- Is your advert fit for purpose?
The brief for our advert was to make a 30 second advert for Cadbury's to re-launch one of their most loved brands, the aim of the brief was to make sure that the advert appealed to both a newer audience but must also appeal to the original audience and loyal customers of the chocolate bar. The advert that we have produced does meet the brief as we have made sure that it would appeal to a new younger audience as the cast of the advert are teenagers which is naturally going to draw the attention of a teenager towards the telly, we have also included the use of the cast playing on a console which would also appeal to the audience as they are more than likely to play on a console.
- Clarity of communication?
The way that me and the group pitched our idea would be through a presentation that was presented to our teachers. The idea for our advert was not conveyed effectively when we first told them of the idea as we had not clearly explained the idea so it had confused the teachers as to what the idea for the advert was actually supposed to be. I know this because we had to re explain parts of the idea again in order for them to be able to get a clearer image of the idea, we also had to explain why we had chosen a split screen and how we would go about making sure that the split screen came out correctly so that when we edited the footage we would not have any problems. We also got rid of a part of the idea where the girl who loses has to go out and buy the chocolate bar as it would make the the advert the 30 seconds that were allocated to us so we got rid of that part of the idea.
- Appropriateness to audience compared with original intentions
Our advert appealed to the intended audience as we included two teenagers playing on a console which is highly known around the world, we also made sure that the game the the teenagers were playing was Mario Kart as this is a game played by people of all ages and is famously known. We also made sure to use a lot of close ups throughout the advert so that you would be able to clearly see the reaction of the players whilst they play the game so that it allows the audience to better understand what the players are feeling and enables them to relate back to the cast in the advert. Within the advert we also made sure to show what props we were using for example we showed that we were using the Nintendo Wii controller and wheel to two occasions and at the end of the advert we also showed the controller again next to the bar.
- Effectiveness of techniques
The type of technical language we used was. The audio formats we used were a voice over and music to go in the background, the voice over that we had appeared at the end of our advert with the slogan "Double Decker, it ain't half a bar" which would help promote the chocolate bar. The music that we used in the background were two different tracks for Mario Kart, the first one was of the countdown so that you could grasp the anticipation of the players in the advert and the second one was Mario Kart - Toad Factory which was more upbeat and fun so it went well with the idea of playing video games. The graphics that we used in our advert are the numbers 1, 2 and 3, we also used "Double Decker, it ain't half a bar", we used the graphics for the numbers so that it was clearer for the audience to see that we were counting down to the race. The graphics that we used were big and game like so it matched the theme of the advert.
- Effectiveness of content
Our advert begins with a mid - shot of the two characters who are trying to psych one another out by staring one another down as you can see at between 0:00 - 0:02 as it makes the advert not only serious but also makes the advert quite humorous, this shot is then followed by the shot of one of the characters showing her game face whilst the countdown music plays in the background but also you see the number 3 pop onto her face and then disappear, which would engage the audience as they would want to see the face her component will make as their game face. The shot of one of the characters leaving to get a bar of chocolate at 0:14 until 0:21 when she eats the bar the lighting if the shot gets lighter as if to show that as she gets closer to the bar she starts to feel slightly happier, which can be seen as self perception as most people are generally known to be happier after they have had a bar of chocolate.
- Effectiveness of conventions
One convention we chose was humour, we chose this because we wanted to keep the audience engaged in the advert rather than get bored if it rather quickly so we tried to keep our expressions light and funny to make it humorous. An example of this would be the shot below when the actor is getting ready to play the game her expression is overly serious making the shot look more humorous rather than serious. Another convention that we chose to use was self perception as we wanted the audience to be able to relate back to the advert as they are more likely to watch the advert when they recognise themselves in the characters, whether it be the person who always loses or the one that always wins for example at 0:08 you see the one girl nervous for the next match whilst the other one was overly confident which links into nostalgia as the older audience is likely to remember days when they used to get nervous when going to a football match.
(In this shot you see Rachel getting ready to play the first round of Mario Kart)
(In this shot you see me looking at Rachel with a worried look in my eyes, whereas Rachel is looking down on me)
- Impact of work
I think that our advert does have a positive message as we are hopefully not influencing them to behave in a certain way, as we made sure that the characters did not act in a certain way that could possibly influence the audience. I also think that the advert will encourage the audience to buy the bar as we used a relatable story line as it is normal for friends to play video games with one another and have competitions so the audience can relate back to this. I also think that the audience will buy this bar because it shows that its not only for boys but girls can also eat a double decker bar after playing Mario Kart. I think that this would apply to both an old and new audience as and older audience will be able to relate back to when they were younger and used to have friendly competitions with their friends and that person throwing a tantrum. For example in the image below you can see the girl walk off and the other girl throwing her arms up as if to say 'where are you going?', which shows that a new audience can also relate because they are likely to throw a tantrum at losing a match to a friend repeatedly.
- Technical Qualities
The process of filming our work was successful as we managed to work well as a team due to having worked as a group before we knew each others strengths and how to make sure that we stayed focused on the work so that it would get done but to also make it look natural and realistic. We were also successful when we filmed as we worked efficiently and within a certain time period as we filmed during the Christmas half term meaning we were all busy so we had to make sure that the day we decided to film we were all free for a good couple of hours to be able to do the work to a standard we were okay with. The editing process also went well as we already knew how to use Final Cut Express from editing previous work on, so this allowed us to be able to work at a quicker speed and know how to use certain features.
- Aesthetic Qualities
I think that the setting we chose was good as we used three different sections of the house, which were the living room, the hallway and the kitchen. We chose all three of these settings as it allowed the advert to flow rather than just using the living room then jumping to the kitchen then jumping back to the living room, these locations are typically were most friends will be seen hanging out. The costumes also work well as the clothing is very causal however it represents the personality of both myself and Rachel, and shows how we would dress when we are together as I am very girly whereas she is more tomboyish. I think that the characters also looked good in the advert as Rachel and I are best friends so when we worked on the advert together it made it easier to work together and made the advert more natural as we did not really have to act as what happens in the advert happens in real life aswell.
