A2 Media Studies G324 Advanced Portfolio: Evaluation

Seema Chumber

Most of my concepts for my media products came from watching a multitude of real-life media texts. The chosen theme of my project was chocolate adverts which are aimed pre-dominantly towards the female audience, for example companies such as ‘Galaxy’, ‘Maltesers’ and many more that use a similar sort of atmosphere to the one constructed in my adverts.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The mise en scene interpreted into chocolate adverts tend to include props you would find in a home setting such as sofas, a TV, a lamp, remote, candles etc. this can be seen in this particular advert by ‘Maltesers’ this is to create a soothing and relaxing feeling, which the advertisers are trying to get across with the audience so they can relate to it as, being in a realistic setting/location and not in a unrealistic location such as in a fiction chocolate factory as shown in this advert by ‘Kinder Surprise’ . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pJFIz1Dvbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdSNamSH4Wg

Furthermore, costume is effective in creating a sense of comfort in chocolate adverts, for instance in a particular ‘Cadburys' advert they use a gorilla costume this is to make the advert stand out, and to portray that chocolate adverts are entertaining, and can be more than just a female wearing casual clothing and consuming a chocolate. For example the actress/actor wears a pair of jeans and a top, chocolate adverts tend to hide away from anything too fancy because they want the main focus to be on the chocolate and not so much on the clothing, actress etc. Nevertheless this is a common convention used in many chocolate adverts so companies such as ’Cadburys’ tries to challenge conventions and uses its creativity to make their adverts stand out . Therefore this challenges the conventions of a chocolate advert. However, in this case my adverts do not challenge the conventions of real media products, because two out of four of the adverts produced from my group ,utilise costuming in a particular way to make our adverts realistic , therefore we used formal clothing e.g. shirts, tops, cardigans, skirts, trousers etc. In essence this can be seen as using the conventions from real media products, an example where causal clothes are being worn in an advert is this ‘Mars’ advert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=J1dLPbvz3h0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQerSQE4MXk

On the other hand, colour is just as important as costuming ‘Cadburys’ uses the reoccurring colour theme of purple, whereas ‘Galaxy’ normally uses dark shades such as browns and blacks the purpose of this is to make a connection between the product and the theme i.e. ‘Galaxy’ chocolate is a brown, milk chocolate, these factors all take part in making an advert memorable and effective to the audience. Similarly, in all our adverts we had a few recurring themes and one of them was colour, we used dark shades such as brown, black, burgundy etc. throughout all of our ads whether it be through clothing, the title page, props etc., this was done in order to make our adverts memorable to an audience and to relate the theme to the product with milk chocolate being brown. Purple

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=ion8qyu2Z4M&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=J1dLPbvz3h0

Nevertheless, music takes a vital role in making an advert stand out, the typical upbeat sound is continuously used in most chocolate adverts for example drum beats in the ‘Cadburys’ gorilla advert and the matrix style music in the ‘Toblerone’ advert we can see that they are trying to convey that chocolate gives you energy and confidence. However, my group challenged this convention by using a more subtle tone of music –a smooth jazz style of music similarly to the ones used in adverts such as ‘Galaxy’. The intention of this was to portray that chocolate brings you relaxation and entices a feeling of content. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4e7LzrXUU http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=J1dLPbvz3h0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3QBVZdVvAI

In addition lighting is essential in the production of any advert, lighting expresses the tone of the advert, low key lighting suggests a serious advert such as a charity plea advert or high key lighting which suggest it is supposed to be a light-hearted tone such as a crisps advert such as ‘Walkers’ advert .Therefore, we developed this into our media products in particular in advert one and two we had high-key lighting, the purpose of this feature was to grab the audience’s attention and to express ‘Signature’ (our chocolate bar) as a chocolate that brings an uplifting mood and can brighten your day. However, in our sponsorship we adapted the lighting from low-key lighting to high-key lighting this to show an explicit change in mood from when the main actor is cleaning, and then as she spots the chocolate her mood is uplifted, an example of this effect can be seen in this advert by ‘Galaxy’. On the other hand, this is not always the case; low key lighting can also be used to show relaxation in the night time e.g. in this advert by ‘Galaxy’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua55IcxithE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TbDZWF4Cjk

Nevertheless, we aimed to challenge the conventions of using expensive and posh looking locations such as in ‘Ferrero Rocher’ – there is a recurrence of posh and expensive looking locations such as palaces or mansions .Therefore we chose to use a house setting, we used two house locations and a restaurant setting in our adverts. This was to create variance in our adverts and to make them more eye catching and memorable. Location is also key in reference to time and space in which we have to film, in advert one and the sponsorship we used two different houses, and advert two was in a restaurant, this allowed us to be more flexible in filming varied shot types and angles. Moreover, we were able to move around freely in these locations e.g. we did not cause a disturbance to others or be disturbed ourselves, this was avoided by organising a time in which there was only the people in my group or other actors who were around at the time of filming. In essence this helped us to make the product and the advertising an easy concept to understand for the audience, as we did not have any disruptions such as the public making a noise or other interruptions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-nZZkQqTc

Evidentially, we efficiently used our time and used our pre-made storyboards and scripts to make the filming a logical sequence. In addition it was a bonus that we filmed all of our adverts indoors, this was very beneficial with working in a time limit as we were able to avoid the winter weather’s, if we had opted for an outdoor setting this would be a difficult task. Moreover this widened our range for mise-en-scene in particular costuming and props, we were able to expand on our imagination by using props such as, tea cups, trays etc. whereas most chocolate adverts are simplistic and minimal props are used for example Cadbury’s adverts are quite simple e.g. using a gorilla costume and drum kits, these factors all take part in making an advert memorable and effective.

Moving on, in relation to camera movements, we somewhat challenged and also used conventions of a typical advert, in particular chocolate adverts as a whole tend to be limited in shot types, and restrict themselves to a couple of shots and angles for example in this ‘T-Mobile' advert, mostly medium and high angle shots are used. In all our adverts we tried to get as many shot distances, close ups, big close ups, wide shots etc. to vary our shot types, this was to show the importance of the actress(s) and to make the story flow in a logical order which is clear to the audience for example we would use an over the shoulder shot to show that the actress is watching T.V and another example is the reaction when she finds the chocolate, this is done by back and forth shots between the revealing of the chocolate and the excitement shown through close-ups. A variety of shot types keep the audience attracted to the product and give a clear message of why ‘Signature’ is a great product. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM

Although there are some adverts such as ‘Maltesers’ adverts that contain an adequate amount of dialogue e.g. couple of women having a chat and then the music/voiceovers come on, some adverts such as 'Cadburys’ tend to use minimal /non - diegetic sounds in their adverts, they usually have non -diegetic sounds such as soundtrack and voiceovers running constantly through the advert. Therefore we challenged this convention, by using dialogue(diegetic) and also a voiceover and music (non-diegetic)across our adverts. This was to create a realistic scene which the audience could relate to, whereas if we had used only one type of sound it would make our adverts boring and dull, avoiding this factor made our adverts unique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGYMMsPg_ME http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMScmr4Bqtg