Where we are up to...

We are currently doing the final touches on advert 2. We have completed all the filming and all the shots in our advert are completed and we are happy with all the shots that we have. In order to be fully completed, we need to sort out the voiceover by editing it to fit perfectly with the action and by choosing the voice that we are happy to use in all three of our adverts. In addition to this, we currently have backing music on our advert, The One by The Ting Tings, however due to our advert not having much diegetic music, we wanted to have a song which has suitable lyrics that has a natural pause in it so that the voiceover can be played over the top. The song also needs to fit with the pace of the advert in order for it to flow well. We are also at the stage where we are organizing times to meet up with our actors for us to begin filming our other two adverts. Me and Hannah plan to use a similar work plan as we did for advert 2, because we felt that the way be went about making the advert worked well for us, because we were both able to have an equal amount of input towards the work meaning that we were both happy with the progress. Ultimately this resulted in us having an almost finished piece of work which we are happy with.

We thought we would meet the deadline, however because we did not find the music that we wanted, we have not been able to fully complete the advert. The reason why we did not meet the deadline was because were unable to find music that fitted well with the advert. In order to sort this out, we both need to do a lot more research of music, and also need to pick out a selected few and try it against out work because this will make it easier for us to establish whether or not we like the music for our advert or not. The voiceover has also caused us to be a bit behind with meeting the deadline because we did not leave enough time to do the voiceover, meaning that we had to rush when it came to learning how to use the Edirol and experimenting with it and ultimetely finding someone to use for our voiceover. We do have voices that we like, and therefore put them into our advert to see the effect that it has.


Plans for January

In January, we plan to get the filming for Advert 1 and 2 underway as soon as we get back from our Christmas holiday. Our aim is to film both of them at the same time because they are both at the same location so it makes it easier for us to do so. Once we have some footage for the adverts, we want to edit them on the Macs like we did for advert 2. The thing which we will do differently this time, is that we are going to edit advert 1 whilst continuing to film for the other advert. This will makes things much easier because whilst we are editing advert 1, the rough cuts of advert 3 will be on the Mac's meaning that once advert 1 is completed for our next deadline, we will already be ahead when it comes to working on our final advert.

Advert 2 so far

This is a video of Advert 2 so far. Excuse the low quality setting!



We are not far from finishing this. The main thing which we need to do is sort out the music. We also need to edit voice overs to fit exactly with the action (especially towards the end where it is a delayed 'ahhh') We have other voice overs which we are going to try as the one we have now is a bit too quiet.

There is also one shot which we are going to replace/edit as we've just noticed that there is a shadow of the tri-pod! We have literally just added in the shot of the geek walking into the shot and sitting next to his girlfriend. The end of this shot needs to be edited in order for it to fit nicely with the shot that is immediately after it. However, this is the shot with the shadow of the tri-pod in it, so we will end up using one of the other shots. :]

The music is also going to change. We have decided to change our original idea of having only an instrumental song, to having a song with a combination of instrumental parts and vocals. We have decided to do this because the characters in the adverts do not speak therefore we need to have some sort of lyrics. In addition to this, we will also have to include some diegetic sound, preferable in the reactions of the characters and the jingle part of the advert in order to achieve and aspect of realism.

In comparison to our original storyboard, it has changed a lot. We were originally following the storyboard however as we were carry out the shots, we didn't feel like it was flowing very well and the shots did not match the codes and conventions of the advert. We had too many long and mid shots meaning that we had to change this so that we had more close ups instead. The jingle part of the storyboard, from when the geek takes the mints out of his pockets onwards, is still the same as our original storyboard and we found that this worked well even when we came to filming it.

Re-shooting problems & Voiceover/Music

Our original plan was to do our last 2 re-shoot last week, however we had to prospone this to the following week due to problems that kept occurring on the days that we wanted to film. We were originally going to film on Tuesday, however the weather was so bad that we couldn't film the re-shoots because the rain was too heavy meaning that the shots would have been completely different to the shots that we already have. Due to our failure in re-shooting, we used our time to continue editing our sequence.

After Tuesday's shooting being a disaster, we planned to film either Wednesday or Thursday, however due to drama rehearsals and exams, we couldn't find a time in which one of our actors was free at the same time as us, therefore we had to again cancel the session and arrange to film the following week.

Rather than wasting time waiting for the re-shoots to be completed, me and Hannah decided to move forward with our advert by experimenting with the voice over and music. We searched the Internet to find suitable music for our advert. It is important that the music fits with the pace of the advert, as well as give a light hearted feel to it. We also do not want to use too many lyrics within the advert, however we may have instrumental and lyric parts to the song due to our advert not having much diegetic sound. Two of our favourites so far which we have experimented have been Scouting for girls-Heartbeat and The ting tings-be the one. We are in the process of searching for more love related songs.

In addition to this we tried adding a voice over to the 'jingle' part of our advert. Using the Edirol we recorded people saying our 'jingle' and then transferred it onto the Mac's and put it as audio against the sequence. We had some problems when doing this, because the pace in which some of the people were saying the jingle did not match the action. Even though we can edit this on the macs, we made the recording process easier for our volunteer voice overs by showing them the advert as they say the jingle. This allows them to understand the pace a lot better, meaning that the way they say the jingle is much clearer and understandable. Our favourite voice so far is that of Mr Michie and Atia. The voice over fits well for a first attempt, except for the part right at the end which will need a bit of editing. We are still going to try a variety of voices and pick the best one. We want to have the same person for all three adverts, so we have to make sure that whoever we choose is easy to get hold of when we need them.

Voiceover and music

We are in the process of listening to a variety of different 'love' music to fit with out advert and have decided that we want to use an instrumental version. The best way for us to decide which music to use is by playing it alongside the action and see what sounds most effective. We also need to bear in mind that the music has to fit in with the pace of the actions.

Me and Hannah are looking for someone to do the voiceover. We are preferably looking for a male voice, however if we can fine a female we will give it a try. The voice has to be confident, persuasive, and trustworthy in order to sell the product to viewers.
If you would like to do it or know anyone who would like to do it, then please let us know ASAP!

MORE re-shoots & Filming for Advert 1

This week we are going to re-shoot another two shots for advert 2. (couple on the bench) We need to shoot the very end shot of the advert where the couple embrace in a kiss/hug after the geek has taken the mint. This portrays the effects of the mint and shows a confident, happy boy/couple. The other re-shoot is when the boy is entering the shot. We have already done a re-shoot for this, however the shot was not effective because their heads were cut off meaning that the shot didn't really have any real purpose, we are therefore going to re-shoot this as a long shot.

In addition to this, we are going to film advert 1 (couple and the cat.) We aim to get a couple of shots from the beginning of the advert, and perhaps make a start on advert 3 (couple meets the parents) in order to have some rough cuts of the two remaining adverts.

We plan to do these shots this week, mainly on Tuesday 2nd December during our morning frees as these are the days when everybody is free and it won't clash with any other events happening that week. We are going to do the re-shoots first as this is a priority for us to complete this advert and get it out of the way. However, it will not take long to do the final 2 shots for this advert, so we will have enough time to start on the other two.

:]

Shooting Schedule - More Reshoots

Currently we have got the main bulk of advert 2 complete, it is now just a case of re-shooting a few shots, editing those re-shoots, adding voice overs and music, and final touches. After going over what we have, these are the re-shoots that we will be doing this week and why we are re-shooting that particular shot:

Date: Tuesday 25Th November
Time: Morning free periods
People present: Me, Hannah, Lucy & Ben
Task: Re shoots for advert 2 are as follows
Shot 1-Girl looking at her watch. Do this as a low angle shot.
We have changed to this because the lighting didn't work to our advantage, and it will be more effective if the audience can actually see the time and are looking more from the girl's point of view.

Shot 4-Boy walking into shot and sitting down next to girl on bench. Do this as a mid-shot.
We have changed to this because the shot we currently have is too much of a close up meaning that you don't see the male character enough

After shot 6-Girl's facial expression after boy has held her hand. Do this as a close up of her face.
We have changed to this shot because once the male character comes into the shot, it looks like its all about him (with his bad breath etc) and the girl is slightly 'blanked' out, therefore we will include her facial expression to emphasise her flirty actions and to remind the audience that the couple are going out and the girl in a way expects to kiss him. (until she smells his bad breath of course!)

Shot 11-Girl fans her face after smelling boy's bad breath when he leans in for a kiss. Do this as a close up.
We have decided to change to this because the shot we have now makes her looked shocked, however it needs to be made clearer to the audience that she is rejecting him due to bad breath, and this simple action will immediately show this.

Ending shot-Couple are on bench, they are kissing and boy turns to camera looking like a happy lad! He is holding the mint packet.
We have changed to this because we are cutting the shots where the girl stomps off in disgust because this was telling to much, therefore we need an end shot of the couple on the bench, but this time the kiss goes to plan for our geek!

Practice 'jingle'

Here is the first sequence that we did of our jingle of 'shake, click, fresh, ahh' We did this just to see what it could possibly look like and here it is:



Normally, in the final shot we would use a fan to create a 'wind' effect rather than the hands. Our aim was to find out roughly how long this part of the advert was going to be so that we know the remaining time left for other footage. We thought this was a good idea to test because we are using this in all three of our adverts as our 'jingle.' When we were filming this, we tried out different ways of 'shaking and clicking' the packet to see which was more effective. We found that the above (video) ways of holding the mint were the best because if there was logo or text then you can see it, meaning that audience knows what we are advertising. However, when filming the jingle within the actual advert we experimented with different angles in order to meet the codes and conventions of an advert by having a variety of close ups, which differs to the one above which are shots all from the same angle. It is important to consider that because we are making the advert, we will not be in any of our adverts and that in one of the three adverts, a boy will be doing the jingle, so we have to consider ways of showing the effects of the mint other than through the hair.

More editing

Editing
Last week we did more editing than filming. We have progressed in our editing as we now have our advert more or less put together. At the moment, there are several gaps in between because they are either the shots that we still need to film or we are not happy with the shot and want to re shoot that particular one. We have not yet added any transitions in into our advert, however due to the shots being too long and making the pace of the advert too slow, we have cut almost all of our shots using the software. This means that the advert flows much better, it gives us more time to work with (as we can include more shots) and it allows us to get rid of bad beginnings and ends of shots.

One problem that we are facing with the editing is that our advert seems to be getting too long. At the moment, it is longer than what it would actually be because we have left gaps in between some shots and not all the shots have been cut yet. However, once we put them all together, we will have to eliminate the shots which are not really necessary in order to make the advert much shorter. We have already started to do this by removing shots which don't really have a purpose in the advert or if we have a shot which is already similar to it. In our original storyboard we have an 'end screen' however we may have to remove this because our advert will be too long if we use this. Alternatively, we could remove some shots in order to make space for the 'end screen' because this would be selling the product to the audience perhaps more so than the shots of the couple. I think that we are going to try out both possibilities to see which is more effective.

There are some re-shoots to be done over the next week or so, however during the editing process, the shots which need re-shooting are still in the sequence so that we know what fits in where as well as it just being a temporary shot so we can have a rough idea of what it will look like. Whilst I was editing I noticed that you could change the colour of the clips by going onto the edit drop down menu, clicking label and then choosing the colour. This has helped us a lot because we have colour coded our sequence in order for us to find clips easily, and know which ones we are keeping and which are temporary. We have used a pink coloured label to identify those shots that we will be re-shooting, whilst the other clips are in a blue label colour, as they are the ones that we are happy with.

More filming

Filming
We went filming on Wednesday 19Th and decided to do some of our re-shoots. We had already previously written down the shots which we felt needed re-shooting and used this to help us on the day. Luckily, the weather worked to our advantage because the sun wasn't out and it was more dull like the second time we went filming meaning that the shots won't have as much of a 'light' contrast between them! One problem that we did face was the battery on the camera. When we went to book out a camera earlier in the day, most of them have either a very low battery, or a completely empty battery. We a battery to charge however this wasn't really useful because we had planned to go filming there and then, so we didn't want to waste time waiting for the battery to be charged. Next time, we are going to make sure that we book out a camera the lesson before we want to use it (only if we can quickly pop up to the office before our lesson) in order to give us the maximum time to film. Luckily, after a lot of rummaging through batteries and camera's, we found a battery with about 45-55 minutes left on the battery and used this. It was really annoying however, because when we were trying to get the shot angles right, we couldn't leave the camera on for too long because we didn't have much time left on it before it would die meaning that some of our shots seemed a bit rushed. Another disadvantage was that we couldn't film the end of our advert like we had planned because by the time we had done our re-shoots, the battery was more or less dead and there was no point in starting to film the end part. We overcome this problem by switching off the camera after every shot that we filmed in order for the battery to not be wasted and the fact that we knew what we wanted to re-shoot made it a lot easier because weren't having to worry about what shot we had to film next. We planned to upload and edit the new footage onto the macs the following day, on Thursday, however ended up not doing this, so we plan to do it on Monday of next week. In addition to this, despite feeling like we had to rush our shots, on Thursday we watched the footage on the camera, and the majority of the shots turned out the way we wanted it too, however we aren't getting our hopes up because when we upload onto the Mac's we always have to criticise what we are seeing!!

Editing

We have uploaded all the footage that we have filmed so far onto the Macs. We aim to upload the footage the same day we have filmed it or ASAP in order to avoid us from filming over what we have already done and to allow us to edit what we have whilst we continue filming the rest of the advert. So far, we have put together and edited some of our shots. Me and Hannah are happy with our improved shots because there are more close ups and they look much more effective that the long shots which we originally had. Unfortunately we cannot use any of the footage from shoot 1 because we changed the clothing of the characters, the characters were acting more than there were camera shots and the shots did not meet the codes and conventions because there were more long shots than close ups. We have found that we need to shoot some extra shots in order to make the sequence flow better and re-shoot some shots which we are not fully happy with. We have filmed and edited the 'jingle' of our advert with one of our actors, however we want to try it with him saying the words 'shake click fresh ahh' because at the moment it seems a bit bland. We have not yet decided if we want him to say the words over the microphone or whether to re-shoot the shots yet. We are going to continue putting together a sequence for the advert and editing it to fit our needs. We are also going to experiment with the programme in order to do our 'end title screen' and we are considering using photo shop to achieve what we wanted it to look like.

Advert 2 - Shoot 3 & 4

Yesterday (Tuesday 12Th November), and today (Wednesday 13Th November) we went and continued filming for advert 2 and have uploaded the footage that we have done over the last two days onto the macs during our last free, period 7.

On both days we continued filming for advert two, and are on our way to having completed the filming, although of course there is more than likely going to be a few re-shoots. One problem that we are facing with the filming is that due to our advert being set outside, it is important that the weather is similar every time we shoot otherwise it looks weird and you can tell that we have been shooting on separate days. On Tuesday we had a problem because the wind was really strong and this means that you can hear the sound of the wind on almost every shot. This is a problem because if we want to have an aspect of realism in our adverts we will not be able to use the original sound because it doesn't fit with the action/advert and it sounds really bad. To overcome this, we may have to re-shoot the shots or we could alternatively use the sound from another clip and add it on to the footage which we like because this will avoid us having to go out and re-shoot. On the other hand, the sound which we replace the original with may not fit in very well with the action.
The other problem that we had was also weather related. On Wednesday is was quite sunny whereas on the other days that we went filming, it was a lot more misty. This caused problems because it made the shots appear too bright, and our actors kept squinting at the sun. We tried to over come the problem by attempting to make shade on the 'set' by using an umbrella and material/coats to block out the sun, however this wasn't always successful as in some of the shots you can see shadows which makes the shot look even worse than when the sun was shining on it. This is really frustrating, as despite us having filmed several of the same shot, it is limiting the ones we can use due to faults like that.
During our filming, we filmed the same shot twice and kept it going for longer than what the shot would really last for on the advert. We did this in a lot of shots because we felt that it is important to have enough for us to choose the best shot, and in case something ruins the shot, we have another one to use. The reason why we also keep the shots long is because when we press the record button on or off at the beginning and end of each shot, we tend to shake the camera a little meaning that it ruins the shot. However, by making the shot last longer, we can cut this on the Macs and only use the part that we want to use.
During the filming which we did on these two days, we have noticed how we have experimented with different shots meaning that we are slightly going off what our original storyboard looks like. We are still following our storyboard and scripting as a guide however as we do so we keep thinking of other ideas which look better than the original. Another reason why we have changed some shots when filming is because when we upload footage onto the Mac's it does not always come out the way we want it to, for example the long shot of the couple at the beginning of the advert did not meet the codes and conventions and was not effective at all, therefore we have to think of alternatives to improve the advert.




We plan to continue filming for advert 2 next week, and also continue planning days for re-shooting, editing, and the start of filming advert 1.

Our mint packet

We have got to the point where we are needing the mint packet in order to continue filming the 'jingle' part of our advert therefore today the finishing touches were made to our packet. It was quite easy to do, we simply got a large empty tic tac container, covered the pack using card to suit our liking, stuck it together and finally added the name of our mint. Here it is:







We have used green as our main colour sceme mainly because it has connotations of freshness and indicates the 'mint' flavour. We also felt that it would look odd if we had a combination of random colours so decided to stick with different shades of the same colour. The black writing is used to stand out, and the word 'new' is in red in order to attract people to the new product. As you can see, there are little images or specific detail because we want to emphasise the simplicity of the mint.

5th November - 'Tester' Jingle on Mac's

Today (5th November) me and Hannah used one of our free's to go onto the Mac's and begin to put together our 'tester' of our jingle. ('shake, click, fresh, ahhh') We have managed to cut some of the clips and put together a small sequence however we stil need to add transitions, voiceover and/or music to it. This 'tester' will aid us when we create our actual jingle, because it is present in all adverts therefore it is important that we experiment, as well as to help us work out how to use some of the tools on the adobe premier software because it is a programme that neither me or Hannah have worked with before. We stuggled to use the software at the beginning however the more we play around with it the more we learn from it and the easier it becomes to use. :] Once we have completed this little 'tester' i'll upload it onto this blog.

Advert 2 - Shoot 2

Today (5th November) we went out and did some more filming. We were really organised today as we fully charged the camera which we wanted to book out so that there was no risk of it going dead half way through filming and we also organised to go out filming with our actors well in advance to avoid disappointment. We noticed that this organisation made the overall filming a lot easier because it meant that we could just get along with it.

Unlike the first shoot, despite the depressing weather, we spent more time filming different shots and shot angles in order to get a variety for us to choose from when we edit. The filming went well as we got more footage than we did the first time and we filmed more CU shots in order to allow the camera to tell the story rather than the actors and hopefully these will be much better than the first ones we did. In some cases, we got slightly diverted from our storyboard and began experimenting with different shots because when we were on location we began to consider more potentially effective shot angles etc.

Originally, we planned to upload the footage from today's shooting onto the Mac's however we failed to do so because we had problems getting the camera connected to the Mac and onto the software. We also had a huge crisis when we thought we had the tape stuck in one of the camera's, but after about 15 minutes worth of investigating the camcorder, we found out that the tape was stuck because the battery on the camera was too low to operate. We have learned from this incident that rather that wasting time trying to find out how something works we should either move on to something else or try and find help so that we don't waste editing time as well as get less stressed out!!

Plans for tomorrow...
Seeing as we didn't upload the footage onto the Mac's today, me and Hannah are going to use our free's (either P2 or P3) to upload the footage.

Timetable

To aid us in our shooting schedule, we made a mini timetable of the days and times that hannah, our actors (lucy and ben) and myself have frees. This will help us plan our shooting schedule (see posts below) as well as find an appropriate time for re-shooting which is vital in the later stages of the production.

Below is a chart that I created which shows the frees that we all have. This means that when we are planning shootings etc, I can look at this and know who is available. The spaces marked with an X indicate the fact that we do not have matching and/or any frees and limited time that day therefore these are they days which we will focus on editing moreso than filming. :]




Drama Studio's
We also found out when the drama studio's are free because we want to know what we are doing by the time we come to film advert 3. Me and Hannah went to see the drama teachers to find out the days and times DS3 is available, however we have to consider that this free space is likely to change at any time.

P2/7 Friday
P6/7 Tuesday
All lunch times

As you can see, the times we can use the space is very limited therefore we may need to have an alternative location in the event of the drama studio's not being free.

Advert 2 - Shoot 1

Today we did our first bit of filming towards advert 2 (couple on a bench) and uploaded this footage onto the Mac's. We used our storyboard to aid us in the filming and for the first shooting, it didn't go too badly however a lot of work needs to be done and improvement is necessary as the shots were not perfect. We managed to film a couple of shots which are equivalent to shots 1-6 on our storyboard. Unfortunately, the lighting didn't work to our advantage on some of the shots because the faces of the characters appeared a bit bright in all the mid and long shots. When we next film, we will avoid this situation by not having so many mid and long shots except for the opening 3-4 seconds of the advert. This is because the codes and conventions of an advert would mainly consist of close ups and extreme close ups therefore it is important that we follow this in order to make ours as professional as possible. We followed our storyboard, however in doing so, we ended up having shots which were really long and full of acting. We didn't film enough shots from different angles, meaning that it goes against the codes and conventions. From this, we have learned that we need to rely less on the acting done by the actors, and focus more on using the camera effectively in order to engage and tell the audience what is happening.

In addition to this, some of our shots seemed a bit wonky/shaky due to us touching and/or holding the camera as it was filming. It is important that we do not let this happen because it makes the shot look unprofessional and rushed. We also have to make sure that in our next shooting, the tri pod etc is set up properly to avoid any sort of movement of the camera. I also noticed that there wasn't much sound in our filming apart from the natural surroundings. Originally, we just wanted a backing tune and a voiceover on the advert, however if we do not include a bit of sound from the characters, such as laughter or flirty sounds the make, then we could lack the aspect of verisimilitude.

Me and Hannah also made some 'tester' shots of our jingle of 'shake, click, fresh, ahh' In all three adverts we have a close up of the hand doing these actions and then consuming the mint to get freshness, therefore we have tried out our 'vision' of what we wanted it to look like today. Hannah took charge of the filming while I performed the 'jingle' sequence. This part of the filming turned out well, if not better, that the filming of the main body of the advert. The shots were clear, and with a bit of editing and an added voice over, it will be a good draft for us to work with. One improvement for this part of the advert is that the shots of the hand shaking and clicking the mints could be more of an ECU as this fits in with the codes and conventions more and it will make the audience focus on the mints.

Costumes

Me and Hannah have done a plan as to what costumes the characters will need for each advert. It is important that we know what advert we are filming each time we go out so that we can bring in the correct props and costume because the characters needs to look the same throughout the whole advert.

Male Character (boyfriend)

Advert 1: T-shirt, jeans, trainers, glasses
Advert 2: Black jacket, jeans, trainers, glasses
Advert 3: Shirt, bow tie, trousers, shoes





Female character (girlfriend)

Advert 1: Hoodie, jeans
Advert 2: Coat, jeans, ugg boots
Advert 3: Pink shirt, jeans, black shoes





Female character (mother)

Advert 3: Smart clothing, 'mumsie' clothes

The reason why have chosen these types of clothing is because it is what our target audience are most likely to wear, therefore they can connect to it more. We also wanted to keep the clothing quite simple and easy to get hold of. If we find that the costume doesn't fit with the action then we may change them a bit later on.




Overall, in Ad 1 we wanted the characters to look comfy and at home which is why the clothing is very casual. In Ad 2, they are outside on a bench therefore we have made the outfits more outside wear by making them wear coats and warm clothing. Finally, in Ad 3 we have chosen to have the character's look smarter because they are trying to give a good impression on the parent.

Scripting

Below are the scripts that we did for our adverts. (click for orginal size)
Advert 1
(still need to scan this)

Advert 2:
Page 1

Page 2:

Page 3


Advert 3
Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Shooting Schedule

The days which we are most free are Tuesdays and Fridays therefore the majority of our filming and re-shooting will be on those two day because it gives us lots of time to film which is an advantage for us. The editing will mainly take place on the other days where we have frees where we can focus more on the editing. We have done a shooting schedule, which we will update every week, because it is important for us to plan our time in order for us to make the most of our filming time. It also gives us a guideline as to what needs to be done, however it is important to consider that some of it may change in the event of unplanned re-shooting etc. This is our shooting schedule so far:

Shooting Schedule

Date: Tuesday 4th November
Time: Period 2
People present: Hannah, Me
Place: Mac suite/drama studio's
Task: Due to our actors not being available at this time of the day, me and Hannah have decided make 'test shots' of our jingle of 'fresh, click, fresh, ahh.' This will help us to become familiar with the sequence, timings & voiceover and will help us to decide what works, and what doesn't which is important for us because this sequence is in all three of our ad's.
Props: Decorated mint packet

Date: Tuesday 4th November
Time: Period 3, break & period 4
People present: Hannah, Lucy, Ben & me
Place: Chalfont Common, by park bench
Task: Filming advert 2, couple on a bench, and aim to film shots 1-8 which consists mainly of ECU & CU. We will need a camera, tri-pod, the two actors, a bench, the scripts and costumes (see costume post)

Date: Wednesday 5th November
Time: Period 2, Period 7
People present: Hannah and me
Place: Mac Suite
Task: Uploading footage done so far and putting some shots together into a sequence

Date: Wednesday 5th November
Time: Lunch, Period 5, Period 6
People present: Hannah, Lucy, Ben & me
Place: Chalfont Common
Task: Continue filming for Ad 2

Date: Tuesday 11th November
Time: Period 2 & 3
People present: Hannah, Lucy, Ben & me
Place: Chalfont Common
Task: Continue filming Ad 2 - shooting the middle section of the advert
NB. If it is raining to heavily tomorrow we will start shooting one of the other adverts which can be filmed indoors.

Date: Tuesday 12th November and Wednesday 13th November
Time: Lunch, P6, P7
People present: Hannah, Lucy, Ben & me
Place: Chalfont Common
Task: Continue filming Ad2

Date: Wednesday 19th November
Time: Lunch, P6
People present: Hannah, Lucy, Ben & me
Place: Chalfont common
Task: Re-shooting & last shots of advert 2

Scripting & Music

We have begun the scripting process of our adverts and whilst doing this, it has led us to also think about music.

Yesturday and Today, we finished off the scripting of advert 2 & 3, in which we included dialogue, timings, actions and stage directions. We have done this to help us and the actors when we film because it will make it easier for them to follow what is going on as well as allowing us to know the order in which things are said etc. We have not yet decided as to whether or not we want to have music in this advert 3 because there is already a lot of dialogue, however once we have uploaded footage onto the mac's then we will experiment with different song choices to see which gives the best effect. I will put down music suggestions in a later post.

We have also looked at advert 2 and written stage directions and timings for the action. Unlike advert 3, there is minimal dialogue except for the voiceover at the end of the advert, therefore we want to use music throughout and perhaps make the music quieter once the voiceover begin.

We are considering finding somebody who plays music to record a short peice of music for us to put in our adverts. The advantage of this is that we can make the music whatever we want it to be providing that they are capable of playing it. The second option for the music is to find a well known piece of music without lyrics to play alongside the action. We could either get a karaoke version of the music or we could get a piece of music that is mainly intstrumental. Me and Hannah are going to look up music to see what we could use.

These are some facts that we thought about the music:
-Link with love or romance
-Music without lyrics/intrumental
-Upbeat to attract target audience
-Modern music
-Easily recognisable
-Perhaps repitious

We plan to use diegetic sound in the adverts even if we do have music in the background because we still want to have aspects of verisimilitude within all the adverts.

We have not yet started the scripting for advert 1, however we plan to get this finished ASAP so that if will be ready for when we move on to filming advert 1.

Just a thought...

For Ad2 (the couple on the bench) we were going to do time reversal in which we would show that happens when the guy doesnt take the mints, and then go back in time and repeat the first couple of shots, but this time with him having taken the mint beforehand. Our first thoughts on this idea was that it would be too complicated, however I watched a video on youtube which had a type of time reversal in it, and its made me think whether we could actually try it.

Here's the link for the video. I particularly like the shot of the pills about 24seconds into the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F3LbLE7oic

Once we have some filming done, we could possibility try it for Ad 2 to see what it looks like. If it doesn't look good, or if it appears to over complicated for the audience to understand then it will be best to not use it.

Pictures of possible actors and actresses to star in our adverts!

We are looking for the following roles: Boy, girl & a mother. Below are some pictures of people who could be possible candidate for our couple. Still taking pictures, so I will add them as I get them.

Idealy, we need reliable people who have similar frees to us because this will make it easier for us to film and meet up with them :]

If you, or you know anyone who is interested in playing any of these roles then let either me or Hannah know. Thankyou!


Possible candidate(s) 1

1.If you take one guy...

And take one girl...

They could become a couple like this! CUTE!

Pictures of possible locations

With my handy camera at the ready, I can take snaps of possible locations for our adverts. I'm still in the middle of taking pictures so i'll upload them as I take them :]

Advert 1 - Possible locations



This advert could be set in a living room highlighting how they are visiting each other. It is also an ideal location for us to film in because we will have less problems with lighting


Advert 2 - Possible locations








Advert 3 - Possible locations

School drama studio's



The good thing about the drama studios is that the walls are black meaning that it creats a blank canvas for us to use mise en scene effectively in order to create aspects of realism when creating out 'cosy living room.' The problem is that there are lessons in there regularly therefore we will have to plan our time effciently to ensure that when the place is free, we film as much as we possibly can.

Chicara study

We could possibly use this area for the living room because the sofas can be useful in creating mise en scene. We may have to arrange to use these sofas in the drama studio because the surrounding area of these sofas isn't what we want.

The couple could approach the house to meet the parents, or could be set inside the house

Treatment 2

Below is our final/second treatment which we wrote out. We made changes to the way we worded things and completely changed two paragraphs to match our new storyboards.


Treatment 2
Exploring our coursework
The idea Hannah and I have created is an advertisement for mints, aimed at our chosen target audience of people aged between 15 to 25. The mint is targeted at both genders which is portrayed in our advert through the use of a couple and by having both girl and boy taking the mint in at least on of the adverts. We have targeted this audience by having themes that they can relate to, and linking the mint to people who are young and outgoing. We knew beforehand that mints were always being advertised on TV, yet none of them focused on the time in which it took a mint to work, therefore we created our own unique selling point, which was that our product works the fastest when you need it most.

Our first advert will be set in a living room in which the couple are first introduced. We want to have a couple throughout all three adverts so that when people see the couple in our advertisement campaign they will immediately associate them with our mints. We have tried to make the advert funny through the dialogue and actions of the characters. The advert begins with a long shot of the couple on the sofa, and the boy smells something nice and says: ‘Something smells nice around here.’ The girl, and the audience, will believe that he is talking to the girl therefore we have used a close up of the girl flicking her hair and feeling flirtatious. Next, we decided to include humour by making out as if the boy is going to hug the girl but instead picks up the cat and says ‘wow, you smell so good.’ For this advert, we have decided not to make out that the girl has bad breath, this will come to the audience’s imagination once she has taking the mint. After this, the girl will be in a bad mood due to the lack of attention that she received, however the mood changes immediately with the catchphrase ‘Shake, Click, Fresh, Ahh’, being narrated over the shots of her movements as she takes out the mints, shakes the packet, clicks the lid open, tastes the freshness, and then is satisfied with the end result of the product.

The second advert is aimed at the younger boundary of our target audience; it revolves around a young couple in which there is an awkward moment between the pair when the girl rejects his kiss, once she smells his bad breath. We considered using time reversal to show a before and after sequence however this could potentially be too complicated to present, and it would be very repetitious to repeat the sequence. Therefore we have decided to show this in a different way by showing how the boy is rejected when he hasn’t used the mints, and then after taking the mint he can get close to her again. We wanted to include this because it is something that our target audience can relate to and it will also continue to add humour. We are going to use a variety of shots to introduce the characters and make the audience feel involved in the action so that they feel the mint will affect their lives too. All of the shots will be either mid- close shots, to extreme- close ups, which will create the effect of a real advert. We have chosen to include more close- ups when presenting the mint, as well as in the other two adverts, so that the audience are focused on the product.

The third advert revolves around the couple meeting the parents. We have chosen to use this idea because almost everybody will face this type of experience in their lives at one point, therefore using this but adding a humorous twist will appeal more to our target audience. There will be more dialogue in this advert than the previous two, but because of this we have decided to make the dialogue funnier. At the start of the advert the couple arrive at the parents house and the boy is feeling really nervous and says things such as: ‘I hope your parents like me’ which will avoid the audience from being confused by making them understand what is happening at a very early stage of the advert. Awkward moments is key in this advert because it helps add to the humour, therefore we included awkward moments when everybody bumps into each other as they go to hug and when the mother says: ‘Do you guys use protection these days’ which causes an awkward moment for the couple as they don’t yet know that she is referring to the mints. We again have our ‘jingle’ in this advert of ‘shake, click, fresh, ahh’ but this time the actress who plays the mother will be saying it.

Overall, all our adverts will have aspects of simplicity and humour because we feel that this will make the advert more memorable and will interest out target audience into buying the product. We also want to have parallel sound in all the adverts, which will be the dialogue of the characters, however we also want to introduce contrapuntal sound which will be part of a song that will be played in the background which will make it feel more light hearted. In addition the couple will be the same throughout so that they are immediately recognised. To end all the adverts, as well as form another link between them, we want to include an end screen which will have the mint on the side followed by a voiceover saying the words: ‘all you’ve got to do is shake, click, fresh, ahh’ (where the words will come up as they are being said by the voiceover) and ending it with out line of appeal of ‘get fresh breath fast when you need it’

Final storyboards

Here are the scanned images of our storyboards: (if you want to see the storyboard bigger then just click on the picture :])

Advert 1 The couple and the cat
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Senario: Girl thinks that boy is talking about her when he smells something 'gorgeous' but she is mistaken because he ends up picking up the cat! = Aspect of humour

We decided to have the girl with bad breath for this advert because our mint is for all sexes, therefore it is important that both the boy and girl makes use of the mint in at least one of the three adverts. We may need to tweak the dialogue in this advert because we cannot have a silent moment in the advert therefore either we add more dialogue to fill up the gaps, or we find music which will replace the dialogue when nothing is being said. This disadvantage that we could encounter when filming this, is that the cat may not do the things that we want it to do!! (however, hannah has tricks up her sleeve to make the cats do as she says! haha) We could also possibly include more shots into this storyboard if we find that it is not long enough. The advantage that we have is that we can film at Hannah's house, and because she lives near the school then thats a bonus.

Advert 2 Couple on a bench

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Senario: Couple are on a bench, fooling around. (as couples do!) The guy tries to kiss the girl but he is rejected :(

I changed this storyboard slightly by adding extra shots to make it slightly longer. I think that this will deffinetly appeal to our target audience. Humour will be creating more through the acting in this advert, meaning that we may have to make some of the acting a bit more exagerated to make it funnier. The disadvantage of this advert is that we will be filming outside therefore it will be hard to get the lighting exactly the same if we need to re-shoot. We need to be careful about the location of the bench because if we want to use the original sound, it will sound bad if all we can hear the background noise when its something like cars passing!

Advert 3 Couple meet the parents

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Senario: The boy is meeting his girlfriends mum for the first time, things don't go to well when she questions them about whether they use protection or not.

Humour is created in this advert mainly through the dialogue because the way the mother says the statement is something which everybody hopes never happens, however when they find out that she's reffering to mints it creates that humour. We have including quite a lot of shots in this storyboard, and had two possibilities for this idea (see alternative shots) however we decided not to use the alternative shots because this woul over complicate the whole thing. The main problem that we have with this is that we need somebody older to play the part of the mother, as if they look the same age as the couple it will look weird! Therefore we are considering asking our drama teachers if they wouldn't mind sparing some time to help us in our adverts. Also, we need to shoot outside a door for the start of this, and then we are in a living room. If we manage to get the drama teachers to help with the acting, then we will film in the drama studios meaning that we will have to have good use of mise en scene in order to ensure that it doesnt look more like a cosy living room and not a random school drama studio!

Treatment 1

Below is a copy of our first treatment which we wrote. I will also post a copy of our second treatment in another post as that is our newest draft. We changed it because we completely changed two of our storyboards!


Treatment 1
Exploring our coursework
The idea Hannah and I have created is an advertisement for mints, aimed at our chosen target audience of people aged between 15 to 25. We have targeted this audience by having themes that they can relate to. We knew beforehand that mints were always being advertised on TV, yet none of them focused on the time in which it took a mint to work. Therefore we created our own unique selling point, which was that our product works the fastest when you need it most.

Our first advert will include only one character, so that the focus isn’t taken from the product itself. The setting of the first advert will take place in a bathroom, which is where everyone starts there day, therefore we made the link between starting your day, and starting our advert sequence in this place. The first storyboard includes a female character waking up to a radio, which will start with the sound of a voice- over saying ‘Do you have bad breath?’ the girl nods to herself in the mirror while looking miserably. She scans over previous products in her bathroom which haven’t worked then picks up the ‘miracle mint’, the mood changes immediately with the catchphrase ‘Shake, Click, Fresh, Ahh’, being narrated over the shots of her movements shaking the packet, clicking the lid open, tasting the freshness, and then being satisfied with the end result of the product. All of the shots will be either mid- close shots, to extreme- close ups, which will create the effect of a real advert. The advert will finish with a shot of a fogged up bathroom mirror where the words ‘miracle mint’ appear to have been written. This idea is simple and straight- forward to film, yet we included a variety of shots that will make up for the simplicity. The narrative throughout this advert will not be used in all of them; however, we will make the link between all three adverts by using the catchphrase ‘Shake, Click, Fresh, Ahh’, with the shots to match.

The second advert is aimed at the younger boundary of our target audience; it revolves around a young couple in which there is an awkward moment between the pair when the girl rejects his kiss, once she smells his bad breath. We are going to use a variety of shots to introduce the characters and make the audience feel involved in the action so that they feel the mint will affect their lives too. We have chosen to include more close- ups when presenting the mint so that the audience are focused on the product. There are some aspects of humour throughout the advert, which will enable the audience to remember it more alongside the ‘jingle’ which is present throughout all three adverts, which is ‘Shake, Click, Fresh, Ahh.’ For this advert we were considering having a background song to keep it simple and light- hearted. The song we were thinking of using is ‘Scouting for Girls- Heartbeat’ which will form a parallel sound with the action in the advert.

The third advert revolves around a group of friends and is simpler than the previous two adverts. This is because the advert focus’ on the jingle ‘Shake Click, Fresh, Ahh’. We will be using several characters to represent the mint as being an ‘all- rounder’ and we will do this by using mainly close up and extreme close- ups of different people consuming the mint. This advert will be quite repetitive which will make it more memorable, as well as having a slight beat to it.

We want these adverts to be simple and humorous for an audience to watch so that it is easy to intake the information and they are left with a memorable advert which has persuaded them to buy the product.

Storyboarding...

Like I said in the last post, me and hannah have been discussing ideas for a new and improved storyboard. We were half way through completing the drawing up of advert 3, so i took the responsibility to take it home and finish it, whislt hannah took the responsibility to draw up advert 1 which we also discussed. All these will be ready to be shown next lesson :]

The two adverts which we decided to change are now as follows: (basic/main outline of what happens)

Advert 1: Couple meeting at house
-Girl is holding an animal, preferably a cat.
-Couple are talking, and boy smells something nice
-Boy goes down on his knees and says 'you smell gorgeous'
-Girl is flattered, flicks her hair, thinking the boy is talking to her
-Boy picks up and strokes cat and talks to it. 'I can't beleive how good you smell. you're so sweet'
-Girl is in a huff. She notices she has bad breath
-Either the girl says/voiceover where she takes mint
-'Shake click fresh ahh' she has fresh breath
-Boy ends up complimenting her
-End screen (showing mints once again)

Advert 2: Couple at the park on bench
(see outline of this advert in older post)

Advert 3:Couple meet the parents
-Couple approach the house, boy is nervous about meeting his girlfriends mum
-Couple ring doorbell and adjust themselves as they wait for door to be answered
-Mother lets them in and greets her daughter with a hug
-Everybody goes in for a hug = awkward moment.
-Everybody laughs it off and girl introduced her boyfriend to her mother
-Mother happily greets him, but as they hug she smells his bad breath and holds her nose.
-Walking off and fanning her face, the mother blurts out a comment 'Do you guys use protection?'
-Couple feel aukward thinking that she is reffering to something which should not be talked about! and they exchange awkward faces
-Mother then says 'Mints that protect against bad breath...'
'Couple are relieved then it goes on to 'shake click fresh ahhh'
-End screen (showing mints once again)


At the moment im a bit worried about advert 3 as it seems a bit long winded, but we will see.

Overall, we want to create humour in our adverts as this makes audience's remember it more. Also, i think that the mint adverts that I have watched are more effective when they add humour. I also think that the adverts will relate to our target audience through the humour and the use of a couple.

Storyboards

Ok, so we handed in our first drafts of our 3 storyboards last week, and this week we have been improving them using the feedback that sir gave us. Our original storyboards were as follows: I'll put in the pictures of our storyboard for Ad 3 as I havent yet done so. If you want to see the storyboards for Ad 1 & 2 then see older posts! :]

ad 1:Girls wakes up one morning with bad breath, she ends up using the mints, and has fresh breath.

ad 2:Couple on a bench. Girl rejects boy because of his bad breath, he takes the mint, this impresses the girl and they are all over each other!

ad 3:Group of friends, one guy asks if they have tried the new mints. He shows the group how they work, the mint gets passed round a circle of friends. 'spread the mint, spread the love'
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All I can say about storyboard 3 is: WHAT WERE WE THINKING? It seemed like a good idea at the time but it isnt exactly the best thing we've come up with. We have hardly any shots or variety of shots, there is no real message to it and it doesn't link with the other adverts what so ever. I think this is our turning point where we need to re think and create stronger storyboards...


The main problems we have are with the narrative structure of the adverts (well, mainly ad 1 & 3) and there was a problem with the way the adverts link, as to be honest, there was no real link at all and there was no message to the audience saying why our mints are better than anything else and why they should go out and buy it!

After some more brainstorming and idea discussions, me and hannah decided to scrap ad 1 and 3 and work with ad 2. We felt more storngly about ad 2 and the feedback that sir gave us also supported this choice.

Using ad2 as a starting point, we decided to have all our adverts link through the couple, who will be acting in it, by having a different senario between the couple in each advert. We Managed to find Mr Ford and he gave us the all clear to go ahead with storyboarding it. We came to the conclusion that as soon as people see the couple they will think 'mints.' In addition to this, using the couple will also attract our chosen target audience because they can relate to it. We still want to keep out jingle of 'Shake! Click! Fresh! Ahhhhhh' and we still want to keep our USP as the mint being able to work quickly when ever you need it. (and whatever situation your in!)

Target audience, Questionnaires & Similar mint adverts

Psychographics appeal

The use of demographics is to study and measure attitudes, values, lifestyles, and opinions for marketing purposes. The Criteria is by segmenting consumers by lifestyle, attitudes, beliefs, values, personality, buying motives, and/or extent of product usage. Psychographic analyses are used like geographic (place of residence or work) and demographic (age, income, occupation) criteria to describe and identify customers and prospective customers and to aid in developing promotion strategies designed to appeal to specific psychographic segments of the market for a product. Psychographic data can be gathered firsthand through personal interviews, focus group interviews or questionnaires, or purchased from research companies in the form of list overlays for direct marketers or market profiles for general marketers. In our case, the use of questionnaires would be the easiest way of performing research to determine who we want our target audience to be.

Customer profiles
A description of a customer group or type of customer based on various demographic, psychographic and/or geographic characteristics; also called shopper profile. For example, magazine advertising salespeople provide advertisers with customer profiles describing the type of person who will be exposed to advertisements in that magazine. The description may include income, occupation, level of education, age, gender, hobbies, or area of residence. Customer profiles provide the knowledge needed to select the best prospect lists and to enable advertisers to select the best media.


Questionnaires
Like I mentioned before, I don't think we are yet clear as to what our target audience expects in a mint or what exactly/specific things are included in a mint advert due to us not analysis enough mint adverts and us not putting enough thought into target audience.

Once we noticed that target audience is becoming a problem and delaying us from coming up with better ideas for our storyboard, we have decided to create a questionaire which will prodive us feedback from our target audience. We aim to find out how much, and what & why our target audience consume mints. From this we will be able to see what features our mint needs to have in order for it to make our target audience attracted to it and want to buy it over other mints available on the market. We have already started on our draft of this questionaire, and plan to give it out and have feedback by the end of the week. Here's a copy of the blank questionnaire:
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Existing mint adverts

In addition to this, we want to analyse more mint adverts because we have not analysed enough of them! So, I have just gone onto youtube and searched for mint adverts, old and new ones. Below are just six of the ones I found, all advertising Tic Tac's. I am going to search for other mint brands such as mentos, polos, soft mints etc. I will try and scan in the analysis that we did of the adverts and/or put a short evaluation of what we learned from the analysis once we are done. :]

First Three adverts link

1.

2.

3.

Things ive noticed of the above three adverts:
-all three adverts use the same woman, meaning that as an audience, people will associate her with the mint product meaning that she is memorable for that product
-there is a mixture of diegetic sound, such as the woman speaking some of her sound effects, as well as non diegetic sound, such as the added sound effects. The diegetic sound helps to add an aspect of realism.
-There is no music playing in the background
-The narrative has been kept simple, meaning that it is easy to understand
-The pace is quite quick, and the shots are mainly close ups and mid shots. The focus is kept on the mints, and how effective they are
-The jingle has been kept the same in all three advers 'its not just a mint its a tic tac' This is short and catchy meaning that people will remember it
-The packet of the mint is also shown so people can recognise what it looks like

Another tic tac advert that I found

4.

-The advert focuses on the mint and the effectiveness of the mint
-The mojority of the shots are mid shots and close ups
-There is a lot of diegetic sound through the woman's speech and some of the sound effects
-Other flavours are visiable towards the end of the advert
-The narrative is again very simple. The domino effect is unique and therefore memorable


I found these two quite funny, I like the way they added humour into it.

5.

6.

-These adverts lack informing the audience of the affect of the mint. It isn't made to look any better than a regular mint
-The entertainment factor acts as the memorable aspect
-Different characters are used in the two adverts
-There are a few long shots in order to set the scene, however all the other shots are mid shots and close ups
-These adverts lack an aspect of realism because there is no diegetic sound. There is however music playing in the background which is different compared to the above. The music fits well with the pace of the advert and matches the 'entertainment' factor
-The jingle is the same in both adverts 'entertain you mouth'

Other adverts which we can use for inspiraton are:

Trebor mints


Tic Tac

Some codes and conventions that I have picked up on are:
-Straigh cuts
-Variety of CU and MS (mainly)
-Moderate pace and/or fast
-Use of catchphrase
-Close up of product
-Simple narrative

Chosen audience
Our target audience is going to be in the age range of 15-25 for both male and female. We came to this desicion through our research of mint adverts, questionnaires etc. The questionnaires helped us decide because we got an idea of what certain ages liked about mints, and how and why they consume them. From this, it gave us ideas of how we can target them in order to suit their needs, which initially expanded and developed our ideas. We also felt that this age boundary brings the most potential to our advert, and we can use typical interests of these young people in order to get them to buy our product.

Second Storyboard

I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to have each advert start where the person has 'bad breath' and mint refreshed their breath? Because if I do this, then surely it would appear as if the mint is only for people who has bad breath? Need opinions please!!

If it is a possibility to do this, then the second storyboard could go something like this:
-Couple sitting on a bench in the park. They are fooling around
-Man leans in to the girl for a kiss but she rejects him after she smells his breath
-Feeling upset, he tries to sort out his breath
-He trys refreshing his mouth by spraying mouth freshner in it, however this does not do the job
-Next, he puts lots of chewing gum in his mouth but his jaw aches and his breath isn't fresh
-Angry, he sits down with no hope, but then spots the mint
-He tries the mint and has a sence of relief by the freshness in his mouth
-A shot of the man walking through town with a new sense of confidence and all the girls looking at him OR him back on the bench kissing his girlfriend/she can't get her hands of him

Its a bit of the same principle as the previous advert, just with a different story.

Heres the storyboard that I drew up for this advert:

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We think that this storyboard will appeal to our target audience moreso than the other storyboars that we have, making this storyboard one of our strongest ones. We also feel that we can add humour through this type of plot which is what we are aiming for. I think that this storyboard could potentially have more shots included therefore I am going to make a re-draft of this storyboard and add in more shots. I also think that this plot is achievable, and I really like the use of the end screen because it again brings up our product meaning that the focus is on the mints. (and also a lot of mint adverts have some sort of end screen with the mint being the main focus!)