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.