Blog Post 13: My Time-Plan, Crew and Cast List

My time plan, cast and crew list were also vital parts of my planning process. My time plan formed the structure of my shoot day, making sure I was shooting at the right time to get the appropriate shots with the best lighting. My cast and crew list made sure I had arranged the correct people to help and feature in my adverts, resulting in the right people being in the right place at the right time.

Timeplan

Cast and Crew 

A casting brief was written in my initial proposal and final cast were included on my casting list as follows;

Advert 1

Actor - Matilda Mendick

Crew - Hugo Perrot-Barnaby

  Maisy Crabtree

Advert 2

Actor - Nader Beigi

Crew - Matilda Mendick

                   Hugo Perrot-Barnaby

         Maisy Crabtree

Props 

This was imperative to my project as it finalised who my actors and crew were. It also gave me a structure of timing for my shoot day, helping me when booking my actors and crew and also helping me to create my shoot-board with accurate times.

Blog Post 12: My Location Recce, Risk Assessment and Location Permissions

My location recce, risk assessment and location permissions were all vital components of planning for my real shoot. The location permission legitimised my shoot and ensured my shoot was carried out professionally and safely. My risk assessment ensured the safety of the cast, crew and general public while my location recce prevented any room dressing or camera placement issues on the day of the shoot. All of these stages of planning made sure my shoot ran smoothly, was carefully planned, safe and efficient on the day.

Location Recce

Advert 1, Bike Scene Location - Carlton Avenue

Advert 1 Park Location - Trent Park Promenade

Advert 1 Dinner Location / Advert 2 Interview Location - My house

Both Adverts Delivery Location - My house 

Advert 2 Bus Stop Map Location - Enfield Road, Oakwood

Advert 2 Bus Stop Location - Enfield Road, Oakwood

Advert 2 Eating Location - My house

Risk Assessment

Location Permissions

This was beneficial to my project as it legitimised my shoot and ensured that I had the correct permissions, planning on specific locations and safety procedures in place. This made my shoot run smoothly on the day; ensured the cast, crew and general public were safe and ensured the arrangements were all signed off by a parent and teacher.

Blog Post 11: My Practice Shoot/Edit

My practice shoot and edit gave a visual template for my real advert and helped me to plan framing, time lengths and performance for my real shoot. It also highlighted initial problems with different shots, locations and timings so that I could make adjustments before for my real shoot to avoid any unnecessary mistakes.

Advert 1

In the first advert, I saw that my room dressing on the last shot would have to be changed as the room looked bland and uninviting. Also, some shots needed to be faster or slower so I could fit my on-screen text and voiceover in the edit. Finally, I realised I needed to add some close-up on action to help the narrative flow and ensure my advert is comprehensible and can be easily decoded by the audience.

Advert 2

In the second advert, I saw that my room dressing on the interview room needed to be more obvious to clearly show the setting as a conference or business room. Also, I saw that the phone shot needed more close-ups so the text would be visible to the audience. Finally, I decided to change the camera angles of my interview scenario so that there would be no background clutter and there would be a clear understanding of the setting.

This was crucial to my further planning and project as a whole as it showed me what my idea would visually look like on screen, giving me a chance to finetune my idea before my first shoot. This practice shoot saved me time in the real shoot and in the edit. 

Blog Post 10: My Advert Storyboards

My storyboards were drafted from the basic layout of my initial proposal and timeline. It clearly broke down each 30-second advert into individual shots. This helped with the location recce because I could easily determine if camera placement would be an issue. It also allowed me to create my shoot-boards as I clearly knew each individual shot needed for my advert to flow and fit the brief.

Advert 1

Advert 2

My storyboards were beneficial to my project as they helped to show camera placement of shots, desired framing and area of action on screen. This helped me to effectively plan for the dressing of rooms, to ensure the correct camera placement; it also helped me to time my action for my shoots and adjust my timeline and edit accordingly as the frames and action within shots was clearly laid out for each advert. This made both further planning, shooting and editing easy as the structure was preplanned. This made the two coherent and this was extremely beneficial in the later stages of my project.

Blog Post 9: My Advert Timelines

My advert timelines gave a breakdown of my adverts over the 30-second time period. It helped me to allocate time for each shot individually and change my idea and script accordingly to fit the exact 30-second timeframe for my narrative, brand message and on-screen text.

Advert 1

Advert 2

This planning was beneficial to my project as it gave me a complete breakdown of my 30-second adverts and time length of each shot. This helped me to realistically visualise my advert and convey my initial proposal without compromising the brief. These timings were used as a reference when I drafted my storyboards. 

Blog Post 8: My Initial Proposal

My initial proposal helped me to outline the structure of my advert, allowing me to begin the planning stage leading up to the shoot day. It also helped me to adapt accordingly to fulfill the brief including the time constraints of a 30-second advert. In my initial proposal, I wrote what would be happening visually on screen, the larger story it would tell and how this related to the campaign, rough ideas for text on-screen and Voice over. This allowed me to begin my planning and pencil in actors, locations and begin to collect permissions and releases to go ahead with shooting.

I want my adverts to contain genre hybridity with these two adverts below with the use of a bad day being made better as my main premise:

This was beneficial to my planning and my project as physically writing down my ideas made me think about them in a practical way. This made my storyline and single campaign for both of the adverts, as specified in the brief, come together and immediately highlighted any issues and changes that would need to be made. After my initial proposal, I realised my advert ideas and campaign ideas were good, yet the amount of action happening per advert was too much and therefore my advert would be too long to fit the 30-second requirement. This meant for my final proposal, I had time to simplify my ideas to fit the time constraints while still satisfying the demand of the brief.

Blog Post 7: Research into Existing TV Commercials in Other Forms, (EG Online, Print, Billboard)

I researched this to see conventions in other media and multi-media campaigns. It gave me industry knowledge and helped me to look at effective visual narrative and messages.

Sources used were;

Wikipedia

Google Images

Instagram

I began my research by looking at numerous print adverts, and seeing conventions of print adverts. Print adverts have an average of 3 seconds to convey a message to a passing consumer. Therefore, looking at print ads helped me to see how to quickly and effectively convey a message to a consumer. 

Print adverts use bold colours and a heavy use of primary colours to help achieve standout. As a result the adverts are visually striking and eye-catching to passing people. The colour can also sometimes help to convey the brand message and brand recognition. This is clearly visible in the McDonalds advert, where the colour scheme is mainly red - a core part of their brand.

Print adverts tend to use easily legible, simple and bold typefaces. The font is also usually contrasting to the background so it's easy to read and interpret the main message. This helps to quickly convey the advert message, campaign idea and brand to associate this with. This is clearly visible in the GrubHub advert below, where the font is bold, contrasting and easily legible.

The messages of the adverts are single minded and simple as they have a short period of time to communicate and leave a memory of the brand. The message is usually the brand slogan/ end line, name and logo. This is clearly shown in the Deliveroo adverts, where the message is short and ties the billboard to the larger multi-media campaign by having the campaign title as the main message.

Print adverts often use images of the product to create a sense of desire and make the service look aspirational. The picture also greatly helps with visual story-telling as it is quick to relay to the consumer. The images usually take up the majority and/or the centre of the ad.

There is always prominent branding on print ads with a visible logo, name and colour scheme throughout.

These are a few examples of the print ads I analysed to reveal conventions and effective messages relayed quickly.

I also looked at Instagram adverts as a Deliveroo advert popped up on my feed while I was researching this form of media. The advert is 4 slides long and is advertised on Instagram to the particular target audience required for the company. This is called a sponsored post. 

Slide 1 shows quality food, with lots of choices evidently shown. There is a catchy phrase in a bold and clearly legible font to give a direct statement summing up the intent of the advert. The background is also the brand colour scheme, which is used in the adverts, delivery driver bikes and clothing. 'Out now in Barnet' personalises the advert to the customer's location for relevance. 

Slide 2 shows a range of desirable and well-known brands that are in demand, to help attract potential customers and engage the target audience. It also reinforces the choice and variety of the brand.

Slide 3 shows a rating of the service, helping to give it credibility and show itself as a trustworthy and respected brand. It also shows the brand's USP and an edge over competitors. The short statement shows the brands efficiency and is created in order to drive sales.

Slide 4 shows the brand name and logo - reinforcing the brand identity. It also has a tab underneath throughout the advert called 'order here'. This takes you straight to the ordering page on their website, helping to gain sales out of convenience and impulse.

This research was valuable in teaching me about the impact of effective branding and the importance of a unified brand message in a campaign. I hope to carry forward the idea of a unified brand message into my adverts. This has beneficial to my project as I have also learnt the use of visual storytelling to quickly convey a powerful and memorable message. I will try to apply this theory to my adverts to increase memorability and reinforce the brand.