2. In what ways does your media
products use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
or real media products?
3. The product we have created for our media coursework is the shaving
product entitled “Razor Sharpe”, it is a razor which has a „for him‟ and „for
her‟ range, therefore catering to both genders.
For our first media advert our target audience was women as the product
itself was a women‟s razor. The advert we created features the main
female character, she is shown looking sad until she later uses our product
“Razor Sharpe” in which she becomes increasingly happier, which is very
apparent in her expression. We decided to use this plot for our storyline as it
is a good selling point for our product as it allows the audience to believe
that this product will give them confidence and make them happier. This is
also a technique we found to be used commonly throughout various other
razor adverts which I found during my research. After looking at a selection
of female razor advertisements it is clear to see that our advert which has
stuck to the generic conventions which a female razor advert would usually
contain. For example, one particular advert I looked at was the „Venus
Gillett‟ advert which features the singer Jennifer Lopez, the brand is clearly
using her celebrity status to sell their product. We obviously did not have
such options when planning our piece however they also used another
selling technique similar to ours. In the Venus advert Jennifer Lopez is
performing on stage wearing a short dress with her freshly shaven legs
clearly on show, she appears to be very happy and confident and this is
being portrayed after she has used the product, therefore making the
consumer believe this product will also make them happy and confident. In
our advert we similarly showed the man character walking confidently in a
dress and smiling after using the product „Razorsharpe‟. Other adverts I
looked at are not particularly similar to our advert as they use too many
special effects to present their product which we could not do as we had
limited editing devices (e.g iMacs).
4. The men‟s razor advert we created stays true to the generic
conventions of a typical men‟s razor advertisement. Our advert
features a young man shaving un the mirror, he then cuts his face
while shaving after using a cheaper un branded razor which then
affects him going out with his friends as he has lost all confidence. The
advert then goes on to show the same young man a week later using
„Razorsharpe‟ which gives him a nice clean shave and he then goes
on to enjoy his night and give him the confidence which he needed.
During my research I focused mainly at the brand „Gillett‟ as it is one
of the most successful and used brands. Having looked at some
examples such as the Gillett advert ‟Masters of Style‟ which also
features celebrities much like the Venus advert. The advert is however
similar to ours as they also feature the main characters to be shaving
in the mirrors and looking confident and happy with the end result.
Our sponsorship advert is considerably different to the generic
conventions which typical adverts convey as it features women
complimenting her partner‟s new shave after he has used our
product. This gives the impression that „Razorsharpe‟ will make a
noticeable and impressive difference to your look.
5. How effective is the
combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
6. Throughout the duration of our four adverts they are
connected in various ways, first of all it is clear to see
that all of them feature one main character apart
from the sponsorship which features an extra
character. This shows that the adverts are fairly
similar as they all contain one main character which
the product centres around. The music we also
feature in our final products are the same in every
advert which gives a continuous theme throughout
the collection of advertisements, also letting the
audience know they are part of the same brand. As
a group we thought this would be an important
feature. The texts we have included on the adverts
are also consistent with each other and the only
difference is that we have changed the colour of
the text.
8. To get audience feedback for our product I typed out a questionnaire
which I hadn‟t out to a small group of individuals in my media class. Having
received the questionnaires back I have learnt what the public think about
the product „Razosharpe‟. From the feedback it is clear to see that our
target audience is very successful, we initially aimed our product at young
adults and the audience feedback suggests that this is the typical age
group which people tend to look for when watching adverts for razors. They
will be more likely to purchase products which are aimed at younger adults.
The product name „Razorsharpe‟ has also received positive feedback as
every person who completed the questionnaire has said they liked the
brand name. One response in which I received for the question “What do
you look for in a razor advert?” was “I look for an advert which encourages
confidence” this is something I can confidently say our averts do, they all
sell the product well as we are clearly promoting that it is a high quality
product which will leave you confidence. IN the tow main adverts it is
clearly presented that the feature characters are happy and confident
having used the product. Furthermore, in our sponsorship the male
character instantly noticed by his female companion therefore showing the
viewer it is a good investment to make by buying the product as it will make
you look and feel better about yourself. People have also stated that
having a product which caters for both men and women was a good idea
as we have men‟s and women‟s razors therefore having a wider audience
to appeal too.
9. How did you use the new
media technologies in the
construction, research,
planning and evaluation
stages?
10. To film the two main and the sponsorship adverts we used
the DV camera which were provided by the school. This
was a practical piece of equipment to use as it was light
and compact therefore making it easier to hold and carry
around, as the different adverts where filmed in various
locations. The cameras were also very easy to use.
However they did not produce the best quality film but
where sufficient with what we needed them for. For the
radio advert we used the sound recording programme on
Becky‟s own personal camera as it produced a high
quality sound. Editing our films was quite easy; to do this
we used the editing programme iMovie on the iMacs.
Having used this programme previously to edit our AS work
we were already experienced and aware of how to use it.
The only problems we faced when using the iMacs was
that they were sometimes unpredictable and had a
tendency to freeze when trying to save the work. This often
made it quite frustrating when editing. The internet was
very useful during the planning stages of our work, to find
examples of various other shaving adverts I used the
website „Youtube‟ which holds a vast amount of old and
new shaving advertisements. By looking at these examples
it help give us inspiration and see what our advert should
include in order to be successful.
