Advert Ending

I gained some feedback from my teacher were I found that my advert needed something to finish it off and leave the audience remembering your product. So after giving me improvements on my first advert attempt I was instructions to create something different at the end. I therefore looked at how other adverts finished and how mine differed.

This was how the majority of adverts ended with the logo being in the centre of the text, but also having a dull background so that it connotes the importance of the logo and brand. Additionally they generally end with a small slogan so the audience will remember the advert. I therefore decided to add the logo but in a fashion that I would be able to relate the brands logo to the rest of the text, this was something that was not normally done in adverts but i decided i would try and challenge this convention.

This is what I was able to produce, as you can see I have added still shots of all the main aspects of the advert in relation to the brands logo and product name this denoted what the car would stand for within a few short seconds.  I felt this was a massive improvement on what is currently used in advertising, however i will need too see if the audience feel the same in the audience feedback when i do my evaluation. 

Attempt of Advert 1

This was my first attempt of my advert, I am not very happy with the overall out come of the advert for several reasons. One of which was the flow of the advert as it currently seem very jumpy, with no flow between clips this is a crucial aspect that i need to get right as i need to make sure that the advert works. One way that I can try to make the advert flow is by introducing a soundtrack to the advert this was something that i was not going to do but it could help me make the advert flow and fit the clips into the rhythm of the soundtrack. Additionally this could be a good thing to do as i was going to use the diegetic sounds from the clips however they do not fit in with the advert, so using a soundtrack instead of having the diegetic sounds may work better. I will need to pick something that will work with the adverts and the campaign but also something that will work with the footage that i have already got. 

Something else that I am not happy with is the lack of shots from inside the car, mainly as I wanted to captures some of the emotions that the drivers and passengers would feel when in the car. Instead i have mainly medium and long shots of the car being driven or passing through different landscapes. Currently as there is little variety of shots in the advert is not denoting meaning. 

The meaning of the advert should be about the car helping families in their everyday lives, being able to battle any challenge. Currently i feel that the advert is denoting now meaning about family and the ease of use, it is just showing the journey to work, someone loading their shopping into the car and a child being dropped of to school. These are all very boring things that happen daily, and i have latterly shot them not connoting how the car is better than its competitors. This is something that i need to think of carefully as it is currently denoting nothing of importance. 

I will discuss this advert with my teacher ASAP and see whether or not it can be improved and if so how. I will then go and blog about the my progress and the possible improvement. 

Filming and Editing

I was able to finish the filming for the my first advert, I wanted to get some footage where the car would be used on the school run. It meant that it could show how easy the car is to use, for both children and parents, with the space and easy loading of the children.
However i found that it was hard to get any shot that would demonstrate how good the car was, this meant that the footage i got was okay but will need to be improved.
Some of the shots that i was able to get where, the children getting in the car, small amount of dialogue and then car arriving at the destination. I realised that there really was not that much footage so far of inside the car and this could be a good chance to demonstrate some of the features with in the car with the scene being about the time spent with your children.

I then took the footage i had got my from my day of filming and began to edit it down, so that the shots would flow and allowed me to see whether or not i was going to be happy with my footage and where i will be able to improve the scene. I shortly realised that the footage i got was good and i could use a lot of it for the advert, however i needed to go back and film some more this is because there was no meaning in the scene.
The narrative goes "It's the time spent with your kids as you take them to school"
Therefore i should be denoting how the car can allow you to enjoy some quality time with your children, however this is a good idea but a lot harder to capture. I now need to look at some good ways of being able to convey this quality time in the advert, as it will hopefully help me to denote meaning in the advert and how the car is better than its competitors.

Non - Diegetic

Traditional car advert without Non Diegetic sound -

A car advert which uses Non Diegetic sound -

My faster paced Non Diegetic sound -

I had found in my research that a lot of vehicle adverts do not actually have non - diegetic sounds this is to connote the car cars sportiness in its sound or luxurious as its quite. However if non - diegetic sounds are being using then it is very subtle and has a cinematic approach by having rather slow paced soundtrack that is to make it seem more enjoyable for the audience to view. However i found that this was a convention that i wanted to challenge and develop as my voice over is trying to connote a more up beat and exciting tone that will keep the audience engaged. I therefore decided to use a up beat sound track which is less conventional but would hopefully allow me to create an engaging and exciting advert. 

The rough narrative

This is the first version that i was able to produce for my narrative,  also i have asked my teacher to do the voice over as he was able to capture the right tone that i wanted to use on my advert. The reason for this was because it uses a smooth and carming tone which allows the audience to feel comfortable when listening to the advert but more curially i wanted a voice which would allow the audience to connect with making there more chance the audience will enjoy and pay attention to the product that i am selling.

My Narrative Changes

I wanted to create a voice over that would work as a narrative telling a story throughout the advert. I decided to look at different adverts that use either a voice over or narrative, in which I found that these two adverts there were very useful in the construction of my own narrative. In the M&S advert  I found that the voice over creates the narrative by listing a load of luxurious foods on offer, this was a very interesting way of incorporating the narrative and voice over together. Additionally I would be able to re create something similar in my adverts by listing some of the best features about the car in the voice over pairing it with a range of shots on the advert. This would work well and mean i was able to create something slightly different than what normal advert conventions use. 

Additionally I looked at this advert for inspiration as it does some thing slightly different to the M&S advert. But more importantly the BMW advert uses something that could allow me to connote the cars integrity and worth. BMW voice over = "its only a car" I feel this only takes away from the cars importance as its connotes that the car is not important and is not any better than others that are on market. I felt i could develop this idea of the voice over so that it would connote how my product is a lot better than all the other ones on the market. As I wanted to connote the cars features I decided a good way to start the advert off by " It's not just a car" this immediately connotes how the car is different. This is important as my product is going to need a USP, I feel a good way of showing this could be with the narrative. 

As I had no real meaning and message in my advert so far i found that it would be worth while to include a narrative so help provide a story line in which the footage can follow and describe. This however was a lengthy process for me to create the right type of narrative to fit the advert I am creating, my first attempt was for the duration of the advert and used many different aspects of the car to describe and explain the benefits of having the car in everyday situations like, Shopping, Daily Commute and Taking the kids to school.

This is not just a car

To get you to work
In luxury and comfort
With wood and leather
It's quietly refined

The easy shop
Any bag any size
Any parent any person
It's quietly easy

Getting the kids to school
Children and mornings
Miles and smiles
BW quietly amazing

This is my very first attempt I found that i had simply listed some of the facts about the car and how anyone could use the vehicle however there was still very little meaning for the audience. I therefore decided to take this version to my teacher and see what he recommended to do to create something better. I was given the advice to shorten each section down to the smallest possible to convey meaning.  The reason for this is so that the narrative allows the audience to link the footage and narrative together to create meaning.

I then went back to the drawing board and tried to create a narrative for my advert which was simple but still allowed meant that i could convey meaning in my advert.


This is NOT just a car

It's the journey to work

It's the weekly shop

It's the time spent with your kids as you take them to school

IT'S LIFE

This is what i was able to produce for my advert, as you can see it is very short and simply describing each section of my advert. Although short i will be using this narrative so that the audience are very much aware of each section of the advert, and i will use the footage to go with the narrative in some ways to back up the narrative. I will also be uploading the rough version of my narrative.

Additional

Although my campaign is all about family and how the car is fun for the whole family, with a can do attitude. I though it could be nice to look at my second advert in a different way, by using many different close up images of the car both in side and out side i want to create some form of a collage. In addition to creating a collage i want to get the family involved by each member in the family having an image that they can relate to they can then will be able to put the image on a large wall surrounding the collage image of the car. This is only a rough idea that i can do for my second advert as i am having problems getting the footage due to the snow but also because i am unable to get the car enough for the all the footage.

The only problem with this is i have created a campaign for my car to be based on family, and the original idea try much follow the theme of family. This could vier away from the campaign, as i want base it around family this is then not meeting my brief as i should be keeping to the style in which i have created through out my adverts. I am just worried that this is too different to my other adverts and will not carry on the meaning in which i am trying t get across through my advert.

I am planning to take this idea to my teacher and see whether i should go ahead with my new idea as it will hopefully be easier to film with my time restraints. Or try and plan my time wisely and wait for the snow to past then get all my original idea filmed in a short period of time before my deadline.

Snowing

As it has been snowing for the last couple of days it has created many obsticles that i need to over come with my filming. Some of these things that I will need to over come are the conitinuity errors which will appear when filming in the snow, therefore I will need to film some close ups or meduim shots which dont have the snow in the back ground, this is one of the ways that i can try and keep up to date with my filming by chossing my locations wisely but also getting shots with minimal background space reducing the chance of the having snow in the background.

I will also want to use the snow to my advantage as it creates a new environment that i can use to show the car of road and go any where capabilities. However it also has it challenges as i will be able to film in the snow but if there is the chance of me re filming or having to get another shot to improve the scene i may be unable because of the snow no longer being there.

I will try and get some footage in the snow using the car so that I have the footage their if i want or need to use it but will need to make sure that there is not the chance of re filming when their is no longer snow.

Editing 2 / teacher feedback

After the filming session going well I wanted to to edit and try to get a feel for the length of each section and how i will be able to get the rights shots to fit the duration of each scene but also denote the right meaning.

I did some editing of my footage and shortly found that there was very little meaning behind the advert so far this was something that I did not expect, i then carried on to roughly edit the footage down so that I was in a position to show my teacher and have get some feedback on how to improve and move forwards in the project.

The daily commute was planned to be 10 seconds long with a rough edit of only 5 clips it currently 18 seconds long. This meant that the footage was way to long, and i was either going to have to edit the footage down so that it fit my planned duration and risk the chance of their being even less meaning in the advert. Or go out and try and film more appropriate shots that will denote meaning in the advert but also how the car is better than other cars. I decided to try and cut down the clips to reach my 10 seconds limit, but was still unhappy with my progress I then decided it would be wise and beneficial to get some feedback of the work to allow me to go forwards in my work.

I then spoke to my teacher and was able to get some really useful feedback on my work and what i should be thinking of doing to improve my work. My teacher was able to straight away tell me their was no meaning to the advert and was just a series of videos edited together, he then advised me to look back on my research and other adverts to look at how they denote meaning in their ad's. I did so and came back to him where the discussed the possibility of using a narrative over the advert to give meaning of each section this will go hand in hand with the footage on screen. Additionally he advised for me to go back and re film the commute section and try to get some more meaning full shots, but to really think about how to get these shots before filming.

I therefore needed to go and look at / do  -
Narratives in adverts and how to make a successful one
Look at my storyboard and make changes / improvements
Shot lists of my new scene
Create my own narrative and get more feedback on my progress
Try and re film some of my scenes

Filming 2

After my first filming session I was more confident i would be able to get some real footage that i can use and will be happy with.  I started by filming the daily commute this meant that I had to convey a business man leaving for work, then getting to work arriving and leaving the work place. The reason that I wanted to film this section first is the advert will be telling a story of the journey in which each member of the family will take when driving the car. The family man driving the car to work will take place first thing in the morning.

I began by filming the car the household as my family man left to do the daily commute, traveling down the road. I also filmed the car arriving at the work place, I did so from many different angle for example as the car arrived I used a high angled long shot in which i was able to get a great view of the car. This then lead to a lot closer shot where i only framed the wheels in the shot, i wanted this because it meant i was able to denote some of the car's WOW factors, with the use of Close Ups. I finally then filmed a medium shot of a my business man walking into the door, this was to further show the journey. TO finish the scene of I wanted the car to be driving in the dark on his return drive home.

After doing some filming i was happy with the quality of my filming and was able to use the footage.

The New

After doing some filming and editing i have realised that there was no real meaning in my work,  therefore I needed something that would allow me to convey meaning in the form of a narrative. The reason that i chose to use a narrative is because it allows for meaning to be put in to the videos, via a voice over of what and how my product is better than others and worth buying.

The narrative that i am using on my advert is not going to last the duration of the advert but only short phrases for the separate sections of the advert. The reason for this is so that i can connote to the audience how the car is better than all the others, i will be using a variety of shots and different locations to denote the cars capabilities and how it is able to fit any persons needs.

I have also found that i needed to look at the meaning of my adverts and make it more simple rather than my original idea where i was going to include multiple scenes with very quick editing this is not only uncommon in adverts but also made it very hard to introduce meaning in the advert but create a narrative that could be editing in time with the videos. Therefore I decided to slow everything down and make the duration of different locations longer then split the locations into the two adverts.

The reason for splitting the locations and types of people driving into two adverts it means that i can will be able to produce a better narrative to fit my advert to, but also allows me to have 1 advert solely for family and how it is better than other cars. Then another advert about the enjoyment of the car for the family but also everyone else, i wanted to do this as the car should be fun for the family with the can do attitude.

Voice Overs

The voice over I created, continuity though out my texts i was happy with it as it meant that i could create something that would allow me to denote all of the key features of the car and what it was capable of.