Reviewing my Production Work Part 2

As a result to our Group Meeting discussion, we had decided to produce Jacks Lion King Homage and Connors 'Gangnam Style Lucozade' Advert.
It took us several days to film and two weeks for the footage to under go post-production.

During the production of the Lynx Africa commercial, I was given the role of assistant Director and as a performer to play the female interest of the advert. During this time, I have learned that I am very critical thinker; since I was always being confident when it came to questioning whether things were being done right and whether or not the shots would look professional (in a non-antagonistc way)

The only issues I would declare were that more Direction was needed when it came to other students and their individual job roles; I realised that on several occasions some people didn't understand what they were being asked to do and felt like the instructions given weren't as clear as they could have been.
Also, a contingency plan should have been constructed in the case of mishaps taking place. For instance, the main performer did not show- so we had spent a couple hours, wasting time trying to resolve the problem. If a 'plan B' had been put together, I feel as though we would not have wasted time. In future, for all my productions I will be constructing contingency plans. This is something I have learned quite strongly to do.

On the other hand, I can quite honestly say that once the issues were resolved, producing the commercial was a delight. Everyone as a team pulled together and volunteered for job roles, which weren't originally theirs.

By the end of production, it was time for the post-production stage....

Usually, I find this process a bit daunting; due to my lack of knowledge and experience in using editing softwares. Compared to last years production work, this years first assignment has been quite successful to my surprise! Hopefully my grading on editing skills will have improved in comparison to last years.
I feel as though I have worked more confidently and independently when it comes to the editing process of my production work.

In addition to this, the technical quality of the commercial is fairly adequate; since it meets all of the codes and conventions needed to make a successful advertisement.

It is evident in other blogs, that I have spent several weeks studying the various codes and conventions commercials have and which lines of appeal can be used to persuade individual viewers to purchase the product or use the service that advertisers are advertising.

This is one of many rememberable Lynx Commercials, the one here is the 'Lynx Dry' advert. It was typically aimed at men who wanted to attract good looking girls, without premature perspiration getting in the way. It was basically an overactive drama narrative used to get mens attention and allowing them to relate to the situation.

Other well known Lynx Advertisements are also well known for surrealist narratives set in realistic environments. Take for instance the Lynx Dark Temptation Advert, a man uses the Chocolate scented spray and literally turns into a desirable piece of Chocolate! As a result of this, he attracts all kinds of different women who are trying to get a taste of him.

Pack Shot of the Lynx Africa Products

So, in effect- with the Lynx Africa being a Lion King Homage, this too will have the same impact as the other Lynx Commercials.

Whilst editing, I had decided a would use a colour  theme of yellow, red and orange: sunset colours! And by accident, I had chromakeyed out the original colours of the Lynx Africa theme and replaced them with African Sunset colours. This turned out to make the products look even better than the originals (in my opinion) as it blends in more with the background.
 Further more, you can see that I have used the conventional catch phrase 'Get the Girl' and I have used a special font to create a modern urban feel to the advert.

Nathan Taylor as the Talent. 

Print Screen of the Slogan

At the end of producing my commercial, I was asked to conduct a peer evaluation meaning I had to ask what other people thought of the Television Advert. The three main aspects, which were considered were:

• The well chosen use of intertextuality (using the Lion King for a nostalgic effect on the audience)
• The pace of the commercial
• And how well it was produced, it appeared to be very professional. 

There were no negative comments revolving around the commercial and I too have nothing negative to say about the production. Only, I wish I had more time to use the footage we captured to create a longer 'cinematic trailer' for the Lynx Product.

Reviewing my Production Work Part 1

This is the final stage of my project for the television advertising unit, where I have to analyse my own production work. I will be discussing what I have done, what skills I have learned, what issues were notified, what went successful and what I would do differently if I had to the project again.

I will also look back on whether or not my production fits the purpose of the project, whether it is appropriate for the audience, whether the techniques I used were effective (as well as the contents) the impact my work may have had on viewers and how professional it were.

First of all, I am going to mention that the idea of a Lion King homage for the Lynx Africa Commercial   belongs to my classmate Jack Rowlandson. His idea for this advert, was to produce a commercial which will have a nostalgic impact on those who have seen the classic Disney movie and for it to be rememberable. Those who have most likely seen the Lion King movie would now be older adolescents and young to middle aged adults, since the date of release for the Lion King was in the year 1994 (on the 7th of October) so, males (and females) aged 18 and over in 2012 will be able to recognise the significance of this Commercial, since this is who the target audience is.

My own idea, which I had explained in an "Idea Pitch" using a powerpoint presentation was revolving around an anti-piracy campaign aimed at a younger demographic, who are downloading unofficial contents from Interactive Media Resources (i.e. the Internet)
A lot of the research, which I carried out in order to give me some background information for my presentation, was Secondary. I used News Reports supplied from Google and the BBC, which reinforced the idea that the downloading of unofficial content, means that a negative impact has occurred for the Creative Media Industry (in both Distribution & Exhibition sectors)

My commercial would be the conventional time length of 30 seconds long and would involve two young actors aged between 17-21 (one female and the other male) to perform the role of a couple who are on a date, watching a movie together at home for the first time. However, their evening would be spoiled by the boyfriends suggested use of watching a pirated DVD of a movie, which had no sound and a fuzzy visual. The Boyfriend is then to be seen to start fretting and thinking that their relationship is having a bad start due to a bad quality date. The girlfriend appears to have an official DVD of a different movie, they watch this one instead and the date increasingly gets better. The idea behind this is to persuade a younger demographic (who at the time are starting an interest in relationships and so on) that having better quality products will lead to a better quality of Life.

Here on your left you can see I have taken a print screening of some of the slides, which are from my powerpoint presentation. All of this information is also included in a proposal, which I was asked to construct.

The powerpoint and the proposal had information enclosed about who my target audience was, what background information I had researched and which persuasive techniques I was going to use if my idea was picked.

Unfortunately, my idea was not picked. However, if I was to back and do it again I would have perhaps elaborated more on what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. Maybe even some examples of other advertisements used in anti-piracy campaigns could have been included.

Moving on from this, as a group we were asked to conduct a meeting to discuss which advertisements would be the most successful to produce. We analysed each idea, reviewed all of the issues and how we could resolve them (if we were to produce a specific idea) and discussed the time scale on how long it would take to
                           
 accomplish producing the commercials.

06/12/12 Editing Techniques for Lion King/ Lynx Africa Advert

I have met two of my objectives today; I have reviewed my Lynx Africa Advert and I have shortened the commercial to around thirty three seconds long.
I have also created more variations with the shot.

Moving on from this, I have even been editing during the 'editing tutorial' lessons and I have learned several different effects, which I could use for my pack shot, since I didn't remember how to chroma-key this was an educational experience for me, as we got to learn how to apply different effects to our individual films.

In the end, I asked how to chromakey; as the blue was starting to look un-proffesional and boring...

06/12/12 Action Plans and Targets

From my last blog, I had mentioned that I was going through my footage and reviewing the clips, hoping to finally finish the post-production part of my Television Commercial Task.

However, the first thing we did in class was a starter activity to see if we could identify five different conventions a television advert needs.

The five conventions I thought of were:

1. The advert must have a message
2. It must have an impact on the viewer
3. It must be persuasive, using the basic lines of appeal and needs
4. It must be around 30 seconds long
5. It must contain a variation of shots.

After, we looked at another starter activity in order to help us remember the shot variations, durations and the transitions, which are in a Television Commercial.

I have now realised, that within a thirty second long advertisement it is around 18-19 different shots, which can be counted. Each shot will be on the screen from 3-6 seconds long, an establishing shot to set the scene is usually 4 seconds long and an average shot is about 2 seconds long.

Average shots consist of long shots, medium close-ups and close ups. There also should be a pack shot, if the aim of the commercial is to advertise a product the viewer would want to purchase.

The transitions used between the shots should really only consist of straight cuts, however jump cuts can be used to speed up the narrative on the screen.

We have all been given a sheet to note down our individual action plans. I have wrote down three objectives, which I wish to accomplish by the end of the lesson:

1. To look through the footage, review each individual shot and to shorten it down to make my 1 minute commercial, a 30 second long one.
2. To check the variation of shots I have used and to notify the duration of each shot, in order to make changes if necessary, so that I can meet the usual conventions of a TV Advertisement.
3. To maybe finish post-producing the Lynx Africa Lion King commercial. 

In conclusion to todays blog, I hope that I will have met all of my target aims and that these blogs will be used as evidence as sort of a log/diary notifying of all the things I have done for the Television Advertisement Unit. 

05/12/12 Advertising Footage Review

Today I have been doing the final editing of my advertisement and have made the finishing touches to my production. I have asked for feedback on how I can change anything in my advertisement and I have taken the tutors advice and gone back to re-arrange and shorten some of the clips; in order to make the conventional 30 second long advert. I have also gone back and changed the colour of the background gradient. It was a green fading to black, but since I lack skills on chroma-keying I have just decided to keep a blue and black colour theme through the commercial. This looks quite professional, considering the main male character wheres a black suit anyhow, so it blends in well.

By the end of the day, I am hoping to have done a little colour correction and to have captured the commercial.

23/11/12 Editing Skills!

Today, I feel as though I have accomplished quite a few aspects, which I have found challenging. Since post-prodction usually is one of the departments on this course I don't feel confident in, I feel like I have improved in many ways. I have found that I have grown to be more confident and independent as an Editor.

I have now completed the post-production process for the Lynx Africa: Lion King Commercial and feel as though the final product is very efficient.

I also feel that the tutorials provided by Final Cut King has benefited me very well; since they have taught me how to improve the visuals of my recorded footage.  The clip on the right here is one of F.C Kings Tutorials, which I have used to apply a 'Gradient' to my Lion King Video to make it more visually 'African' & 'Sunny'.

So, if there is anybody out there who feels like me: not so confident and don't necessarily enjoy editing, Final Cut King do provide some excellent sources of information, which you can learn from. They're very clear and they're in no way confusing, so you won't feel panicked if someone says 'it's time to edit!' 

In conclusion, now I am feeling more confident with the editing stage in the post production process, I am now enjoying altering videos.

22/11/12 Post-Production Continued

Here you can see a screen shot I have taken of my post-production work, using the Final Cut Express Software. I am currently in the process of post-producing the Lion King Parody/ Lynx Africa Advertisement, as you can see there is a pack shot of the Lynx Products, we are trying to "sell".

So far, this commercial in the screen shot is 56 seconds long and this will most likely be the one to be shown in a tariff on the television; as it's the closest to the conventional 30 second long advertisement.

In total, this has taken me two full working days to edit a 56 second long footage. And I have still not yet finished, since editing is the most time consuming of processes for a product to be created, I conclude that it will most likely be another full working day to finish the post-production stage.