Practical assignment 1
Context
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Feedback:From the focus group I found that the people liked my idea because it helps people to be aware and it shows that McDonalds gives more, and it makes them look good. I learned that the people in the focus group really liked my idea and said that it was good because it showed awareness and they also said that the advert will make people happy because they see that a homeless person is getting McDonalds and that it’s a good place to go to. They also liked my song choice because it was Christmas related, however, they said they would prefer silent night because it will be filmed at night but I think for this advert that my original song choice of “its beginning to look a lot like Christmas” by Michael Bublé will be better because it fits a lot better.
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Brief
Research
2016 advertproduction values - In this advert there are different shots of children staring into the camera and you notice in each shot there is a dolly zoom going closer towards the child and you notice that each child looks innocent and lonely
emotional pull - in the advert they use quite dark and cold colours to give it a sad depressing feel and they make the children look innocent because they stare into the camera as if to say that they are lonely and they want help, personally i think that this advert appeals to parents with young children because it makes them think about their on children and how they would feel if their children were in that situation. Slogans - An example of some of the slogans they use in the advert is "no child should be homeless, especially at this time of year. Images used - The images used aren't black and white but they are fairly dull images which gives off a feeling of depression and makes the rooms they are in look quite cold showing people that its quite sad and it is quite serious, also the only bright colour is red and red is associated with negative things such as danger suggesting that the children need help Context - This is an awareness video by shelter emergency Christmas appeal tv advert 2016 showing us that there are homeless children who need help Target audience - i think that its targeted at parents because it makes them think about their own children and how they would feel if their children were in that position and they take in the advert and think about it and it makes them want to help. |
2017 advertproduction values - in this advert we see a homeless man who is lonely, watching videos of his wife and daughter on the televisions in a shop window and then his wife and daughter come to see him and hug him.
emotional pull - we see that the homeless man is sad but he immediately becomes happy when he watches videos of his daughter at a young age and we get to see him be happy whilst he is watching the televisions and then they turn off and we see him become sad again, shortly after in the advert the homeless man is reunited with his wife and daughter and he becomes happy again and this advert makes a lot of people happy because it shows him being reunited with his family. slogans - the slogans they use in the advert include "it could be you one day" and "be thoughtful this Christmas" Images used - similar to the last advert, the images are not in black and white but the are fairly dull images which connotes depression and sadness which is what i assume the homeless man is feeling and the images give off a sense of coldness which cold suggest that the homeless man is quite cold and the videos he watches are quite brightly coloured which make the homeless man feel warm inside and then the homeless man becomes happy when his family come to him and it makes him and people watching feel happy. context - this is an advert which has been edited with footage from LG Portugal 'good things happen' campaign target audience - i think that its targeted at families mostly because it shows a family being happy together at the end, but i think its mainly targeted at anyone because it says at the end that 'it could be you this Christmas' so i think it is targeted at anyone. |
Planning
Soundfor the sound i will have a song playing in the background called "its beginning to look a lot like Christmas by Michael Buble to make it Christmas themed and to show that its to do with Christmas, at the very end i will have the classic McDonald's whistle to show that its a McDonald's advert.
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LightingWhen there are shots of Christmas decorations the lighting will be bright and colourful and when there are shots of a homeless man the lighting becomes quite dark to show that the homeless man comes across as being lonely and sometimes sad and also it shows that they are avoided quite often and are mostly found on their own. but then the lighting will get brighter when the homeless man is eating a McDonald's burger to create a feeling of happiness.
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Actors
Slogan - Share a McDonald's this Christmas with someone who needs it most.
Feedback - Evaluation
Overall i i have enjoyed this unit because i feel like i have learned a lot from creating this Christmas advert because i have learnt that meeting deadlines is important if you want to keep up to date and no work is rushed but i feel like i have done well on this unit considering i have chosen to do it on my own instead of in a pair. when we watched everyone's adverts we were asked to give feed back to other people, the feed back included; production value, mise en scene, sound, emotional appeal, actors/voice over and slogan. i have calculated the average score for each feature which i was marked on.
production value - 7.7/10
mise en scene - 7.8/10
sound - 7.5/10
emotional appeal -7.2/10
actors/voice over - 7.7/10
slogan - 7.2/10
From looking at these scores i personally feel like i have done well because the average for each is at least 70%.
reading over the feedback i have learnt that people enjoyed the advert overall and they liked the fact that i have used pathos to get the message across, however, they said that the camera was quite shaky at the start of the advert and after watching it back, i can agree that the camera was too shaky and i think that the shaky camera ruined the advert a little bit.
production value - 7.7/10
mise en scene - 7.8/10
sound - 7.5/10
emotional appeal -7.2/10
actors/voice over - 7.7/10
slogan - 7.2/10
From looking at these scores i personally feel like i have done well because the average for each is at least 70%.
reading over the feedback i have learnt that people enjoyed the advert overall and they liked the fact that i have used pathos to get the message across, however, they said that the camera was quite shaky at the start of the advert and after watching it back, i can agree that the camera was too shaky and i think that the shaky camera ruined the advert a little bit.
ColoursAt the start of my advert i filmed in public areas because i was filming the Christmas decorations to make it clear that the advert was about Christmas . in this footage there are bright colours which is what i wanted because bright colours connote happiness and joy and overall it shows positive emotions. after the bright colours comes dark and depressing colours because there are shots of my friend playing the homeless person in the advert and i wanted to show him looking cold and lonely. i wanted to show that homelessness is quite sad and depressing through the use of these dark colours to try and get the message across. then the atmosphere of the advert becomes positive because my friend(homeless person in the advert) is in the McDonald's eating a burger and the colours a bright to show that the homeless person is now warm and happy instead of cold and lonely.
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Imagesin each scene there is always something different happening, what i mean is, is that there are different images throughout the advert showing different feelings and emotions. in the first scene there are images of brightly coloured Christmas decorations in public are which gives of a warm and happy feeling because people normally associate Christmas with being a 'happy holiday' so at the start i try and use these images to make people feel happy. shortly after these positive images, i have negative images because i have my friend playing the homeless person and he shows that he is sad and lonely throughout this scene to get the message across that homelessness is quite bad and i also made my friend act as if he is cold to make the images on screen look sad and depressing to make people feel sympathy. in the last scene everything is all positive again because the homeless person is happy and he is eating a burger in the McDonald's and the images shown, show joy and warmth.
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Locationswhen i planned my advert i knew that i wanted to film in high Wycombe because i know that there is a McDonald's there and thats who my advert is for, but more importantly i know that near the McDonald's there is a dark and gloomy are where homeless people can be found and i thought that it would be a good idea to film there because its realistic, its out of the way and its dark which means i can show that its sad and depressing. i also filmed inside of the McDonald's, which can be seen in the background of some of the shots, because i was doing an advert for them and also its a cheap source of warm food to feed people when they are hungry and its also nice because the food helps you to warm up, so i had my friend, who was the homeless person, take a bite from the burger and look happy.
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Costume and propsthe main character in my production was my friend who played a homeless person. he wore a basic coat dark trousers and basic shoes because homeless people cannot afford to buy expensive items of clothing so i had my friend just wear basic clothing that was dark coloured to give of a depressing feeling to go with the atmosphere of the scene.
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languagethere wasn't any dialogue in my advert, just the lyrics to the background describing Christmas having an ironic effect on one of the scenes.
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Sloganmy slogan is "share a McDonald's this Christmas with someone who needs it most", i feel like this is a good slogan because it includes McDonald's which they use in all of their adverts and also it shows a strong message for people to take in and think about. also i think that its good because it can be discussed between families when parents are teaching children about this subject.
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my advert is quite similar to this one which is called "homeless Christmas advert" which was produced in 2017. the reason why i think that my advert is similar is because they both have similar colours being used in the advert for example we both use quite dark colours which connote depression and sadness. another similarity is the fact is that when there are bright colours or something good happens, the mood becomes a lot happier and the happiness is both seen and shown. in this advert they have use a snow effect to show that it is cold in this advert, however in my advert, the homeless is physically acting cold to show that it is quiet cold out. one thing i noticed was a difference but also a similarity because in this advert the man becomes happy when his family arrive and he hugs them, in my advert i have the homeless person taking a bite from a burger and he becomes happy after taking the bite. the similarity i noticed was that at the end of both adverts, whatever is making them happy is giving off a warm effect and it makes the audience feel sympathy for both of the homeless people in the adverts.
TechniquesIn my advert i used pathos because i think that its the most effective technique for trying to get the message across to the viewers because when a viewer is feeling empathy or sympathy and they are sat there looking happy or sad,i feel that they are more likely to take in what they are watching. also it is a Christmas advert and Christmas is all about the different emotions and feeling which people express to each other over the holidays, so i thought that Christmas time would be a perfect time to create an advert which focuses on feelings and emotions. i personally think that pathos was a good idea because people can feel sympathy for the homeless man in the advert and understand how a lot of homeless people have to spend Christmas each year.
i feel like there is an element of plain folk in there because the homeless person is an everyday person because they are not any big celebrity or famous person that anybody would know so i feel like this would count as plain folk. finally, i think that there is an element of bribery in my advert because when the homeless man takes a bite from the burger, he becomes happy. this means that when you get a burger from McDonald's, not only do you get warm, delicious food to to eat and enjoy, you also get a feeling of warmth and happiness as well as the McDonald's burger. |
ContextThe brand i have done my advert for is McDonald's because i know that they are good at producing emotional adverts, and i know that an emotional story or video makes them look good as a brand. with the advert that i did i tried to get a a strong message across to people and i know that McDonald's try to that sort of thing in their adverts but they also include themselves in their messages.
In terms of marketplace, i want my advert to be shown on television because i know that the majority of people watch television and are likely to see my advert which is good because that means i can get the message across and people will be able to see it. i think i want my 90 second advert to be shown on television because that means i can have the 10 second version appear on YouTube and social media because nowadays a lot of people spend most of their time on their phones looking at social media and watching videos on YouTube so i think that it would be good if my advert appeared on some social media platforms for people to see. i think that my target audience will be anyone but more specifically, adults, because they can understand the message a lot easier and i feel that they have the ability to help homeless people, and i think they can sit down with their child or children and tell them about how homeless people don't have anywhere to go during Christmas time and the fact they have to stay out in the cold during the winter. also i think that adults spend a lot more time watching television than children do. |
Weekly blogs
Week 1 - planning
This week i have been working on what idea i want to do for my Christmas advert and i have decided that i want to do an advert about homeless people for McDonald's. after filming a focus group i found out that people liked my idea because it shows awareness and it makes McDonald's look good. this week ive been organising actors and filming locations so that i could get the filming done, i have done research into to adverts and how they show homelessness and how they advertise it in a way where people feel sympathy because of the use of pathos in the adverts.
for the context part of the planning, i have done; genre, idea, idea development, feedback, rationale, project concept, evaluation process, production schedule and a bibliography. for the brief i have had to; upload the brief for the unit, upload an assignment task, and upload my own brief for my context. when i was researching i looked at; production values, emotional pull, additional techniques, slogans, images used, context (genre) and who the target audience is. in terms of planning i have produced; a script, location recces, production schedule, storyboards, props list, sound, lighting, actors and a slogan.
i personally think that the research and focus group have been effective in terms of helping me with my work because form the focus group i was able to generate a rough idea as to how people might react to my advert when they watch it, also from the focus ground i was able to get feedback and potential improvement to my idea which i found quite helpful. from completing the research task i was able to get an idea of how to use pathos and make the advert emotional to try and get the message across. the research helped me because i was able to get an idea of what types of images and sound to use in my advert. the basic planning work i did helped me a lot because when i was making a storyboard, for example, it helped me to display a clearer image in my head of how the advert might look and how many scenes and shots i would need.
looking back over my work and think about it has made me realise that my production schedule wasn't really that effective because the deadlines i set myself were too short and now i understand how long some pieces of work take so to to improve on this i will have to come up with some realistic deadlines, the other tasks i have completed i feel have helped me a lot.
this week i have finished off nearly all of the tasks including all my planning except the location recces and some of the research which i need to finish.
next week i aim to finish off my research and location recces so that i am able to film i think i will probably film toward the end of the week because i want to go to high Wycombe and film when it starts to get dark because that is when the advert is set.
for the context part of the planning, i have done; genre, idea, idea development, feedback, rationale, project concept, evaluation process, production schedule and a bibliography. for the brief i have had to; upload the brief for the unit, upload an assignment task, and upload my own brief for my context. when i was researching i looked at; production values, emotional pull, additional techniques, slogans, images used, context (genre) and who the target audience is. in terms of planning i have produced; a script, location recces, production schedule, storyboards, props list, sound, lighting, actors and a slogan.
i personally think that the research and focus group have been effective in terms of helping me with my work because form the focus group i was able to generate a rough idea as to how people might react to my advert when they watch it, also from the focus ground i was able to get feedback and potential improvement to my idea which i found quite helpful. from completing the research task i was able to get an idea of how to use pathos and make the advert emotional to try and get the message across. the research helped me because i was able to get an idea of what types of images and sound to use in my advert. the basic planning work i did helped me a lot because when i was making a storyboard, for example, it helped me to display a clearer image in my head of how the advert might look and how many scenes and shots i would need.
looking back over my work and think about it has made me realise that my production schedule wasn't really that effective because the deadlines i set myself were too short and now i understand how long some pieces of work take so to to improve on this i will have to come up with some realistic deadlines, the other tasks i have completed i feel have helped me a lot.
this week i have finished off nearly all of the tasks including all my planning except the location recces and some of the research which i need to finish.
next week i aim to finish off my research and location recces so that i am able to film i think i will probably film toward the end of the week because i want to go to high Wycombe and film when it starts to get dark because that is when the advert is set.
Week 2 - filming
this week i have finished off the rest of my planning which was the location recces and the production schedule which i forgot i hadn't finished and then i ended up filming the whole of my advert on Friday evening because my friend who was the actor in my advert wasn't available and i also had to finish off work, also it was a lot easier to film on Friday anyway. on Friday i went with my friend to film in high Wycombe and i wanted to get all the scenes and shots done that evening so i wouldn't have to go back to re-shoot any footage because it takes a while to get to Wycombe from where i live, especially by bus. the shooting of the advert didn't take too long because i already knew what i wanted to film in Wycombe and i felt that it was a lot easier, also because most of the advert was filmed in one area.
i feel that it was useful to have a friend who was willing to go out of their way to help me was useful because it meant that i could get the filming done there and then and i feel that having a script and a storyboard was useful because i could check them whilst filming and it would be easier to understand what i wanted to do with each scene, short or camera angle.
speaking in terms of what wasn't useful, i think that falling behind on work was bad because it meant that i fell behind and when it came to filming the advert i felt like i was a little bit rushed and that the filming wasn't as good as it could have been i didn't follow the script and the story board exactly but i personally think that either way the advert would have been fine i also didn't follow the production schedule this week because i ended up filming on the last day of the week and i felt that was a bit irritating but i got the filming done and that's what matters.
im happy because i have completed all tasks for the week and i managed to get all of the catch up work completed as well as the filming, and as it turns out i wont have to re-shoot any of my scenes which is good because i can focus on my next tasks which includes editing etc.
next week i will be editing the footage i got from Friday and next week i will be creating a 90 second advert and a 10 second advert from my footage, i aim to have these adverts edited and completed by Friday and when i get free time i will use that time to check over my work and make sure its all completed to a good level.
i feel that it was useful to have a friend who was willing to go out of their way to help me was useful because it meant that i could get the filming done there and then and i feel that having a script and a storyboard was useful because i could check them whilst filming and it would be easier to understand what i wanted to do with each scene, short or camera angle.
speaking in terms of what wasn't useful, i think that falling behind on work was bad because it meant that i fell behind and when it came to filming the advert i felt like i was a little bit rushed and that the filming wasn't as good as it could have been i didn't follow the script and the story board exactly but i personally think that either way the advert would have been fine i also didn't follow the production schedule this week because i ended up filming on the last day of the week and i felt that was a bit irritating but i got the filming done and that's what matters.
im happy because i have completed all tasks for the week and i managed to get all of the catch up work completed as well as the filming, and as it turns out i wont have to re-shoot any of my scenes which is good because i can focus on my next tasks which includes editing etc.
next week i will be editing the footage i got from Friday and next week i will be creating a 90 second advert and a 10 second advert from my footage, i aim to have these adverts edited and completed by Friday and when i get free time i will use that time to check over my work and make sure its all completed to a good level.
Week 3 - Editing
this week i have been editing my footage from Friday and i have created a 90 second version, and a 10 second version of my Christmas advert then i uploaded them to YouTube, also i had been checking over any work that hadn't been completed and making sure it was all done.
i felt that having deadlines is useful because if i stick to the deadlines i can stay on top of my work and keep it to a good standard. i think that have having a story board and a script was useful because when i went to film i was able to arrive at the location and just get on with the filming because i can look at my script and storyboards and know exactly what i want to film and how to film it, i thought that having the story board was useful when it came to editing because i could look at the story board and see what type of cut or shot it was and what type of sound was needed to go with it, and apply to the edit and i managed to submit both edits on time because i felt like i finished both edits quite quickly therefore they were uploaded and published before the deadline for the production which was good.
i feel like the production schedule wasn't effective because i didn't stick to some of the deadlines, which i should of done, and i fell like i have been a bit harsh with the deadlines meaning i didn't meet some them and i ended up rushing the next piece of work that i had to do, i'm also upset with the quality that YouTube puts the videos in because i spent a lot of time and effort on my 90 second, and 10 second adverts for them to be ruined by YouTube quality.
i have completed the tasks that i was asked to do and i'm ready for the feedback from the people who will watch my advert.
next week i will complete the evaluation task after we watch the adverts because the feedback is needed in order to write up our evaluations and i will check my final evaluation.
i felt that having deadlines is useful because if i stick to the deadlines i can stay on top of my work and keep it to a good standard. i think that have having a story board and a script was useful because when i went to film i was able to arrive at the location and just get on with the filming because i can look at my script and storyboards and know exactly what i want to film and how to film it, i thought that having the story board was useful when it came to editing because i could look at the story board and see what type of cut or shot it was and what type of sound was needed to go with it, and apply to the edit and i managed to submit both edits on time because i felt like i finished both edits quite quickly therefore they were uploaded and published before the deadline for the production which was good.
i feel like the production schedule wasn't effective because i didn't stick to some of the deadlines, which i should of done, and i fell like i have been a bit harsh with the deadlines meaning i didn't meet some them and i ended up rushing the next piece of work that i had to do, i'm also upset with the quality that YouTube puts the videos in because i spent a lot of time and effort on my 90 second, and 10 second adverts for them to be ruined by YouTube quality.
i have completed the tasks that i was asked to do and i'm ready for the feedback from the people who will watch my advert.
next week i will complete the evaluation task after we watch the adverts because the feedback is needed in order to write up our evaluations and i will check my final evaluation.
Bibliography
Song used in both adverts: "its beginning to look a lot like Christmas"
Artist: Michael Buble
McDonald's: www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb.html
Videos from the research: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRcmtVGMXtQ www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c7EPn-N-Ro
Artist: Michael Buble
McDonald's: www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb.html
Videos from the research: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRcmtVGMXtQ www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c7EPn-N-Ro