2. • In what ways does your media product use, develop and
challenge the forms and conventions of real media
products?
3. At the beginning of this whole project, when I began analyzing the codes and conventions of existing
adverts for similar products, I noticed that all of the adverts tended to be between 20 and 30 seconds in
length, much like most adverts that appear on television, and my intention was to keep the ‘Peak Hair’
adverts as true to this as possible.
When I began to analyze many of the Lynx adverts, and the V05 adverts I noticed that they had a
comical tone to them. However, I wanted to take a different approach to my adverts. In doing so I
decided to make my series of adverts more like the Gillette shaving adverts where they use an iconic
sports athlete to talk about and promote the product. The reason for my decision was down to the fact
that I did not want my adverts to be exactly the same as all the other hair care adverts for men,
meaning that I have challenged the conventions of your typical men’s Hair product adverts, making
the ‘Peak hair’ adverts unique in their own right.
After my research I had noticed that when most adverts are promoting a product they tend to have one
advert for one product, however the task that I have have set myself was to create five adverts for one
product which in itself is a big task, as coming up with four different storylines (four different
storylines as the sponsorship sequence is in two parts but is one storyline split into two parts.
Roger Rederer – Gillette
Commercial 2012 Callum Carroll – Sponsorship 1
See
0:08
See
0:24
4. One other very important convention that I noticed in all of the adverts that I had noticed was that all of
the commercials showed the protagonist using/ applying the product to themselves. This is important as
it allows the viewer to make the link between the product itself and how it is correctly used. All of my
adverts besides my sponsorship sequence incorporate this into them. The reason behind why the
sponsorship sequences that I have produced don’t show the protagonist (Callum Carroll) applying the
product is down to timing restrictions as sponsorship adverts are typically between ten and fifteen
seconds long.
My intention in all of my adverts is for the main focus to be the product itself not the protagonist.
Instead of using a voice over which is the typical convention for most adverts I have chosen to use the
protagonist to say the slogan, as I feel that it fits the advert better and that due to my character being a
professional footballer (fictional) it would allow the audience to connect better the protagonist, and had
it been a real advert and the fictional footballer Callum Carrol been also been real, I feel that viewers
would want to use the product more if he is talking about the product rather than a random voice that
the audience cannot connect with as well. However, if it is someone who is inspirational to a lot of
people then the product is more likely to become successful. A medium/ close up shot of the
protagonist applying the product ‘Peak
Hair’
A medium/ close up shot of the
protagonist applying the product.
Key conventions in a lot
of similar adverts are the
close up/ medium shots
when showing the
product being applied. I
chose to stuck to the
regular conventions
similar to the Gillette
commercial. As shown in
the two photos on the
right.
(See: 0:04) (See: 0:21)
5. Limitations:
Throughout this whole process from start to finish, research through to editing I have come across
many things that have limited me in various ways. One of which was locations, in my sponsorship
sequence which I filmed at a local football training club I was limited to the space that we were able to
use, I felt that the astro-turf pitches were the much better alternative to the actual football pitch itself as
they do not look anything like a profession training ground. I wanted to create realism and I felt that
the best way to do this was to film on a more official looking and most realistic styled training ground.
This was a very important aspect to me my filming process as I wanted to make the protagonist role
feel as a (fictional) professional footballer to come across to the audience as realistic and if my actor
actually was he would be seen as iconic to the people watching, and that they would feel inspired to
purchase the product, which is the direction that I have been trying to take this whole project across all
five adverts.
Another limitation that I had faced throughout the whole entire process was the fact that I had to use
rather basic equipment, by this is mean a hand held video recorder and a tripod and that was the extent
of the equipment that I had to film all my footage with. As the camera was not a full size proper
camera that are used by film crews some of the background noise such as wind can be heard in the
second advert that I had produced at the end when we walks out the house and starts talking about the
product. On premiere pro there is a way of removing unwanted background noises by using the de-
noiser effect, however due to the fact that the background noise is so loud it was not effective enough
in removing the unwanted noise.
Another problem that I encountered along my journey was that one of my actors (the goalkeeper in the
sponsorship sequence, second part) had unfortunately injured himself meaning that one part of the
scene that I wanted to extend I was not able to film as he had crutches meaning that there was no way
to re-film that whole scene and add more footage using another actor, so there for timing was also an
issue
6. How Effective is the combination of your main and ancillary
texts?
7. As I have created five different commercials, advertising only one product there needs to be synergy
between them. Otherwise the whole purpose of making five separate adverts would be lost. When the
audience watch all five of the texts they need to be able to identify that they are watching something that
is advertising the same product.
One of the ways that I have created synergy throughout all five of the adverts is through the use of my
actor. I have made all four of the adverts storylines to incorporate the same protagonist, this creates
synergy as when any one of the advertisements appears in front of the viewer they will recognize the
main actor as he is present, in the other ads. This also helps increase the brand awareness of the product
as people would associate my actor Callum Carroll with the product itself.
Another thing that the audience would soon become familiar with is the protagonists voice and when he
says “Peak Hair, be at the top of your game’. The slogan is one very important element when creating an
advert for a product as the main goal is for the advert and slogan to stick in the minds of the audience.
The opening shot of the advert is the logo, as each advert begins with the same logo synergy is created
through all of the texts as the logo is very simple and easy to remember which was one of the key
elements that I wanted to convey when designing the logo.
8. Links between adverts
Sponsorship 2 (0:22)Advert 2 (0:25)
Here there is clear synergy between my second advert and my second sponsorship
sequence. Both show medium distance shots of the protagonist holding up the product
and talking about it on screen, in both he mentions the name of the product ‘Peak Hair’.
In both of these shot the actual product it self is visible to the viewer.
Although the setting for both of these two scenes is different, the use of the same props
and the same protagonist shows a clear connection between them, also the way in which
the prop is held up to the screen makes both these adverts appear alike, which is the effect
that I had been trying to achieve.
9. Links between adverts
Advert 2 (0:25)Advert 1 (0:14)
In both of my main adverts my protagonist leaves a house and goes on to verbally
promote the product. However the shot that I used when filming as the storylines are
different.
Long shot of
protagonist.
Both texts share a similar
locations.
Holding the
product. Visual
advertised.
Audibly promoting
product.
10. All of the texts link as they all use the same actor throughout the whole entirety of the whole
project. The protagonist also plays the same role of the professional footballer . I chose to
have the protagonist play the role of a professional footballer as I felt that it created realism in
all five of my texts. The idea originated from my research into adverts of similar products
E.g. hair products such as Vo5 and lynx, lynx deodorant and Gillette shaving crème. Gillette
used the world famous tennis player Roger Federer to promote their product in their advert,
and the lynx and Vo5 adverts tended to have a storyline.
From my research I noted to myself that I wanted to combine the storyline theme that if you
use this product you will become more successful in what you are doing. Simply down to the
fact that you feel more confident in yourself. This with the iconic element of having a sports
athlete talking about this product and how it is a good one to use, in the hope that people
would try the product because one of their favorite athlete also uses the product and will be
more inclined to try it.
However, one way that this could be considered a risky move is down to the choice of athlete
that I had chose to play the role of the protagonist and the football team that he plays for. This
is why in my productions he never wears a football kit, he just wears plain sporting clothing,
and he never makes reference to a team, just the fact that he is a professional footballer.
11. Conclusion:
All in all I feel that there is a clear link between all of my texts. After watching one of the
adverts the viewer is most likely going to recognize that the other productions are
promoting the same product. I feel that this is something that I have done rather well. I am
proud of the progress that I had made through the transition from AS to A2 and this can be
seen in my work, This time last year I was still unsure how to do a lot of the things that I
had been forced to get up and figure out myself, if it be the filming side or the editing side.
Now I feel much more confident in my ability to create a realistic media texts.
13. Creating my questionnaire
After I had finished filming and editing all of my footage I had to create a questionnaire in order to
find out how the audience felt about the adverts and how successfully I have advertised my product in
all five of my media texts. To create the questionnaire I used an online program called Google docs.
The questionnaire is set up to help me know if I have met the criteria of your typical adverts through
all five of my media texts.
My questionnaire gives people a link to my blog where all five of my media texts are, after they click
the link and watch them there are a series of questions that I have designed to give me feedback about
how they feel about the adverts. My questionnaire asks questions like ‘What is your gender?’this helps
me to understand if I have correctly directed my media texts at the right target audience. Other
questions include “After watching all of the adverts, would you consider purchasing the product?’. As
It is aimed at men, if any women say no I would know that I have reached my target audience
correctly.
Audience feedback such as a questionnaire is a great way for me to see if the public like and enjoy
watching my adverts, and as I have asked them to elaborate on a lot of their answers it will help me if I
had the opportunity to change anything or help me in the future as I know not to make the same
mistakes again, and build up my experience in the field!
14. Questionnaire Preview
Link to my blog.
Asking for their
gender to better my
understanding of their
decision.
Rating scale.
Extra space to
give a detailed
response.
15. The Feedback
On a whole the feedback that I received was positive, the people who filled in my questionnaire seemed to enjoy all five
of the media texts that I had created. On a whole I feel that I accurately aimed these adverts at the correct target
audience as there was only a few which was obviously male as the protagonist was male and he was the only one using
the product. The question: ‘after watching all of the adverts, would you consider purchasing the product?’ to which I got
responses such as “Yes, it is fun new and exciting!” and for those women who answered my survey left comment such
as “as I am female most likely not, however for a friend yes” and “for a male friend yes, or I would suggest it to them”
– feedback like this shows me that the audience clearly noticed that it is a product aimed only at males.
Other questions included things like ‘After watching the adverts on a scale of one to five, how engaging did you find
them on a whole?’ to which 58% of people rated it four out of five which I consider to be a triumph as this means that
they found them interesting. No one who answered the survey rated it lower than a 3 and 39% rated it five out of five
which I am very pleased with!
16. The feedback
On my questionnaire I asked the viewers who filled it in “Does all of the adverts create a young and
fashionable vibe’ which is important as it is a hair product advert I want the viewers to feel that my
product is fashionable as it would help it sell had it been a real product, and if the audience don’t feel
that there is a fashionable vibe to the media texts then I know that I have not portrayed the product in a
way that I was hoping to.
Thankfully everyone who answered my questionnaire felt that my commercials created this
fashionable tone, which I was hoping to achieve. This tells me that using a professional footballer as
my main protagonist (even though he may be fictional) shows that people tend to find footballers
inspirational. Also as the question asks if they believe that it creates a young vibe shows that I have
marketed my product accurately as it is aimed at young males between the ages of fifteen to thirty, as
after doing my research into the hair product industry that this is the age when males tend to use hair
products as part of their daily routine in the morning as part of getting ready of the day ahead.
17. More Feedback
One more question that I asked the audience on my survey is ‘What do you think about the storyline of
all of the adverts?” and I gave them extra space and marked it as a required question, to give me a bit
of insight into their own thoughts and feelings about what they had watched. Again, on a whole a large
majority of the feedback was extremely positive and the audience showed a keen liking to the plot of
all of the adverts and how they linked between one another.
However one of the main comments that stuck out to me was one that said “good idea using a famous
footballer that really follows the conventions…” and they then go on to say “that again depending on
what tear your target audience supports … could affect your sales of the product” – With my storyline
this is something that is extremely had to avoid, however everyone has preferences when it comes to
sports and their favorite athlete, so perhaps next time I could have created a survey to find out what
footballer and team is most popular and go from there.
18. Although a lot of my audience feedback is very positive I feel that some of the people who answered
my questionnaire have answered it bearing in mind that I am a fellow peer to them, possibly leading
me to have better responses than I possibly would have gained had I thrown it out to a different age
demographic. However the problem with doing this is that a lot of people are not familiar with media
terms and I felt that it was best to ask other students who are currently studying media as they would
understand and be able to pick out faults easier than other people who are unfamiliar to media studies,
so I would consider this to be a problem as I am not sure weather my results are one-hundred percent
accurate or not.
I do feel that I am proud of the way in which my adverts have all turned out however I feel that there
are a few key points that can be dramatically improved. For example in my first main text I feel that
the product could have been advertised in a better light. It is clear what the advert is trying to promote
however, the product itself is not shown in the text, which could lead to some confusion within the
audience.
Another thing that I feel could have been done better, is the removal of the background noise in my
second main text. I tried using effects to remove the sound of the wind but it is too loud to be removed
completely, which came to much frustration for me.
It is at this point at around 0:22 seconds into the advert
where the strong sound of the wind can be heard. I feel
that the sound of the wind hinders my production as it
makes it feel more like an amateur production as the
sound of the wind in the background shows my
inexperience in my editing skills.
Advert 2 (0:22 seconds)
19. One other problem that surfaced was that when I tried to open Adobe Premiere Pro it keep
crashing on me a saying that there was no video footage in the sequence which meant that
I could not further edit my work. This has been very inconvenient as it means that I have
to leave my productions as they are, and also meaning that I cannot improve on my media
texts in the areas in which my teacher said that I should improve. As a result this is why
the background noise is still apparent in my radio advert and second main text advert.
In conclusion to this I still feel that I have correctly aimed my ads towards the right age
group and social class and this is apparent from my audience feedback.
20. Conclusion on Audience Feedback
In conclusion the feedback that I received was on a whole mainly positive which is great
for me to hear. As a lot of the feedback was in my favor it shows that I have reached out
to my target audience very well and have created five different media texts the people
find interesting. All of the feedback that I have received will better help my
understanding of the advertising industry within the media industry and if I ever come
around to doing something similar I know how to accurately reach out to my target
audience. It is important that I learn from any errors that I have made throughout the
entire journey from start to finish.
Perhaps if I was to go back and redo my survey I would have asked a few different
questions such as ‘How do you feel the camerawork is on a whole?’ this would be useful
as in terms of the practical sides of things, could better my camerawork in the future,
however this sort of question is only really suitable for media students or people who
have studied media as they understand camera angles etc. All in all I am very pleased
with the feedback that I had received from the audience and I thoroughly enjoyed the
process throughout the past year and hope to go on and do more media projects in the
future and this feedback will help me produce higher quality camerawork and script
writing.
21. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
22. Planning and Research
YouTube:
When I began the whole research process back in September/ October, I used a few different types of
new media technologies to familiarize myself with the codes and conventions of present adverts that
are shown on television and past commercials that are no longer aired, but are still just as useful in
informing myself about them.
When I began to analyze past adverts I had found ‘YouTube’ to be the most effect and most useful way
of finding past examples. This was incredibly useful as it holds a vast quantity of adverts and
sponsorship sequences etc. Another feature that was incredibly useful was the fact that it made it
extremely effective to embed the videos that I would be analyzing onto my blog. I found YouTube to
be the most useful out of all the online new media technologies out there as it is quick, easy to use and
I had already been familiar with using the website as it is an extremely popular website for videos and
music.
When we were creating the animatic sequences which we were to use as the template for the real
adverts that I would soon be starting to film and edit, I used YouTube to upload them, then copy and
pasted the embedded the link onto my blog. YouTube has helped me a great deal throughout every
stage of planning and researching, to uploading my finalized adverts.
YouTube was also the source in which I found the diegetic score that I have put in the background of
all five of the adverts which I had produced. As it is such a widely used program I thought that it
would be the most suitable place to find non-copy written music.
23. My use of Google and Google Docs
For me Google has been a massive help throughout the entirety of this project, and I don’t think there
has been a search engine so well put together as Google. Google has many different features that I
have benefited form using for the whole duration of my Media A2 coursework, one of which being –
Google Docs. Google Docs is an free online version of iCloud, that makes it quick and easy to save my
research to.
It was in Google Docs that I created my survey before I began the filming stage to find out what my
target audience was and also the survey I made to collect the results for my audience feedback. The
surveys that I had produced and had my fellow peers and others fill in, have made my advert what it is
today, as it has helped me to specify what sort of target audience I am aiming my product at, and
accurately put together my footage to meet these requirements to create a series of successful
commercials.
While blogging throughout the year long process of producing my adverts I have used Google as a
source for information through the research and planning stages of the process. Google images has
been very useful in terms of styling my product, in terms of finding new and interesting fonts and
logos for my product as I wanted my ‘Peak Hair’ pot to be unique in its own right, and the styling to be
different to anything else available on the current market.
24. Blogger
During this whole project I have been using a new media technology called ‘Blogger’ which has been
developed by Google. Blogger allows any person with access to the internet to set up their own blog.
This website has been extremely useful to me through the entire process as it has allowed me to post
blogs on my research, planning and through the creative stages of my project. I am familiar with the
website as I had to use it last year through the entirety of my AS coursework Project. So when I created
my new blog I knew exactly what I had to do as I had done the same for the previous year of Media
Studies.
Blogger has been a great software to have been using as it allows me to update and blog about my
progress through every stage of developing my television commercials. One other advantage of using
this software is it allows me to constantly go back and look over my ideas for my project and means
that I don’t have a notepad or book full of pages. It is clean a tidy and a great way to organize my
work. Blogger also allows my teacher to go through and see how I have been coping with the task in
hand. One other great thing about using blogger to post my ideas is that I can access it from any
computer that has access to Wi-Fi, making my life a whole lot easier!
Blogger has been wonderful to use as I can go back and look at what I need to do next, sort of like a
tick list. As it is developed by Google it allows me to easily integrate my questionnaires and allows me
to clearly and simply analyze past examples of adverts that have been and still are aired on television
today, helping me to build on my own knowledge and helps me to come up with new ideas for my own
project, and improve my past ideas.
25. Facebook and Twitter
Facebook and Twitter have been very useful forms of new media technologies. Social media plays
such a big part in todays, that I thought the quickest way to get a substantial amount of responses
would be to write a post on both of these social media websites in hope that my fellow friends and
followers would be quick to respond in helping me to see how accurately I have aimed my adverts at
my target audience. society that when creating both of my questionnaires I have used Facebook and
Twitter as a way of getting feedback off people.
After asking for people to fill in my questionnaire by word of mouth I realized that I had not got
enough responses. In order for me to get more responses quickly I came to the conclusion that the best
way to go about doing so would be to use social media. The two forms of social media that I chose to
use were Facebook and twitter, and this was incredibly successful as many of my friends and people
who follow me took the time to go out of their way and fill in my questionnaire.
However after I posted my questionnaire on social media sites for my AS media project some people
wrote some responses that I didn't’t feel were suitable (e.g.. Immature comments). So when I used
Facebook to ask people I direct messaged them so that I would not get any people writing unwanted
comments instead of taking it seriously.
26. Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
The software that I have created all five of my media texts in is Adobe Premier Pro CS6, this is the
software that has been provided to us by our school, and I have been familiar with using it from my AS
Media Studies group project that I had made last year, so getting to grips with using it did not take me
a great deal of time which came in handy as time is of the essence.
One great thing about having used Adobe Premiere Pro before is that when I came around to editing
my footage, I was building on the knowledge that I had already had from my previous years work, so
now I am finding easier to use the program, and completing tasks in half the time it would have taken
me had I not been familiar with the software.
I used this program for every stage of the editing process, it is a great program once you get to grips
with how it works. I used it to edit the music, and the footage I had filmed. Premiere Pro is also what I
had used when I was creating the opening logo that appears at the beginning of all of my adverts and
also the titles that appear in my sponsorship sequence. It has been a great help to me as had I had to
use another program there is a chance that my adverts might not have turned out at well as I would like
them to. When creating the logo, as it was a rather simple design I just used the creative text tool
within the program it self. After a couple of drafts I was happy with the end result and chose to use this
throughout all four of my media texts and also used it as the backdrop for my my radio advert.
I also used adobe premiere pro to create my radio advert adverts as it allowed me to precisely and
effectively cut down the parts of the sound clip to exactly how I wanted them to be. Making my radio
advert the best that I could be due to the precise nature of the program. I strongly feel that this software
has helped me to create five adverts that meet their requirements, in terms of being like other adverts
that are currently shown on TV and radio
27. Throughout the entire filming process I used Adobe Premier Pro to do all of my editing across all five
of the texts. All of the titles that appeared at the beginning of all of my adverts was created using the
text tool within Premier Pro. It was a great help to me that I had to do the same for my AS opening title
sequence to a thriller film which was called ‘Vengeance’ which was a political thriller where the
protagonist was aiming to assassinate the Prime Minister.
The reason why I chose for all of the adverts to begin with this title screen is so that is resonates in
their mind and that they remember the name of the product.
I feel that I have made significant progress using Premier Pro from when I was at AS level trying to
create title sequences. I had no idea at all how to add titles onto the film itself, however I feel that my
personal development has soared in the last year and my confidence in using the software has
increased a great deal, where before I only played a small role as our group had four people in it
meaning that the workload was slip between four people. When I began A2 back in September I made
sure that I re-familiarized myself with the software as I still did not fully understand it, and to some
extent there are some features that I still am unsure how to use, but with practice come perseverance.
Adobe Premiere Pro looks quite daunting when you are unfamiliar with it as there are a lot of things to
click. However I now feel so much more confident in using the program to edit and add titles to my
work.
This is the opening title sequence for
all five of my adverts. It is shown at
the very beginning of each text.
