wears the trousers". The
only thing that is similar in dialogue is the
well-spoken pronunciation in the snob
appeal. Especially in mine when Amy says ‘what’re you
doing?” after the transformation. The voice-over in the existing example advertises deals
and features of the products. Mine uses voice-overs to narrate what the characters are
doing.

I believe that my experience in this final project alone has given me a lot of suitability to be
able to enter the media industry. Like my teacher has said, my productions in video from lack
but my research and planning have potential. I agree with this and can say that working
behind the scenes one day in a studio could contribute a growing career in the media
industry. I think that I could suit the advertising side of the media industry because I’ve
worked most on adverts this year and have great understanding of the simple persuasion an
advert could have through techniques/ strategies. I know I can re-call many techniques/
strategies/ methods like semiotics or emotional appeal because I love the idea of evoking an
impact on someone’s life. The media industry also lacks some original ideas and being in
control of this project and its narrative has inspired me for future projects. The main reason
why I think I’m suitable for the media industry is my adaptable and pro-active mind that
offers not much fuss and close-mindedness. It’s been said that the media industry needs
open-minded people who aren’t scrounging off the audience for money. Which many do
regardless. I wouldn’t want to do this because I feel it’s not true to someone who wants to
make something worth their time. I can relate to this and wish that others think I can be given
a chance too.