Kelsey's A2 Advertising Blog

Advert One, Tropical Skittles

2009-05-07T02:21:00.002-07:00

The final finishing touches . .

2009-05-07T02:21:00.001-07:00

when showing mr michie our final adverts finished, he suggested that we made some final adjustments to all the adverts to make them slightly better. One of these changes that we made to all three adverts was to the music that we had placed in the background. we added 'audio effect' to the last few clips at the end of each advert so that the music faded out in time for the voice over to come in and talk about the skittles on the last clip. this made it clearer to hear the voice instead of the music overpowering it.

Avert three was the advert we made the most last minute changes to as it was too long as i final piece. because most of the clips were the same throughout the clips it made it very easy to chop them all down slightly to make the overall advert a lot shorter. using a slicing tool on premiere i cut of the beginnign ad ending of each clip and removed it. This also meant that i had to cut the musicdown which wasnt a porblem because them music is the same througout the advert so it didnt matter where i cut it to. from this advert we also remove the engine noises we had originally put in as the noise of the floats, we did this because we felt that it seemed odd to only have it on some of the floats ratehr than all of them but if we were to have it on all of them then it would over power the music and becom apart of it which we didnt want to happen. uing premiere again we also played around with the volume of eahc layer so that we could turn down the diegetic music and turn the diegetic music up slightly so the music wasnt powered out but the background noises such as the clapping and cheering.

Target Audience

2009-05-07T02:20:00.001-07:00

We are aiming to create 3 adverts which would appeal to a target audience aged from 7-12 years, we put this target audience together with the results we got from our audience questionnaire. we also gathered information for the skittles website and found out the age group that they have aimed it at. We analyzed the colours and styles they used and the content in which the website contained to understand who they were aiming there product at. (see website and write about what we see from it) To get useful results from our questionnaire we got all ages to complete the questionnaire and we also made it simply and to the point so that the the answers we got were useful. once we identified our target audience we created a new questionnaire which was used to find out what appeals to our audience, what they respond better to and what they would except top see in an advert like ours.

Results from our first questionnaire.
- We found that 75% of people that often purchase sweetie products were aged 7-12 years old.
- We found that over 50% said that a good advert had a positive affect on there feelings towards the product.
- 100% said that they had bought a packet of original skittles before. (this told us that we didn't need to introduce the skittles as a product, but as the new flavors)
- the majority answered yes when asked if it was important or not to have music which corresponded to what is being watched on screen.

Results from our second questionnaire.
- 90% preferred cartoon styles adverts to real life adverts.
-100% of our audience that completed the questionnaire said that happy music in adverts eft them feeling happy.
-When asked to name 3 different types of sweets, skittles appeared within these 3 70% of the time and 40% of this put them first.

Advert 2

2009-03-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

Three days before the deadline advert 2 was still not started. As I have all frees on a wednesday I spent the day dedicated to completeing advert 2. Ten hours later and I had pretty much completed it all that was missing was the finishing scene. When i put all the clips onto premier to edit i found that it was alot easirt than i had first expected. I managed to slow down all the clips so that the movement wasnt to fast and that there was enough time to read the writing on the screen. What I have found is that with the clips slowed down the movement is slightly too slow but because I didnt do enough shoots using Frame By Frame there was nothing I could do about it now. Overall I am happy with the out come of advert 2 and with one last clip to go we are not far from meeting our deadline well apart from advert 3 but like advert 2 as long as we can deadicate some time to it I dont think it will take as long or be as complcated as advert 1.

What progress have I made since the start of our coursework?

2009-03-03T04:45:00.000-08:00

I have made great process since the start of my coursework. When my partner and I first began we have never used frame by frame before. Frame by frame is the programme we are using to create our adverts, with help form Mr. Michie and constant practice we leant the skills needed to create what we wanted for our advert. When it came to editing on flash I spent some time developing my skills to allow me to be able to import our frame by frame clips and add animations to them. We spent a lot of time mastering the techniques such as using layers to add moving arms and legs throughout the clip and adding key frames when needed to produce the animation. We also learnt from our mistakes throughout the process of our coursework, for example, after spending a lot of time editing our first clips we didn’t realize until we exported them, that the clip didn’t fit into the screen. We realized that we needed to change the size of our imported clip on flash to fit the editing box before editing so that the whole clip could be exported instead of lost. The process of advert one took a lot longer than we had first anticipated when it came to the second and third advert we realized we needed to be more organized to be able to meet deadlines.

Catching up

2009-01-27T02:54:00.000-08:00

Whilst exams have been on it has been difficult to focus on this coursework. however now that they are over I will need to be catching up on the work which may have been forgotten about. there are still quite a few shoots that need to be filmed and refilmed again. and i also need to get on top with the editing.

Making the Packets

2009-01-26T05:19:00.001-08:00

Today i created the three skittle packets that will be used at the end of each advert and at the beginning. All of them were made on white paper, using a black pen. I drew them on white paper because the writing needs to be in white, however this is going to make a problem because the background of each packet needs to be in colour, using a colouring pencil or pen may make the packets have a different style to the rest of the props used in filming.therefore a better idea may be to cut out the lettering instead and add them to the coloured paper rather that use my ones i just made :s i will have to test them both, to see which looks the best.

Shooting Schedule - January

2009-01-26T05:17:00.000-08:00

Equipment

2009-01-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

With the deadline aproaching, everyone is constantly taking out equipment and not returning it, instead they are holding onto it so that they have it when the will next use it. This is becoming a slight problem as to when it will be available for me to use. Lauren and i have decided that the best way to reach the deadlines is to both work on different adverts, while she is still editing the final bits of advert 1 and is making changes where necessary. I have started filming advert 2, however it has been hard keeping up with my shooting schedule because of getting hold on the macs.

Troubles over the Christmas Holiday

2009-01-05T04:08:00.000-08:00

There was a limit to the amount of work I could do over the christmas holiday, this is was because i was unable to book out a mac as there were all gone. This meant I was unable to do any filming or editting so the only other thing I could do was plan the next advert. I have made all the props we will need for the advert and have plan what shoots we will film and when. The props we need included card cut outs of a bike, ring of fire, rope, jetski, ramp, sea, cliffs, etc.

1st Deadline

2008-12-12T05:24:00.000-08:00

We have just had our first deadline to meet and we didnt quite reach it. we were ment to have our completed advert one to show Mr. Michie but ours isnt quite there. I think that even thouhg we havent quite met it we are still on target becuase advert 1 will take us the longest to complete because the process included us having to learn what we have to do as well as doing it. when it comes to advert 2 and 3 they will be completed alot quicker. We have also started thinking about and producing props for advert 2 so we will be able to start that as soon as we have completed our first advert.

Premiere

2008-12-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

Premiere is the programme we have decided to use to put together out our adverts. We are nowcurrently in the process of learnign how to use it, this is time consuming but needs to be done because it is the best programme to use t get the finished product we want. iMovies only allows up to three layers to be used on our advert where as for our advert we will need around 4, one for our animated clips, one for out background music, one for voice overs and one for sound effects .

Off Screen Animation

2008-12-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

This is what happened when it we didnt resize the screen when animating.

2008-12-12T04:52:00.000-08:00

To use our time wisely me and lauren decided to use differnet macs so that we can work at the same time. we both animated different clips and came together to put them into premier where will have decided to produce our final product. when we compared our clips it seems that we have animated them differently, they didnt match together. We had differnet thicknesses in arms and legs and and had chosen to animated the faces differently. This is mainly because we didnt really discuss what we wanted them to look like before we started animating. We now have to animate some of the clips differently which means having to find the time to animate 2 clips at once to keep up.

Advancing our Advert 1

2008-12-03T05:34:00.000-08:00

Lauren and I began aminating our clips yesterday and found it rather uplifting, completeing a clip each completely finished gave us both more confidence in our project, knowing now that we are capable of completion. I animated the scene in which one of the original skittles meets one of the tropical skittles they are made to look as though they are shaking hands. Lauren animated the clip where three skittles are in a boat moving across the sea, adding in arms. Both of the clips look really good just as we had imagined. One of the problems we did however come across on our first attempt to animate was after we though we had completed it we the exported it and found that half of the shot was missing, this was because we hadnt resized it to fit into the square provided my flash. Realising what went wrong and starting again was a bit of a hassle but we managed to do it and complete them rather quickly so we werent to bothered. On of the things we have to remeber is to export the movie in the format of QuickTime otherwise we are unable to upload them onto iMovies.

Having some completed clips, we have started to put them together on iMovies, me and lauren have and a few disagrrements about this as i think it is a better idea to use the old version as we have more experience with it, however, it is on another mac so we will have to transfer all our shots. Lauren thinks the newer iMovies would be better because it is more advanced than the old one and it is also on the mac we have all our clips on. This is problably the better option as we will have a better finish to our adverts but it will mean having to spend some time learning to use it.

Sizes

2008-12-03T05:28:00.000-08:00

When me a lauren first thought about props and began making them we imagined them to be a lot bigger and the surface we would film to also be larger. when it came to us actually filming we found that the props (the card cuttings) work much better when they are much smaller. With them being smaller the camera was able to use closer and distance shots easier as the didnt have to move from its stand.

Editing

2008-11-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

I have tryed to upload the first clip i have edited on however it has not worked so i am just going to write about it for now. Since editing this clip we have reshot it so we wont be usiing the edited version anymore. One of the problems i faced during editing was working with Flash, using it for the fisrt time made it extremely difficult, so i needed help from Mr Michie. I learnt how to add key frames and how to change the movements which each section of the clip. what i was attempins to produce was movement with each skittle to bring them alive, this meant giving each of them arms which moved from time to time. each skittles arms had to be produced on a differnet layer and changes each frame. I think that editing will be the most time consuming for me and lauren and therefore we will need to improve our skills on it.

Shooting Schedule

2008-11-07T04:16:00.001-08:00

Here is our shooting schedule from october to november.

Problems in Filming

2008-11-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

When filiming our parachute clip we found it was extremely hard to keep the clouds still the whole time. When watching the final clip back we found that when the parachutes were approaching the bottom the cloud moves slightly out of place and therefore ruins the clip. To get round this we decided to cut the clip just before this happens and make a new clip which is without any clouds and with only one parachute to fill the time which would have been filled up with the reamining clip we cut. We zoomed in on the parachute moving in and then out of view.

2008-11-05T04:15:00.000-08:00

This was our original advert one, for the original flavoured skittles. Onced we had made adverts for the other two skittles flavours we found that this one was the odd one out as it wasnt in the style of 'slice of life' telling a story and it also didnt have skittles characters in the whole of it like the others did. Instead of using the original skittles we changed to using carnival skittles so we had more to work with using the new flavours instead of the boring original ones.

Previous research into Brands

2008-11-03T05:03:00.001-08:00

Brand Identity
Brand Identity is a combination of the following factors:
1. Brand Essence - a way of summing up the significance of the brand to stockholders and consumers alike of the brand in one simple sentence
2. Brand Slogan - a public way of identifying the brand for consumers - often associated with a logo
3. Brand Personality - marketeers can describe their brand as though it were a person, with likes and dislikes and certain behaviour
4. Brand Values – what does it stand for/against?
5. Brand Appearance - What does it look/sound/taste like?
6. Brand Heritage - how long has it been around? does it have customers who have been loyal to it for many years?
7. Emotional benefits – how it avoids/reduces pain or increases pleasure
8. Hard benefits – bigger? better? cheaper? washes whiter?

Meaning transfer
Most advertising is about linking a particular product or brand to a particular set of qualities or benefits in the consumer's mind. This linkage is often achieved through juxtaposition — the simple imposition of the qualities on the product, in the hope that the consumer will make that connection themselves. This is a process known as aestheticization, carried out through
· Similarity
· Metaphor
· Contiguity
The second stage of meaning transfer is that the qualities will shift from the product to the consumer once they have bought it. The consumer is therefore aestheticized too.
Basically, this means that we define who we are by what we own — and advertising is the route through which we gain a particular identity.
Regulations
In order to monitor and control advertising a number of different regulatory bodies have been established. Many countries have an Advertising Standards Authority, whose job it is to listen to complaints from the public, and establish whether or not a particular ad or campaign should be withdrawn. In the UK the situation is complex, as each medium is governed by a different regulatory body:
Non-Broadcast Advertising is dealt with by the Advertising Standards Authority
TV Advertising complaints are referred to the Independent Television Commission
All advertising in the UK is subject to the Committee of Advertising Practice's Code (known as the CAP Code) and also to the Code of the European Advertising Standards Alliance.

Previous research into Advert Campaigns

2008-11-03T04:48:00.000-08:00

Revels newest advert campaign was launched with the idea to get people to vote out there least favourite flavour. revels consist if six different chocolate flavours, Coffee, Malteser, Caramel, Orange, Raisen and plain chocolate. there aim is to introduce a new flavour to the pack but before they must get rid of one of the old flavours. to do this they are getting the public involoved in a big brother style evicition where people of the public vote out there least favourite revel. they are using the line 'Save the one you love, evict the one you hate!' The advert consists of a host who talks to the audience about the evition, this follows the same style as big brother does with Davbina McCall. Lines in the advert spoken by the host also are said and used in the style of the weakest link with the host like Anne Robinson, for example, "so which flavour will you be saying au revoir to ? which is the revel that doesnt take your fancy?" This advert stlye is used to get the audience active with revels and talking about the chocolates. Getting the audience active with the website (which is where they vote) will get there other products advertised more aswell.

Advert 1

2008-11-03T04:43:00.000-08:00

Advert 2

2008-11-03T04:33:00.000-08:00

Advert 3

2008-11-03T04:30:00.000-08:00

Treatment

2008-11-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

The product we have chosen to advertise is ‘Skittles’, our first advert begins with an establishing shot of the new flavoured ‘Fairy Floss’ skittle on a pink float mirroring a carnival float as we are promoting the new carnival skittles. The advert introduces all the new flavours on different floats reflecting their flavours. Furthermore, the soundtrack for advert 1 will be an old fairground mix to create a sense of fun and excitement linking to the skittles. The majority of our transitions are cuts as it quickly moves on to the next flavour.

Our second advert begins with an establishing shot of the original skittles on a boat in search for new flavours. The advert is a ‘slice of life’ as it I storytelling. The original skittles discover a tropical island in which they set anchor on and find new tropical skittles. The majority of our transitions for advert 2 are cuts as it allows the advert to flow quickly. In addition to this, the unique selling point is the new flavours available and our line of appeal is confidently, allowing children to feel confident when eating them. The soundtrack for advert 2 will be ‘You can get it if you really want’ by Desmond Dekker combine with many sound effects for example the sea and wind to create a sense of verisimilitude.

Our third advert begins with an establishing shot of the new wild berry skittle’s packet to allow the audience to relate with previous skittle flavours. This advert will be crammed with little skittle men performing dangerous and wild stunts, such as jet skiing and sky diving. The soundtrack for advert 2 will be ‘Wild thing’ by The Troggs, but will also contain many sound effects and voice overs, for example the sea and wind. The majority of transition for advert 3 will also be cuts as similarly to advert 1 the advert moves quickly in order to introduce all of the new flavours.

Additionally, our target audience ranges from 7-13 years old as the animation will connect more with children and younger ages. All of our adverts are linked through the ‘slice of life’ effect and the colours of the skittle men in each. Furthermore, each of our adverts end similarly to allow the audience to relate to previous adverts as the skittles jump into the new flavoured packet. I feel that we are promoting our product in a positive and correct way for our specific target audience.

In order for all of our adverts to link, we decided to use animation to create our campaign. The specific technique we have chosen to use is a mixture of stop animation, physically manipulated objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement and cutout animation. This is produced by moving 2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or card. We will further improve our advert by editing it on different programmes such as frame by frame and adobe premiere.

Skittles Characters

2008-10-20T04:44:00.000-07:00

On my second attempt you can see i have used the skittles characters in the boat, this didnt work well as i didnt control their movement at the same time as I did the boat moving, this caused them to be in different places without a shift movement so it doesnt appear to look natural.
Below is a clip, where i played around with just the skittles to see how well i can make them move and to see if i could control there speed well.

Experimenting

2008-10-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

This was my first attempt in using the programme me and lauren have choosen to use for our three adverts, as you can see in all the shots atleast one of my hands are in there if not both, this however was not ment to be the case.

Here is my second attempt this time i tried to keep my hands out of view and i re-adjusted the camera angle so the there wasn't other bits in the clip that i didnt want there.

Here i experimented with move of the movement of the boat to give the effect of the waves in the see, hopefully you can see this from the boats up and down movements.

Characters

2008-10-15T04:01:00.000-07:00

These are our Skittles characters. only on row of skittles will eb featured in each advert, except for the tropical skittles advert in ehich there will be the original skittles as well. I did make them but then i forgot so i didnt save it so i will do them again for you.

Wild Berry Skittles (Song)

2008-10-13T04:20:00.000-07:00

Wild thing by Trogg.

Wild thing...you make my heart sing...
You make everything
Groovy
I said wild thing...

Wild thing, I think I love you
But I wanna know for sure
Come on, hold me tight
I love you

Wild thing...you make my heart sing...
You make everything
Groovy
I said wild thing...

Wild thing, I think you move me
But I wanna know for sure
So come on, hold me tight
You move me
______________________________________

New Ideas

2008-10-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

After lauren and i had finished our storyboards we found that the first one we done turned out to be the odd one out, this was the advert fro the original skittles. this advert wasnt in the stlye of slice of life adverts whereas the other two were. It also didnt contain skittles characters like the other two. so we had to come up with a whole new story board, to do this we also changed the skittles type to the carnival flavours this way it was easier to come up wioth some sort of story.However with this change we also need to find a new song which will go well with it. Any ideas? we need a carnivaly song which is upbeat and happy.

StoryBoards

2008-10-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

Me and Lauren have completed all of our storyboards now and are planning on creating a short tester advert or just a practise demo thing on tuesday so we can see what works well. this is because we are planning on creating our adverts in animation but at the same time using the cameras to film the backgrounds and certain movements then edit them on animation.
We are also considering changing our first advert for the original skittles because it doesnt show a story like our other two. We are either going to come up with another advert for the smae product or we are going to choose another flavour of skittles to advertise in a stroy form (slice of life- style).

2008-07-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

Ive just started this blogging thing after me and lauren have finished our Heinz Beans Advert!!

Kelsey's A2 Advertising Blog

Advert One, Tropical Skittles

The final finishing touches . .

Target Audience

Advert 2

What progress have I made since the start of our coursework?

Catching up

Making the Packets

Shooting Schedule - January

Equipment

Troubles over the Christmas Holiday

1st Deadline

Premiere

Off Screen Animation

Advancing our Advert 1

Sizes

More problems

Editing

Shooting Schedule

More Problems

Problems in Filming

Previous research into Brands

Previous research into Advert Campaigns

Advert 1

Advert 2

Advert 3

Treatment

Skittles Characters

Experimenting

Characters

Wild Berry Skittles (Song)

New Ideas

StoryBoards