Short Television Advertisement

The video above is the shortened version of our full television advertisement. The main concept of our advertisement is still present in this version, still with all the necessary product information. The advert includes the same song, the same actor, similar editing style, so it's easily recognisable for our viewers. This version has been cut to only 30 seconds long, which is more than half the time of our original advertisement. The main reason for doing this would be to save advertisement costs, as you wouldn't be paying for as much air time. 


Towards the end of the video, we include our website details telling the viewers to see our full advertisement if they haven't seen it already. This is a good way for our viewers to get connected with our product, yet still being completely free for us to promote. We believe that we have still portrayed the main message through our shortened version. Our full advertisement will be released first to get our brand name across to the viewers, due to the longer air time. However in a few weeks, we shall replace it with our shortened version to save advertisement costs.

Full Television Advert

The video above is our final edited television advertisement. Throughout this blog I have shown evidence of research and planning, ultimately leading up to this final video. I believe we have used many of the codes and conventions of advertisement, such as the continuous showing of our product and brand name, popular song choice and a catchy slogan. Each sports drink advertisement we studied, emphasised on the effect it gave to whoever was consuming the product. So that's why we took a great deal planning to ensure the effects of 'Regenerate' were clear to our audience. This is shown with the use of colour throughout our video. Black and white resembles fatigue, whereas colour emphasises vigour. This is balanced with our soundtrack, where the beat and tempo matches the emotions to the runner. 


Numerous clips of our product and brand name are clearly shown, throughout the duration of our advertisement. As we are releasing a brand new product into a very competitive market, it was vital for us to ensure the viewers remember our name. We also have a fully functional website and social networking sites, which is mentioned towards the end of the advert. Here, people can keep updated with the latest news and information and also contact us for any further details. Finally, we show an image of the London 2012 games sponsoring our product. We chose this as this year it will be taken place and also the nature of our video will encourage everyone to keep fit.

Analysing Radio Adverts

Before producing a radio advert, we both knew it was important to research existing ones to get a feel of how they are presented. As we are both regular television watchers, we already had a general feel of what a typical advertisement is like. However not really knowing much about radio advertisements, this was very important for us to get a much better understanding of them. So, after some research I picked to existing radio advertisements to analyse:


Advert 1

This particular advert bases itself around the profession, IT workers. However 'Strongbow' has created a mini series of adverts were multiple other professions are mentioned in different advertisements, such as gas fitters, builders, plumbers etc. The adverts main incentive, is it's use of humour, especially if you work in the IT industry. The use of sound throughout the clip, suggests that you are heading into battle, making the product seem very masculine. Finally we are presented with the words - "Bow time, hard earned." which implies that drinking this cider is a reward from a long hard days work. 


Advert 2

This next radio advertisement starts with an up beat song featuring the words - "I'm feeling a Subway today". If someone hears this on the radio they might be tempted to eat a 'subway', even though they had no intention beforehand. This is a use of subliminal messaging which gets the listener thinking about a 'subway', as it's used in a catchy song. Also this radio advert features the words - "It's juicy, it's tender, it's sweet and savoury!" All these adjectives make the listener hungry, as they will be thinking of the sandwich, ultimately resulting in wanting to buy one. 

Codes and Conventions of Radio Adverts

Radio Advert

• A brief outline of the product/service
• Details about product/service
• Assosciation from other advertising forms
• Usually include a narrator
• Music of a similar genre to the radio station the advert features on
• Usually 30-40seconds

Planning our Radio Advert

Throughout this A2 project we knew we wanted to stick with a similar theme, so viewers could instantly relate to our product. Upon designing our radio advert, we used the same codes and conventions of our earlier work to create synergy. Once again we used the same song: 'Avicii - Levels'. By using this song on multiple advertisement campaigns we hope for the users to associated this song with our product. This has worked well in other advertisements, such as 'Cadbury's' using 'Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight'. 

Our biggest challenge when planning the radio advert was to get the same message across, without the use of images or videos. So to combat this we decided to use sound effects and a narrator to market the product.

TV Sponsorship Sequence

The video above shows our completed sponsorship sequence. We believe that we have made good use of the codes and conventions typically seen in a sponsorship sequence, which is shown in an earlier post - here. All five points mentioned in the post feature in our video. The advert is 15 seconds long, includes little narrative, refers to our main advert, relates to who we are sponsoring and finally clearly gets the message across to the viewers. We knew it was vital to include these codes and conventions, as many other advertisements have been very successful using this. 


The footage shown features the slow motion scene from our television advertisement and uses the same soundtrack. This similarity creates synergy for our different forms of advertisement, but more importantly helps the consumer to recognise our product. Finally we include a brief voice over at the end, which clearly states the product name and what we our sponsoring. This is complemented with a picture of our product and a new slogan which relates to the weather. The slogan - "Brighten up your day with Regenerate" refers to the weather and also relates to the main theme of our advertisement campaign. 

Mobile App Advertisement

The sale of smartphones have surged within the last three to four years, with 6/10 people owning one. The most popular form of mobile applications are games, where advertisements may be displayed in the top or bottom of the screen. Mobile advertisements only appear in free trials, where the user can pay a one off fee to gain more access to the application and to have no advertisements. If the user presses the advertisement, the application will minimise and open the internet browser, displaying the product. Below is an example image of a mobile advertisement being used in game applications:

     

The screenshot above shows one of the most popular mobile games out on the market - 'Angry Birds'. In the bottom right corner of the screenshot shows a notification advertising: 'cheap global calls from your mobile'. As this is advertising cheap mobile calls, it will appear to the user as they are on a mobile device. It is also being advertised on one of the most popular applications on the mobile phone market. 

Our Mobile App Advert

 

The image above shows our completed mobile app advert, which will will displayed in a mobile application. This is very similar to our Internet pop up advert shown 'here'. The use of the moving slogan will grab the attention of our viewer, tempting them to press it. It also remains the synergy throughout our advertising campaign, making our brand name more memorable for the consumers. The only main difference is that the web address has been removed, this is due to the limited space of what we can show. However our brand name is still clearly shown and when pressed will direct the user to our site.

Magazine Advertisement

With all the various different types of media advertisement, we thought advertising our product in multiple magazines would benefit sales and to reach a larger marketing audience. Magazines can be categorised into various form, such as fashion, celebrity, cooking, sports, fitness etc. 'Regenerate' will feature in a sports/fitness magazine, as this will completely narrow our target audience. Readers interested in fitness and sports are more likely to respond to our product, rather than someone reading a fashion magazine for example. Below is a screenshot of our magazine advertisement for 'Regenerate':

  
This advert would appear on the rear cover of a sports/fitness magazine. Viewers who have seen our television advert will be familiar with the theme of our magazine advertisement, keeping our synergy intact. The main thing people will notice when viewing our advertisement is how our product is blurred. This really stands out, but also gives the impression that the product can help you with your workout and increase your performance. As the brand name can't be seen on the bottle, the brand name is clearly displayed underneath, to reassure the readers what exactly is being shown. The magazine also states our three sponsorships towards the bottom of the advert. This may encourage readers that our product does indeed benefit your workout, as major sporting organisations are connected with it. Finally the same text that was used on our television advert is clearly displayed at the bottom of the advert. Including this does not mislead any readers, or even the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). 

Filming and Editing our Extra Footage

Once we had gathered feedback on our television advert, we knew we had to film extra footage to add to our existing video. So with similar lighting conditions to what we had filmed previously, we took this ideal opportunity to continue filming our advert. 


Our main criticism was that the start of our advert 
was too long and that there were not enough camera shots of me facing the camera. Taking this on board, we filmed the first 20-30 seconds of our video again. The advert now starts with a shot of me running towards the camera, rather than running away from it. I also give the audience the impression that I am struggling to continue with my run, as I face the floor while running. Refering back to my earlier post - storyboards, our initial idea was to start the video in colour, then fade into black and white, then finally returning back into colour. However with limited footage, we could not achieve this, so this extra day filming helped bring our idea to reality. 

Mr Silverwood suggested that we needed facial expressions before I take Regenerate, so this would emphasise the effects it brings. While filming we had the idea that I could wipe my forehead to further insinuate how demanding exercise can be. We filmed this scene multiple times, at many different angles, but concluding that we would use a front camera shot to fully show my emotion. This resulted in a more light hearted approach towards our advert, without straying away from what is being shown. 


Another feedback suggestion was to get a wider range of camera shots on the bridge towards the end of the video. However with the narrowness of the bridge, this became a difficult issue to overcome. Haran helped us film again and offered to climb the bridge to get an alternative camera shot of me sprinting down the bridge. The image on the right is a picture of Haran filming the bridge shot: 

While filming the bridge scene we had another idea to once again show our product and brand name on camera. The idea was I stretched out my arm, holding the bottle to give the impression of a relay baton, like the Olympics. However this proved to be difficult to keep the bottle straight and for the viewers to clearly see the brand name. After multiple takes, we were happy with the chosen clip shown on the left:

When it came to adding the extra footage to our existing video, we found that the brand name was difficult to see in the 'relay baton' scene, as the clip was too fast. So to combat this, Chris slowed down and paused the clip for a brief moment, which was all timed with our soundtrack. Shown below is a screenshot of how Chris split up the clip, making the brand name more visible for the viewers:  

  

Feedback On Our Television Advert

Once our television advert was finished, we thought it would be best to gather some audience feedback. We showed multiple students in our class and our teacher - Mr Silverwood. We knew it was best to receive honest opinions and advice, this way we could improve our existing advert, which would result in appealing to a much broader audience. 

The overall response was very positive, praising the song choice and the use of the slow motion camera. However a handful of people, particularly Mr Silverwood stated that the start of the advert was too long and generally weaker than the ending. Mr Silverwood also pointed out that there were not enough camera shots of me running towards the camera, which resulted in little facial expressions, or emotion. By showing more facial shots would emphasise the effects that the drink has had on the runner, so it was more obvious for the viewer to understand the concept of our advertisement.

So using all this feedback we decided to go back to where we filmed and shoot more clips of what was needed for the required changes. We made sure that I wore the same outfit and used the same props to restore the continuity of our advert. Now that these clips have been filmed, we will implement them into our existing advert when editing. 

Editing Our Sponsorship Sequence

We knew after researching that we wanted to use synergy for our sponsorship sequence, which would relate to our main TV advertisement. We chose to use the clip where I drink 'Regenerate' in slow motion. This was due to it relating to the weather, as it brings colour back into your day, but mainly because the brand name is clearly displayed. 


Once we had imported the slow motion scene from the main advert, we had to shorten the clip to around 15 seconds, as we were restricted to a short amount of air time. We again chose to use the same part of the song, as 'Regenerate' will give you a 'good feeling'. However this could also be referred to the weather, as a sunny day may also give you a good feeling. The image below shows us cutting the song to capture the chosen lyrics:

We wanted to include a voice over towards the end of our sponsorship sequence to illustrate the product and program. I recorded the following phrase - "Regenerate, sponsors of ITV national weather". This mentions the product and the weather program that we are sponsoring. After we recorded the voice over, we then imported the file into 'Garage Band'. From there we altered the sound file, to make it sound more professional. The image below shows us editing the voice over in Garage Band:

The final section of the sponsorship sequence shows the picture of our product which I made earlier in 'ColourSplash'. The words - "Brighten up your day with Regenerate" refers to the weather, yet also still advertises our product. The image below will appear on screen as the voice over is played:

Analysing TV Sponsorship Sequences

When deciding what we could sponsor when marketing 'Regenerate', we instantly connected our product to weather forecasts, so we chose to sponsor this form of medium. As our main theme of our TV advertisement was based around the use of colour, we thought that this would work really well when connecting it to the weather, as 'Regenerate' will "brighten" up your day. Refering back to my Codes and Conventions Sponsorship post, we were able to shorten our main TV advertisement, yet still able to connect our product to the sponsorship. Before starting any creation of our sponsorship sequence, we thought it was best to analyse existing weather sponsorship's. 


Advert 1

This first sponsorship sequence averages around 8 seconds long and is advertising the product - 'Nytol'. The slogan - "GMTV weather with Nytol, for a chirpier morning", is used towards the end of the advert. This phrase links to the time of day the clip is being shown and relates to the birds, with the use of the word 'chirpier'. Health warnings are also mentioned at the end of the video, this is mainly due to the product being a sleeping pill. 


Advert 2

This next sponsorship sequence averages around 15 seconds long and is advertising - 'Sheilas' Wheels Home Insurance'. This advert is designed in a karaoke format, with the use of the song describing the product and the lyrics displayed at the bottom of the screen. The song relates to the weather, with lyrics such as - "whether skies are grey or blue". Information regarding 'Sheilas' Wheels' is also present from the phone number and website, so then viewers can contact them for further information or queries. This sponsorship sequence is also very similar to their main television advert, the only difference being the length and adapting the lyrics to the weather. 

Codes and Conventions of Sponsorship Sequences

The majority of programs have a product that sponsors them in between advertisement sequences. Sponsorship sequences are typically:

• Very short, around 10-20 seconds long
• Little or no narrative
• May refer to a main TV advertisement
• Associating the brand/product with the program that is being sponsored
• Use of symbolism to get point across

Creating a Website for Regenerate

Every product or organisation needs it's own website, to support what it is promoting. Various information is available on our website and even the option for customers to contact us for any new product ideas, or general queries. This shows 'Regenerate' is committed to customer involvement and also encourages the public to trust us as a company. 


Due to high costs we could not host our own website domain name, however we used 'Weebly.com' to create a free website. The website would be available from Internet searching, or from clicking on our Internet pop up advertisement. The website is split into 5 pages - 'Home', 'Who We Fuel', 'Participate' and 'Contact Us'. Our website can be found here at - regenerateuk.weebly.com

Home

The image above shows our home page, which displays our television advertisement. Also seen at the bottom is the option to 'follow' us on Twitter and to 'like' us on Facebook. Once pressed, these images redirect the user to our Facebook and Twitter pages, also seen on our earlier blog post - Social Media Advertisement. It is vital for us to spread the 'Regenerate' brand name to as many as people as possible to maximize our potential audience.

Who We Fuel

This 'Who We Fuel' page shows all the sponsors that are supporting our product, these consist of - 'London 2012 Olympics', 'UEFA Champions League' and 'NHL'. This reassures the customer that 'Regenerate' is a trusted, good quality product, as major organisations and athletes are involved with the product. As all three sponsorship's are worldwide establishments, our product will reach a much larger audience with overseas marketing.
   
Participate

Regenerate believes in local community support and involvement. That's why we have teamed up with 'Sky Ride' which hosts local bike rides in your community, led by professional trained British cyclists. Our participate webpage redirects you to the official 'Sky Ride' website, where from there you can find out when the nearest local bike ride is available in your area. 

Keep Fit

The image above helps our customers have a better understanding on nutrition facts and exactly how to use Regenerate when maintaining a balanced diet. All these tips have been constructed by leading scientist that have worked with 'Regenerate'. 

Contact Us

Our final webpage is a chance for our customers to contact us with any ideas, or queries regarding 'Regenerate'. By simply filling out the form will enter you into a £250,000 prize draw. We think it is very important to get as much feedback from the consumers as possible, so offering us new product ideas and improvements is a great for our company.

Editing Our Advert

When transferring our video files from the Creative Vado camera to iMovie, we stumbled across a problem. All the files were saved in a '.AVI' format, which cannot be used on the iMovie software. Chris converted all the files to a '.MP4' format using an online converter, which luckily did not effect the quality of the clips. 

The first task was to import all the files into iMovie and then decide exactly which part of the clip I would use for the final video. By watching all the clips I 'trimmed' certain parts that were unnecessary, such as talking on camera, or moving to film the next shot. Once that was done I could then start planning the advert, by inserting each part of the video in chronological order. The first section of the advert is seen in black and white, which was done by using iMovie's effect tools. The image below shows the black and white effect and also the other effect options:

  

As mentioned earlier in the Filming our Advert post, I had to alter the brightness and contrast of the slow motion drinking sequence, which was filmed on a separate day. By simply changing these settings, our video once again flowed naturally, which restored our adverts continuity. The image on the right illustrates the types of options that you are given when changing a clips picture quality:

Once all our clips were in order, the next step was to add our soundtrack. Because we were adding a soundtrack, we didn't want any sound from the clips being played in the background. The image on the left shows me muting a selected clip, which was repeated throughout the advert.

Even though we only used one song, this had to be imported multiple times. The reason for this is because we wanted to select certain parts of the song, for particular parts in the video. For example the lyrics - "I get a feeling that I've never had before" play once I start to drink 'Regenerate'. This had to be 'cut' from the song precisely as the lyrics start and end. The image below shows me 'cutting' the song to when the lyrics start:

  

As many different fast shots were used on the bridge sequence, lots of transitions had to be used to prevent the video from 'stuttering'. It also gives the impression of speed, especially as the scene before is shot in slow motion. The image below shows the bridge sequence with a transition used, in between two clips:

As seen in many other advertisements, we decided to implement text along the bottom of the screen. As studied earlier in the blog, the ASA regulations state that a product should not be misleading to the viewer. So our text clearly states that 'Regenerate' is not designed to be consumed in high quantities for fluid replenishment. Our text also mentions our website should be visited for any further details or queries, which gets the consumer more familiar with our product and the ability to research any more information if necessary. The image on the right shows one example of text being used in our advert: 

Although we used a tripod for the majority of our clips, we still used the 'stabalise' feature in iMovie to guarantee a more professional feel. This simply just reduced the amount of shake that was given when filming. The image on the left shows the option of 'stabalising' the clips: 

By altering the speed at the start of the video emphasizes that I was struggling on my run, before taking 'Regenerate'. So when I take 'Regenerate' it really highlights that I have gained strength back and the ability to continue my run. The image on the right shows the option to change the speed of a certain clip:   

The final part of our advert shows three 'Regenerate' sponsorship's - 'UEFA Champions League', 'London 2012 Olympics' and 'NHL'. Rather than using 'sponsoring', to stick with our theme, we used 'fueling'. This is a very catchy slogan and easy for consumers to relate to. Having these athletic organisations sponsoring our product encourages the buyer to purchase 'Regenerate', as it is recognized by top athletes. Chris decided to create three separate sponsorship slides, as using all three images on one page did not work in the short space of time it would of been seen. The three images below show all three sponsorship slides:

Internet Pop Up Advert

When using any form of internet browser, every now and again you will come across a pop up advert. We thought it would be a good idea to create our own internet pop up advert and use our brand name and slogan to promote our product. The image below shows our pop up advert:

The advert features our web address, slogan, logo and our colour scheme. All these factors are important when making your product original and to stand out from the competition. We changed the background colour from yellow to orange, which was originally our drinks bottle label. We thought that the orange background stood out more on a website compared to yellow, especially if the website used darker colour's. Having our website on the bottom of the advert reassures the viewer that we have an active website, and if they click the advert it will redirect them to it. The use of animation on the words - 'Prolong Your Workout' stands out to the viewers and also gets people familiar with our slogan. Our stick man logo also has the same effect of getting everyone familiar with our brand name, so that soon people will be recognizing our product from these features. 


If our pop up advertisement was published onto the internet we would target sporting/athletic websites. The benefit of this would be narrowing down our target audience, as the majority of people using these websites would be familiar with sports/energy drinks. Example websites that we would sponsor would be - jjbsports.com, ESPN.com, skysports.co.uk

Analysing Internet Pop Up Adverts

With vast amount of usage the Internet sees everyday, we thought creating an Internet pop up advertisement for 'Regenerate' would be a great idea. We believe pop up advertisements really grab the viewers attention on a website, as normally they involve movement. However before creating our advert we needed to research existing pop up ads to get a deeper understanding on how they operate.


Advert 1

The pop up ad shown on the left is adverting 'Angry Birds: Space', which was found on gamespot.co.uk. As this was shown on a gaming website and 'Angry Birds' is a mobile game, it will more likely appeal to this websites audience. Not only is it advertising a game, it is also promoting the new 'Samsung' mobile, the 'Galaxy Note'. The bold text and vibrant colours make this advert stand out and grab the viewers attention, even though it is not animated. 


Advert 2

This next pop up ad is animated and was was found on weightwatchers.co.uk. People viewing the weight watchers website may be wanting to loose weight, so seeing this advert may encourage them to find out more. Showing the animated text and the picture of a slim body will grab the viewers attention, making them wanting to click on the ad. 

Filming Our Advert

Equipment Used On The Day of Filming

This picture shows Haran
setting up the camera and
tripod before filming.

• Creative Vado HD Camera - Camera 1
• Casio High Speed Exilim EX-FH2- Camera 2
• Adjustable Camera Tripod - To prevent camera shake
• Batteries for the camera 
• Clothing and Props - (as seen on Costumes and Props post)

We filmed our advert from start to finish in chronological order, this way we had a much better understanding of how our final product would look like. It was also much easier for us to film, as we knew exactly what we wanted to do. This was mainly from planning out our storyboards beforehand - (Post).

The image on the left shows Haran filming me for the slow motion section of the video. By using a close up shot ensured that the product name was fully visible during the advert, so it was easy for the viewer to recognize. I had to drink the product to make the advert seem authentic and to empathize that 'Regenerate' prolongs your workout, as I sprint across the bridge afterwards. 

However the image on the right shows Haran having troubles with the slow motion camera. Even though we had used brand new batteries for filming, the camera was still unusable. This resulted on us filming the same shot on the weekend. Again I wore the same clothing to remain the continuity, however the only problem was it was much brighter then when previously filmed. This was then easily resolved in the editing stage, by changing the brightness and contrast.

The final part of our advert was to film the sprint across the bridge, once I had taken 'Regenerate'. The image on the left shows the bridge, but also highlights how narrow it is. This limited us from doing a panning shot, which would of emphasized the speed I gained from 'Regenerate'. Instead we opted for choosing multiple shots in short bursts, which we would then piece together in the editing stage. As this bridge was a public bridge, we encountered many pedestrians, which resulted in a slow process, as we would have to stop filming and let them pass. We didn't want anyone else in the shot, as we wanted to isolate the runner and exaggerate the effects of 'Regenerate'.

The very final shot of filming shows me finishing as if I was in an Olympic race, shown on the right. This highlights the speed I gained from 'Regenerate', but also brings out a competitive side to jogging. After a few practice takes, we finally got the realistic look which we aimed for.  

Costumes and Props

Once we knew that we wanted to use everyday jogging as our form of exercise to advertise the product, we knew it was essential to use believable costumes and props. We knew authenticity is key when advertising a product, as you want the consumer to relate to the product and understand exactly what is being shown. The image on the right shows me, 'the runner' dressed up in average running clothing, that may be seen in everyday situations. Again, this highlights the authenticity aspect, as this sort of clothing is relateable to an everyday jogger.

The image on the left shows me using my iPhone as a running prop, so I can listen to music as I'm jogging. Listening to music is a popular aspect when running and is also tied in with our advert, so we knew it was important to implement this prop. The backing song in our advert will mimic the effect that is being played through the headphones, to keep the jogger motivated.












The most important aspect of the advert, is to show the initial product itself to the viewers. So in order to achieve this, Chris created a bottle label with the 'Regenerate' logo and basic bottle information, such as product and nutrition information. With having slow motion shots of the drink in our advert, it was essential that the drinks bottle stood out and was easily recognizable for the viewers. The logo is clearly visible and bright colour's are used to attract the viewers attention. By using consistent colour's throughout our advertising campaign, may result in the consumers recognizing our product and brand name in the future. The two images below show a print screen of how the label was created and then what it looks like as a final product:

         

Creating Our End Sponsorship Sequence Image

For the end of our sponsorship sequence we wanted a picture to clearly display our product. As our main theme was 'Regenerate' brings colour back into your workout, I thought our picture should have the background in black and white and our product in colour. I took the image of the product on my iPhone, then used the App 'ColourSplash' to edit the image. The image below shows how I edited the picture in 'ColourSplash', it simply involves shading in the part of the image you want to appear in colour.  

These two images show the original and then the edited 'ColourSplash' image.

Final Planning

Cast
Adam Dean - Actor, Runner


Crew
Christopher Dean - Director, Camera 1, (Creative Vado HD) and Editor
Adam Dean - Editor
Haran Timana - Camera 2 (Casio High Speed Exilim EX-FH20)


Before filming our advertisement, we knew it was important to organize everyone's roles within in the group. With our success from last years video - 'Parity', many roles remained unchanged. Last year I played the role of the murder victim, so once again this year I offered to play the protagonist in this years video. Chris was in control of camera 2 last year, however this now changed to camera 1 and was also set the role of director. Even though Haran and Sam worked on other A2 projects this year, Haran still offered to help us film and be in control of the slow motion camera. As Haran expressed a keen interest in the slow motion camera, as this was used for his A2 video, we decided Haran would be best suited to that particular role. Last year Sam edited our 'Parity' video, however this year neither me or Chris had little to none experience in this area. I offered to edit the majority of the video, as I was interested in using Apples iMovie software. On a regular basis I would show Chris my progress of the advert and he would help me experiment with different editing techniques and give new ideas to use. 


Now we had set the filming roles, we then needed to arrange a date for filming. As we all had media studies on a Wednesday morning, it was an ideal opportunity to film. We originally set a date of 15th February to start filming, however the week before it had snowed, therefore we changed our date to the week before - 8th February. We decided on this because we thought that the snow effect would emphasise the cold atmosphere when running.  

Pre Production - Using The Slow Motion Camera

Upon further developing of our ideas, we thought the use of a slow motion shot of our product would be very effective. By using this technique would increase the time our product and brand is shown on screen and would also emphasise the speed our runner would achieve. Our main goal is for the viewer to 'absorb' the brand name, to make sure they don't forget it, that's why the slow motion shot is extremely effective.  


To get a taste of how the slow motion camera operates and exactly how the final product would look, we decided to film a test. This particular test below shows the flicking of an ear lobe at 1,000 fps:

Pre Production - Storyboards

Before any filming was done, we thought it was vital to create a storyboard, so we had a rough idea of what we wanted to do when filming our advert. It was also a great success last year as new ideas were made by everyone contributing to the storyboard. For example the bathroom scene in our video 'Parity' was chosen as it was a suggestion from one of the group members while creating our storyboard. 


With the use of images and a brief set of text, you get a clear indication of what we want to do when filming. The four images below show our storyboard and how we wanted our advert to take form: 

These images show that we wanted a male character to play the role as our main runner. While he begins his run he gradually gets tired, the colour fades out and he needs to take a rest and a drink. Our product is then showed to the camera as he takes a drink, his body is then 'regenerated' and he can continue his run, but at an optimized level. The colour gradually fades back to normal and the advert ends with a final close up of the product. 


Storyboards are often used in lots of other different media outlets, such as films and video games creation. The main reason why storyboards are so popular is because they save time and money, but also help show sequences that are too difficult to explain. 

Pre Production - Ideas For Our TV Advert

We thought it was best to note down

several advert ideas before we started filming, the image shown on the right shows four possible ideas for our TV advert. Each idea revolved around some form of exercising, so we knew that this would defiantly be present in our filming. Using exercise to promote a sports drink is essential, as we want the consumer to feel a boost in performance when taking the product. However, we finally agreed to choose idea number 1 and develop our idea further, with the use of sound and a location.

Sound

Before filming we decided that all sound should be non-diegetic, this would consist of a soundtrack being played throughout the duration of the advert. The soundtrack we decided to use was Avicii - Levels, as the beat and lyrics suited our 'fitness' theme and was also relatively new, which the consumers are likely to relate to. The lyrics in the song also featured the words - "I get a feeling that I've never had before". This worked really well, as this part of the song is highlighted after the runner has taken the drink. The sound clip below is the full version of our chosen song:

Location


We wanted our location to be outdoors, rather than in a gym or fitness centre. Filming in a gym may of lead to complications, such as having permission from staff and members, so we came to the agreement of filming outside. When choosing an outdoor setting, we wanted a remote location with a long straight strip for the final sprint. I suggested filming near Radford, as it was a quiet location and had a long, straight narrow bridge for the final sprint. This was the location we eventually chose which worked really well, however during filming the conditions were very icy, which caused some minor problems when running. The image below shows where we filmed: