Saturday 5 May 2012
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Evaluation First Draft
Media Evaluation
In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I started my research by watching and analysing a different range of adverts to help me develop a better understanding of the codes and conventions within advertising. The key thing i throughout each advert i analized was that typically adverts are only 30 -40 seconds long, whatever is being promoted has a logo and slogan, and voice over adverts. My media product does not follow the typical conventions of a typical sweet advert since I have decided to not show my products packaging. From analysing these wide range of adverts it gave me a better insight at to what i want to advertise. I come to the conclusion that i wanted to create a Sweet advertisment. In a few ways media texts can be seen as being highly conventional, employing highly conventional techniques, and being inspired by real media products. I wanted to use sweet conventions to apply to my advert so that the consumers understood my advert more.
Once coming to this desicion i then began to research and analyse different sweet adverts in order for me to understand the key codes and conventions in advertising Sweet's. Once i have understood this i have a better chance at making my product more realistic and enticing to my audience. One advert i looked at and analysed was the Haribo advert at this is one of the most popular and common Sweet adverts on TV. It opened with an establising mid-shot of a young girl and a middle aged man standing smiling. The young girl is stood further infront of the man, quickly dennoting to the audience she is the more important feature as the man is stood behind her, holding the haribo packet, making it very easy and quick to identify what the advert is promoting, also showing the logo. This is important to remeber to have the product on show somewhere within the advert. As most of this advert is voice over it did not have much music in it, however half way through whem the kids were asked not to eat the haribo and they had to resist, a background track came on. This was almost a tune you would expect to hear at nursery for young kids, as it is a gentle jingle, which almost reminds me of a tune you would expect to hear when little kids are about to do something they shouldnt. In the last frames the product's logo was shown and the voice over for the slogan was said which is a key convention within TV adverts.
In terms of my sponsorships i chose to sponsor Cartoon Network. I chose this due to the fact that it is a popular kids channel, therefore giving it maximum veiwing capability. I felt that my sponsorships were very conventional and fit very nicely into the set of conventions i found when researching. From my research i found out a bit about branding, meaning that you portray a strong brand image through the use of logos and colours. Unlike main adverts they dont try to sell the audience a product, but it is just there to remind them of the product. A sucessful sponsorship sequence will connect with the veiwers reminding them of there adverts, and this can be done through branding ie iconic characters, company name's, logo's, slogans and the use of colours. Within my adverts i used branding by featuring the logo and slogan at the end of each advert meaning that it becomes iconic of the brand. I did this to help the audience assosiate with each of my adverts.
In terms of my sponsorships i chose to sponsor Cartoon Network. I chose this due to the fact that it is a popular kids channel, therefore giving it maximum veiwing capability. I felt that my sponsorships were very conventional and fit very nicely into the set of conventions i found when researching. From my research i found out a bit about branding, meaning that you portray a strong brand image through the use of logos and colours. Unlike main adverts they dont try to sell the audience a product, but it is just there to remind them of the product. A sucessful sponsorship sequence will connect with the veiwers reminding them of there adverts, and this can be done through branding ie iconic characters, company name's, logo's, slogans and the use of colours. Within my adverts i used branding by featuring the logo and slogan at the end of each advert meaning that it becomes iconic of the brand. I did this to help the audience assosiate with each of my adverts.
I also analysed the Skittles Advert. It opens with an establishing long shot of two people in the middle ground walking foward, and a mid shot of a man sat at a desk in the fore ground, enticing the audience to keep watching and find out why the two people in the middle ground are walking towards the man in the fore ground. This advert is different to the Haribo advert as it has no music and no voice over except for the slogan at the end. It is supposed to be quite a dull atmosphere throughout so this would be the main reason perhaps for not having music. From analysing Sweet advertisments there does not seem to be a set convention as they vary, although at the end of each advert it says the logo and the slogan. I will be sure to adapt this to my adverts.
However i do feel that my adverts that could be challenging these forms and conventions of real media products. I say this due to the fact that i have chose not to show my products packaging like most other Sweet adverts have. I have done this because i feel that my logo stands out and it would be easily spotted on the products packaging anyway and i also feel that it would be too much to put into one advert, as my adverts are stop frame, which again would challenge the forms and conventions as a stop frame Sweet advert has not been made yet so immediatly it is different. I deliberatly made it stop frame to try and give it a new edge to Sweet adverts and it is also very enticing for my target audience age range to watch. My target audience is for young kids so watching the step by step little sweets turn into patterns and colours is very engaging and keeps you watching. My choice of music was slightly different as to what a convention within a sweet advert would normally be, which is and upbeat, happy jingle. The backing music i have chose is a more up beat tempo to a happy jingle, however i have deliberatly chose to challenge the convention as i feel that this backing music i have will engage my target audience more which is kids aged 8 - 13 which is slightly older than the haribo's target audience from aged 5 onwards. From my research i recognized the soundtrack is an important aspect of the advert as it sets the right mood and feel to your advert. The track i used was an up beat jingle which was un copyright that my friend made for me, as he is a DJ.
How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
I wanted to make sure that my Radio Advert sounded professional so in order to do this i had to research into exsisting radio adverts. I went onto websites such as youtube to type in "Sweet Radio Adverts". I also listening to the Radio, channel's such as Capital. Kiss and Radio 1 as i feel these are the most well known radio channels that play the younger audience genre of music, which is my correct targert market that i would be promoting to. This was usefull to me as it helped me get a better understanding of the conventions within Radio Adverts.
I gained the knowledge that it is important to keep static when recording so that you have a nice, steady voice throughout and it doesnt change pitches so that is easy to understand, the use of background music/jingles which is optional but most adverts these days do. If you do decide to have muic or jingles in the background you have to make sure that it fits in with what you are promoting and the script you have written out for it. Another key convention would be scripting your Radio Advert before you record it, just so that you havr a clear understanding of what you are saying and when exactly to say things. This also helps you go over it a few times if you need to practice before hand.
When recording my Radio advert i made sure that i used the same actor that i used when filming my adverts. I did this to make sure that it was more proffessional and also it would make it easier to my target market to relate to my products, because if they have seen my TV adverts then they will be able to make the connection of what i am promoting if they recognize the voice of the actor. Doing these few simple things makes sure that you are in order and know what your doing throughout and keeps the standards high so that it is more proferssional and actually like a real Radio Advert.
How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
I wanted to make sure that my Radio Advert sounded professional so in order to do this i had to research into exsisting radio adverts. I went onto websites such as youtube to type in "Sweet Radio Adverts". I also listening to the Radio, channel's such as Capital. Kiss and Radio 1 as i feel these are the most well known radio channels that play the younger audience genre of music, which is my correct targert market that i would be promoting to. This was usefull to me as it helped me get a better understanding of the conventions within Radio Adverts.
I gained the knowledge that it is important to keep static when recording so that you have a nice, steady voice throughout and it doesnt change pitches so that is easy to understand, the use of background music/jingles which is optional but most adverts these days do. If you do decide to have muic or jingles in the background you have to make sure that it fits in with what you are promoting and the script you have written out for it. Another key convention would be scripting your Radio Advert before you record it, just so that you havr a clear understanding of what you are saying and when exactly to say things. This also helps you go over it a few times if you need to practice before hand.
When recording my Radio advert i made sure that i used the same actor that i used when filming my adverts. I did this to make sure that it was more proffessional and also it would make it easier to my target market to relate to my products, because if they have seen my TV adverts then they will be able to make the connection of what i am promoting if they recognize the voice of the actor. Doing these few simple things makes sure that you are in order and know what your doing throughout and keeps the standards high so that it is more proferssional and actually like a real Radio Advert.
When researching synergy i understood it was important so that my media product could be seen as a cohesive advertising campaign and still be effective at the same time. I recognized the importance of creating synergy beeween all of my 5 media texts so that it would be understandable and effective. The main way in which i created synergy was through the continuous use of mise en scene through each of my texts. I made sure that i used a white background for each of my adverts, so that it was a blank canvas and the target markets attention would be drawn to my product that i am trying to promote.
In terms of my music, for my two thirty second adverts i have used an up beat tempo un copyrigut soundtrack that i have, however for both of my ten second adverts i have used a slower not as up beat tempo which is also un copyright, but a more seductive sound with good beats in it. I did this as i found through my research that shorter adverts have a tendancy for swapping over music for example i found that the only way is essex advert that was rougly 30 - 40 seconds long had a happy upbeat jingle in the background however the shorter 20 second adverts had Labrinth- Earthquake playing in the background. I decided to apply this to my advert as i thought it was effective for my audience and would make it more memorable.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order for me to gain audience feedback i created a questionnaire in Google docs with nine questions which enables my audience to give me feedback but at the same time it allow's me to understand things such as wether my audience understood what i was trying to promote, if they liked it/found it enticing and how exactly i can improve on it. I wanted to make sure that within the questionnaire it reffered to both 30 second adverts, both 10 seconds adverts and my radio advert, not just one of them. I chose to base this questionnaire on achiving my goals when making my adverts, to see what responses i got back from the audience and what exactly they thought. These goals were things such as making sure my adverts all made sence and linking in with each other and making sure it was memorable to my audience and making sure they enjoyed it.
One of the key questions i asked was " What is your first inital thought of my advert? ".
I gave my audience a multiple choice answer, and they could chose from 'Good', 'Average', or 'Bad'. From my feedback i am got 80% good feedback. The main purpose in asking this question was to get a straight and simple answer which would inform me if my target market thought it was good, average or bad. I also felt this was a good opening question so that i could quickly work out how the rest of the answers would come back. i.e either in a positive way or maybe a negative way, and how it would affect what they said.
The second most important and relevant question i felt had to be asked was "What could i do to improve my advert?".
This was a vital question for me to gain knowledge from as it gives me a better insight to what my auidence are thinking on how i could do certain thing better. I made this question's responce 'text' so that it gave the auidence a chance to say what they felt through there own words, rather than a multiple choice question which i felt wouldnt have been as effective and wouldnt have given me the in depth detail i wanted to hear from my audeince. Here are some of the responces that i got.
"Change the music" - Although this is relevant the member of the audience didnt quite expand on there answer, for example they could have given me an example of what music they would have liked to have heard or what music could of gone well. Thinking about this answer i could have changed the music to something more child like but i deliberatly didnt to challenge the conventions and to see if my choice of music worked well with my audience.
"The lighting could be improved" - I think this is one of the best responces as to what i could improve as i realise watching the first thirty second advert, it sometime's switched from light to dark. For making my advert's i used natural lighting aswell as my bedroom light which wasnt very strong. This has made me think about how i could improve for example buying spot lights in order to make sure that my lighting is consistant tthroughout rather than light to dark on various parts.
"Could change the music to one of the 30 second adverts to add variation" - Although i do not entirerly understand what this person has said im pretty sure they mean i could have two different songs for both of my thirty second adverts. If this is being the case then i deliberatly kept my two thirty second adverts backing music the same in order for my auidence to recognize my "Fruities" advert throught the use of music. This would also link into the fact i was trying to create a sence of branding through keeping the music the same.
"Could be shorter in length" - I agree that my thirty second adverts could have been cut down slightly, however i felt the contents of what i already had worked well, resulting to me not wanting to take anything out, meaning that my thirty second adverts ended up being forty seconds long and thirty seven seconds long. However i feel that my ten second adverts were seventeen seconds long and fourteen seconds long. I could not cut these adverts down more than i already had as they had to contain a triptick of pictures for the first one and words for the second, if i cut any out then it wouldnt make much sence what i was trying to portray. being "Love, Peace and Happiness".
"Did my radio Advert give off the same concept of my other advert's?" (If not see the next question) being "Why did you not think my radio advert did not have the same concept?"
I asked this question in order to find out if my auidence really understood my radio advert and if it was linkable with my other adverts. This was important for me to find out as i needed to understand if my radio advert worked and still got across the fact i am promoting "Fruities". For my auidence to answer this question i gave them a multiple choice question from 'yes' or 'no' so it is a stright simple answer, and if there answer being no they can just skip to the next question. However for this question i scored 100%, which is really positive feeback, meaning the following question did not need to be answered.
"If you saw this advert on tv would you pay attention to it?" (If not see the next question) being "Why would you not pay attention to it?"
This question was simply to find out if veiwed on TV, if the audience would actually pay attention to it or remeber it. If i get mostly positive feedback then i will understand that my adverts were successful, as the main aim of having a advert is to entice and engage the audeince to watch it, aswell as have an intrest as to what is being promoted. For this question i again got 100% positive feedback, meaning that my audience did pay attention to my advert.
"Would you take notice of this product on the shelf, if in a supermarket?" (If not see the next question) being "Why would you not take notice of this product, on a shelf in the supermarket?"
I asked this question in order to find out if my product i was trying to promote through my adverts would really work, and if my product was actually in a supermarket, if any would actually pay attention to it. For this question i scored 80% positive feedback, however a person has said no, due to the fact i didnt show my packaging so they didnt know what it would look like.
"Do you find the stop motion aspect to my advert visually appealing?"
With this question i wanted to find out if my whole stop motion overall worked well with my advert and if my audience found it visually good to look at. I deliberatly chose to do a stop motion advert sequel as i wanted to challenge the conventions of a typical advert that is not stop frame, and see if it was effective to my target market which was kids aged 8 - 13 years. With this question i got 100% positive feedback which means that my stop motion adverts did draw the kids in and maked it visually appealing for them to watch.
This information was all valuble to me as it gave me a better understanding of what my audience would like to see from my adverts and how things could have been improved better. It was imperitive to the success of the adverts. This helps the auidence to connect with my advert and assosiate it with "Fruities".
One of the key questions i asked was " What is your first inital thought of my advert? ".
I gave my audience a multiple choice answer, and they could chose from 'Good', 'Average', or 'Bad'. From my feedback i am got 80% good feedback. The main purpose in asking this question was to get a straight and simple answer which would inform me if my target market thought it was good, average or bad. I also felt this was a good opening question so that i could quickly work out how the rest of the answers would come back. i.e either in a positive way or maybe a negative way, and how it would affect what they said.
The second most important and relevant question i felt had to be asked was "What could i do to improve my advert?".
This was a vital question for me to gain knowledge from as it gives me a better insight to what my auidence are thinking on how i could do certain thing better. I made this question's responce 'text' so that it gave the auidence a chance to say what they felt through there own words, rather than a multiple choice question which i felt wouldnt have been as effective and wouldnt have given me the in depth detail i wanted to hear from my audeince. Here are some of the responces that i got.
"Change the music" - Although this is relevant the member of the audience didnt quite expand on there answer, for example they could have given me an example of what music they would have liked to have heard or what music could of gone well. Thinking about this answer i could have changed the music to something more child like but i deliberatly didnt to challenge the conventions and to see if my choice of music worked well with my audience.
"The lighting could be improved" - I think this is one of the best responces as to what i could improve as i realise watching the first thirty second advert, it sometime's switched from light to dark. For making my advert's i used natural lighting aswell as my bedroom light which wasnt very strong. This has made me think about how i could improve for example buying spot lights in order to make sure that my lighting is consistant tthroughout rather than light to dark on various parts.
"Could change the music to one of the 30 second adverts to add variation" - Although i do not entirerly understand what this person has said im pretty sure they mean i could have two different songs for both of my thirty second adverts. If this is being the case then i deliberatly kept my two thirty second adverts backing music the same in order for my auidence to recognize my "Fruities" advert throught the use of music. This would also link into the fact i was trying to create a sence of branding through keeping the music the same.
"Could be shorter in length" - I agree that my thirty second adverts could have been cut down slightly, however i felt the contents of what i already had worked well, resulting to me not wanting to take anything out, meaning that my thirty second adverts ended up being forty seconds long and thirty seven seconds long. However i feel that my ten second adverts were seventeen seconds long and fourteen seconds long. I could not cut these adverts down more than i already had as they had to contain a triptick of pictures for the first one and words for the second, if i cut any out then it wouldnt make much sence what i was trying to portray. being "Love, Peace and Happiness".
"Did my radio Advert give off the same concept of my other advert's?" (If not see the next question) being "Why did you not think my radio advert did not have the same concept?"
I asked this question in order to find out if my auidence really understood my radio advert and if it was linkable with my other adverts. This was important for me to find out as i needed to understand if my radio advert worked and still got across the fact i am promoting "Fruities". For my auidence to answer this question i gave them a multiple choice question from 'yes' or 'no' so it is a stright simple answer, and if there answer being no they can just skip to the next question. However for this question i scored 100%, which is really positive feeback, meaning the following question did not need to be answered.
"If you saw this advert on tv would you pay attention to it?" (If not see the next question) being "Why would you not pay attention to it?"
This question was simply to find out if veiwed on TV, if the audience would actually pay attention to it or remeber it. If i get mostly positive feedback then i will understand that my adverts were successful, as the main aim of having a advert is to entice and engage the audeince to watch it, aswell as have an intrest as to what is being promoted. For this question i again got 100% positive feedback, meaning that my audience did pay attention to my advert.
"Would you take notice of this product on the shelf, if in a supermarket?" (If not see the next question) being "Why would you not take notice of this product, on a shelf in the supermarket?"
I asked this question in order to find out if my product i was trying to promote through my adverts would really work, and if my product was actually in a supermarket, if any would actually pay attention to it. For this question i scored 80% positive feedback, however a person has said no, due to the fact i didnt show my packaging so they didnt know what it would look like.
"Do you find the stop motion aspect to my advert visually appealing?"
With this question i wanted to find out if my whole stop motion overall worked well with my advert and if my audience found it visually good to look at. I deliberatly chose to do a stop motion advert sequel as i wanted to challenge the conventions of a typical advert that is not stop frame, and see if it was effective to my target market which was kids aged 8 - 13 years. With this question i got 100% positive feedback which means that my stop motion adverts did draw the kids in and maked it visually appealing for them to watch.
This information was all valuble to me as it gave me a better understanding of what my audience would like to see from my adverts and how things could have been improved better. It was imperitive to the success of the adverts. This helps the auidence to connect with my advert and assosiate it with "Fruities".
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In terms of my research and planning, this was one of the most important stages of the whole process as it allowed me to get a better knowledge and understanding of the codes and conventions of advertising. Aswell as watching previous adverts on TV, i used the internet to go on websites such as youtube to look up older exsisting adverts such as the old Skittles - Taste the rainbow Advert and the certain band of advert i wanted to look into for example stop motion adverts, and sweet adverts. As i wanted to do a stop frame, and i was only used to doing this in a program called 'Frame by Frame', it was vital that i practiced before hand at least once as i will be making my advert in Premier Pro. This means that when i come to editing i will be able to make it a lot easier on myself as i will have a better understand of how to do this. to
I decided to do a bit or early experimentation using programme's such as photoshop, to experiment with effects i could use in my adverts for example rotoscoping my stop frame. This experimentation was important as it helped me come to a desicion of my preferd prefrence that i wanted to work with, and that rotoscoping my stop frame would take to long in the time i had. I was then able to carry on with what i was doing, confident that i didnt want to do any more to my advert in terms of effect, and just keep it as a normal stop frame.
In terms of looking for un copyrighted backing music and jingle i used websites such as youtube to look at exsisting un copyright music. However through my research on youtube i found nothing i was looking for. I then turned to a website called Soundcloud. This website is a music service to find free un copyright music. Through this website i did find a few jingles however they did not really work well with my advert so i did not end up using them.
When constructing my adverts i used a new media technology in order to help me in the process. This was an SLR camera, Nikon D5000. When filming my advert i used a tri-pod in order to keep my camera steady and so that it stayed in the same position throughout for each of my adverts, making it look the most proffesional standards. This SLR camera also had 'Auto focus' meaning that my camera would not take out of focus shots which was extremely vital when i was making my stop frame. This is due to the fact that as you are constantly taking pictures as you are adding more things in, you cant get away with an out of focus shot as it could jepordise the rest of your stop motion and would not look very proffesional.
Evaluation Stages:
I decided to do a bit or early experimentation using programme's such as photoshop, to experiment with effects i could use in my adverts for example rotoscoping my stop frame. This experimentation was important as it helped me come to a desicion of my preferd prefrence that i wanted to work with, and that rotoscoping my stop frame would take to long in the time i had. I was then able to carry on with what i was doing, confident that i didnt want to do any more to my advert in terms of effect, and just keep it as a normal stop frame.
In terms of looking for un copyrighted backing music and jingle i used websites such as youtube to look at exsisting un copyright music. However through my research on youtube i found nothing i was looking for. I then turned to a website called Soundcloud. This website is a music service to find free un copyright music. Through this website i did find a few jingles however they did not really work well with my advert so i did not end up using them.
When constructing my adverts i used a new media technology in order to help me in the process. This was an SLR camera, Nikon D5000. When filming my advert i used a tri-pod in order to keep my camera steady and so that it stayed in the same position throughout for each of my adverts, making it look the most proffesional standards. This SLR camera also had 'Auto focus' meaning that my camera would not take out of focus shots which was extremely vital when i was making my stop frame. This is due to the fact that as you are constantly taking pictures as you are adding more things in, you cant get away with an out of focus shot as it could jepordise the rest of your stop motion and would not look very proffesional.
Evaluation Stages:
In terms of my evaluating stages it is still and ongoing process. In order me to achive the maximum feedback of my peer's i have broadcasted my media through social websites such as Youtube and Facebook. This is good because Youtube and Facebook as so well known and used on a daily basis meaning that it gives me maximum advertising for my friends to veiw my media. I have also created a questionnaire in google docs. Within this i asked a wide range of questions allowing me to understand wether my target market enjoyed and understood what i was promoting and what sort of thigs i could do to improve. This was straight foward and easy to use, simplying typing in the questions and then you could chose the way in which you want your target audience to responce for instance either type it or multiple choice options, and once done it would spread it out in a graph for you making it easy to understand and use.
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