TV advertisement evaluation

The advert itself


Questionnaire

Questionnaire Results 

Section 1: The brief

a. What was the brief 
The brief was to rebrand a Unilever product to a new target audience. To do this, we were given a maximum of 90 seconds to create a TV advert targeting our new audience.

b. What was your chosen product and how did you decide, as a group, to choose it? 
Our chosen product to rebrand was Ben & Jerry's. Two out of the three of us had already decided to rebrand Ben & Jerry's according to our Unilever presentations so we decided it was best to choose Ben & Jerry's as our product to rebrand.

c. Who is the current target audience for the product and who did you decide to appeal to? Why? 
The current audience for Ben & Jerry's is children and teenagers with the exception of young adults as its secondary audience.
We decided to target adults and above with our new advert, however there was a limitation with our actors as they didn't look that old so we decided that our advert should all be about couples and their relationships which current Ben & Jerry's adverts don't advertise.

Section 2: The finished product and feedback

a. How did you collect the feedback (comments from others) on your finished advert from your target audience? Provide a summary of the main points. 
Our main feedback came from the class. They watched our advert together and gave us feedback in person. Ellie also gave in feedback and that was really helpful because she had the experience to be able to professionally analyse our advert. 
We also collected feedback using an online survey site called SurveyMonkey. Unlike regular print based survey's, these are done electronically for three main reasons...
The first being that since our advert was published online via the site YouTube it means that if the survey was print based you would require not only a computer to watch the advert but also the print based survey that you'll need a pen to fill out whereas if the survey was online both with the advert, it means that people filling out the survey would only require a computer to both watch the advert and fill out the survey making it more efficient to them.
The second reason is that it is much easier to send out survey's via email to people you know instead of handing it to them in person when they are not always available.
The third reason is that SurveyMonkey analyses and displays the results in a very pretty manner as you can see above, the fact that this does this for you automatically saves time compared to using PowerPoint and manually creating and inserting graphs and tables, this enables me to come to conclusions a lot quicker with my results.

b. Appropriateness to audience: do you think you managed to get the main message to your target audience you specified in pre-production. Would the advert have an appropriate impact on them?
Yes, the main message for our advert was that Ben & Jerry's brings people together and our plot complements this when we see a couple who had recently broken up come back together when presented with this ice cream. Our new flavours that we created were shown in our advert and was quickly picked up on by other people which was great. We chose new flavours to help the existing audience for Ben & Jerry's continue to buy their ice creams as well to attract new attention from new people.
There is variation found in my survey when asked about who this advert targets. Here are just some of the results... 
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Quoted directly from Survey
"20+ couples"
"18+ students"
"I think the advert targets couples between the ages of 20-30"
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As mentioned in section 1 B, we initially targeted Ben & Jerry's for older couples but this changed when we realised that our actors don't look anything like them. 

c. Think about the technical and aesthetic qualities of your advertisement. Analyse your use of: mise-en-scene; camera; editing and sound.

Mise-en-scene
In the advert, Leonie and Connor are walking through a park holding hands showing signs that they are in a relationship. Leonie spots someone jogging past that takes her fancy. She says "wow!" in a sign that shows she is impressed. Without Leonie realising, Connor was hearing. Connor rather angrily confronts Leonie about what she says. Leonie tries to apologise but Connor won't accept it and walks away. 
The scene changes to a corridor, Leonie is sitting down on a bench on her phone texting Connor in a bid to meet up with him at the beach and to talk things through, Connor replies and agrees to meet up. Leonie smiles.
The last scene is at a beach. Connor is sitting on a bench saddened by Leonie's betrayal. Leonie approaches Connor from the side, in her hands are tubs of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Leonie sits down on the other side of the bench. They turn to each other. Leonie apologises for the second time only this time she gives him a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Connor smiles and forgives Leonie. The advert ends with a long shot of both of them sitting on a bench facing the sea. Graphics pop up along with the slogan, a narrator speaks. "Ben & Jerry's. For when sorry isn't good enough. Try our new flavours today!" 

Camera Work
We used advanced techniques such as using the rule of thirds when filming some shots and a great way of showing this is from our close ups and over the shoulder shots...

I am unable to overlay a grid onto these images to prove they use the rule of thirds but hopefully you can visualise this using the grid below...

The content of our advert, incorporated a mixture of close ups, medium shots, long shots, over-the-shoulder shots and panning shots. We tried to make all the shots flow together but despite our best efforts, a couple of people commented on this as a negative thing...
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Quoted directly from Survey
"Flow of shots was disjointed at times"
"Some of the shots were slightly disjointed" 
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Editing
Editing was a challenge and took longer than what I expected it to. I initially thought it would take a few days at the latest to finish editing our advert but I was wrong. We had to make a few changes prior to editing; when it came to filming the 'text messaging scene' I had planned to use over-the-shoulder shots but I then realised when framing the shot that you couldn't make out the text on the phone because it was too small so we had to do a bit of special effects to display. A lot of elements were involved when creating these text messages. We used Adobe After Effects CC to create the text messages. We tried to design the text messages so they look identical to the phones...

Editing the sound was one of the most annoying things to do. The reason behind this is that with each shot there was a different sound recorded with the clip whether in one you heard a passing truck and then it suddenly cuts off to another shot where you can hear nothing in the background, we tried to balance the sound out but in the end it didn't make as much of a difference as I'd hoped. We got comments on that...
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Quoted directly from Survey
"Audio in park could have been cleaner"
"Audio quality couldda been a little better"
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Sound
One of the most annoying things to edit in our advert was the sound. Our advert consists of both diegetic sounds (voices of characters) and non-diegetic sounds (background music). We also added in background sound when at the beach (seagulls). We made it so you won't be able to tell and no one picked it up in the survey so we did a very good job in hiding that up. However what was annoying about it you can see in the editing section above.

d. Effectiveness of content: Do you think your finished advert effectively sells the product to the specified audience through its storyline/narrative?
I do think that our finished advert effectively sells the product to the specified audience through its storyline/narrative. (you can see more information from Section 2: B) Our slogan at the end of our advert directly links with the narrative of the story told about separation and joining of a relationship. Most of the comments on my survey proved this, I have listed just some (you can see everyone's comment in the embedded Survey Results above)..
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Quoted directly from Survey
"A couple breaking up and getting back together because of Ben and Jerry's ice cream"
"A couple break up, but are brought back together with the power of ice cream!"
"Girlfriend is making up to boyfriend with ben and jerrys"
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e. What was the effectiveness of the persuasion techniques you used to sell the product? 
We used AIDA as one of our persuasion techniques. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and  Action. Attention and Interest was used at the start of the advert where we had Leonie and Connor break up, we tried to have this relate to some people who have been broken from a relationship in the past or who are facing it right now. The music choice for this scene adds a bit of drama on top. Desire and Action happens when we first see Ben & Jerry's being presented to Connor who up until now hasn't accepted Leonie's apology, it is only when he see's Ben & Jerry's does he apologise because he loves it.

f. Clarity of communication: what was the message you were trying to send to the target audience? What were the main techniques you used to send that message? e.g. I wanted to tell teen audiences that drinking Bovril is not just for older people so I used younger actors and hip/colloquial language to appeal to them in the hope that young audiences would identify with them. 
I wanted to tell the audience that Ben & Jerry's bring people together, the way I did this through my narrative. There's a seemly perfect relationship that falls apart in seconds. When the person causing the breakup (Leonie) tries to apologise, Connor doesn't accept it, it is only where Leonie apologises for a second time at the beach when presenting him with Ben & Jerry's does Connor finally accept her apology. So the slogan "When sorry isn't good enough" fits in perfectly with the narrative. See quotes listed in Section 2: D for more details.   
g. Overall, do you feel your advert is fit for purpose? i.e. does it look professional and does it comply with advertising regulations? You must extract information from the ASA/BCAP code here. 

ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) are responsible for regulating what is allowed on TV. They regulate TV by using the UK Code of Broadcasting Advertising. BCAP (Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice) are the ones responsible for writing and maintaining the code.
As quoted in my Prezi, I mentioned a couple of rules that have to comply to BCAP regulations. These are section 06 Privacy and 13 Food, food supplements and associated health and nutrition claims.

06 Privacy
See more rules here: https://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/Broadcast/CodeItem.aspx?cscid={32501c6e-37b7-48aa-976b-ae0f8ecba71f}#.VZuTWflVhBc

There are visibly no people in this advert apart from Leonie, Connor and Chris. I made sure to check that if there were anyone else seen in our advert we would either have to censor them out of shot or get permission from them to appear in our advert.

  13 Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims
See more rules here: https://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/Broadcast/CodeItem.aspx?cscid={933ab0c3-ed5b-4cb7-ba39-07e337bbc0f0}#.VZuRPflVhBc

As I am advertising food, these rules are especially important to this advert. There's only a small scene in the advert where they actually eat the ice cream. They did not eat multiple tubs of ice cream or eat a lot of ice cream from the tub so I am confident that our advert does not 'condone or encourage excessive consumption of any food' (13.3)

I think our advert looks professional enough to any person viewing it. I spent time to frame the shots carefully and the visual quality itself of the advert would look good if played back on YouTube (as an example). Would I be bold enough to say it looked good enough to appear on television? No. One of the reasons include the sound quality; the audio quality is degraded slightly in some shots but another important reason is that the music used in the background with the advert is royalty free but to be broadcast on TV you are effectively earning money from that advert (in other words commercially) which is not what all royalty free music allows you to do and you will likely have to contact the owner and/or buy a licence in order to use that music which may involve paying the composer. 

Section 3: Personal reflection

a. How does the final advertisement compare with your original intentions? Reflect on your documentation, e.g. your storyboards and other pre-production, final advertisement and audience / peer / tutor feedback. 
Our original idea was to use the pub instead of the park for our "break up" scene where Leonie and Connor both go their separate ways. However we failed to get permission so we had to alter our shot list, script and other paperwork. Fortunately at the time, we hadn't yet made a start on the storyboards so we didn't have to make many corrections. Our intentions were met as we wanted to advertise Ben & Jerry's to an older audience preferably adults and above but in the end we settled for couples. Despite the location change, the plot for our advert remained the same with the relationship which breaks up over a row but then comes back together when eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

b. Self-evaluation: Reflect on how satisfied you are with your final advert. Would you do anything differently if you were to undertake the task again? Finally, evaluate your own involvement in the project. 
Overall, I was very happy in the way our advert looked. There were a few elbows that we could of ironed out. I wasn't so happy with the music choice specifically the choice of music that started and ended with the beach scene. I wouldn't be the only one to disagree as we've all said that the music just doesn't blend with what was previously played. It was all a bit too romantic and bit cheesy. The audio isn't as clean as I'd like as some sounds are cut off as the shots transition, it was all supposed to fade in to each other creating a smooth transition but the editing was a challenge and despite all the effort, we failed.
    

DepicT Evaluation

What was the task?
The task was to create a short film for the competition 'DepicT!' It had to be no more than 90 seconds long even with titles or credits however that was our only limitation other than that our short film could be about anything we could think of.

Camerawork
Overall our camerawork was not that bad. But it could be better but for what we got in 90 seconds the results were satisfactory. There are a total of 39 shots from the original 47 that we planned out. The missing videos were filmed but there wasn't enough time to fit them in and a few were unecessary 


Mise-en-scene
The overall look of our film was the cinematic style that we were going after with a dull tone in terms of the colours. We did however looking back at the shots discovered that some of our clips were overexposed and some were underexposed which in some cases did affect our tone for our film.
I liked a couple of shots in the film, the first at around 0:29 through to 0:35 with the tracking and crabbing shots. I wanted to get a sense of movement with this type of shot and I think it worked effectively in doing so.
The second shot at 1:02-1:04 with a tracking shot towards the subjects as they run past the camera. This was shot by hand so the footage was shaky but it added action to the clip.

Editing
All of our clips transitioned with a jump cut as there was no need for any fades or other ambitious transitions and the pace of the film was generally quick so jump cuts were a god option. Other than that we edited the sound (see sound below) also the colour which has been slightly adjusted to look more film like and lastly the slow motion between 1:09-1:14 which we did by slowing the clip by 50% from the original.

Continuity
Most of our continuity errors were object placements and peoples positions in shot and most of them occurred in the class room here are just some of the continuity errors...
- Theodora is in a different position in the next shot of her between shots (5-7 seconds)
- The cleaning spray Theodora picks up on the way is shown in shot (14 seconds into the clip)

Sound
In terms of sound most of the clips in our short film use their existing sound with just a few that had to be altered because of speech from the cameraman (me) or the sound of the camera equipment such as the dolly.
The music tracks we selected suites the theme very well, the main track - Volitile reaction - was used throughout the chase scene with - The Elevator Bossa Nova - used for the lift scene. 

Am I happy?
The finished result was never something I had expected in my mind that it would be and this is good because throughout this experience of filming this short film it has taught be a lot of what to do next time and what I would have changed. For me as the cameraman I would have changed how I shot the film making sure that my clips were perfectly exposed and that what's in scene is there in the next shot as shown in the continuity errors.

Continuity Exercise Evaluation

First video - BTEC Continuity Exercise 2014 - The Package
By me (Robert), Connor, Mikey and Leonie

'The package' was a 2 minute short film about a transfer of a briefcase which the audience has no idea what is inside and still doesn't find out at the end. (spoilers!) It's a very mysterious video that involves two and only two characters. Both of which are completely different to each other, one dressed formally in a suit and the other one dressed in casual clothes.
This video is part of a challenge set by our Media tutor in which this short film had to be shot in no more than 20 shots. It had to have the following shots...
- At least five close-ups
- At least one extreme close-up
- At least two matches on action
- At least one eyeline match
- At least one POV
- A shot-reverse shot sequence
- Once (but only one) camera movement
- Some establishing shots and re-establishing shots
- At least one non-cut transition

We succeeded but were left with some good points and some bad points. Below is an analysis of our work constructed by my own group and the audience who has watched our film in class.

Continuity - What is it?
It is a system that's used to create flow with an audience, it's something the audience would never question as like a transition from a shot into another shot. We had some good continuity used in and between shots however there were a few mistakes...

First off, there was a reflection of the camera and crew in the sunglasses that the man in the suit (me) was wearing. This was at shots 0:16-0:21.
Secondly, My head was positioned differently between the shots. For example; at shot 0:24-0:25 you could see I was turning my head to the right. The shot that follows I was doing the same action again.
Then Leonie's legs were in one of the shots. This was at 1:25-1:28
Next, the weather dramatically changed between 0:32-0:37 (foggy) to 0:37-0:38 onwards. (sunny) We couldn't do anything about that. It was something we couldn't control.
We also broke the 180 degree rule... just between 1:00-1:04
Lastly, the briefcase is opened at shot ... 1:16-1:24 but then in the next shot it is closed again.

mise-en-scene
mise-en-scene translates to 'what's in scene'. We start off in a foggy field, where we are introduced to a shady male character appearing through the fog dressed in a suit, carrying a briefcase and wearing sunglasses which hide the characters face slightly suggesting that there may be he's hiding something. We next see him stop and look around which he could be looking for someone or trying to see whether someone is watching him. He continues walking until he reaches a container, from there we are introduced to another male leaning on the side of the container; he is dressed in casual wear. Then we realise that the shady male character is meeting this casual guy in which they quickly transfer the package (the briefcase). They walk away and split; this is the last time that we see the shady character and we are left with the other guy who stops to see what's inside the case, when we see him opening it, it is unclear what is inside because of the camera's position. We then see his reaction, The film just ends there. The last shot is of the guy smiling - his reaction to opening the briefcase before fading to black. Leaving one question on everyone's mind... what was in that briefcase.

Camera work
Most of the shots in the film are close-ups. We filmed this with a DSLR with an 18-55mm lens. Most shots were filmed with automatic focus turned on however this is evidently a problem because if you look closely at some of the shots, you can see focus shifting every now and then, so we won't be using that again! We'll stick to manual focus, it will just mean it will be a bit more harder to operate the camera with. However with using the DSLR we had some really nice shots and some with some real good depth of field which is a bonus of using DSLR's as apposed to camcorders. 

We shot with a flat picture profile - this means that the colours in the recorded footage looked unsaturated as well as the whole image looking not as sharp as what it should of been. Our intention of doing this was that we were going to apply saturation and sharpness during editing but we ran out of time, this will of given our film a much higher quality than the inbuilt sharpness and saturation in the DSLR.

Overall most of out shots were either close ups or medium shots, we still met the requirements and used a range of shots. Our overall length of our short film was 1:32 but it lasted longer because of a mistake in the editing leaving you with a blank screen and ambient noise for another 20 seconds. The shot between 0:31-0:37 had a lot of camera shake caused by a dolly we were using to side track the subject as he was walking along, this was due to uneven ground. We were going to stabilize it in the editing process but again we simply ran out of time.

SoundTo record sound we used a Rode VideoMic. All the sound used in the film was recorded separately; we didn't ever use any natural sound from the video clips but there was a mistake in the film where you here no sound at all; this was between 0:27-0:29. Overall I think our film uses convincing sound that people will think was recorded with the video and not recorded separately (excluding when the sound stops at 0:27).
The whole point of us using external audio was because of 2 reasons...
- The main being that while we were recording shots, Connor was directing me by talking to me about what I should be doing while it was being picked up from the microphone.
- The second was that while I was walking (the guy in the suit) my footsteps weren't heard as loud as I'd like, we therefor used some recording footsteps that boosted the volume of me walking. This gives it a bit of atmosphere. There was at some instance a point where the footsteps were cut off where there should of been some such as at 0:12-0:14. This was because the recorded footsteps did not match to my footsteps in the video slowing down to a stand still as they were out of sync. Had I had more time, I may of been able to fix that.

Overall as a first video, I think we all did pretty well and look forward to the many more videos to come. (which will be better!)