Advert evaluation

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1. What was the task you were given and who was your target audience? As the audience wasn't typical of the product how did you manage to sell it? What was the name of your brand?

We were given the task to remake an advert for the target audience of a middle aged city worker female, we managed to sell the product in the advert by setting it in a conference meeting which is a clear connotation of a business environment which instantly relates to a city worker, we also designed the product to come in a convenient tube that is easy to store and use on the go, as city workers typically live a busy lifestyle. The name of our brand was espresso burst.

2. Who did you work with and how did you divide the research, planning, filming and responsibilities?

I worked with Bekka, Billy, Aimee and Hannah and we divided the responsibilities by having Hannah act in the advert, help edit and do the research of the three adverts, Aimee filmed the advert and also helped design the packaging for the product as well as draw the scenes on the storyboard, Bekka also was an actor in the advert, helped edit and did the shooting schedule, Billy also acted in the advert and was the main editor for the advert and I also was an actor in the advert, helped edit and did the prop list.

3. How did you plan your sequence?

We planned our video by preparing first off doing a storyboard to get a rough idea of what scenes we wanted to include and what order we would want them in, then after that we applied it a shooting schedule and decided to film the videos in an order that would save us time as we only had one hour booked in the conference room to video our advert and new we had to get the filming done quickly to a high standard. After we had the filming done we then edited the clips and re arranged them into the order we felt was best for the advert and made it as cohesive as possible getting the message and story line across.

4. What research and planning did you undertake?

When planning the advert we researched and drew inspiration from other adverts like the recent haribo sweets advert that is also set in a business environment and this is where we got the idea to set our advert in a conference room with the presentation not going very well up until the moment where the main character who is our target audience a female city worker, takes the sweet and then has a successful life changing presentation, due to taking the coffee flavoured sweet which gives tired, city workers the burst of energy they need to be more successful.We planned our advert by using a storyboard, shooting list and schedule which was very useful as we only had an hour to film in the conference room and therefore had to get it filmed in a short space of time and therefore filmed the scenes in a different order to the advert to save time.

5. What was your initial feedback? What did others say about your production? How successful was your sequence?

Overall our advert was fairly successful in terms of the sequence peoples reaction as they made the connection between the conference room and the fact a meeting was being held and that the protagonist was late and generally having a bad day/poor presentation due to the people who attended the meeting in the adverts general reaction up until the sweet was eaten when the advert went from black and white into colour, the music was upbeat and the audience began clapping and shaking hands with the woman who delivered the presentation.

6. Identify what went well and how in hindsight you would change/improve it?

Overall I think the advert went really well as we managed to get all the filming done in a short space of time however I think if would've been able to get two hours in the conference room we would've been able to have more scenes to choose from for the advert and re take some that we had to cut. Furthermore I would also try to include more actors to fill up the empty space at the conference room to emphasize the awkward and happy atmosphere and emotions we needed in the advert to allow the audience to understand the purpose of our product.

However some things that did go well was the overall storyline to our advert as we all had the same vision and therefore were easily able to create a storyboard, shooting schedule and edit the advert which also went really well as we reflected the emotions in the scene through the colour scheme by setting half the advert in colour and the other half in black and white to reflect the woman's struggle before taking the sweet and her success afterwards. The song choice for our advert also accurately matched the advert as we used 'I will survive' by Gloria Gaynor which emphasized the woman's struggle alongside the black and white filter and the clock ticking sound effect to emphasize her lateness, the chorus of the song also worked well with the woman's success after taking the sweet as the song becomes upbeat and adds a positive mood to the advert which is also aided by the advert coming back in colour.

7. What have you learnt from completing this task?

I have learnt that planning is essential to any media project as it helps you get the overall task done a lot quicker and smoother compared to when you don't plan as people in the group get confused and don't know whats going on, I think the reason our advert was as successful as it was in terms of timing and filming was due to the planning e.g. the shooting schedule, prop list and storyboard.

8. Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant in future productions?

I think this will be useful in future productions and help me as well as the others in the group to make sure the plan is perfect and that all group members know whats going on and what they need to do, so that the project comes out the way that is intended and finished, as poor planning could lead to poor timing and therefore the task not getting completed or appear rushed and poorer quality in certain areas and dragged out in other areas.