2. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of a real
media product?
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of a real media product?
In creating my media product I used, developed and challenged forms of real media products, this means that while my media product is still
original in aspects it does provide some familiarity for the audience.
Camera: One of the adverts that inspired me was the Yves Saint Laurent Babydoll mascara featuring Cara Delevingne. The advert uses
medium shots and close ups. Below you can see the similarity between the Babydoll mascara advert and my own, I used a side profile
medium shot showing the protagonist looking in the mirror and holding the mascara about to use it. Additionally while at the same time as
using some conventions from this advert, although I did decide to have the protagonist sitting at a dressing table rather than standing at a
mirror in what looks like a living room as this gives more of the impression of her getting ready for something.
Again below you can see another example of how I used conventions of this mascara advert by shooting a close up of the protagonists eyes,
although again I have also decided to develop the idea by having a close up of both of the eyes rather than just one as seen in the Babydoll
advert. Furthermore in my advert the protagonist is looking at the camera, I chose to have this shot like this as it provides a connection with
the audience and I believe it shows off the eyes more and you can see the affect of them on the face as a whole rather than from the side.
4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of a real media product?
Although I have used the stereotypical female by the protagonist wearing a dress, I
have actually challenged the conventions of cosmetic adverts as you can see below
very often females are presented as more masculine to give the idea of them being
strong and independent. I feel that by dressing my female in a long black dress is
actually individual in the cosmetic advertising world and it has come to my attention
that too many adverts are trying to be different by using more masculine clothing. I
decided to do this as I feel that in a product that is used by females, they should be
presented in a feminist way to reveal how the product makes them feel fabulous as a
woman and not trying to be something that they are not.
Mise-en Scene: I chose to have my protagonist
wearing a dress to conform to the conventions of
women being feminine, a theme that is prominent in a
lot of advertising. For example in the Boohoo
Christmas advert the females are all shot wearing
dresses and heels therefore I decide this should be an
outfit choice that my female protagonist also has.
5. Editing: Editing was an aspect that I decided to take elements from the Babydoll advert in the sense that the editing starts off
slower and then gets faster, this makes the audience more engaged as it is as if its building up to some sort of climax. I
generally used straight cuts throughout all of my advertising, although I used cross fades from the last shot the the writing
appearing on screen and the voice over. One of my main challenges I faced on the editing side of my project was cutting the
shots in time with the beat of the music I was using, although this may seem like a very conventional aspect of editing it was
actually difficult to find other mascara adverts that did this and it came across as quite a complex feature.
Actress Used: The actress I used for my entire media advertising project was Melissa. I decided to use Melissa as she has
long blonde hair and blue eyes which would contrast with the black mascara and make the mascara look even more effective.
Melissa was a conventional actress to use for a beauty product advert and the clothes I dressed her in somewhat made her
even more conventional as she was elegant and stylish which many make-up adverts portray the protagonist as.
Sound: When completing the research stage of the project I discovered that the majority of cosmetic adverts used slower and
more sophisticated music for example the YSL Babydoll and Manga eyes adverts. Adverts use this slower music to portray
elegance and beauty, I decided to challenge these conventions and decided to use an upbeat piece of music which has a beat
which meant I can edit the clips and cut when the beat sounds. I wanted to use faster music because I feel that it made my
advert more entertaining and engaging for the audience.
Radio Advert: I recorded my radio advert on a sound recorder and edited it in Adobe Premier Pro. I added the music I had
used throughout my sponsorship and two main adverts to ensure brand recognition as the song is catchy and memorable. I
repeated the brand name in the radio advert to again reinforce brand recognition, here I used the codes and conventions of
radio advertising as this is an aspect that all radio adverts do, for example Maybelline and I wanted my radio advert to stand
out just as much as other radio adverts for other products and similar products. The radio advert ends with ‘Shine bright like a
diamond’ which is my slogan, during my research I learnt that many radio adverts end on their slogan so that the audience is
more likely to remember your brand and slogan.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of a real media product?
6. How effective is the
combination of your main and
ancillary texts?
7. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
I feel that I managed to keep a theme running throughout my main and ancillary texts meaning that brand recognition played a big part
and I tried to keep many features the same. I knew that synergy is vital in advertising and this is why I decided to keep my actress, music,
slogan and close off at the end of each advert the same.
Whilst being similar my two main adverts have different locations and also have the protagonist is very contrasting outfits, this was no
mistake. I wanted to have very contrasting adverts in the sense of clothing and task she was partaking in, for example in my first main
advert I have the protagonist sitting at a dressing table in casual clothing getting ready for something, and in the second advert I have her
dressed very elegantly and mature, suggested at a party with champagne. I decided to do this as I feel that it portrays to the audience
that my product is for any type of female and that you do not have to have a certain lifestyle to make use of the versatile product. During
the research stage of the project I noticed that the majority of beauty product adverts had one main female, for example Kate Moss for
Rimmel London, brands do this to increase their recognition and link to a certain celebrity, I then decided to do the same in my own
advertisements. My protagonist, Melissa, has blonde hair and eyes which were complimented by the mascara and really stood out, I feel
that by using this one actress who is memorable and has memorable features, for example the bright blonde hair, my brand becomes
more recognizable and additionally linked to this female.
8. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
Throughout all of my adverts, including ancillary texts, main adverts and radio advert I used the same music, I decided to do this as it again
it reinforces my brand and as learnt in the research section of my project the music is very important to an advert, particularly an advert with
no spoken narrative therefore having the same music in every advert will hopefully make them more memorable. The music I used is catchy
and upbeat, I chose this music to engage the audience and due to it being exciting and having a memorable beat the audience may
associate the song with the product.
I think the piece of music was very suited to my product and the product I was advertising. The music is fast paced which can be considered
unconventional for a mascara advert as the majority of them use slower and more elegant music to imply being higher class.
“The music was very catchy and I like the way the cuts match the beat of the music piece”
Above is a comment I got back on my audience feedback survey. I think that the music I used is very different to music you would usually
associate with a mascara advert therefore I feel that I have slightly challenged conventions here and although there is a chance this could
shock the audience somewhat, I feel that this would also be enjoyable as the beat and music is more lively and exciting and I wanted to
keep my audience engaged. During the editing I decided to edit the cuts of the shots to the beat of the music as this brings the whole advert
together as a whole. Additionally the music worked well in the sense of working with both my sponsorship sequences and both my main
adverts as they have different types of shots and actions, therefore the music is very versatile.
10. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
One of the main questions I wanted to ask my audience was whether or not the adverts worked well together as I personally thought that
this was one of the main aspects my project should have met. In the diagram above you can see that 97% of people who answered my
audience feedback which is a result I am very pleased with as synergy and continuity were things I was very focus on while creating my
advertisements. After asking the initial question I then decided to ask the audience to explain in a few words why they thought this and again
I was very pleased with the feedback I received. Some of the main aspects people thought that made the adverts link and go well together
was the music which I decided to use in my two main adverts, sponsorship sequence and radio advert, and the fact I used the same actress
in every advertisement and had no other characters. I decided to use the same actress in all of my adverts as this is something I found that
many make up adverts do while completing my research, I discovered that adverts do this to create a ‘face of’ their brand and use celebrity
endorsement for exaggerated advertising and to reinforced just how brilliant their product is if famous people are shown to like it. Someone
who responded commented ‘because of the same actress and music it creates familiarity’ this comment reinforces exactly what I was trying
to do when initially planning my adverts and wanted the audience to feel comfortable with the familiarity and recognize the brand because of
certain aspects. I also found that from the audience feedback people thought my mise-en scene was accurate for example ‘I loved the
clothing you used and the model was perfect for a mascara advert!’ I decided on the clothing I used very carefully for example in the main
advert where the actress is wearing the black dress reveals a elegant side to the female whereas the other main advert reveals a more
casual side to her, thus showing that the mascara is versatile and can be used as a day to day product rather than purely for special
occasions. Overall I am very pleased with the responses to these two questions and I feel my hard work to keep continuity and create a
brand synergy has really been shown in the feedback.
11. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
This question was one where I wasn’t as pleased with the results, although I understand where I went wrong and accept the feedback as I
know how I could have improved. In my both my main adverts and sponsorships I decided not to use my logo as I wanted to keep it clean
and classy, however I then found out this actually affected the memorability of my product. Although it was not the majority, 31% said that
didn’t find the slogan/ product name memorable which means I had significantly not exaggerated my product enough. I tried to repeat the
brand name in my radio advert but I found it was more my visual advertising which knocked this down.
In my ‘other comments’ question the lack of memorability was again bought up and remained something that was a main let down for
much of my audience. As seen below comments such as ‘The name should have been more overused’ and ‘The product name could have
been used more or maybe a logo’ these two comments reinforced how a proportion of the people who answered my survey felt I had not
exaggerated the product name enough and hadn’t used a logo, this could have meant that my product was not as memorable as I initially
thought it would have been, additionally having not used shots of the mascara with the name showing boldly in the actual footage, I relied
mainly on the font I added on screen on titles and clearly I had not have done this enough for the audience to be happy with. ‘I liked how
the cuts of the advert were the same as the beat of the music’ this comment was one which I was pleased with as I worked with my
teacher to achieve this as we both felt it bought the overall advert together more and made it runs smoothly,
I also got a few other comments about the music beat and cuts being at the same time. In my sponsorships especially I understood where
the comment ‘It was hard in some of the adverts to understand what was being advertised, this is because in one of my sponsorships I
start with shots of the female walking and then walking into a room and I understand why people would say its initially hard to understand
what was being advertised which is huge downfall. However I feel that once the female has retrieved the mascara from the safe and
applies it to her eyes the advert all starts to make sense although adverts are not meant to confuse the audience so this is definitely
something I would change if I had the chance to redo the project.
12. I made sure that the brand name of my mascara was overused and visible in all of my adverts, this is because I wanted to boost brand
recognition as much as I could for my product. I wanted the name of the product to appear large, and I decided to use white engaging font
on a black background which made the name really stand out. I had ‘Ultimate Lash’ written in the centre at the end of each of my adverts,
I used a font which was slightly curled and looked fancy, this style suited my adverts and the product itself as I wanted it to appear elegant
and desirable. I toyed around with the idea of placing my logo on the ending title of my adverts as well as the name and slogan but I feel
that this made it look slightly tacky and unprofessional due to the logo being in a white box and the whole thing looked very unorganised. I
also asked a few of my peers about what they thought looked better and after receiving advice to keep it simple and sleek I decided
against using a logo and keeping the whole thing very low-key yet eye-catching and elegant. I also used the name of the product in my
radio advert as the only way you are selling your product is through a voice and you need to be persuasive and make your product
memorable. I branded my product specifically and used the techniques I had learnt in my research, one of which was be persuasive yet
subtle, I learnt that this means that try and sell your product without shoving it in the audience’s face and put them off completely. I
completed this by over using the brand name but on a dark plain background with little font on the title page with it meaning it was eye-
catching for the audience and would be something they instantly notice. I used my own personal experience of judging adverts and how
they make me feel when creating my own, I needed to create something that the audience would recognise and remember it in order to
create a brand for it.
On the right in my audience survey you can clearly
see that my audience felt there was synergy
throughout the five texts I created. I am pleased with
theses results as synergy was something I really
focused on when creating my media and I feel the
results can show for this. While it can be argued that
my two main adverts and also my two sponsorship
sequence halves are in some ways very different I
feel that by keeping some key features, for example
the music and the ending titles the same they come
together nicely as a collection of adverts. The adverts
all have their own good and bad points but I feel that
together they perform well as a strong advertisement
campaign of a successful branded mascara, cosmetic
product.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
13. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
The Only Way of Essex is a program I chose to for my
product to sponsor as the audience is teenagers and
young adults who idolise the glamour and style of the
program. 100% of my audience responses said that The
Only Way of Essex was suited for my product to
sponsor and this is a result I am pleased with yet
expected. The fact my adverts used a young adult
actress and the locations used were not like higher
class make up adverts like Chanel or Dior who you may
find sponsoring coverage of the Academy Awards,
TOWIE was a very appropriate program for my
sponsorship to appear on.
I decided to ask the question ‘What did you like most about my
advertisement package?’ I gave the audience a checkbox
option so that they could pick more that one of the 4 options
and a ‘other’ option if there was something else that they
thought was the best aspect. 18 people who answered by
survey said that the music was the best aspect of my
advertisement package, this is a result I am pleased with as I
spent a long time finding a piece of music I thought would be
catchy, engaging, memorable and modern. I feel that the music
I chose for my adverts was almost perfect, although in
comparison to other mascara adverts the music is
controversial and upbeat. Although I tried to portray elegance
in my adverts I feel that the music is versatile and still
complements this aspect. 12 people liked the overall style of
the adverts and 8 people thought the actress was the best part
about the adverts which I agree with to an extent as I feel she
was perfect for the role and the blonde hair and blue eyes
were very eye catching especially in close ups when applying
mascara. 6 people said that the camera work was the best part
which I was surprised at as I personally though my camera
work was basic although I feel that people may have liked the
zoom in’s from the actresses face to her eyes revealing the
effect of using the product and the continuously appearing
close ups of the eyes followed by the glamour of the outfit etc.
14. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
93% of people who answered my audience feedback survey said
‘yes’ that the adverts would persuade them to purchase the
product after. A further 7% said that it wouldn’t but looking back at
my male: female ratio 7% who answered were male and this may
be why two people said no to this question. I am pleased with the
results of this particular question because it shows that my advert
overall completed the role it was meant to (sell the product) and
as shown in my results this is something I managed to do
successfully. Due to mascara being almost essential in a female’s
make-up bag having people say yes to this question suggests
that they would choose my brand over any others.
The pie chart to the right shows the gender of the people who
answered my audience survey 93% were female and 7%
were male these results correspond with other results I
received. For example with the results above I got the same
percentages for responses therefore I can suggest that the
two people who said no could be the two males who
answered by survey as males wouldn’t stereotypically buy
make up. By having males answer my audience feedback
survey does make it slightly biased as they are not my target
audience. However on the question “Do you think my adverts
went well together” only one person answered no and on the
question “Do you think my sponsorship suited sponsoring
TOWIE” 100% of people who answered said yes. Therefore
the males who did answer my survey did actually contribute
positive results to my results and didn’t actually answer
biasedly due to the product not being aimed at them.
15. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Overall I am very pleased with the audience feedback I received as a lot of it was positive and I feel that ultimately the audience
enjoyed my advertising package. The main positive comments I received in my feedback from the audience was that the model I
used was perfect for the advert I was creating and I was pleased with this comment as I careful chose my model based on the
research I did on the female stereotype, this is also what I did when choosing the clothing for each of my adverts.
I was pleased that the audience liked that my sponsorship sponsored TOWIE as this means that the viewers when watching
TOWIE would potentially decided that they want to buy my product as being advertised on a program such as The Only Way is
Essex makes the product desirable. Additionally I feel that I used synergy effectively as the majority of the audience said that my
advertisements went well together. I am pleased with this response as synergy was something I really focused on during the
production and editing part of the project as this is essential and If adverts do not contain at least some of the same features they
can look very out of place with each other. I decided to keep my actress, my music, my editing style, the voice over and the titles
the same to ensure that my adverts go as well together as possible.
Although I am pleased with the majority of the feedback I understand where my project has it’s downfalls and I know what I would
change if I were to improve or redo the task. Not overusing the product name (Ultimate Lash) enough was something a lot of the
people who answered commented on and said that if I had used the product name and slogan more often the product would be a
lot more memorable and could mean that they are more likely to purchase the product. Additionally the audience thought I should
have used a logo in my adverts. During the planning stage I did create and edit a logo which I was going to use on the title pages
but when it came down to actually putting the title pages together I experimented with using the logo and it looked far too cluttered
and busy for a title page whereas I wanted my adverts to appear sleek and professional as this is something I learnt in my
research that a lot of mascara adverts do. Therefore I feel that when creating a project you have to make decisions that both have
pros and cons, I chose neatness over exaggerating the brand and overusing the name and slogan which from an advertising point
of view was probably a bad decision and this would be something I would change if I had the chance to redo the project again.
16. How did you use new media
technologies in the construction
and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
17. How did you use new media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research and Planning:
Due to completing a similar initial step I used my previous knowledge of
planning and research from my AS coursework to aid me at going about
this stage. During my AS course, as a group we decided to watch past
media of a similar genre to begin to understand the codes and
conventions and to get an idea as to what type of media we were going
to create. Therefore I went about researching for the A2 course the same
way. I had chosen to partake in the ‘Advertising’ section of the course
and therefore used YouTube to watch past adverts. I started off by
watching general adverts, ones that were well known and catchy for
example Ikea, Wonga Loans and Compare the Market to get an initial
understanding of advertising codes and conventions. After completing
research on those types of adverts I analysed them and recorded what I
learnt on my blog. After I had decided what type of product I wanted to
advertise, I chose a mascara product, I then started to focus my
advertising research on mascara adverts and other make-up related
adverts to get an understanding of how this type of advertising use code
and conventions specifically.
Throughout the research and planning stages I of course used Blogger a
lot to access and post things I found useful and that I had learnt from
onto my blog. I found using my blog really helpful as it meant all the
information I would need when I came around to the planning stage was
all in one place and I was able to easily extract information I needed,
Posting everything to my blog was a lot easier than writing information
down on paper or even trying to remember things, also the posts I made
are editable therefore when I find more information I wanted I could write
it in the post without having to repost or make anything look untidy.
Blogger was an excellent aid at saving information and then recalling
information when it came to the planning stage.
18. Construction of media:
During the creation stage of the project I used a variety of technology to aid me in making
the best pieces of work I was able to. I had used all the equipment before in the AS course
which meant I was familiar with everything and didn't’t have to waste anytime relearning
things.
Camera:
I was given a camera and tripod by the school. The tripod aided me in being able to use
particularly heighted shots and angles, the tripod also allowed me to use shots like pan and
tilt up/down. The camera had features like zoom which mean I was able to shoot successful
zoom in and zoom out shots which looked effective and engaging to the audience.
Editing and Adobe Premier Pro:
I decided to use Adobe Premier Pro for the editing part of my project as I was familiar with
the program from last years course and I felt it would be effective and successful at creating
what I wanted, having used it last year and been happy with the outcome. I used functions
like the crop clip tool and the tool to edit how loud the sound or music was. I also particularly
enjoyed using Premier Pro because it meant I was able to use transitions like cross dissolve
for example, seen in my sponsorship sequence.
I used Photoshop to create my logo as this was the program most suited and most effective
for what I wanted to create. I also used Photoshop to create the black background clips at
the end of my sponsorships with the ‘Sponsors of TOWIE’ as I was shown how I could
effectively create a professional looking title for the ending which added a little extra to the
overall sequence.
Sound Recording:
I started off by recording the voice I needed for my radio advert and voice overs for
sponsorship and main adverts on a voice recorder from school. After I had uploaded the
recordings into Premier Pro I found that they were really crackly and didn't’t sound
professional at all. I then decided to try recording the voices on ‘Voice Memos’ on the iPhone
and after having uploaded these I found that the quality was so much better and very clear
so I decided to continue recording the voices I needed on this device rather than the voice
recorders supplied.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
19. Evaluation:
I used new media technologies right up to the evaluation stage of the advertising project. When I had completely finished
editing my adverts and sponsorship sequences I had to export the media from Premiere Pro in order to upload them on the
Internet. I used Vimeo to upload my adverts onto the Internet and I had used it before and I knew It was quick and
remembered how easy it is to share the embed code to my blog. I used Google Docs to create my audience survey as I had
also used this before when making last years survey and decided to stick with what I already knew to save time. I decided to
use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to share my audience feedback survey to get as many people as
possible to answer it and this would mean more accurate feedback.
I found that Google Documents was particularly helpful when it came to creating my audience survey as it gives you so many
options of how you want the question/ answer boxes to look that you can easily and time efficiently create a survey that looks
professional and is able to provide you with the results you require. Google Docs also has a feature which allows you to put
results of the questionnaire into charts and graphs and I found that using the pie chart option was perfect for my evaluation
and was easy to interpret the answers to each question rather than simply listing them.
Additionally the fact the survey was online meant that I wouldn't’t have to waste time printing out copies, handing them out
and then manually entering the results onto a graph generator. Google Docs simply allowed me to embed the code so that
people were able to quickly and easily complete the questionnaire and I was able to reach the mass audience putting the link
onto my social networking accounts.
Overall I feel I have effectively developed my technical skills over the course. At the beginning of the A2 course I was very
unconfident with using Premiere Pro which was the program I was going to be using for the editing of my project. I decided to
use my initiative and watch online tutorials of how to edit particular elements such as changing the level of the sound and
layering clips to create cleaner cuts. I feel that overall as a person I have changed since I completed the AS course as when
unsure of what to do I would have asked for help immediately whereas this year I tried to work things out for myself and
became a more independent learner this way. Being able to use the new media technologies provided for me allowed me to
effectively research, plan, create and edit my work and producing a project that was the best possible work I was able to
create.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
