Task 4 - Evaluation

Self Assesment

Moreover, I used other persuasive techniques to entice the viewers, for example, self perception. This is seen as I deliberately chose actors and actresses of the same age as the target audience to mirror them so that they could see what they can be like and achieve by enrolling onto the dance course at Glenthorne. The overt message conveys that if you take the academy subject you will become as good as the dancers in the advertisement which persuades the audience more as they would want to better their selves.

Taking on the feedback from the client, it was suggested that I shortened the advertisement to 30 seconds and therefore, I had to select the most important information to include in the advertisement. I then was asked to show clear correlation between the voice over and the shots being shown and I changed this so that there was an illustration to match the voice over. This is evident when the teacher is teaching the class and the voice mentions receiving great support from the teachers and peers. Taking on this feedback helped me to develop and improve the advert making it more professional and effective.

Comparing my Research

When I was creating my advertisement, I carried out a variety of methods to research about academies, helping me in the making of the advertisement. Here I am going to evaluate which methods were most useful. I began carrying out my audience research by creating questionnaires and surveys for people to sign which was helpful as this resulted in me creating an audience profile so I could directly aim my advertisement at a particular target audience. The questions that were included in the survey were general questions so I could create a picture of the target audience, knowing their age, gender and likes and dislikes in advertisements. It enabled me to understand what the audience wanted to see in advertisement which developed and made my advert more successful as it was made specifically for them.

For the audience awareness, I held vox pop interviews with students and they gave me their honest opinion about their knowledge of academies. I asked question such as, ‘What is an academy?’ ‘Did you know GHS offered academies?’ ‘Do you think that academy subjects are better than general subjects?’ Despite using this research, I didn’t find it as helpful because most of the interviewees knew what an academy was and didn’t give much detail within their answers. However, researching into their media preferences helped as I then was able to see what media my target audience used and this contributed to the placement of the advertisement.

I believe that market research is the most important form of research as you have to compare what other competing institutions are doing and how you can develop yours further. I began with similar products by using secondary research for example, websites, advertisements and their prospectus to see what their course offered. This was valuable to me as I could see what their dance course offered and how they presented this using their websites and their advertising clips.

 When doing competitor analysis, I looked specifically at their advertisements to see what they put in them for example, techniques, type of accompaniment, conventions etc. and this helped me decide what I needed to put in to be successful but to also stand out. Doing advertising placement was essential as I wanted my advert to be seen by my target audience and I discovered this by using circulation figures and channel cards. Finally, production research is vital as I needed to get information on what I needed to include in the advert which was also supported by my market research. Using websites for resources such as equipment allowed me to calculate the cost of the whole advertisement. I then held and interview with the client to see how viable the advertisement would be and this was helpful as I was then able to start creating the advert.

 All of the information was important to me and contributed to the creation of the advert.

Audience, Market and Production Research

Synopses

My first idea for the academy advertisement began with ‘Have the passion?’ then cut to students chatting and walking down a corridor to show the life of a student at Glenthorne High School, then another sentence appears with, ‘Have the talent?’ which will fade to a dance student performing a solo to demonstrate what is within the dance course. The advert then questions, ‘Want to delve deeper in dance?’ proceeding onto a student in the library to display the facilities that are accessible to the dance students. The final piece of text that will appear is ‘Well, Glenthorne is the perfect place for you! The advert directly talks to the target audience of year 10 to 11s as is aimed at them and my intentions for this idea is that, with the voice over reading the sentences, the audience will feel as if the advertisement is talking to them personally which is a persuasive technique. I like this advertisement to the others as the text breaks up the constant footage and it is personal to the audience. The advertisement then has a teacher and two students talking about what they like about the course and what it offers to the audience and I believe this is gives an honest element to the ad because it is coming from the current students and teachers themselves. The style of the advertisement is quite simple due to the text, but is supported by the voice over to explain details further.

The second idea for the advertisement is based on the life of a dance student at Glenthorne High School. The logo is the first image that is seen by the audience to illustrate what institution we are promoting for and this will transition by fading in and out. The next shot will consist of the student introducing their self and explaining to the target audience of students in year 10 and 11 and their parents that they are taking them on a journey of what it is like to take the dance academy at Glenthorne. The student the walks into the changing room to get changed into appropriate dance clothing to prepare herself for her class. With her hair up and dressed adequately, she explains how the course has helped her and prepared her for her career in the dance industry. The advert then continues onto the class in the studio being taught by their teacher and this will be shot from many angles to create interest. During this shot, the voice over will continue to give more details about the subject for example, the facilities accessible to the students, what they achieve at the end of the two years and the theoretical element to the course etc. The advertisement then ends with the logo fading in and out to a close. The style of the advert is modern as it takes the audience on a journey and shows the modern facilities that Glenthorne have.

The final idea for the advert for the dance academy opens with a dancer performing a solo in the dance studio being assessed by the teachers. This shot will be filmed from many angles to intrigue the audience for example, from front on, from a low angle looking up and a shot from behind the shoulders of the teachers which will focus on the dancer as they will be the subject matter of the shot. This will then continue onto another dance student talking about how the course has developed them as a dancer and some of the contents in the course. This will then go onto the dance academy class in the theory rooms learning the theoretical element to the subject which will show footage of the students interacting, getting involved by answering questions and writing in their text books. There will be close ups of the teacher pointing to the board and students writing as I think this will vary the range of shots, creating interest. More students will speak to the target audience and explain further details about the academy for example, how the teachers and peers always give support and how it prepares them for the ‘real world of dance’. Instead of just the theory class, the advertisement will show the students taking a practical class with their teacher, which again, will be filmed from a range of angles for example, from the side, from behind the dancers and also, close ups of a dancer’s feet. The advert will end with the Glenthorne logo so that the audience remember the school. I believe the style of this advertisement is very informative as it includes a lot of footage and a lot of information for the audience and is very well explained with shots and the voice over.

Casting Decisions List

This list states who I would like to include in my advertisement:

Teacher: Rebecca Knight

Students: Sara Ferraria, Rae Tieran, Natalie Rumblelow, Jaimie Morris, Ryan Jones, Toni Barrington and Maddie Lock

Soloist: Nicole Cannon

Filming and Uploading

By creating and mapping out my planning documents, I was then able to continue on to filming my rushes for the advertisement for the academy. Using the storyboards really helped me film as they were quick planning documents that you could refer to in order to direct the actors and actresses, length of time the shot will last, camera angles, shot types, movement of shot etc. Also from this, I made my animatics from the storyboards and then was able to decide which one I would like to create for my actual advertisement.  

I filled out a shooting schedule to organise when I would film the rushes, stating the date and time, the location that I would film in, what actors I required, the costumes and props that were included and what equipment I needed during the session. The day before, I reminded the actors what time and what they needed to bring to the shoot so that we were organised and had everything we needed. 

When filming the voice over for the advertisement, I used a script to read off of so that I had everything included and make the voice over flow more without hesitation and forgetting parts. When I first wrote the script, I discovered it was too long, so I cut parts out and refined the sentences so that it was the duration of 30 seconds. 

Having a separate document for the costume and props list allowed me to explain in detail what I wanted the actors and actresses to wear when filming the shots for the advertisement. I gave the dancers this list so that they could arrange what they needed to get or buy which saved the hassle of rushing to get costumes and props. The planning document even went into detail about the make up and hair for example, normal daily make up and hair tied back for a dance lesson. I used this document to check whether everyone was wearing the correct costume so that we could then go onto filming shots for the advertisement. 

The location visit details enabled me to briefly assess the risks that were in the locations, it scheduled what time I could use the location as the spaces are not always free, it told me who I needed to ask in advance to book the space and displayed a picture of what the space looked like. 

When I decided who I wanted to cast in the advertisement, I wrote a list stating who was going to be in the advertisement and who they were going to play. I decided who was going to be in it, as I visited one of the academy classes beforehand and listed who was in the class. I did not want to use dance students from all years and I planned to film the actual academy class so that I was showing what the class actually does. Having who I wanted really helped as I knew who I had to inform about what days and times we were shooting and what they needed to bring. I then used this list to check if everyone attended the shoot. 

I used the location visit sheet to visit the spaces I was going to use for the advertisement to assess the risks using the risk assessment planning document. I used this planning sheet whilst filming to remind myself what risks could possibly occur whilst I was filming my rushes and this helped the actors and the crew avoid any injuries or problems that could happen. Being aware resulted in there being no problems during the shoot. 

Once I had filmed all of my rushes, I imported my work onto iMovie and then put them into final cut so that I could begin editing. Firstly I created a rushes log to write all of my shots down by describing what was in the shot, how long the shot was and whether it was a good enough shot to use in the advertisement. I was then able to refer to this when editing the advertisement together as I could see which shots I wanted and didn't want to use. I downloaded music off of a royalty free website and searched for inspirational and uplifting music to suit well with my advertisement. I then put this into Final Cut and cut it to 30 seconds. then I dragged my clips onto the timeline and began cutting the clips to the desired time and pieced them together using my planning documents. This made the process much faster as I was able to refer back quickly to the documents. 

Shooting Schedule

Blank Shooting Schedule-2

This is my shooting schedule where I was able to map out when and what I was going to film for the advertisement. The plan helped me to know what equipment I required when filming the rushes, what actors and actresses I needed and their costumes and what location I would be shooting in. Doing this enabled me to be organised as it was really clear and made the process of filming quite quick.