Showreel

Task 1 - Understand the purpose of Music videos

Many music videos have different values and other opportunities then just advertising and showing the public their song.  There are many different other factors behind a music video to promote them as an artist, to show the availability of an artist, the extension of income and of outlets.

        The main big one will be promotional, selling the artist as well as the music.  This is shown by highlighting the artist using camera lighting, make up and costume, to an audience. In some cases like in the pop genre the artist is being promoted and shown off more. For example in the music video ‘Wrecking ball’ by Miley Cyrus, she’s very much centre of attention throughout the video, having  many close ups shots of her, for example at the start of her music video there are close up shots of her face lip singing and crying. There is also no one else present in her video, this could show her showing off her new look and image that she wants to be known as.  The use of controversial images plays a big part in promoting this artist.  Sex appeal is present in this music video, shown in the middle of the video when she is naked sitting on a wrecking ball whilst singing.  This could be too much for an audience, or upsetting or too uncomfortable to watch, creating a talked about video, which promotes the image she is trying to create, and her music more. Because of the controversy of the video a directors cut has been made cutting out the scene with her naked on the Wrecking ball.  

Another device used that some music videos include is having narrative based video, having a long beginning which is like a film before the start or end of a music video, this is like a short film entertaining and interesting the audience further. This could be used to explain the story being a music video.  An example of this is ‘Thriller’ by Michal Jackson showing a 4-minute scene in the beginning that is related to the theme that the music is trying to create. This sets up the storyline for an audience and fits well with the theme and story the lyrics are trying to create.

          A brand image is also created for a music video and an artist, to gain a certain audience and also to promote a set theme or image they are trying to aim at. An example of a brand identity is ‘Born this way’ by lady Gaga, the brand image present is unique, entertaining, and out of this world! the genre being a very sifi feel and look when first watching it. Because this brand identity is new and fresh to a younger audience, making her theme is successful promoting her to her set audience.

Another purpose of a music video is the availability of the artist. Allowing artists to recorded their music and show it on other media outlets without being present at a studio preforming live.  An example of this in the early years was the Beatles, recording their song ‘Hard Day’s Night’ in 1964 and allowing other stations to play their recorded song for listeners, on places like ‘Top of the pops’. Another music video, which is seen as the first music video, is ‘Bohemian rhapsody’ by Queen this music video is filmed in the studio containing lip syncing and other footage from their concert.

There are many different ways for an artist to gain income, an example of this present is product placement, and this is showing a product in a music video to advertise the product as well as the company. The company would pay the artist a certain amount of money for the product to appear.  An example of this is by Lady Gaga in her music video ‘Disco Stick’ advertising Dr Dre Beats in different scenes to promote this product.  Another ways to involve income is to place adverts on a popular webpage such as YouTube. Placing an advert before the start of a video to gain the interest of the viewers of other videos. To be placed on a side bar when a video is playing to gain interest from the viewer.

The extension of outlets is another way for an artist to promote themselves and their music on different outlets including mobile phones, IPads, Laptop using the Internet.  Showing the artists music and music videos on different outlets widens the audience watching because of the different ways it can be viewed, creating more viewers and promotion for the artist having audiences watch and listen to there work on the go.

          Synergy is also used with an artist, using or creating a song for a feature film or T.V programme as the main theme song or to play at the opening or end credits.  An example of this is Adele preforming her song ‘Skyfall’ in the new Bond film. Having this artist preform a song for the movie benefits the artist as well as the film because both gain audiences. For example Adele has over 50 million fans on Facebook alone, showing these fans that she is featured in this her fans are more likely to watch the movie giving it more views and a new audience. For Adele, because Bond is a famous movie all over the world, she collects more fans for being featured in this big movie collecting people who did not know about her around the world, again widening her fan base. 

Task 3 - Present

Does this advert at first look like an advert?



Here is one of the ways i collected my audience feedback. I used a bar chart to hold my results for a question that was on my questionnaire. The question was 'Does this advert at first look like an advert?' I collected a total of nine results altogether. Overall the Marjory of the nine thought that my advert when first watching didi look like an advert, this shows that my edit and theme is clear to an audience and effective when selling a product. 

Here is another way I collected my results. Here i used a pie chart, again i had Nine people answering my questionnaire and here are the results I got from the question 'What appeals to you in this advert?' as seen by above Theme was the main answer picked, giving my confidence that my theme did attract an audience and was effective and interesting for them so they could relate and go out and buy the product. 

Task 2- Screening

To collect the details from a audience I have used different methods to collect this information. The methods that I have used are, questionnaires made on survey monkey, a focus group with around 4 people talking about the advert and what were the positive and negatives and if it met the made target

          There are different pros and con to each method I used, with it being unreliable or getting slow results. The questionnaire was easy to make and has a clear layout and presentation. It also tally’s up your results once they have been answered and puts them into graphs and bar charts. A con with this method is that once you have sent these results out it takes awhile before people respond to your questionnaire which holds you back from completing your audience research for your project.  Another con is that the only way to send your questionnaire is by email. For a younger person the main way to get in contact with other people is by text or over social networking then by email, making it harder to send to others.  Focus groups were useful and got fast feedback from the people present. They could express their views about the advert in detail without having to fill in a small box. A con with this method is at points the group would get distracted and become off task with talking and giving feedback with the advert.

The range of the audience that I handed my different methods to are mostly to a younger audience 15-20 because those are the age group I am normally around and were available to fill in my questionnaire and to be in with the focus group. There was a mixture between the genders but mostly girls were involved with the evaluation because of the lager amount of girls in out Media class.

The questions I asked were closed questions, mostly in the questionnaire so the answers didn’t have to be too long and the person filling it out wont get bored or uninterested with filling it out. Closed questions also get straight to the point with the question you are trying to ask. In the focus group I got a large range of open questions, because of the situation that we were in. Because we are tighter as a group in person we have a discussion of an advert instead of answering a few closed questions.

Most of the feedback I was given back was reliable in some ways due to having a big discussion of the advert in the focus group and getting to see people’s opinions and a sentence then a one-word answer. The questionnaires are sometimes reliable, because I am sending the over email people might not pay attention to them. I they do answer them I cant tell if they are just ticking random boxes to get the questionnaire over with. This dies not give me their real opinion, which does not help me for future productions.

An improvement that I would make would be to widen my different methods of gathering audience feedback. This will give me reliable answers that will help me in future productions and also get more people within my target audience to answer and feedback on my advert. Another improvement would be to create more questions in my questionnaires  

Task 1 - Sources of information

We were given the task to create an advert for the product lynx. When filming, some of the pre-production material did come in handy when in the production stage.  But there were many pieces that were not used, for example we did not reflect or look back to our storyboards that we had created. This is because we knew what shots were needed when filming and changed some shots due to location and lighting change. Call sheets were also not needed on set, again because times of when to be on set were memorised and again so were the roles. We did not take most of the pre-production documents out because we were only working on a small production meaning that most documents could be memorised and changed within production, but we still thought of risks that could occur and what was we had thought would be an issue whilst filming. For example we were filming in a location were there was showers, slipping and having water damage to our equipment was something to think about and be aware of whilst filming.

         Most documents were not as useful as we would have hopped due to us knowing our time and place in the production stage, and knowing what was needed to be done in our set time. Because other shots and scenes were added in during the production stage the storyboard was not needed.

         To make sure other pre-production documents in future productions are useful, for example the storyboard could be written shot by shot with information about each shot like the shot types or the different camera techniques to make it more of a reliable source and helpful source when in production.. Creating documents that are more useful having more information about the production so I can refer back to them instead of memorizing or adding or taking away shots and scenes.  This is also time saving, having the documents with all information instead of changing ideas because the crew forgot some aspects of the storyboard or main idea.

When looking back at our pre-production stages and looking at the plan of our advert, there were a few changes to help create a smoother and faster advert. A shot was added (Graphic match) to speed up time and to get the main character into a different location quicker, keeping the advert within a short time limit. A few other close up shots were added in to help show more of a reaction of the main character to the deodorant. Location was changed, whilst filming was in progress because of the mess up of times between our filming time and the P.E department using the changing rooms and sports hall.  

The most useful documents that were used were the script because we referred to it when looking at the next scene or action of the main character. A document that was not useful in the production stage was the call sheet this is because we are a small group making a school project, documents like a call sheet telling us times and roles are not needed because of this small group and what production we are working on. Another document that needed improvement was the shot list, because the shot list was so basic and difficult to understand with the first look, our group memorized the shots and changed them throughout the production stage. To create a shot list that was easy to understand more effort and time should have gone into the planning stage to create a document that as useful to the crew when in production.

When watching our final advert, I think that our advert did its purpose and was clear for what we were trying to sell throughout the Advert. The bottle or the name of the lynx bottle and brand appeared not only at the end, but also throughout the advert. Also when looking through the main theme and story line to the advert, was clear and went with the set theme we were trying to sell to our target audience.  The theme that we were trying to give across was Humor, creating an advert that would be remembered by its humor which I think worked well for our advert, because we used exaggeration to show hoe much the lynx had helped to create a better social life for this young person.  What could have worked better with our advert is some of the shots; some shots were out of focus or swayed when focusing on one object.  Using a tripod for scenes could stop the camera movement and putting the camera into focus when focusing on a person or object to show a clear image. Another factor that could have been thought about more was the soundtrack. The soundtrack that was used could be seen as to ‘cheesy’ for the advert put that did fit in with the humor theme we were trying to aim.  Another factor I could of added to create a more effective advert would have been the use of after affects, to increase my grade and a overall better advert. 

Comparison-  

Advert: My edit

Edit- The edit on my own advert was basic, graphic match was present, was clear and in linear order. Name of product was present at the end.

Soundtrack: Soundtrack on my edit was ‘you’ve got a friend in me’ by Randy Newman, used for the humor theme of the advert but also to go with the idea that the main character has no social life and is an outsider.

Use of actors: Main character was played by Amelia-Jane Williams (me) I’ve never had and acting experience so acting wasn’t up to a good standard. Normal lynx adverts are seen to cast beautiful exotic women, which I was not. Other actors were girls from our group also without action experience, or fit the main women appearance for lynx.

Persuasive techniques: The main persuasive technique I have used in my advert is humor, trying to get an audience to remember my advert.

Target audience:  The main target audience I was trying to aim for is 14-19. Because the main actress was a girl, I thought that it would attract more of a female audience because of the connection. Also because the theme is to do with having friends and be accepted into a social group, this target audience is going through that stage of trying to find new friends.

Effectiveness:  Altogether I thought the advert was effective because of the theme and idea that appealed to out target audience also because we fit in the same age bracket making it easy for us to understand what would stand out for this age group . 

Advert: Lynx- peace, love not war

Edit: The main edit was basic showing different scenes with different events. Cut scenes were present. Shots fit together and changed smoothly into each different scene. Unlike my edit of my advert there was no jump cuts present, lighting was constant through out. Shots in my final edit were out of focus unlike the lynx advert where all shots were clear and in focus. 

Soundtrack: soundtrack that was used was an acoustic piano starting with a depressing tune acoumpining the events that are taking place. It then turns Ito a happy tune when the events change into a lighter mood. The soundtrack fits with the advert due the change in music when the events change, changing the mood of the audience watching. Unlike the advert that my group created the soundtrack did not suit the advert because of the theme of the advert. 

Use of actors: The use of actors in this advert are shown to be from different backgrounds, showing that anyone can use their product. The actors in this advert are more skilled with there acting and look better on screen then the actors. They are also a lot older and a lot more experienced then the actors in out small production. 

Persuasive techniques: The persuasive techniques used in this advert is using plain folk instead of using a famous face, this brings in more people to the product because it is advertised to be for anyone, and anyone can use there product. They also used Emotional appeal, to give the audience emotion when watching the advert. Which then leads to there feelings to the product making it more appealing. 

Target audience: The target audience for this advert is for young adults 19-35 due to the actors in the advert being older and the way they are putting across there product. They are using situations like war, which are linked to more of an older audience. Because of the different target audience that our and this advert are trying to reach the difference between the ideas of the advert are very different. 

Effectiveness: This advert is very effective to sell there product because of the switch between the depressed unhappy place they are in to switch to more of a happy and uplifted theme of them finding there loved ones. The switch Intrigues the audience and makes then Interested in the advert and the product.

Advert: Heat by Beyoncé

Edit: The edit for this advert is basic, simple shots were used. Cuts were present to change scene making it smooth when changing from scene to scene. Unlike my edit the transition was not smooth because of jump cuts used throughout.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack that was used is a cover from Beyoncé herself. The song went with the advert due to it being slow and sexy showing the heat that the advert gives you. I t was slow in tempo, following the movements and walk of the advert. Felt like the music was not controlling her, she was controlling the music. Compared to our advert the soundtrack that was put over felt like it grabbed the audience more then the acting or theme did, because it was so out of place.

Use of actors: The main actors that were used were a famous face being Beyoncé advertising her own perfume. Using these famous faces attracts a wider audience and fan base of this famous person giving the advert and product more attention. Unlike out advert that actress used was not famous which meant there is less views for the advert.

Persuasive techniques: The techniques used that persuaded the target audience, was using a famous face, using this grabs the attention from the fan base as well as the target audience it is aimed for. It also sees bandwagon making everyone want this product because it is made and presented by a famous person, Aspires are linked to the advertisement of this product because they feel like they need to want what’s trendy and what is everyone wants at that moment.  Comparing to the advert that i have created the Persuasive techniques are more adverse and work better in the advert for the perfume heat. Making their audience larger because of techniques used.

Target audience: By looking at the advert, you can tell by the themes of sex appeal being used that it is aimed at a higher target audience the my audience is aimed for. This could be because they are trying to sell the perfume as being sexy and feeling sexy when wearing it, making the audience larger then mine is aimed to.

Effectiveness:  Because of this advert using sex appeal, the advert was banned from day time T.V making more interest in this banned advert, This creates more publicity and views making it more effective for selling the product being advertised. Compared to my own advert Because of the techniques used and the advert being banned it is more effective because of these aspects as well as others.