At the end our AS year we were given thirteen briefs in which to choose from in order to complete our A2 coursework. The briefs we were given allowed us to explore, experiment with and create a range of media products.

We were then told that it would be a wise idea to work in a group as each task involved a lot of work with aspects of multi media that would be too much for one person to complete by them. In response to this we quickly formed a group, my self and Kim thought it would be a good idea to work together again, as we successfully created a media product in our preliminary and Main tasks in the AS year. Amber and Elliott had also formed a partnership, and together we decided it would be a good idea to form a group of 4, as we each had different levels of knowledge and experience with the software we would need to use in order to complete our coursework.

We looked over the thirteen briefs and decided that we were to create an advertising package for a new product which entailed creating two TV adverts, together with a radio advertisement and a web-pop up. We also had the choice to create a TV programme sponsorship sequence but we felt that this would involve too much feeling and put on extra pressure to meet the deadline.                                                                     To productively progress with our coursework, we had to assign each member of the group with a job role. We initially assigned everyone with a research role; myself and Kim were to research into TV adverts, Amber was to research into radio adverts and Elliott into Web pop-ups. We then discussed roles within production; Kim was a thriving producer within AS production so we all thought that it was best if she were to take on the role of producer again, Amber was assigned as camerawomen as she was a film studies student in the AS year, Elliott was given the role of editor as he has plethora of experience with Final cut Pro and other IT software’s, and I was given role as Director as I had taken on this role in the AS year also.

After assigning Job roles we discussed what product we were going to advertise and what brand name we were going to give it. We listed down what we wanted to advertise and came up with three main ideas: Perfume, clothes and food. When thinking about adverts we could create for each of these products, perfume seemed to be the one product that allowed us to explore a variety of contextual ideas. Once the group had agreed upon this we decided upon a brand name for the perfume. We came up with ‘Patelli’ which is a play on my Last name, it made the perfume sound sophisticated , and sounded similar to other brands on the market.

Subsequent to this we then went on to complete our research for the coursework. Firstly we looked into theories within Media , in particular the Hypodermic Needle model and how there are three ways in which advertising messages can be consumed , these are: the preferred , oppositional and negotiated .reading/                                                                 We then looked at the theories of Charles O’Neil and Norman Fairclough, who said that adverts feed on the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of materialism and discusses how a synthetic person makes adverts more persuasive and personal to the consumers. We finally look at the psychological theory of conformity; the need to comply to the norms and values placed within the media. Understanding this we knew that we had to create an advert that appeal to our target audience, once we had decided on what group to target.

With this the group began to generate some creative ideas. In the end we came up with a total of 6 ideas. These ranged from a male and female chasing each other around London, to a woman running through the fields on a summer day. We then complied these ideas together and put them on a power point in order to present them to the class. This was to enable us to gain feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of our potential ideas, and allow us to eliminate the ones with the poorest response. From the feedback from our class we narrowed it down to three ideas, these were :

1)A man and woman are on a bed and appear to be engaging in a play fight, the woman then reaches out for a perfume bottle, this is either on the bed or in a draw she then sprays it on her chest which he smells in a sexual manner.

2)A man and woman appear to be searching in London, this is shown through a series of parallel editing, they then find each other on a bridge and there is instant chemistry. This idea could potentially be filmed in black and white.

3)In a light airy room with the window open and a netted curtain blowing in the breeze a woman sits at a mirror applying her make up and perfume, a man emerges from behind her and kisses her on the cheek . The name of this perfume would be Bisous as in French it means a kiss and it goes with the feminine feel to the advert.

Myself and Amber and the rest of the class were not too keen on idea number 1, as we thought it was too risqué and unachievable. With the help of the class we named the perfumes; we named idea 2 ‘Lost and Found’ and idea 3 ‘Bisous’. These ideas seemed achievable as we believed that it would enable us to create sophisticated and elegant adverts through the use of editing and sound.

Following this we began to take on our individual research roles. Kim and I began to look into perfume adverts to aid us in brainstorming potential ideas and to also help us understand the different conventions perfume brands use in order to target their specified audience, such as lighting and mis-en-scene. We also looked at how men and women were portrayed in the advert and it was apparent that adverts with sexual connotations are more successful in broadcasting their message , we look at a total of 6 adverts in the end. In Conjunction with this Elliott and Amber also researched into their specified areas. Amber looked at how to make a good radio advert, such as the different ways in which you can advertise for example through the use of a story, or through a competition etc.

After deciding our two final ideas for the perfume advert we then went on to conduct some more structured research, to help us conduct the production of the perfume advert more efficiently fitting in with the conventions. I look at how to photograph glass, as we would need to take a photo of the perfume bottle to impose on the final video. Kim looked into different fragrance scents to help us understand how to convey the message across to our target audience. Also Influenced by what we had seen on www.boots.com we together wrote a description  for each type of person who would buy the perfume. We decided that the male who would purchase ‘Lost’ is confident,and powerful and  the female who would buy ‘Found’ is beautiful and a romantic. The female who wears ‘Bisous’ is feminine, girly and cute. Elliott researched into sex in advertising to see how they used male and female roles to reach their target audience, he also looked at the pricing of perfume and the different markets each of these prices were aimed at in order to help us choose our target audience.  Amber then researched into fashion to see what outfits models wear in the different styles of adverts.

Elliott look into web pop-ups, the different styles that can be used such as hovering pop-up and ones that stay in the corner. He looked at font, colours and size and the different way in which the pop up can be created.

After collating all our evidence it was time to choose a target audience. After analysing current adverts in the media and looking at the pricing, and comparing it to the ideas we had chosen, we thought that 21-25 year old male and females, who were young professionals was a good target audience to choose. Simply because idea 1 involved London which gives a sophisticated feel and idea 2 involved a young couple getting ready for work. We felt that this age group would be able to relate to the messages we are trying to convey.

We now had to begin our pre-production for both our adverts . We had to decide on location, filming permission, actors, music,  narrative, storyboard and filling our forms such as a talent release form etc. Firstly I created the narrative setting up the basic story help Kim draw the storyboards. Whilst Kim began to create to create the storyboards and camera shots , whilst I began to look at what possible music we could have to the advert and came to the conclusion of Hometown Glory by Adele for our ‘lost and found’ advert and Bird Song Intro by Florance and the Machine  for ‘bisous’. We were told in the brief that we had to gain permission to use copyrighted. The version of Hometown Glory we were using was an imitation so we did not have to gain permission to use that , however  Kim had to email the company responsible for Florance and the Machine, as we could not find an imitation of that song,  however we received no response so we thought we would continue to use that song unless told otherwise. 

During this time Amber and Elliott researched into the locations in London where we would be filming  ’lost and found’, such as Buckingham palace and Westminiter, and organised a trip so that we could take pictures and visit the exact places they had been looking at, we also saw this as an opportunity to explore the ideas that had been put on the storyboard , furthermore this would give us a chance to make any changes to the storyboard , if need be , however this was not necessary. We then had to decide on a location for our ‘bisous’ advert , however this was much easier as we thought my house would be a good place because it reflected the scenary and decor we had included in our storyboard.

After scouting out our location we needed to find actors. Elliott created posters which we then put up around the college, however there was very little turn out, so Kim decided to seek out potential people around the college , in which only one person said they could definatly take part. So we turned to our friends to see if they could help us, we then recruited Ben slater and Filiz hassan for Lost and Found, however Filiz could not shoot on the day we had planned so Lauren owers stepped in as a result. We then chose Samantha Swingle and Lewis Coventry ( the person Kim approached in the canteen) to be in ‘Bisous’

Once we had found our actors. We then began to focus on sorting out the filming process for our ‘lost and found’ advert and left ‘bisous’ to one side for the mean time. Firstly we had to organise a date that everyone was available to Film , we decided that a Thursday would be the best day as that is the day of our media lessons, which means the group would all be together. We also took into account that Lauren Owers has thursdays off College , and Ben Slater is in our Media class so he would be allowed to take time out of class to help. We then had to look into the conditions of filming in London , Kim researched into this and found that we would need to gain permission and a permit in order to film in london. In order to overcome this we emailed the appropriate people , however we did not get any response so we decided to go ahead and film on the dates we had decided , and deal with the situation at the time if any problems were to arise, fortuneatly there were so problems. As producer Kim filled out a risk assesment form and then got the actors to sign a talent release form to give their consent to the video being shown .

In then came to the day of filming , and we met our actors in london. Ben came dressed in the suit we had asked him to come in , and Lauren had to get changed in London as we required her to wear a black dress. We wanted to complete filming as soon as possible because of this as it was an extremely cold day. However once filming begun we encountered our first problem. The tripod we had taken with us was missing the platform that attaches it to the camera, this meant that Amber had to film using steadicam, which again was difficult due to the cold weather. At one point we did consider going home and filming another day , however we realised that we wouldn’t have enough time to come up to London again and also everyone had made an effort to come so we thought that we would continue with our idea of using steadicam.                                                                                                  Whilst in London , it was Kim’s job to take care of the actors , Amber and Elliott’s job to Film and my job to ensure that the storyboard was stuck to and to make sure the actors where in the correct position . We travelled to all the Locations we had previously had visited sticking very closely to the storyboard. Such as the two seeing each other  at Buckingham Palace and eventually meeting on the bridge, we filmed these several times to certify that we had a good enough shot to use. We also thought it would be a good idea to film additional shots that were not on the storyboard to add some variation and also use it as a back-up just incase we were not able to use, or did not like  some of the initial footage. 

Despite the issue of the camera and the tripod and the whether , filming went suprisingly well. We were able to get all the shots we needed , the actors did extremely well in following our instructions, the public did not pose too much of a problem ( we were afraid that people may walk into our shot , or look directly at the camera) and there were no issues with us filming in London.

After obtaining the footage we uploaded it onto the computer , and Elliott began to take on his official role as Editor. However we all helped in this process by giving our opinions as to what version of each shot we should use, whether it should flow exactly according to the storyboard or whether to include some of the additional shots we had taken. We also already knew that we wanted the advert to be in black and white and wanted to use Adele’s Hometown glory as the sound track. Once we had laid down all the basics Kim and Amber went on to continue with the pre production for the second advert ‘Bisous’ .Whilst i continued to help Elliott with the Editing by organising a shoot for the perfume bottles , which our friend James Clothier help us out with. This would then allow Elliott to add these photos to the end of our Advert. Myself , Elliott and Amber then recorded the voice over for the advert, that would play whilst the images of the perfume bottles where on screen. In the end it was decided that Amber’s and Elliott’s voices suited the advert more. 

Once Kim and Amber had sorted out the rest of the Pre-Production for ‘Bisous’ such as  buying  the bottle we were going to use in our advert, and risk assessment and talent release forms  we were ready to film. The only day we were able to film was a saturday as that was when my house and the actors were free which meant that only myself and Kim could make it to filming as Amber and Elliott had to work. Everyone agreed that it would still be ok to film, as we already had experience of how to set up a camera and film. We also knew that it would be ok for just us two to film as long as we took into consideration how amber wanted the production to be shot. Before filming Kim set up the camera and went over the storyboards to see what shots we needed to film and I set up the scenary , placing out all the props needed for each scene. This was a lot easier to film as we had the platform to attach the camera to the tripod , we also only had to stick to the one room for filming.

In our next lesson we uploaded to footage for Elliott to edit , however at this time Elliott was in an exam, so myself and Amber began to put together some footage in accordance with the storyboard, adding in some fades and putting in the music to see if it fitted the way in which we hoped it would. Whilst Kim recorded the voice over of the advert , of which she did in french to continue the french name of the perfume . We then showed this to Elliott once his exam was complete and he said he liked what we had put together , however he did make some changes such as adding in an extra shot and slowing down the pace of the advert to fit exactly in time with the music. He also added the caption screen we needed and included kim’s voice over.

Whilst Elliott continued to edit Myself , Kim and Amber started with the pre-production of the radio advert . Firstly we looked at the research Amber had conducted into radio adverts, anaylsng how we would target or desired demographics by using typical radio advert conventions, we discussed when the advert would be aired ( it would have to be a time where are target audience would have the oppourtunity to listen to the radio, such as morning and evening when they are travelling to and from work ) . We knew we wanted to advertise a competition , and we thought the best idea would be to create an advert ongoing from our ‘lost and found’ tv advert as London seemed like a good theme to choose . This would allow us to create the best script with the best prize, similar to some of the competition adverts we had heard on radio stations such a kiss 100. We thought we would aim the advert at couples ( both the lost and the found audience)  by offering them a weekend stay in a London hotel with  £1000 spending money, all they would have to do to win the prize would be to answer a question about London. Following this i wrote up a script which i then gave to Amber to see if she agreed with what i had included. 

The next step was to record to the advert. Unfortunatley i was not able to attend the lesson in which they did film so my voice was not on the recording. But the other 3 members of the group set up a boom mic and camera and all took their turns in saying a set of lines. They all took turns at introducing the radio station, describing the competition and reading out the radio station’s slogan.

The next week , myself and Amber began to edit We found examples of radio adverts on you tube , and copied some of the sounds we found on there.  We then added the recordings the group had recorded, however there were only a few clips that we suitable for use as some clips had low sound and others included verbal mistakes.However putting everything into the advert it sounded childish , and something that people would not take seriously. So During the half term Amber and Elliott Came into college to continue with the editing of the Radio Advert, starting from scratch as the edits we created previously we not sufficiant enough to produce for our final piece of coursework  I wanted to join however i was unable to as i had to work.Elliott added a jingle to make the radio station seem more realistic.Firstly  included the recording of himself introducing the radio station, and Kim introducing the presenters. Next he added some Jazz music to make it sound more sophisticated for the introduction of the competition, he then included the competition and included the voice over of the ‘lost and found’ advert to  adhere to continuity.Over all I really liked the Hip-hop and Jazz style music , as it gives the advert a quirky and uplifting vibe and  i also think the music and the entire advert are suited to our demographics of our audience.

We then came to fulfill the last part of our chosen brief; creating the web pop-up. From creation of the radio advert we thought it would be a good idea to still continue with our ‘lost and found’ theme , but instead of winning a competition if would give our target audience to win a free sample of the perfume.We discussed were the pop-up would be seen and thought of places such as social networking sites as our target audience would be likely to use them. Kim then drew up some designs for the web-pop up looking at what photo we would use , colour , text/font and the arrangment of the pop-up.

From editing our TV advert we had already chosen what image we wanted to use and that was lauren flicking her hair. So that gave us a good basis in which to start. I print screen the desired image and then passed it on to Elliott in order for him to edit. we wanted to use a black and white image with the use of purple. So Elliott decided to include a picture of london in the background to keep with the london style but give  it a purple tone and a very low opacity, this allowed for continuity from the Lost/Found advert . On the top of this he placed the image of lauren. He then included text using 3 types of font that had been found by Amber using www.dafont.com. We then included images of the perfume bottles, and a ‘Click Here’ message with a cursor next to it , to make it look like a more realistic web-pop up .

We had finally finished all our products, however we had to gain feedback on these to ensure that our peers could see what target audience we were aiming at , what message we were trying to convey, how well they thought we constructed our products and what they thought of our products overall. So to do this Kim , with the help of myself created some surveys on survey monkey that all our peers could fill out and a some questionnaires that we could print and hand out to our media class. we asked them about the following points:

• what they thought of choice of actors 
• Choice of Location
• Narrative
• Camera Angles 
• sound 
• Editing 
• Whether all these different elements came together and fitted well

Lost and Found 

 Most people had said our camera work was not up to a good standard , however we agreed on that , and had taken this into account when talking about our work, however they did all like the camera angles ,lighting and editing, especially the fact that we had chosen to put it into black and white. Most people said that they thought the soundtrack was very fitting with the mis-en-scene and the narrative of our advert, however not many people liked the voice over , which i agree with as it takes away some of the seriousness of the advert and adds a comical tone. On the whole people said they liked our advert as an overall package; the concept , the narrative, aiming to both a male and female audience and some even said that they could imagine this to be a real perfume advert. 

Bisous 

With this advert , people noticed the improvement in our camera work , however said that we could have used more varying camera angles ( during filming we did try this however it was very difficult due to the confined spaces of the room). Again most people enjoyed the whole concept of it and said it was very feminine which is the type of atmosphere we wanted to create.

Radio Advert 

We did create a questionnaire for the radio advert , however we had some trouble uploading it on to the internet so not many people got to hear it , however we did manage to show it to a handful of people and they said it sounded realistic in terms of offering a competition , having a radio slogan as well as a jingle.

Web pop-up

This received the least feedback , as we had the least amount of time to show it . Similarly to the radio advert people said it looked like a realistic pop-up and they liked the colour scheme we had chosen, the london background , and said the image of lauren flicking her hair made it stand out.

Overall i feel that this task has been the most successful task yet. There is a big difference between the work we created last year in comparison to the work we created last year, this year our work looks more thought out and more refined . Although there was inevitably a few flaws in our work , some of which we could not help, the work is of a higher standard.  We have all worked well together as a group to thoroughly think out our ideas and work out a sensible process to help us succeed in making our final products. I think each member of the group took on their roles extremely well which helped heed the overall process, i feel that each member conducted good extensive research to help us understand the product we wanted to sell and how we were going to go about reaching our target audience. For lost and found i like we were able to overlay footage on top of each other and makes it look more professional and like a real perfume advert, however i’m not particularly fond of the caption screen and the voice overs, and of course the unsteady camera work , if i were to film it again that is what i would change. With Bisous , i like how we were able to use such a small space and only a few props to create that feminine feel it has , and i also think that the music helps out greatly with this. Again , if i were to change anything on this advert it would be the caption screen , i think it looks to spacious and unfinished. I feel that having a competition style radio advert was the best decision , i particularly like  the jingle and the jazz music, however i find that section at the end where each of our names are read out it different tones slightly strange but i can imagine hearing it on certain radio stations. If i were to recreate this it would be that i would have been able to be there and take part in the recording of the advert. Finally i feel that our web pop-up resembles the product its meant to be the most , its simple but grabs your attention, the use of the cursor also ties in with the internet. Looking at all 4 products i like how we were able to converge 3 of them together by using the ‘London’ theme, i also like how ‘Bisous’ is different from the rest because it shows variety and demonstrates that we can think of different concepts for different media products .

Today we started putting in to motion the ideas Kim and i had come with for the web popup. We had initially said that we either wanted to use the image of lauren flicking her hair , or the one of ben looking around the tree.                                                                      Elliott suggested that the best idea would to be to create a mock-up of the web pop up on photoshop. So in response to this i went on to final cut pro and took some print screens of the images we wanted for the pop-up. Elliott then uploaded the images onto photoshop and began to experiment with different aspects , such as colours , positioning , text and font. 

At the same time Kim began on creating surveys on survey monkey which would enable our peers to analyse our work, whilst i sat between both of them helping Kim decide on what questions to right, and giving my opinion on what colours and fonts i liked for the webpop up. Both myself and Kim said that we liked the colour scheme of a black and white image with the use of purple.  

11th March

Today Elliott again worked on the pop up whilst Myself and Kim began to work on a further questionnaire so that we could hold a focus group.

Elliott again began experimenting with different ideas to progress further with the web pop-up. We already knew that we wanted a black and white image with the use of purple. So Elliott decided to include a picture of london in the background but give  it a purple tone and a very low opacity, this allowed for continuity from the Lost/Found advert . On the top of this he placed the image of lauren. He then included text using 3 types of font that had been found by Amber using www.dafont.com. We then included images of the perfume bottles, and a ‘Click Here’ message with a cursor next to it , to make it look like a more realistic web-pop up .

Here is the final Result

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GXZ879C  <—-For bisous 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GND5M5C <—-For Lost and Found

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GGWVDJT <—– For the Radio Advert

For the recording of the radio advert, unfortunately i was not here. However i was informed of what they had done , so that i could be up-to-date with all the work. Kim told me that they retrieved a camera and boom mic of of Brendan and they began to record the video. Taking it in turns to read out the script. Elliott then uploaded it onto final cut pro and experimented with the recording, incorperating everyone’s voice onto it. Amber then began to help with the editing  and i also helped following Amber’s instruction considering that she is in charge of the radio advert. We found examples of radio adverts on you tube , and copied some of the sounds we found on there.  We then added the recordings the group had recorded, however there were only a few clips that we suitable for use as some clips had low sound and others included verbal mistakes.However putting everything into the advert it sounded childish , and something that people would not take seriously

25/2/10

During the half term Amber and Elliott Came into college to continue with the editing of the Radio Advert, starting from scratch as the edits we created previously we not sufficiant enough to produce for our final piece of coursework  I wanted to join however i was unable to as i had to work. Coming back to college Elliott requested, Myself and Kim’s feedback. Listening to it i liked the advert as a whole. It begins with  hip-hop style music then transitions into Jazz music it has Kim introducing Cake Radio and then Elliott reads out the competition details, at that same time the sound of telephone rings play in the background. It then ends with Several different styles in which ‘cake radio’ is said.

Kim and i said that we did not understand the concept of the telephone rings in the background as it sounded out of place, therefore we decided with Amber and Elliotts approval also to remove it from the radio advert. That was the only criticism we had for the advert.

I really liked the Hip-hop and Jazz style music , as it gives the advert a quirky and uplifting vibe. The jazz music is also in keeping with the London theme , making it sound sophisticated. I also liked the fact that there is continuity from the Main Lost and Found Advert, as the Radio advert includes Amber Voice over from the main advert that says ‘ The new Fragrance by Pattelli’. Over all i think the music and the entire advert are suited to our demographics of our audience.

Firstly we researched how to create a perfect radio advert using these websites :

http://www.ehow.com/how_2002075_write-radio-ad.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2182432_write-successful-radio-ad.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2125778_do-radio-ad.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2125778_do-radio-ad.html

We came up with some ideas based on this information , which is as follows

• Entice our audience with a question and persuasive language
• The advert should either be 15,30 or 60 seconds long
• The voice on the advert should be warm and friendly
• The contact information must be repeated twice
• Must Have an audience for our radio advert ( we decided to aim it at our target audience for our perfume which is 21-25, either females , or couples)
• We must have a time that we want the advert to be aired ( we decided 8-10 am and 5-7pm , this was because it targets the rush hour periods, and when our target audience are on their way to work)
• We then had to decide a Location for our radio , which we decided would be Essex and Herts as if we aimed at an audience in London , the trip might not be as exciting as they live in the city.

Then we looked at music that we could have on the advert, we knew that we wanted to sound of the city the emulate the London Atmosphere so we found some free sound effects off of www.shockwave-sound.com. This would be played on top of the instrumental version of Adele- Hometown Glory , which is on our Lost and Found advert to keep the continuity

We then w started to create a draft script , on Amber request , which is as following:

[noise of the city- horns/ hustle bustle
voice and music simultaneously]:
would you like to win a weekend stay in London for you and one of your friends, with £1000 spending money?
Well you can, with Lost and Found the new fragrances by Patteli, all you need to do is answer this question: ‘Which famous London monument has just celebrated its tenth birthday?
a. The London Eye
b. Big Ben
c. Canary Wharf [repeat all answers]
If you think you know the answer call this number 0208 554 877, thats 0208 554 877, calls will be charged at standard network rate, calls from mobiles vary, please ask bill payers permission before calling,standard terms and conditions apply

For more information visit our website www.cakeradio.com  all entrances must be made by midnight 17th march 2010                                           Good Luck !

We will then show our ideas to Amber so she can give her approval and final say , and state whether she wants any changes to be made.

We then started to create a few mock- up ideas of the web pop-up stating what we wanted to include in it such as

• What websites it will pop-up on eg, Clothing sites , Social Networking sites
• Sound-A perfume spritz
• What photos we will use-Lauren Flicking her hair- be posing behind the tree
• What the pop-up will be advertising-offering a free sample

We also discussed what the advert should d look like, we decided to have the name of the perfume at the top of the pop-up  with a medium close up shot f the actor , that we will take from our Lost and Found advert. The pop up will then have a  hyper link saying ‘free sample’ and a picture of the bottle at the bottom of the screen. We will then pass this these ideas onto Elliott so that he can give his approval.

This week we began to edit our second advert. My self and amber and Kim decided to begin editing as Elliott was in an exam. We followed a similar process as we did with Lost and found. We uploaded are footage, looking through all of the clips , we re-named the clips that we wanted to use to make it easier to find and then discarded all the ones that were not usable.

After this Kim continued sorting out the pre-production for the radio advert, while Amber and I began to Edit the footage we had chosen

As Elliott was in an exam , and myself and Amber we not very experienced with Final cut pro, we decided to create an initial outline of what we wanted to include in our advert  , according to our storyboard, we then added some fades to make the advert flow. Then we included the music that we had previously found ( Florence and the machine-bird song) on top of the advert. What we had created marked the beginning of what we wanted the advert to be, but we thought we would leave the rest for Elliott to edit so that he could give his final decision on what he wanted to include and also to create a more flowing advert as he has had more experience with Final cut pro.

Here are some Photos of what me and Amber began to do :

4/2/10typFor the continuation of editing i was not here . However i was informed of what they had done , so that i could be up-to-date with all the work. Kim informed me that Elliott continued with editing bisous and experimenting with the caption screen after i gave him the photo of the perfume bottle:

I was told that Elliot tried superimposing the bottle onto the footage , however this was unsuccessful. He also experimented with colour , in which they finally settled on a caption screen with a pink background, but when they added it to the footage it looked out of place and so they took it out.

11/2/10

To complete the advert , all we needed to do now was to add a new caption screen as the one the group had previously created was not good enough.  We all suggested the idea of putting the image of the perfume bottle on to a white backround. When we were satisfied with that we experimented with text, first we typed the text using a pink colour , however again we felt it looked odd , so we decided to keep it simply by keeping all the text in black. I then suggested the idea , of putting a small kiss mark next to the ‘Bisous’ text in keeping with the idea of the perfume, the rest of the group liked this idea and we in-coperated it into the caption screen. 

Here are some screen shots of the final video, as you can see the last screen shot is of our final caption screen.

Here is our finished product:

When anaylsing the video i am overal generally happy with it. However i do notice a few important mistakes, Such as when Samantha sits down on the chair it is very dark and goes slightly fuzzy. However in filming we found it very difficult to get the sufficiant amount of lighting we needed for that shot , and at one point thought that we should not include it in the advert. However Elliott said that we needed that in order for the advert to flow , so he tried his best to lighten the shot.  The second mistake i noticed , was not entriely a mistake of filming or editing, but of that of breaking the conventions of the perfume advert. Obviously the advert is to sell the perfume , however it feels that there are more shots of sam applying her make-up , than that of her spraying the perfume. When i saw this during the editing process we tried to find a longer shot of sam spraying the perfume , however we relised that there was not a shot long enough that did not have her laughing in it , so we had to settle for our first choice. Despite these factors it has been a successful task. 

At points we had a hard time trying to make everything flow together and look natural ,and at times they looked jumpy and rough , so to overcome these problems we used fades ( cross fade and dither fade), despite not wanting  to,  to make it look more realistic.We also had a problem with shots being too wide and having unwanted people within the shots , so in order to overcome this problem we had to crop the shots , in a way that we did not stretch the pixels too much , but luckily Elliott managed to do this with success
We tried to use and include a variety of different shots that we had filmed, such as over the shoulder, long shots , medium close ups and establishing shots. Just to demonstrate that know how to experiment and use different angles to create the best possible piece of work. We also tried to use a split screen in the advert, of Ben walking up the stairs , whilst Lauren is walking down the stair of Buckingham palace. With some time we managed to create it , however when we played the advert through we felt that it looked a bit messy and out of place, so we removed it.

In addition we decided to change the saturation of the colour to make it black and white , this made it seem ore sophisticated and less messy as colour seemed to lack professionality.

• Image one: This shows shows the shot of Ben Looking up at lauren at buckingham palace , we knew we wanted to incorporate this shot because in terms of the narrative, it shows that they are close to each other but still not close enough to be together, therefore he is still ‘Lost’ looking for her and she is still waiting to be ‘found’ by him.
• Image two: This shows Looking behind her directly into the camera, demonstrating how she is looking directly at the man, whilst Ben is peering around a tree to find her. We defiantly wanted these to shots in the advert as they were of good quality , however we found it difficult to find a suitable place for it within the advert, so to over come this Elliott changed the opacity of these two shots , and placed them over a the scene where they walk up to the bridge within the main advert, and we were told that it was known as a rack focus. Furthermore one of our class mates said that he could imagine this type of edit in a real perfume advert , which provided us with some positive feed back
• We also suggested taking these two images and using them for the web pop up.
• Image three: This is the establishing shot within the advert showing Westminster station. We wanted to include this to allow the audience to identify that we are in London, making them think that it is a sophisticated perfume.
• Image Four: This shows where Lauren and Ben bump into each other. This was vital to include as it sets up the entire narrative of the advert( he bumps into her , is immediately attracted to her and they chase each other around London)

Once most of the editing had been done, we needed to add the music. Our first choice was Hometown Glory by Adele , however we thought this song would not go with the pace of the advert, and considered several other choices. However when playing the video with the song it actually worked quied well so we decided to stick to our first choice of song.  To add the song onto the clip Elliott converted a youtube clip into MP3 and added it to final cut pro, he then cut out several parts of the song to get the song to flow with the advert.

Furthermore we also required the perfume bottles so that we could take pictures of them  and incorperate them into the advert, so to do this Elliott and Amber went out and bought some perfume bottles from poundland and they also bought some food colouring , so that we could change the colour of our perfume to suit the lables we had created. Once we had dyed the perfume bottles ,Elliott then printed out the labels and stuck them to the bottles.

I then needed to take photos of the perfume bottle, however i did not have an SLR camera to take the photos with. However , luckily our friend James Clothier had his camera on him and offered to take the photos for us , as he is a photography student. So before shooting Elliott made a make shift studio for him by sticking white paper to the wall and floor, i then told James how i would like the photos to be taken.                                                                                        We then uploaded the photos onto the computer and then Elliott added them to the footage.

Here are some of the Photos that James has taken

Once Elliott incorperated the photos into the advert , we had to record  the voice over for the perfume which says ‘lost,found. The new fragrance by patelli’ . To do this elliott and Amber recorded themselves using the microphone off the camera , Which elliott then edited using a sound editing software on the computer.  With this he made His own voice a bit deeper and then ambers slightly higher. We then added it on to the video and rendered the video.

When watching the video as a whole i think it was a very good attempt , despite the unsteady shots and other factors that i have mentioned previously. In addition i do not really like the voice over , it sounds quite strange because Amber’s voice has an unusual echo to it, however it was all we could create with the means we had. Also hearing feed back from friends , they have noticed the same things that let us down , ie the Wonky Shots and the echo in Amber’s voice, however they did say the concept was good , as were the shots we have used in the advert. They also said that the music was very fitting for the tone of the advert.

26/11/09- Filming in London

We decided that we wouldn’t use a college camera , but we would use Kim’s so that we could have access to it at all times to make editing and filming a lot easier  , rather than having to book out and return a college camera, when we needed it. Before Making our way to London , we went to collect a tripod and battery from Andreas, to ensure that we had steady filming, unlike filming we had done in our AS year. Once we had done that we went to the train station were we met up with Lauren, Kim also text Ben to tell him that we were on our way to Westminster as he was making his own way there to meet us.

Once we arrived at Westminster , Lauren got changed into her outfit , we met up with Ben and then went  to our first location, which was the entrance to the train station. We chose a small entrance, in order to help the process of our filming,  because we believed that not many people would be using this entrance , therefore we wouldn’t have to keep stopping and starting. Whilst amber began to set up equipment for the shot we realized that Andreas had not given us the connection to attach  the camera to the tripod. It felt as thought it would be a repeat of last year , where a lot of our shots were shaky , and we knew we wouldn’t be able to achieve the best possible outcome we could have for the advert. Despite this we decided to get on with shooting on stedicam , as we had gone through a lot of trouble to organise it and get actors together. We then experienced problems with the  sunlight in shot causing a glare to go across the screen, so we had to wait a little while for the sun to go behind the clouds. Although  Amber worked around this and we knew we could play around with several clips in editing

We Then went on to our second Location, Which was Horse guards Avenue. We filmed them walking through the arch whilst staring at each other and looking away. At this point there was some tourists in the shot , but we thought this would add a realistic tone to the shot. To show that they can’t find each other in and amongst the crowds.

We then went into St James Park to film the final shot on the story board, where the couple meet on the bridge. We found a perfect spot which was over a lake which a view of the millennium eye in the background. We had gathered a few shots when it began to rain slightly, so we stopped, took a little break , and gave our actors some tea and extra clothing to warm up , considering they were only wearing a suit and a dress. Once the rain had cleared up we went back to the bridge to film the last scene a few more times. We noticed that a rainbow had formed in the direct line of our shot, which we thought would add to the mis-en-scene of the shot, and imply the idea that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which relates to our advert as the boy eventually finds the girl. We are just hoping that we are able to use the shot , as well as obey the continuity rule.

We then went on to film our final few scenes at Buckingham palace. This is where he sees her at the top of the fountain and they stare into each others eyes. This was a success as we were able to do the shot without the interference from tourists. Once we had done this we did a final shot in Green park, were the pair chase each other through the trees. We didn’t spend to long on this as Lauren was getting extremely cold. We finished filming at around 3pm

For each shot it was my Kim’s to brief the actors telling them how we wanted them to behave , she also had to direct the rest of cast and crew to our next location, she also told Amber what was happening in each shot in accordance with the story board and then Amber decided the best camera angle to film it from. Elliott couldn’t preform his assigned job as we didn’t require sound for this, however he did help Amber and worked with her, trying to get the best possible shots we could use. I positioned the actors and told them their cues. Throughout filming we all shared our opinions on how it should have been filmed and how to Incorperate certain famous landmarks in shot, such as the millenium eye. Although we all stuck to our roles we also had our say in other roles to ensure that we all produced a good piece of work.

On Reflection i feel that the day went better than i had expecting , despite the trouble with the tripod and the camera. I feel that the final actors we had were perfect and they suited well together, and the shots we obtained were good enough to make a good quality advert.

Filming of Bisous 5/12/09

Today myself and Kim filmed bisous. Elliott was unable to participate in the filming as he had to work , and Amber had fallen ill, therefore she was unable to come. We knew that it would be fine to go ahead and film without Amber and Elliott , as our actors were avaliable , and Kim also had the storyboards, so as long as we stuck to them it would be fine.

Although Amber is the camera women, Myself and Kim had previously had experience in using the camera when completing our AS media Coursework, also Kim and Amber had discussed all pre-production topics before filming meaning that we knew exaclty how amber wanted it to be filmed   , so that gave us another reason to go ahead with filming. Furthermore , Elliott is in charge of Editing so has more of a role within that area , rather than filming. 

To begin the filming process, I began setting up the room we would be filming in. By positioning the table and mirror we were using and proping up a net curtain by the window that we needed to use for mis-en-scene within the advert. After doing that i began to curl Sam’s hair in preperation, whilst Kim set up the Filming Equipment. 

First we began to Film Sam applying on make-up in the mirror , this had to be done in several takes as Sam kept laughing because she was embarresed of acting whilst i was in the room, so to prevent it from happening again , i stepped out of the room whilst Kim filmed , and returned again when she had stopped filming , in order to discuss the shot etc. The next shot we Filmed was of Sam spraying the perfume on herself, and we shot this scene several times in order to get the perfume bottle from different angles. 

We then needed to film Lewis’s Scene , we had to get him to walk through the door . When filming Lewis walking through the door , we found when looking back on the footage that he kept looking at the camera , so we had to film this scene several times also.  The next few scenes we shot included both Lewis and Sam, were Lewis had to kiss sam on the cheek , then they had to look into eachother’s eyes. This was a bit awkward for the actors as they had only just met and again due to embarresment they both kept laughing,however this was understandable. Despite this we managed to get the shots. 

Again all in all it was another successful filming day, however we did encounter a few problems, such as lighting. We were unable to take lights from college and the natural lighting and the lights in my room were not sufficient enough, however when filming at the right angle we managed to get a decent shot with the right amount of lighting. Another problem we encountered was the restrictions of my room as it prevented us from moving around to gain a variety on shots, but we still managed to obey  to 180 degree rule.

For the lost and found advert we knew that we wanted the girl to wear a cocktail dress and for the guy to be in a suit. Here are some examples of what we are looking for.

Four Bisous We decided that we wanted the man to be getting ready for work , whilst the girl is still in her pajamas putting on her make-up.

Here are examples of what we are looking for:

At lunch time we waited for people to arrive at the auditions however not many people turned up, so thinking quickly we decided that it would be a good idea to go out a recruit people ourselves, so Kim and Hayley Dutton decided to go into the canteen  go up to groups of people who were on their  break, which they found to be a very successful idea, many people said that they would be willing to take part. In total they managed to get 8 auditionees and some friends who offered to help if we couldn’t  find anyone. After Looking the pictures we chose to use Samantha Swingle and Paul Zuna for Bisous  which we intend to film on Saturday 5th December and Lewis Coventry and Clare Holland for Lost and Found however if Lewis cannot do it then Ben Slater and Filiz hassan said they will take on the role instead, we have decided  to film this on wednesday 25th November.

We also decided to upload our photos on to a photo sharing website www.Photobucket.com  meaning that we did not have to upload every photo we have taken on to our blogs.  The photos of our auditonees can be found on the following links

http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions/ (this is where the pictures of auditionees are)

http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu110/cakemedia/

Once we had made our final choice on our actors, Kim texted them saying that they had been chosen , what advert we wanted to use them for and what dates we intended to film.

19/11/09

Since our auditions , not everything has worked out as we had intended on. Once we texted the actors , we found that some simply wouldn’t reply, such as Paul Zuna and others that we had chose said we could not make it, such as Claire. In addition we could not work out a suitable date of filming due to everyone college time table and part-time jobs etc. So to overcome this Kim spoke to our tutor , who said to create a list of the problems we were facing and then as a group come up with suitable solutions to each problem. Our first problem to solve was the date for filming, we thought the best idea would be to film in a media lesson so that all of our group are able to attend. Lewis was one of the only people we had chosen that could actually do the advert for us, Kim texted him asking if he could film in London on a Thursday , but unfortunately he has college so would be unable to make it.  Following this information , we decided to ask our friends who said they would do it if we could not get anyone else. These were Ben Slater and Filiz Hassan , who would both be free on the date we intended on filming, which was good because we also found out that the weather would be good for filming.

For the Bisous advert , we knew that we could rely on Samantha Swingle as she is also one of our friends, but we still needed a male for the advert. Kim then told us that Lewis would be free on Saturdays , which is when we want to film. So we decided that we would use him for the bisous advert instead.

Once we had sorted out all our problems we then wrote down a final plan:

Ben and Filiz would be used for the Lost and Found advert which would be filmed on the 26th of November. Myself, the rest of the group and Filiz will travel to London after college, however Ben will meet us in London as he lives closer to London than he does the college. Lewis and Samantha will be used for the Bisous advert , which will be filmed at my house on the 5th of December. The rest of the crew and Samantha will get to my house via the bus and Lewis will drive to mine once we give him this address.

Despite knowing this information, Kim will still fill out call sheets telling actors were to go , just to clarify everything and to make sure everything goes to plan.

http://ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/london-location-scouting/

On the 5th November the group and i went to London to look at some of the Locations that Amber had researched on the internet. We first looked at areas at Westminster , such as the Millennium Eye, Houses of Parliament and St James park.To gain a more in depth idea of how each area could be used to its full potential.

We knew that these places were what we were looking for , for our perfume advert. We thought we could use the train station for the first shot as it requires a man walking out the train station. We also said that shots 6-10 we could use St James’ park as the advert requires a chase where the male and female hide between the trees.

We then went on to visit Buckingham Palace because as we wanted to use the water fountain and the steps that can be found outside the palace gates, in addition Kim had already incorporated these scenes into the storyboar for shots 10-15.

We also took some practice shots of what type of shots we were going to include in our perfume advert.

This shot would involve the female looking down at the male , as he looks around for her , unaware of where she is.

This shot would involve the man looking up at the woman as she looks away trying not to draw his attention.

While we were at the Palace Amber and Kim spoke the police to see what our filming rights where. The officer said that we would have to obtain a free permit in order to film. So to do this Amber emailed the office explaining what we intended to do, we are still awaiting a reply.

19/11/09

The office still have not replied , so Kim emailed them again , so that we could progress further with our coursework , as it might hinder our filming if we do not obtain this permit.