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.