3. We have followed the conventions of a
sponsorship sequence with our soundtrack being
upbeat. We chose a hip-hop track which doesn’t
have lyrics as we didn’t want the words of the
song to distract the audience away from the
clothes as the main aim is for us get the target
audience focused on the clothing in the advert.
We feel the song went really well with the
sponsorship sequence and it allowed the models
to feel confident and empowered.
4. For our sponsorship sequence we have used a narrative. This narrative
then linked to the programme in which we chose to sponsor, Gossip Girl.
This is not a typical convention and is not often used as it narrows
advertising opportunities so we would not be able to use this sponsorship
sequence for any other shows at it would clash meaning we would have to
make a new sponsorship advert. Although, we have used it and we feel that
it is very effective. However, due to the short period a sponsorship
sequence is (around 15 seconds max) we weren’t able to portray as much
of the narrative as we would have liked to but we are happy with style of
narrative we have chosen. The audience will be able to relate to the models
and gives them an idea into how to be like the characters in the programme
but in their own interpretation.
5. Another convention of a sponsorship sequence is the brand name
and the name of the programme they are sponsoring being said as a
voiceover at the end. We have followed this convention by having a
voiceover and on screen text showing the brand name ‘Ellie-May’
and ‘Sponsors Gossip Girl’. We feel that this was effective as it was
on a white screen and black bold font. However, the white screen is
very basic and isn’t very interesting, we could have possibly kept
the moving image of the models up and also we could have made
‘Sponsors Gossip Girl’ in slightly larger writing so that the audience
will see that Gossip Girl is just as good as the Ellie-May brand. A
change that we made after our first draft was having ‘Sponsors
Gossip Girl’ pop up on its own when the white screen faded in, this
meant that the audience would notice it come on screen and would
give it more focus to the audience.
6. We use quick cuts in between all the shots as the
narrative is continuous which is a typical convention of a
sponsorship sequence. We think this is very effective in
our sponsorship sequence and it is makes the sequence
fast moving and interesting as we wanted to attract the
audience in to watching the advert without them getting
bored. However, we could have added some other
techniques including strobe cuts which involves the image
before to flash back and forward with the next image, this
would have added more action into the sequence and
would have made the advert more creative and different.
However, our target audience would be searching for
something further down the pyramid so the fact that we
didn’t add loads of creativity works in our favour as our
target audience is looking for cheap, attractive clothing
and not something over exaggerated and high class.
7. Another convention is having a stationary camera in
every shot, we have challenged this in our
sponsorship sequence. Our production contains
camera movement, this connotes the large variety of
clothing that we have. We felt it would liven up the
advert and give it variation to other sequences. We
believe that this will make it more memorable as there
will be movement making the models not seem bored
but they will seem confident and sexy which is what
we want to portray to our audience.
9. A convention that we have followed for radio adverts
is the length, our radio advert is 40 seconds long and
the convention of a radio advert length is 15-60
seconds long. We are happy with the structure of our
radio advert as it included all the relevant
information that the audience would need. We feel
that our radio advert is affective as our audience
can relate to the two characters when trying to find
a new outfit and they will be able to hear whether we
sell the item that they are looking for.
10. Another convention of a radio advert is an upbeat voiceover who talks
about the brand. We have followed this convention with having two girl
voices whom are in our target audience age. A convention that links with
this is the accent that the voiceover has, which is British. Whatever
country your in, its conventional to have the same accent as in the
same country, this way the target audience in that country can relate to
the advert more closely. It also creates brand identity, the audience can
relate to the characters. However, we could have made the voiceovers
in our advert a little more upbeat to make the characters seem more
excited. It was difficult for the characters to re-act in the same way as
they would in real life, and not being able to show expressions in the
face and body, the voice was the only way of expressing feelings. We are
glad that we added in the foley sounds in at the beginning with the door
creaking, the sound of a mouse clicking and the sound of a key board at
the end because it made the narrative of the advert more realistic due
to the audience not being able to see it. Adding all the noises in the
background of what would have been there puts an image into the
audiences head of what is happening.
11. Another convention of a radio advert is that they feature a jingle, however
we did not include this. This is because in the adverts that we analysed,
there was no significant jingle in them and for a fashion advert it didn’t
quite sound right as we didn’t feel that you could relate a clothing brand to
a jingle so we felt it was irrelevant as it wasn’t aspirational enough for our
targeting our audience. So instead, we felt that adding a tag line ‘wear it
your way’ was more appropriate for a fashion advert and is more effective
and catchy for our target audience to remember. Another convention is
adverts feature rhetorical questions to make the audience think about
what they are asking them, however for fashion adverts it is not
conventional so we have not added one in. They aren’t effective as you
can’t question the audience on anything as they either need or don’t need
the product, so giving them a list of the products we have to offer is more
effective as they will be able to ask themselves without us asking them
whether they need any of the items.
12. In a radio advert, there is usually a narrative, which will target
the audience. This is the major convention that we followed
with our advert having a narrative which links to our
sponsorship sequence. We believe this was very effective as
our audience are able to relate to the characters in the
advert and will be able to sort their situation out the same
way that the characters in the advert do. We found the radio
advert the most challenging to put together as there are not
many fashion radio adverts around to target our age audience.
However, we think that we have targeted them in the most
appropriate way and are happy with how the radio advert
turned out.
14. One convention of a television advert is having a voice over. We
have followed this convention but only on a small scale as we only
used it over the brand name and tag line at the end of the adverts.
Conventionally for a fashion advert, you would not have a voice over
throughout the whole advert as the audience need to be focused
onto the clothing itself by watching the moving images. However, we
did use text on screen to show the pricings of many of the items,
this also is conventional for fashion adverts whom are targeting an
audience at lower income brackets. We believe this is most effective
towards our target audience as we needed to get across the price of
our clothing being cheaper than most high street brands as this was
one of our USP’s.
15. Another convention for a fashion advert is to use celebrity endorsement. As
much as we would have liked to use this within our advert, it was not possible
so we had to break this convention. After the first shoot with the first
chosen models, we realised they weren’t the type of models we were looking
for. So when it came to choosing new models, we ended up choosing
ourselves as we were reliable, however, we chose reliability over suitability as
we were getting tight for time. A benefit of choosing us was that we are both
very different so we could get the message across that our brand is for all
types of body type, height etc. As we are a cheap brand, it made sense to
use models whom aren’t celebrities but are interested in fashion, are in the
target audience and enjoy buying clothes themselves. We felt this was
appropriate so that our target audience were able to relate to the models.
16. Another convention is that radio adverts is the length, the traditional length is 15-30
seconds, but in more modern day they are now lengths of 3-4 minutes long. We have
followed the traditional convention because we believe that to get our target
audience’s attention, the advert needed to be short but full with of clothing. This
way the audience gets to see exactly what they want without getting bored.
Whiles putting the productions together, we found that some of the shots we took
weren’t working e.g. in the night advert, the studio space wasn’t big enough for us to
be able to turn the camera at the degree’s we were hoping for (45 and 90) so we
had to do slight movement and make the model move more to keep the shot going in
the style that we wanted to achieve in the first place. Also when shooting at the
night advert location, we had trouble with the lighting as the chosen location had
studio lights there so we used those. However, when it came to turning them on only
two of them were working, so we had to work with them. This gave us a shadow in
the background of all of the shots, however, we worked with the shadows by
brightening up the light when using Final Cut Pro on colour correction, and this made
the shot more refreshing and sharper, making the shadows look lighter and effective.
17. Another convention of a fashion TV advert is the lighting being high
key. We followed this convention because we believed having bright
lighting you are able to see the clothing more clearly. In the day
advert we used the natural light which we believe looks great and
makes the model look fresh in the clothing. Bright colours is another
convention of a TV advert, we have followed this by editing our
productions bringing the brightness up in all the shots. This way the
adverts look less flat and the colours of the clothes are emphasised
more. Especially in our day advert, we brought the brightens up in
the phone box shots to bring more of the red through. Overall, the
colours in our adverts have really worked well throughout and we
happy with the changes we made.
18. We used a variety of different editing techniques throughout our
adverts. This is a modern convention in advertisements on TV.
Following this convention we were able to make our productions
looks more lively and interesting. In both the day and night we used
a mirror effect which mixed up the shots a bit. We believe this is
very effective as it gives this advert a different look against other
adverts. However, the software we were using (Final Cut Pro X) did
not have the capability to allow us to do effects e.g. in the day
advert on one of the phone box shots, we wanted to make the
whole shot black and white except the phone box itself which
would stay red. We did not have the software to enable us to do
this, which was a shame, but we overcame this by changing the
brightness so the red was more radiant.
19. Finding the correct soundtrack for out adverts was very important
as it sets the mood of what is happening. An upbeat soundtrack is a
very important convention in the fashion industry when it comes to
adverts. The model needs to be seen as feeling confident and sexy
so the correct track would enable the model to move with the
music. We felt that the soundtracks that we had chosen were
perfect for the moods and themes of the adverts themselves. They
were both upbeat, both in their own ways but they fitted with the
personality of the model and the clothing she was wearing. However,
we did wish we could have used a soundtracks of some older
modern music which had been in the charts but unforchantly we
were not able to get hold of any copyright tracks. But the equivalent
we found worked just as well and we love the soundtracks that we
found.
20. An obvious convention to fashion adverts is showing the actual
products itself. We picked around 3-5 outfits in each one to
show the audience. We believe we showed the correct variety of
clothes the brand had to offer and they were all very different.
We wanted to be able to show to the audience that we
accommodate to all different types of personalities and styles.
For the day advert, the weather was most appropriate for the
outfits that we had chosen which we were very lucky about. The
complement of the sun on the flowery top and trousers worked
well and leaves a good sense of confidence and happiness. We
are happy with our outfit choices and we wouldn’t change
anything about them.
21. The last convention that we followed was the variety of
camera shots and angles. Throughout both the day and night
advert we incorporated different angles and types of shots. We
felt that this has made our productions more interesting and
creative which our audience can relate to when putting their
outfits on, they can feel individual. However, when putting the
productions together we found we hadn’t put in enough
camera movement, so we had to use The Ken Burns effect to
enable us to introduce more movement in the adverts. With
this added extra movement, it gave more character to the
adverts and made them less boring too watch.
22. Overall, we have both followed and
broken conventions of a (fashion)
television advert. In doing so, it has
made our production individual and
effective.
