production diary

05/01/17
Today we started to produce a shot list and we did a location recce as well. Our idea for our advert involves someone being called by God to find the 'Holy' Magnum, and so this person runs through all sorts of different weather conditions, and different situations in which he arrives at a church where the Magnum is laying on the altar.


06/01/17
Today Faye and Viv started doing the story boards and myself and Lewis did the risk assessment and started on the script and shot list.


09/01/17
In the first lesson I completed the risk assessment, Faye and Viv have finished the story boards and Lewis is still working on the script and the shot list. I have managed to find some music that will suit our advert, I will be looking in depth a little more to find some 'Holy' music for our church scene in the next lesson.

16/01/17
We have completed 75% of our filming for our advert, we have also started editing pieces of the film


19/01/17
Today we bought the Magnum's that are required for filming, we will start filming next lesson as we were unable to access the location needed today

23/01/17
Today we finished our filming for the TV Advert and we are now going to start editing our project next lesson.

25/01/17
We had started to edit the majority of the advert in the first lesson and in the second lesson we had completely finished the edit. All we need to do now is add two more sound effects in to complete the whole thing. After that has been completed, all we will then need to do is  complete all the rest of the pre-production paperwork and add it all on to our blogs.

27/01/17
Today we created a survey in which we sent to everyone in the class and people outside of the class who are in the age range for our target audience for our advert. We did this in order to collect feedback on what people thought of our video.

TV advert pre-production paper work

Editing analysis

I am going to analyse the different types of editing techniques that have been used in this clip from the original Transformers film.

The history of editing: Over the years editing has changed a whole lot, when editing first came around in the very late 1800's, everything was done by hand. People would use scissors to cut the film and then use sticky tape to put the feel reels back together. This is how all films were edited back then. Progressively through the years editing has become more advanced thanks to technology, and now in year 2017, editing is done on computers digitally. Up until 2002 when Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was released, all films were filmed using the the term 'film'. This means that all the footage is captured on film reels and are sent to special rooms to get processed. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was the first film to be filmed digitally using a digital camera. From then on the way films were filmed had changed, some people still film their films using film, and others do it digitally. The debate on which is better, Digital film making vs Film, is still going on today.

Establishing shot: 

This is the establishing shot that is shown at 0:35 seconds into the video clip, this is the moment the girl turns up to the guys house. In order to set a new scene there needs to be a new establishing shot, as shown here.



180 degree rule & shot-reverse-shot: At 0:40 into the clip we see the two characters having a conversation. We see that the camera stays on the opposite side of the door which is called the '180 degree rule', if this rule is broken then it can leave the viewer confused as it makes the characters look as if they have switched places. In these photos are the perfect examples of what is known as a 'shot-reverse-shot'. A shot-reverse-shot is when two people are talking and the camera swaps between person to person filming above their shoulder which gives the audience the impression that the characters are looking at each other.

Eye line match: In this clip is one part in which an eye line match can be seen, this happens at 1:32. An eye line match is when the camera films someone looking directly where the action is about to happen and then cuts to them actually performing this action, which keeps the flow of scene, as shown here. The character played by Anthony Anderson looks at the port in which the SD card slots in to and then the camera cuts to him inserting the card into the slot.

Close ups: Close ups are an important thing in films and editing and in this scene there are a few close ups, all of which being close ups on the SD card that is shown throughout the clip. Having this many close ups on one person or object usually means and signifies that that object or person is important, and in this clip, the SD card is very important. The close ups happen at 0:20, and 1:33.

Reaction shots: In this clip there is a part at 2:22 where the FBI break into their house because they have the classified SD card. At which point Anthony Anderson and his brother create to the break in and their faces are both captured as reaction shots. A reaction shot is when the camera focuses on the characters response to what has happened in a certain situation or to what someone has said.

Parallel editing/cross-cutting: Parallel editing or cross-cutting is when there is two or more scenes in a video or film happening at the same time but in different locations. In this clip from Transformers there is a part in which parallel editing does occur. The first scene starts at 1:32 and the other scene that is happening at the same time starts at 1:35. Anderson's character is trying to access the stolen SD card that was classified, then it switches to the government being informed that someone has just hacked the card to gain access, this gives a clear indication that those two scenes are happening at relatively the same period of time. Soon after they have been informed FBI were sent to the house to arrest them, because they were sent so soon, this also shows that both scenes were happening at the same time.

This is the moment that the SD card was about to be inserted and hacked.





And this is the moment the the government were informed that the SD had been hacked.









Montage: A montage is a series of clips put together with just music that usually lasts a couple of minutes, the this clip there is no example of a montage, however at the start of the first Transformers film when the Autobots first arrive on earth, there is a short montage showing how they acquire their forms. As seen here, these are a few pictures from the moment the Autobots arrive on earth.

Shot variation: Shot variation is when there are a selection of different shots used in one clip, for example, you could have a scenario in which there needs to be a close-up, a wide angle shot, an extreme close up, and a long shot. All of which would be used in one clip. There is a few seconds in the clip in which there is a close-up, a long shot and a medium shot are all used in a short period of time:

Conclusion: In conclusion, there are a lot of editing techniques used in this clip I have selected, however there were also a few editing techniques there I was not able to either find or spot in the video clip. None of the techniques that were not in the clip chosen I could not also find in any of the films, I checked everywhere but unfortunately was not able to find any of the missing editing technique in any of the transformers films.

Unilever re branding prezi

Magnum Advert Evaluation

This is the survey we created in order to get feedback on our advert.
Create your own user feedback survey


Here is the feedback we received from our survey for our advert:




The Brief:
In this assignment we were tasked to re-brand a Unilever product to another target audience, and create a Prezi to pitch the idea to the class. After, we were put into groups and we had to choose one of the ideas to then turn into a real 30 - 90 second TV advert. My group had chosen to re-brand Magnum to men instead of women, who are always shown to be eating the product in all of their adverts. We chose to re-brand Magnum because firstly, everything needed for the proposed advert was at our disposal and we could easily shoot and make that advert. Secondly, props and other things required for the other ideas that my group had were not as easy to obtain, and so we went with creating an advert for the Magnum.

The finished product & feedback:
After shooting and editing the video our group had to produce a survey in order to see if we had managed to succeed in creating an advert for a different target audience, and whether or not the people watching it knew who that target audience was. We produced numerous questions about the advert in general, like whether or not the viewer enjoyed the advert, how old the viewer is, and also asking the viewer if they would consider buying the product after watching the advert.

Our group have received a variety of different opinions towards the advert, some are positive and some are negative. From what most of the negative comments have been saying, I have to agree on the fact that we did not clearly show why I started to run. We definitely need more narrative in the advert. Although I do believe that we did succeed in showing that the new target audience is aimed at working men, as the majority of the viewers who took the survey and also from peer feedback in class, guessed that the target audience was in fact working men. A lot of people also said that they would go and purchase a Magnum after watching the advert, which is always a plus.

When shooting our advert, we had to visit a lot of different locations. We originally planned to have me running through all different kinds of weather conditions. This would have required me to run through a park for the most of the shooting, but when we decided on our final idea, I had to run through a lot more locations than originally planned. In terms of camera use we had a variety of shots taken with and without a tripod. Filming fast paced running scenes without using a tripod gave a great effect. Because most of the scenes are fast paced this means we need to have the camera following whoever is running. For example, above is a tracking shot of me about to run into the store, this means that the person operating the camera will run behind me as I run. These types of shots happen quite frequently throughout the advert as not only do they give a great effect, they also can keep up with the runner. There were a few close up shots during the advert and there were also a few pans as well, as seen below:

The scene is which I am being chased by a dog is a good example of one of our panning shots, although you are not able to properly see the pan as it is only a photo but I run across the screen with the dog chasing me, and in order to capture the movement the camera would have to pan across the park.
In terms of editing we didn't rely heavily on editing in this advert as we did not need many sounds effects apart from music and a few other sounds like a dog bark, shop bell, and the beep from a scanner in the shop. There was no talking in the advert except from the beginning were you can hear the voices clearly, apart from that, there was no need for any speaking.

Effectiveness of content: I believe that we were able to effectively sell our product through our advert as I believe it was engaging because there are moments of comedy in there and from what feedback tells us, more people enjoyed it than not. However I do not believe the people who watched it really understood why I was running, and this was due to poor narrative at the beginning. I believe the persuasive techniques we used definitely helped in persuading people to purchase the product as we had a close up shot of the magnum at the very end showing how delicious it looks, making people want or even crave a magnum.

Clarity of communication: Our message that we were trying to show was that no matter what you are doing, where you are, or how much time you have left, there is always time to stop and get a magnum. We showed this by the main character running to his work because he will be late, but he also stops to buy a magnum in the process. We also intended the product to be aimed at working men in their 30's. We had the main character run from the pub in which he was having his lunch in with his friends, to him run all the way to his work as he was extremely late, but although he knew he was going to be late if he did not hurry up, he still went to the shop to buy himself a magnum, which you see him take a bite out of at the end of the advert. We also tried to show that this product was aimed at working men in their 30's, and what better way to show this than making someone turn up to work. The majority of the feedback our group received on the advert tells us that they knew who the target audience was, which tells us we did a good job of showing that.

Overall I believe that our advert is fit for purpose as it does not break any of the BCAP code's rules, it does not have any kinds of false advertisement either, which is an important issue and can result in serious consequences if broken. BCAP rules:

Personal Reflection: Our original intention was to have me walking down the corridor to hear God speaking to me, telling me that there was a 'Holy' magnum and I was the chosen one to find it. I would then run through lots of different weather and different situations in order to end up at a church in which the magnum was sitting at the door step waiting for me to eat it. The idea was to show that the magnum was for the manly people out there, instead of the stereotypical women you see in all of the adverts that are out at the moment. In our final piece we kept some of the ideas. We did keep the scenes in which I run through different situations but changed the target audience slightly and also the beginning and end.

Self evaluation: I am happy with the way our advert turned out in the end, I do however believe that if we were able to re film the advert, I will definitely add in some sort of narrative as nobody knew why I was running, and although suggesting this before filming, my group did not think it was necessary. I think that if I was more persistent then maybe we would have implemented this in to our final piece. I think I have contributed well in the production of our advert, I was the main character for the advert so I did most of the work when it came to being involved in the advert, I did also contribute to editing the advert as well, putting clips together and gathering all of the sounds that were in the final advert.

TV advert analysis