6. What I have learnt about industry in relation to television, print or radio advertising and how I intend to use this knowledge and understanding to ensure my production is appropriate to the media industry context of the set brief I have chosen.

When making a TV advert, I must follow the rules and regulations to be able to have an appropriate advertisement. During my research, I found that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the company responsible for this. Its role is to "regulate the content of advertisement, sales and promotion and direct marketing in the UK.". This can be found on the official ASA website here.

The following codes and rulings are some of the few that I had to take into consideration whilst planning for my TV advert:

• Misleading advertising 3.12: "Advertisements must not mislead by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product or service." 
• Misleading advertising 3.4: "Obvious exaggerations ("puffery") and claims that the average consumer who sees the advertisement is unlikely to take literally are allowed provided they do not materially mislead."
• Harm and offence 4.13: ​"Advertisements must not portray or represent anyone who is, or seems to be, under 18 in a sexual way. However, this rule does not apply to advertisements whose principal function is to promote the welfare of, or to prevent harm to, under-18's, provided any sexual portrayal or representation is not excessive."
• Privacy 6.1: "With limited exceptions, living persons must not be featured, caricatured or referred to in advertisements without their permission. Exceptions are made only for brief and incidental appearances, such as crowd scenes, and advertisements that refer to a person featured in publications, programmes, films and the like, providing that the reference to or portrayal of that person is neither offensive nor defamatory."

Despite having out these rules in place, there are still adverts that breach these rules and codes which in turn lead to the adverts being banned. For example, even well know brands such as Axe have produced controversial and banned adverts like the Axe "Touch" commercial, which was release in 2004. The advert was banned due to over sexualization of woman therefore infringing the Harm and Offense 4.13 code. Within the advert, we can see that as the male character opens the book, this leads to the woman's button being undone therefore revealing a lot of cleavage so it is deemed inappropriate as a TV advert.

Another more recent example of an advert that does not follow the ASA codes and convention, despite not being a deodorant advert is the Rimmel London mascara advert featuring Cara Delevingne. In this case, it breaches the Misleading Advertisement 3.12 and 3.4 code where the advert misleadingly exaggerated the product’s effect through the use of post-production treatment by airbrushing, which makes the eyelashes look bolder than its capabilities. Within the advert we are able to see ECU of her eyelashes which seem to be very bold therefore making the audience think that they are buying an exceptionally good product due to what is displayed on the screen. After purchasing the product, due to the extreme exaggeration of the effect, the audience's expectations will not be met, therefore being disappointed with the product and would've wasted money.

There are also many adverts that follow the rules and codes that are set by the ASA and turned out to be successful. Big brands such as Lynx, Dove, Nivea and many more do this well and therefore are able to advertise their products effectively whilst following the rules. A good example is the Lynx Soulmate advert where it follows all the rules and codes. For example it does not over sexualize anyone nor does it exaggerate the capabilities of the product. It has also not faced much problems in social media and therefore has no chance of being banned.

After researching the codes and rules of the ASA, this made me more aware of my representations in my own advert so that I do not break any rules. For example, I plan on having a female character that has exited the shower but is wrapped in towels so not revealing many body parts. Additionally, there is also no intention on having the female strike any sexual pose or gestures so will not breach the Harm and Offense 4.13 code. Furthermore in my advert, I have already asked for the character's permission to be featured in the advert with exception of the crowd scenes as I have some public shots. This therefore will not breach the Privacy 6.1 code.


E4:

Due to the fact that the advert will be featured on prime time E4 (7pm-9pm), I will also have to
appeal to their target audience. Conveniently, the viewers are predominantly between the ages of 16-24 year olds. The popular shows featured on E4 are usually romantic dramas, such as Melissa and Joey or How I Met your Mother. I therefore made the storyline of my advert also like a romantic drams, such as having the characters experience a "first-date" scenario, which therefore also appeals to the demographics of E4. Whilst appealing to the similar target audience, it also conveys the brand identity of active, youthful and unisex.

Scene from How I met Your Mother

Copyright:

Additionally, having selected appropriate soundtracks for both my adverts, I had to made sure that it does not break any copyright laws. Hence having to adhere by the following rules:

• All rights have expired ( If the composer is dead, and the piece of music is over 75 years old or choosing a song that is over 100 years old after the date that the track was officially released.)
• The authors have explicitly put a work into the public domain
• There were never any copyrights. 

Having taken all this into account, I have decided to choose my songs from Audio Library, which is a channel that "publishes free music for commercial purposes".  The songs that I have chosen are; Control- High Rule and Happy Life- FREDJI. 

5. What I have learnt about the representation of events, issues, individuals and social groups in television, radio or print adverts and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate meaning successfully.

Through my research in many different TV adverts, I have found that the representation of events, issues and individuals is shows in different ways. For example, some may be shown in a more light-hearted manner, whereas some prefer to be more direct within their representation, despite having the same impact in meaning in the end. I therefore hope to incorporate and demonstrate some of these ideas into my own advert in order to communicate the meaning successfully.
An example of a TV advert that represents an everyday issue is the Always #LikeAGirl advert. Despite being a feminine hygiene advert and not a deodorant advert, the representation is done very effectively.

Another example of a TV advert that represents real-world events well is the Lynx Make Love. Not War advert. It features some realistic scenarios from wars where tanks, attack helicopters, "the red button" and armies are shown in a negative manner in the first half of the advert. However, as the advert progresses, the situation brightens up as the partners are reunited. Another scene also shows that pressing the red button leads to a firework display as opposed to the worst case scenario, a bomb of some sort. This therefore leads to an idea of false preconceptions and that things may not seem as bad as it is. For example, after only seeing the first half of the advert, an assumption may be made that a tragic war may occur due to the way we usually precept those scenes but quite the opposite occurs once the advert moves on.

A common way that TV advert represents a problem that is frequently occurring is through stress of an individual. The problem usually stems from having a large workload and responsibility, as shown in the Nivea men stress protect advert below, where we see that the main character is late to attend to their daughter's play and therefore having to enter after the appropriate entrance time so having to find an alternate way in. The usual convention is that having applied the deodorant, the problem is solved therefore we see the character making it just on time at the end by making a dramatic entrance into the show.

Overall, having done this research I have also decided to include issues within my advert to make it more realistic and relatable, however it will not feature such wide scale events like wars or battling for gender equality. I plan on having the "first date" problem where the character risks showing up late but the problem is resolved after the application of the deodorant. For example, the character will be too stuck in their game of football that they forgot about their date later that day and therefore having to rush home and hastily get changed from their dirty kit into a suit and tie.

4. What I have learnt about the content and appeal of television, radio or print adverts and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate successfully with the target audience.

After having researched many TV adverts, I have found that the content and appeal is very important in order to communicate successfully with the target audience. Although this is done differently for many adverts, the effect on the target audience remains the same, hence I will have to include these in my own TV advert.
For example, I researched the uses and gratification theory as it tells us why the audience choose to watch what they enjoy. There are 5 reasons to this and they are; Information and education, where the viewers are able to learn from the media as they are able to obtain knowledge, Personal identity, where the viewers are able to relate what they are watching to themselves, like having a role model with similar characteristics. Another reason is that it is able to offer integration and social interaction, where what they are watching becomes a topic of conversation to friends or family as it usually stems from something memorable happening. Additionally it also provides entertainment, as well as escapism in which the audience can enjoy and relax what they are watching after a hard day and therefore be more submerged in the content.

The Old Spice commercials offers a sense of escapism and personal identity very well, as they put the audience in fantastical situations whilst constantly directly addressing them. In this particular advert, he says "..Sadly he isn't me, but he could smell like me." which allows for the audience to be pictured in such situations. Furthermore, he also says "[I have] an oyster with 2 tickets to that thing you love". Which is specific to the viewer that is watching the advert at that time, therefore offering a sense of escapism and thinking that they would feel better by purchasing the product, as it is now a must-buy.

In the Dove advert below, we are able to see that it offers information and education to the audience through the  voice over and graphic cards. For example, the voice over, paired with the information card states that  there is a 48 hour sweat protection as well as having Dove's 1/4 moisturiser technology. The Nivea advert also does this effectively through the voice and information card as it seems to be a quick way to get information across a fast paced advert.

From the TV advert "Nivea Men Stress Protect"

Integration and social interaction also plays a big part in being successful at appealing to the audience. The brand Always, despite being a feminine hygiene brand as opposed to deodorant, does this well. The main topic of this advert is to bring confidence to young girls, or girls in general, in society today due to "Like a girl" being a degrading phrase. This would therefore spark conversations between friend and family to talk about this relatable problem. Always does this well in the advert by introducing this topic to strangers and seeing their insight to this phrase. Hence encouraging the viewers to do the same with the people around them.

Having done this research into the content and appeal in TV adverts, I plan on incorporating some of these ideas to an extent in order to make my advert more successful in communicating to the target audience. For example, I plan on including information about my deodorant on an information card stating the long lasting freshness it has. I also hope that the storyline will offer a sense of personal identity, where the "first-date" situation will be relatable to the audience and even have a cathartic feel towards it. Furthermore, I hope that it will also offer integration and social interaction through the choice of location as well as the soundtrack chosen. In conclusion, by including similar content and appeal as other TV adverts, I hope that this will make my own advert more successful and realistic.

3. What I have learnt about the codes and conventions of television, radio or print adverts and how I intend to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding in my production in order to communicate meaning successfully.

Within the research of other existing adverts and campaigns, I have found that a lot of TV adverts include similar codes and conventions despite having their own unique style to it. For example, one of the most common convention is having the product featured either in the advert itself, in a pack shot at the end or even both. This can be seen in the Lynx advert below, as well as in the dove advert.

From TV advert "Lynx Soulmates"

From TV advert "Dove Men+Care"

Similarly, this is also done across other TV adverts and not only for deodorants but is also done for healthcare products, such as toothbrush or mouthwash. This is done across most adverts as this focuses the audience's attention on the product and therefore allows them to be able make a conscious decision to purchase the product displayed. 

From TV advert "Oral-B Toothpaste & Mouthwash"

Another convention that is featured in TV adverts is the editing of the advert. The pace of the editing is usually quite slow paced in the beginning and then becomes faster with jump cuts. This is to match the action in the advert as well as the music that is featured. For example in this Lynx advert below, the music used is quite slow in the beginning then develops along with the pace and action.

Another example of editing in a TV advert is the Sure roll on advert. It is fast paced throughout the advert, particularly at the start, as it cuts to the beat. The advert takes you through the whole 24 hour day within 30 seconds hence being fast paced so the audience are able to see the full effect that the deodorant holds throughout the day.

Another common convention that is used in many TV adverts is the use of sound, be it the voice-over, dialogue or music. For example in the Lynx Soulmate advert above, despite having no narration or dialogue, the music featured is used to progress the story within the advert. However the song used do have lyrics, which coveys the story well to create an emotional appeal for the audience therefore causing them to focus on the advert.

The Nivea deodorant TV advert is another advert that utilities sound well. Unlike the Lynx advert, it does feature a voice-over as well as a soundtrack that moves the story further. Instead of creating an emotional appeal, it creates humour in which would engage the audience. The voice-over says things like "No need to be the perfect dad, when you're the coolest dad." .

In summary, having done this research, I found some common conventions that will inspire my advert. For example the use of the pack shot is important, therefore I will feature a pack shot of the deodorant in order to make it more realistic. Additionally, editing is also an important aspect in the TV adverts, so in my own advert, I plan on the beginning to be quite fast paced but when approaching the end, it will be a bit slower due to the match with soundtrack. I will also have a bit of dialogue within the advert to progress the story, however the soundtrack chosen will also do so, as seen on most TV adverts. By following these conventions, I think that the advert will therefore be quite successful in communicating the meaning to the audience through emotional appeal, humour and editing.

2. Existing adverts/campaigns I have researched ad how these have influenced my ideas.

In order to create an advert that would appeal to an audience, I had to research similar adverts in order to grasp the ideas and conventions that were used and therefore influence my own advert, as I have adapted some of these ideas.

Firstly I created a mood board by having the topic of "Wave" in mind as that is the name of the deodorant.

Despite having set out to create this mood board with the intentions of creating a poster, as I have now decided to opt for the TV advert, it was still useful as it inspired the slogan, "Never crash under pressure again", and also the USP, being the freshness and the long lasting effect.  

In addition to this, I researched into other deodorant brand adverts such as Lynx, Sure and Dove. For example, from the Sure advert, there was a CU shot of the deodorant featured in the advert in which I thought to also use this convention within my own advert. I also plan on featuring the product in a pack shot at the end where the slogan and the USP can be seen. This is a common convention across most of the deodorant adverts but I found that Dove this this especially well in a simplistic manner.

Another example is that in the Lynx advert shown below, it features different shots with sports involved in it. I thought that it would be a good idea to also include sports shot in my own advert as that would highlight the brand value of being active. I will feature sports in the beginning of both my adverts, with the male playing football and the female playing tennis.

Within another Lynx advert, I saw that there were shots that had emotional appeal and within those, had a range of different shot types. For example, in the shot below a CU is used to show intimacy and facial expressions of the chacters. In my own advert I would also feature emotional appeal as well as humour in order, as they will be portrayed  to be people gping on their first date to make it more relatable and appealing so therefore will engage the target audience.  

Having done the research into other existing adverts and campaigns, I was able to see what other similar adverts had done in order to appeal to their audience. Therefore I was able to use this opportunity to include some of the same ideas in my own TV advert, so being able to make it realistic and successful.

1. How I intend to fulfill the requirements of the brief I have chosen.

For this project, I have decided to go for Brief 1, which is to make 2, thirty seconds long television advert for a new unisex deodorant called Wave. This is to be targeted at 16-25 year olds and will be shown on prime time E4 at 7-9pm on weekdays. Therefore I think that this Brief chosen will be able to express the brand's value of youthful, active and unisex, in the best way possible.

In order to make this possible, I have chosen 2 different settings across the two adverts, which includes a restaurant, a field, a court, in a house and also urban areas in central London featuring landmarks. I also have at least 2 characters, one male and one female, that represent different social groups. Additionally, I hope to incorporate some techniques, such as emotional appeal and intertextuality in order to engage the audience by making it relatable and therefore making the advert memorable. Hence, having to be aware and follow the rules of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The music that I have chosen to be featured across both my adverts is copyright free. The music is obtained from Audio Library on YouTube, which is a channel that "publishes free music for commercial purposes". Furthermore, the music featured will be appropriately edited to suit my advert, for example I will have to cut the music to the beat and fade away the music in order to hear the diegetic sounds from the clips to progress the story. Despite not including external SFX, the sounds effects from the original clip was appropriate for the scenario, for example, when the tennis ball is hit in Advert 2 or the application of the deodorant in Advert 1. 
         
The USP that I have chosen for the deodorant is that it will be fast acting and long lasting for up to 48 hours, meaning that it is always reliable and roughly follows the slogan of "Never crash under pressure again.". I will also have the product featured within both the adverts as well as in a pack shot at the end. Additionally, I will also have the same written text on screen for both adverts in order to make it synergistic.

I have created 2 timelines to portray the ideas for the brief.
Within the advert, I plan on using a range of camera shots, including different shot distances, angles and movement, as this connotes the brand identity better. For example, the shots in the begging will feature fast movement whilst doing sport, in order to convey the value of youthful and active.

Overall, I think that by following closely to the guidelines of the brief, I am able to fulfill the requirements of the brief that I have chosen.

Homeland Continuity Task

1. What was your role in the task and what did you actually do?

Within the group, we designated roles to different people in order to make the task run smoothly. I was in charge of the props and the costume for the actors as well as being an actor myself. I played a CIA Analyst, interrogating a suspected terrorist sympathizer, who was played by Zain. We had to learn the lines to make the scene more authentic and natural, which in turn made the final product a bit better. Additionally, I also made some suggestions to the shoot, which turned out to be helpful. Alongside myself was my partner/ boss, who was portrayed to be a more laid-back due to him costume and him being late to the interrogation. Whereas I came across as more organised and professional due to the full suit and tie and punctuality.

2. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, filming and editing?

When planning the shoot, we had to take into account the positioning of the characters in the master shot of the interrogation, as sometimes Harvey was blocking the line of sight to my character from the camera. Therefore in order to solve this issue, we had him more laid back on the chair, which was more useful due to the connotations of his character of being more relaxed. Furthermore, we also had to take into account the framing of the characters due to the height difference between myself and Harvey, as it would look unnatural to pan up too much when the characters stood up hence leading to the solution of cutting out Harvey's head when he stood up. The process of filming was much easier due to previous planning therefore we just had to follow the shot order and script which we had made beforehand. Moreover, when filming we had to keep acting the whole scene to make cutting the clips much easier. When editing, we had to take into account the match on action to have a good continuous flow. This was achieved by the use of sound bridges as well as cutting certain audio out to make it easier. 

3. How successful was your sequence? Did you manage to demonstrate match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule? Did you achieve continuity overall?

I thought that the sequence turned out quite successful in the end as the clips that we obtained from filming was sufficient enough to make a good final video. The match-on-action was quite well done I think for example, when i was entering the room with Harvey the match-on-action was successfully done with the close up on the handle to the door being opened. Another example is when the file was presented to Zain, the slide across the table was nicely done as it matched the movement of the camera. Also the shot-reverse-shot was done well as we have CU of the characters therefore being able to build tension and see facial expressions. Overall, I think that the continuity was well achieved although it could've been better with better footage. For example at the end when the characters walk out and it cut to the door but we can see the chair tucked in whereas in the shot before, the chair was left out. 

4. What have you learnt from completing this task?

From completing the task, I've learnt the importance in planning as it helped us a lot in the filming as we already had everything organised. Also I learnt the importance of camera work as it really helped with the continuity in the editing as well as having the roles split up so that we were able to complete the task in the time available.