Advance Portfolio Evaluation

Ellie Biddle

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

The key codes and conventions used in TV advertising typically consist of the identification of the

brand through the use of the logos and slogans, the restricted length of the adverts generically 30

seconds, compression of story line and the differing categorises of adverts include Narrative,

Spokesperson Presentation, Pitch Presentation, and Voice-Over ads.

I started by researching into a wide variety of adverts and sponsorship sequences. This enabled me

to start to analyse the key codes and conventions of this medium, for example I analysed the stop

frame TV commercial, advertising the Amazon Kindle, created by photographers Angela Kohler and

Ithyle Griffiths presented in the screen grabs above. Kohler and Griffins had the music inextricably

entwined with the mise-en-scene of the advert; the music became synonyms with the USP of the

brand itself. The use of mise-en-scene and props connotes the imagination of the persona in the

advert, The interchange between reality and idealism is indexically shown through the use of the

magic location with the magician props and then the realism of the ‘everyday ‘props including the

bike and day to day wear.I adopted the same conventional use of mise-en-

scene in my advert whereby I used props and the

location to symbolically reference the modern day

music festival .i.e. The ukulele and native Indian

head dress.

I also analysed the moving image John Lewis advert, the advert used a very

conventional nostalgic narrative theme with a start, middle and end. As shown in the

screen grabs presented below

However I felt that this type of convention would not work as well with my

concept therefore I adapted this particular convention by creating a non-

linear narrative advert, telling a story with only a loose narrative theme, i.e.

the child that is in everyone experiencing and enjoying the festival

spectacle .

I then specifically looked at music festival adverts, for example the Channel 4’s Wireless Festival

advert; it became clear the specific conventions of the generic music festival adverts was that the

pace of the editing fitted with the choice of non-diegetic music which makes the advert both

visually and vocally attractive.

I adapted this convention in my own

advertisements, by having the editing pace

intrinsically link with my choice of indie music. An

example of this was when the drum solo is present,

I introduced a moving footage of the actor with the

drum sticks, synchronising the editing and the

sound.

I used the dissolve transition

in the post production

section of my adverts

production, similar to the

editing technique used in the

Wireless Festival Advert.

This is my Soundtrack which I used

throughout my first 30 second advert,

following the Indie Genre of Festival I

was promoting.

I also analysed the 4music advert this along with the Wireless Advert both used the

Fade transitions to allow individuals shots to come together and fade into one

indexically implying the connections the artists had together. I adapted this

particular convention in my own advertisements by having the alternative shots

coming together.

I created narrative based advertisements,

using slow motion and fast motion in

elements of the advert to compress the story.

I learnt from my analysis of the media

products this being sponsorship sequences or

commercials a variety of shots and angles

were used throughout many adverts to

engage the viewer and add increased

interest to the production. I adopted this convention by having a static

camera, interspersed with various angles and

shots to increase the engagement with the viewer.

However I wanted to keep the positioning of the

actor central at all times as I was using green

screen technology I felt this was paramount to my

production.

This use of camera was also seen in the E4

Adverts, which use a static camera to allow the

shots to be synonymous with one another.

How effective is the combination of your main and

ancillary texts?

In order to create a successful radio advert I

researched into existing radio adverts on YouTube

and listened to relevant radio stations, such as

XFM and NME radio stations to see how

advertisers target the particular target market I

was promoting to. This highlighted some of the

key conventions such as the use of jingles, music,

and a clear vocal line. I also used Media

Magazine website to aid my research, finding an

article on How to make radio ads- By Clive

Edwards clarifying my research.

Radio Advert Article

Analysis on Blogger to

increase the synergy in

my adverts.

I research into

relevant radio

adverts to explore

the medium

further.

A key convention often used through radio advertising is the

use of clear vocals, I also learnt the significance of the script

being synonymous with the music and brand; and that the use

of sound effects should make the radio advert more interesting

promoting the advert to the highest standard.

The most significant aspect I wanted to achieve with my

ancillary texts and TV adverts was an element of synergy. I

attained this by using the same indie music I used throughout

my TV adverts; this displays a direct connection between both

my radio advert and the TV advertisements. Furthermore I

also used the same actor for the voice over in both the TV

adverts and the radio advert to achieve the child-like voice over

indicative of the brands slogans. The scripting of the radio

advert reflected the concept of the TV adverts displaying a high

level of synergy. Radio Advert- With Childlike

voiceover also used in the

Television adverts.

In terms of the cohesive relationship with my sponsorship

adverts and the main 30 seconds adverts, I felt I displayed a

strong sense of connection throughout.

The most significant way I created synergy

between the sponsorship and the 30 second

adverts was my use of mise-en-scene I used

similar props and the locations (backdrops)

to suggest the adverts where a brand. This

can be seen through the use of the African

headdress which connotes the enjoyment of

the festival and is used in many of the

moving image adverts. I also used the

camera in a similar way whereby I kept it

static interspersed with close-up and shots

from differing angles to add various and keep

the production similar.

I asked my audience whether they felt the brand image was

cohesive and well established throughout both my radio adverts

and televisions adverts and the results were very positive with no

negative comments. This suggest that both the ancillary texts and

the main adverts display a high level of synergy across the board.

This emphasises that the work I conducted to reflect the brand image

was cohesive throughout the texts, this can be seen through the

scripting of the radio advert, the child-like voice over linking with the

age of the actor in the main adverts. Also the use of sound effects in

the radio ad highlighting the overall tone and atmosphere of the festival

I was trying to conduct in both texts, reflecting a strong brand image.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In terms of receiving feedback from my target audience I used Google

Forms to create a questionnaire, when I had finished all my adverts along

with my radio advert. This enabled me to analyse responses from my

target audience to determine their understanding of the concept. The

questions I featured covered many dimensions and therefore gave me the

relevant information and resources to aid my feedback. I wanted to cover

both the 30 seconds adverts and ancillary texts (my radio advert and the

sponsorship sequences.) Therefore I have received feedback on both the

individual texts and the overall brand as a whole.

I wanted the audience to be engaged in my advertisements from the first

question I received very positive feedback resulting in the audience

enjoying the moving image adverts I produced.

I asked the audience what specific elements of the adverts they

enjoyed and engaged with the most, from the results I conducted the

most appealing elements was the green screen backdrops. This

suggests how the audience enjoyed the changing backgrounds suiting

the generic festival backgrounds.

The concept of my advert was very significant part of promoting

the service, therefore from the results of question 3 I received

very positive feedback resulting in the audience understanding

the concept and meaning of the adverts.

65% of people stated that they would be more likely to purchase

an Imagine Fest ticket having seen or heard the adverts and the

remaining 30% said they would not be sure, generally I felt this

was a positive response.

Furthermore I wanted to see whether my audience understood the synergy

across both the TV adverts and the radio adverts, from the question Do you feel

the brand concept is well established across the advertisements? (E.g.

Sponsorship sequence and Radio Adverts), the public suggested that they did

understand the brand image throughout both texts and the connection that was

displayed through the same music and voiceover, identifying a high level of

synergy.

The variety of shots was the most common choice for the aspect to

change; this is something I agree on as it would have given the

audience a more engaging moving picture to view. The next most

common choice was more than one actor; this is something I could have

gained by using a different actor in the second 30 seconds advert

however I do feel it worked well with the same actor in both as it

increased the level of synergy. Furthermore the same use of actors is

an element that was reflected throughout the John Lewis commercials,

whether they were 30 adverts or sponsorship sequences.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research and Planning Stages: I used a number of research tools such as the internet which

allowed me to access TV commercials through sites .i.e. YouTube

and Google videos. I used YouTube.com to do relevant research into

existing media products for free, such as John Lewis’s

advertisements it also allowed me to embed the adverts into

Blogger.com where I was recording all my progress. I also used

Google as a search engine, as this enabled me to find relevant sites

in the Music Festival Industry e.g. Reading Festival and

independent sites to further my research stages. I felt very

comfortable using these sites as I had used them previously in AS.

I also used Media Magazine Websites to

find articles on advertising, in particular

Radio Adverts for example “How to make

radio ads”- By Clive Edwards, developing

my research and aided the planning stages

of my radio advert production. I used

Sound Cloud, which is a cloud based music

service to find indie music royalty free. I

could then embed the individual tracks into

Blogger.

I feel I successfully used websites and

search engines to develop my research and

planning as I had previously used these

sites in AS.

However the online Media Magazine site

was the first time researching from this

site, suggesting how my use of new media

has developed.

Construction Stages: In the construction of my production I used several new media technologies;

to video the footage these included the use of a HD camera, a higher

resolution camera, which allowed me to attain high quality footage when

filming, green screen technology. The Chroma key compositing is a special

effects / post-production technique for compositing two images or videos

streams together, used heavily in many fields to remove a background from

the subject of a photo or video.

The Green Screen technology wasn’t a piece of technology I had ever used before in the

construction of my production, therefore it was hard to understand the basic

requirements when using the equipment and setting it up. When filming with the Green

Screen I used both the green screen and the studio lights, this was the first time I had

used this equipment so it was also a very different experience and environment to film

within, in comparison to shooting outdoors for my AS production. However, I mastered

this technique which has increased my knowledge base in media technologies.

I learnt that the studio lights, are the most important element when using the

green screen to make sure there is no shadows in the shot, otherwise when

dropping in the background image in the editing suite ‘Premier Pro CS5’ it

would not be as clear and in some cases not work, therefore this was a very

significant aspect. I placed the studio lights at either end of the green screen

without the diffuser on the bulbs to make sure maximum light was present and

then was really to film with my HD camera.

As I was using the green screen technology in the construction stages of my

production in the post-production stages I used Premier Pro CS5 similar to my use

of the editing suit in AS. However this particular use of the editing suit was more

complex and out of my skill set, therefore I used ‘YouTube’ to learn how to drop

the images in the background of the footage, to understand how to do this I

watched a quick tutorial on it. I felt I handled this difficultly well, by using other

technology to aid and guide me through the post-production of my adverts which

was a very worth while learning curve.

Evaluation Stages: My Evaluation stages has been an ongoing process as I have been able to

broadcast my media to peers and members of public through social media sites

such as Facebook and YouTube to keep up to date with relevant feedback. This is

something that wasn’t particularly difficult as I felt I knew how to work on these

sites to aid my evaluation.

Furthermore in terms of my feedback I created a Questionnaire on Google Docs,

this allowed me to see whether my target audience enjoyed and understood the

concept of the advert. This use of technology was new to me therefore I didn’t feel

as confident using it in my evaluation stages, although I overcame this by

spending time overlooking the process of making the form and how the site

worked. The questions I featured covered many dimensions and therefore gave

me the relevant information and resources to aid my feedback and my evaluation.

Also once attaining the relevant feedback this use of new media technology,

Google Docs, places all of the results into a spreadsheet and graphs which

allowed me to understand and analyse my results in the simplest formats.