My practice stop frame

I have taken a range of shots with a nikon camera and uploaded them into premiere pro. Once i did this, i deleted some of the pictures that were not useful. When i felt happy with the images that i had selected and they ran through nicely i then exported the movie. This means i could play the movie through without worrying that it would stop. Once i had done this i uploaded the video to youtube meaning that i could get the URL and upload this video to my blog. Overall i am quite happy with the outcome of the practice stop frame, however if i were to change something i would make it a little bit longer.

Analyzing a Stop frame advert

. Same type of shots
. Slow paced editing
. Left spelling the words out till the end to catch the audiences attention.
. Music goes with the skittles lyrics have the words "king kong" in and there is a king kong made out of skittles.
. Tried to use matching colours, e.g king kong is a dark purple colour

I researched stop frames for skittles on youtube as i am intrested in doing a stop motion piece for my media coursework. This has been student made. I looked into how long it took them and it took them a total of 8 hours, they took 400 photos and used a couple of thousand skittles. If i were to remake something like this, which is what i want to do then i would have to think about how i want to  lay out the skittles and what patterns i would like them to go in. Think about the colours of them too. I would have to buy at the least 5 big packets of skittles to have enough to do a good stop frame animation.

Practice Rotoscope

Analysing a sweet ad & a sweet radio ad

Practice Stop Frame

Practice Close Up

My practice close up.

Practice Soft Focus

Practice Mid Shot

This is my practice Mid-shot. I feel this went well as it runs through smoothly and it is well angled.

Practice Long Shot

Practice Zoom

Practice pan 2

Practice pan 1

I have practiced a few camera angles and shots to refresh my memory of filming and editing from AS. This is my practice pan.

Analyzing a media magazine

Ideas on what to advertise

This is a list of all the possible categories that i could research into for my advertisement for my coursework. Not only have i put them into categories but i have listed examples to make life easier for me and when it comes round to making my mind up about what i want to do. This also gives me an understanding of the genre's of advertising and what rules i would have to consider depending on what i choose, for example if i chose anti-smoking i would have to be careful that i didn't come across as advertising tobacco as it is illegal and banned from TV, billboards and magazines.

Planning

This is my list of planning for things I need to blog about and things i need to practice. I will start my planning by re-making a short TV advertisement. This enables me to practice camera angles and shots and also help me practice my editing when i come round to it. Secondly I will be practicing a short stop frame piece as I would be interested to do my advert in stop frame and it would give me good practice, and also give me an understanding on if I want to further with my stop frame idea.

Task List

Research Pop up's

Research Radio Adverts

Do a target audience questionnaire

Think about what i want to advertise

Practice filming

Web Pop Ups

I am doing a bit of research on web pop ups although i have researched radio advertisements. This is to understand the good points and the bad points (pro's and con's) of web pop ups and also to give me an understanding of how they work and if i would rather look into web pop ups instead of radio adverts.

Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript, but can be generated by other means as well. A variation on the pop-up window is the pop-under advertisement, which opens a new browser window hidden under theactive window. Pop-unders do not interrupt the user immediately and are not seen until the covering window is closed, making it more difficult to determine which web site opened them. 

If i wanted to continue with web pop ups i would have to do further research into java script to find out how exactly it works and supports web pop ups.

Radio Adverts

When researching media magazine i came across this article about how to make radio adverts. I found it useful because this will help me understand a main part of our coursework which i will be focusing on. I have understood that it is cheap to do but you have to be commissioned to produce a radio advert.

How to … make radio ads
It’s cheap, it’s (relatively) foolproof and you can let your imagination run wild with it. Radio is a fantastically flexible medium, and great fun to produce – so why aren’t more of you producing it? Lecturer and examiner Clive Edwards gives you the lowdown on what makes a good radio ad.

Try this for a party game, with a group of friends.

You all need a piece of paper, a pencil, and no conferring until you have written down your decision.

You have been commissioned to produce a radio advertisement for a new car. You want to stress that this is a family car. Its biggest selling point? Its safety features. This car is safe. It will protect you; care for you.

You need a voice over. It must be a voice that is reassuring. It oozes sincerity. Honesty. Integrity. Trust.

Now of all the teachers in your school or college, whose voice would you use for this voice-over?

Write down the name of the chosen one. When you’ve all finished, compare notes.

Perhaps you’ll all agree. But I doubt it. Some will find it impossible to separate the actual voice from other points about the person. Such as the physical appearance, his/her habits, character, recent history, teaching style …

You can carry on the game with other scenarios. Whose voice would you use to advertise: the sexiness of a new perfume for men and women; or the latest exciting, spine -chilling ride at Alton Towers; or a new magazine encouraging old people to stay active, and so on …

Remember – it must be about voice. Not personality. Nor history. Nor habits. Nor style. Just voice.

The important thing about making a radio ad is that it depends entirely on sound and script. Nothing more. People are going to listen to this voice and they are going to build a picture, instantly, of the person who speaks the words.

Radio: an imaginary world

If you are writing a radio ad, you have a licence to imagine, and to get your listeners to imagine …, well …, anything you like, and anywhere you like. Barbados, France, the countryside, a busy street, the moon, a swamp …

So, how to get started. All you need are:

• the voices

• the script

• a PC

• a microphone

• the sound effects CD that you can get from any music store

• and a software package like Cakewalk, Cool edit pro, Cubase.

The script

Clients pay for advertising time in 10 second bursts. Radio ads are usually 30 seconds or 40 seconds long – and you can’t fit much into 40 seconds. So you need to bear in mind everything your dear old English teacher told you. One of mine once said that prose is ‘words in the best order’; poetry is ‘the best words in the best order’. I think she cribbed that from someone famous. Well, it’s good advice for the copywriters of radio ads – the creative team, as they are called in most commercial radio stations. And by the way, they are treated with utmost respect. Commercial radio depends on these modern-day poets for their income.

Sid Pettit works for BRMB in Birmingham, part of the Capital Radio group. Her advice is: ‘Don’t go for the hard sell. Single voice-over ads using some bloke trying to fit a load of information into a small space just irritate the listener. They will flick stations.’ Exactly what the radio station doesn’t want. Radio stations know they are at their most vulnerable to station-flicking during news breaks and commercial breaks. So it pays to keep the ad entertaining. It satisfies your client, and your listeners.

Go for scenarios, situations, imaginary ones,’ says Sid. ‘It’s theatre of the mind. Radio is a noisy market-place. You’ve got to attract their attention. But don’t do it by shouting at them.’

Hmmm. This doesn’t sound easy. Another phone call. This time to Dave Murphy, down the road (literally) from BRMB, at Heart/Galaxy FM – part of the Chrysalis Radio Group.

‘The best commercials on radio,’ he says, ‘avoid clichés. And they don’t try to do too much. Just focus on a single idea. One aspect of the commodity you are trying to sell.’

I asked him for an example. A slight pause. He was asked to write an advert for a carpet company in the Midlands. As usual with carpet sellers, they were having a half-price sale. How do you make that memorable? Everyone is having a half-price sale.

Dave came out with an ad something like this:

If you come and get your carpet from xxxx we can give you floor covering for half the price. Or you can buy a house twice the size to fit it all in.

People actually phoned the carpet shop and asked them about the bigger houses they were selling with their carpets!

Sid Pettit remembers one of her favourites. The hi-fi company Bose wanted a radio ad for their new, tiny, ‘virtually invisible’ speakers. Now Bose have plenty of qualities. But she knew that the ad should focus on one aspect only. So, it went something like this:

Customer: Good morning, I’d like not to see some of your Bose virtually invisible speakers.

Assistant: Certainly, sir. Here they aren’t.

Simple. Effective. Makes the point. Witty. Doesn’t rely on clichés.

Footfall is what the radio ads are looking for. Not sales. A radio ad will probably not convince someone to buy something. Not on its own. But it will create an interest. It will create footfall. People will go to the shop and look. Or phone.

The call to action

And that’s another important element of a radio ad: The Call to Action. Don’t just tell them about what you’re selling. Get the listener to do something. An action. Like ‘call us now on …’ or ‘look up our website on …’ or ‘visit us today at …’

Dave Murphy recalls one of his most difficult radio ad projects. It was for a funeral director. They wanted an ad that encouraged people to open an account that would pay for their own funeral. I grunted my distaste down the phone. ‘No, there was no problem in that,’ said Dave. It was the fact that they insisted that he mentioned in the ad that all new customers would get a free Teasmade into the bargain. A free Teasmade to help you wake up in the morning, and a down payment on a coffin just don’t go together too well.

Sid recalled her favourite horror story – the worst script ever. A client insisted on writing his own script. It’s not unusual for clients to think that they can write scripts as well as the professionals. It’s one of those jobs that looks easy until you have a go. So, it’s for the day of the funeral of a famous and loved royal person. The advert begins like this:

(Sombre voice, slow) Blank Blank (Shop) and its staff would like to express our deepest condolences to the Royal family on the sad occasion of the funeral of xxxxxxxx . As a mark of respect, the shop will be closed throughout the day on Thursday. (Upbeat music, cheerful voice) But we’ll be open again on Friday with lots of special offers, bargains galore and free gifts …

Well, that’s a few words on script. Now here’s the Call To Action. Have a go at writing one. And have a go at that party game, with the voices.

The editing? That’s another issue. One thing at a time. Keep it simple. Don’t try to do too much in one short ad. Shut up, Clive. Let them get back to the music.
Clive Edwards

This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 1, September 2002

Regulation of advertising

Advertising regulation refers to the laws and rules defining the ways in which products can be advertised in a particular region. Rules can define a wide number of different aspects, such as placement, timing, and content. In the United States, false advertising and health-related ads are regulated the most. Many communities have their own rules, particularly for outdoor advertising. Sweden and Norway prohibit domestic advertising that targets children. Some European countries don’t allow sponsorship of children’s programs, no advertisement can be aimed at children under the age of twelve, and there can be no advertisements five minutes before or after a children’s program is aired. In the United Kingdom advertising of tobacco on television, billboards or at sporting events is banned. Similarly alcohol advertisers in the United Kingdom are not allowed to discuss in a campaign the relative benefits of drinking, in most instances therefore choosing to focus around the brand image and associative benefits instead of those aligned with consumption. There are many regulations throughout the rest of Europe as well. In many non-Western countries, a wide-variety of linguistic and non-linguistic strategies are used to mock and undermine regulations.

Two of the most highly regulated forms of advertising are tobacco advertising and alcohol advertising.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_regulation

In the UK the situation is complex, as each medium is governed by a different regulatory body:

• Non-Broadcast Advertising is dealt with by the Advertising Standards Authority
• UK TV Advertising complaints are referred to the OfCom
• All advertising in the UK is subject to the Committee of Advertising Practice's Code (known as the CAP Code) and also to the Code of the European Advertising Standards Alliance.

All this leads to a maze of voluntary rules and legislation which must be negotiated by an agency seeking to produce a campaign. There are extremely strict rules regarding the advertising of tobacco (banned), alcohol (going that way), medicines/medical services and products aimed specifically at children. Advertising law is a complex area.

http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/Advertising/advertising.php?pageID=regulate

From researching the regulation of advertising i have learnt that you can't just advertise anything you want. There are certain rules for each different catagory of an advertisment, for example chilren and smoking.

How does advertising work?

To advertise on TV it’s best to hire an agency. Agencies have experience in dealing with all types of campaigns and can offer invaluable advice before proceeding. In addition, agencies negotiate with contractors, plan your campaign with your target audience in mind, monitor ratings, and help track the results. They also tend to advise on who to recruit to produce the commercial.

In an attempt to get a better price dealing direct with TV contractors can seem like a good idea but in practice you’d be leaving yourself open to be exploited. The advice and knowledge of an experienced agency is invaluable.

Many businesses still feel that TV advertising will be too expensive for them, something that is often not the case. The growth of digital TV means that many people now have a choice of hundreds of channels, with many of these channels highly focused on a specific topic, thereby offering highly targeted audiences for potential advertisers.

http://www.marketingminefield.co.uk/television-advertising-overview/