Learning Outcome 3 - Evaluation of visual productions
My visual productions during term 2 consists of my NSPCC Promotional advert, my silent film production, my factual production and lastly after effects experimentation. For my NSPCC advertising product, I had to create an advert in which went on any of the following areas in which young people may be going trough. Here are some examples of different subject areas that are putting children and family at risk. These sections are what the NSPCC are there for to prevent.
Me and my group chose the subject area of online predators, we chose this area because a few members of the group have had similar situations with online predators where the person you are talking to online are like cat fish where there are not the person whom they may seem. To start out the project, we had to create mind maps of initial ideas we had at the beginning of the project. After given the brief, we later had to create a storyboard and proposal of our final idea and present our bulk of research we had collected. Making this advertising production has taught me who the NSPCC are and what they do, and most importantly for this production, I have discovered new ways of creating a visual advertising production that reaches out to young children.
From this experience, I learnt just how much paper work goes into creating an advertising production, what adverts aim is and how I have met that aim and what impact this advert will have on its targeted audience.
The paper work included mind maps of initial ideas and further explored ideas, storyboards, scripts, shooting scripts, planning, lists of ideas, spider diagrams of how I wished the product to look and research comparisons between other advertising productions. Looking at how they are conducted, filmed, what makes them a good advert, how mine differs from theres and e.t.c
The adverts aim is to provide a clear understanding of the problem or situation they are facing and a resolution for it in under 2 minutes. An adverts aim is to be short, sweet and straight to the point otherwise the viewer will become bored and no longer interested in what your aim is to provide. The NSPCC usually use a lot of short texts and sentences with big and bold writing to put their point across with what they are trying to say. I think that the audience, genre and purpose of the advertising product has a massive purpose on the product as without knowing those three highlights, you would not have much of a product. The audience determines what language and presentational features the product should have in order for that age range of people to pick up interesting in it, the purpose suggests how it should be lay'd out and conveyed in order to meet the requirements of what you are trying to make, and finally the genre is what type of product it is. How it is put together and how it looks at the end. This should all be studied closely in order to have the perfect outcome. A common occurrence I have found throughout this project is the repeat of statistics and facts as it makes the audience realise just how bad the circumstances are and just how seriously the advert is which should be taken seriously.
What went well and even better if: I really like the script to this production as I believe that it fits the subject area very well. I also liked the variety of shots used that go from one perspective to another showing multiple characters and switch in actions. This conveys a good tone and the viewer does not get lost, it is entertaining throughout while not being too drowning. Sometimes adverts can be too negative and drown out the message. If I were to do this project again, I would record on a more personal level and have interviews while using a boom microphone to record directional sound rather than using recorded sound from the video recorder that is not great quality. Maybe also if I adjusted the filming position slightly as the camera angles was good but was not always up close enough or sometimes you cannot see the characters as the sunlight is blocking them.
My silent film production allowed me to study visuals very closely. It has allowed me to identify just how sound and visuals react with one another and how much of an impact they both really do have. Our silent film production could be on any topic of our choice, only it had to be with no audio at all but had to still make sense. The production was 53 seconds long and was conduct to look like a trailer/advert type of production. This makes the production easier for the audience to understand and know whats happening, especially when there is no audio. As there is no audio, the audience completely realises on the visuals to entertain.
What went well and even better if:
I believe that the best part of this production was the environment and weather conditions. It was a very cold and foggy day which meant I was able to take full advantage and create a mysterious, thriller type trailer which went with the tone and environment in which the film was set in. The black contrasted characters also meant that they stood out from the background as the fog had made the background a white foggy and low opacity tone which meant anything dark and in focus would stand out and appear amongst the fog.
To improve, I would of used a variety of different camera angles and camera movements that may have fitted the scene a little better. I also think that I over edited and over thought about the shots I was using as this made it seem to edited and not natural which I do not like. I would like to do this again and change it up and maybe add in different angles and lots of them to what feels natural for each shot and scene. I feel like if I added more shots and angles then this would have flown better. I also feel that the storyline of the main character being chased is hard to understand what is really going on. I would change up the storyline a little more and make this more entertaining and I would use a stabiliser and a little more time-lapsed and time froze scenes for a nice flowing movement and I would have colour graded and edited this better by making it look natural with a slit jolty movement to show the futuristic thriller look I was going for.
This production taught me how the importance of visuals reflect sound and why even the slightest dialogue, silence, ambient sound or sound effects make the difference to what the audience perceive. I will be taking this project forward as it has taught me the importance of visuals and how the viewer reacts upon every single frame, as the frames are what directs the eye from movement to movement to what they are thinking and feeling. It is truly surprising how a single action or object out of place or out of sync is immediately picked up by the human eye. Because of how much we have in common of films, television programmes, videos and e.t.c we are constantly used to seeing visuals and audio reactions which means the slightest mistake or object out of place, and we will react upon it as we know what everything should look like and how it should be and if it is not like that then the audience will immediately lose interest.
An example of the visuals and audio not matching up is this kids television programme named Violetta. Me and my friends used to hate this programme ever since we was younger as the programme's dialogue is actually Italian which means the english voice over does not sync up with the characters lips or writing. The writing and talking is all Italian which mean not everything matches or syncs together which is very irritating and hard to watch. This example is the same as anything, it may not just be the lip syncing or audio that does not match, but it can be so much as seeing a boom mic or cameras shadow or the productional set up or object out of place. These all have the same outcomes where the audience pick up on these things and instantly lose interest.
The positives to this example is the colour grading and camera shots/movements. I really like the way in which it has been shot as it engages the viewing into what is happening and the conversation and drama conflict between characters. Unfortunately I could not watch this video until the very end as it bored the hell out of me because the lady with the black jacket on was making way too many unease lip movements that made her look very unprofessional. Also the audio not being in sync with the lips also was very annoying therefore I lost interested but I feel that if the audio would have been shot in english and it was synced properly and there was better actors then I feel that the production would have been much more interesting. Lastly the drama is way too over the top and exaggerated. There too many unnecessary arm and body movements that are not natural.
For my Factual Production, I started by observing and taking notes of many different advertising products across the web. I found that many advertising products use narration or dialogue to get there point across to their viewers. Dialogue or narration is a simple yet effective way to deliver you product as it really reals in the viewer to what you may be trying to say. It is not complicated but yet can be so entertaining depending on the way in which you use it. I decided to use the concept of advertising for teenage pregnancy as I believe that it will engage and educate 15-18 year olds the dangers of unprotected sex. This is not a light hearted subject meaning the product needs to be professionalised and user friendly, so that teenagers will be able to understand and take the information from the product and think before their actions.
What went well and even better if:
I was very pleased with the outcome of this product, in fact I believe that this product is one of the best I have done. I do believe that there is lots of room for improvements and that in the future I will be able to look back on this product and have a lot of self criticism, but at this current moment I believe I have done very well. Looking back on some of the other products I have made throughout my first two terms on this course, this product shows me that I have came a long way from where I first started off. This product makes me feel this way due to the professionalism and simplicity standard that the product stands on. It was very easy to create and no other software except premiere pro was needed in the editing process of the advertisement. I believe the planning and thought process that I had gone through to get to this outcome of the product was built upon in great depth to have this as a final outcome for my project.
My favourite points about the product is the simple bold text to convey emotion and information, and the backing music. For the backing music, I used to tracks. One track was the song 'This woman's work' by Kate Bush, the other track was the same song but the instrumental only so that when the interviewee has stopped talking and there is text on the screen, the original song with words will play and when the interviewee is talking then the instrumental will play so that the words does not cut out what she is trying to say.
To improve, I will expand my knowledge on how advertisements work and the ingredients in which they involve to become successful and professional looking. To do this, I will be watching much more advertisements, shows, films, trailers and products in the media to see there outcome exactly and think how they made it, what must have gone through there mind to create it, looking behind the scenes at how exactly it was done and what the director and cast has to say. finding out more information about create that product and how they could of improved... these are the sort of questions I will be asking myself to develop a further understanding of how my product should look in its own unique way.
This product helped my development within my Factual Production as I found the NSPCC adverts to have a very clear understanding for the audience, a lot of visuals to construct the pain and emotion and text or dialogue which suggests whats going on. This makes the information stick into your mind. I also like the constant backing song for the advert as it shows the depth and emotion to the product. It makes the audience take the product seriously and be aware of the consequences that may occur to the actions. I believe that watching these adverts have advanced my knowledge and understanding as it has allowed me to see how to make the audience listen and take your product in without it being ignored. It allowed me to see how a professional product is layed out and how I could use dialogue and text to convey meaning without it looking childish. This along side many other products along the same wave lengths have given a big boost into this project as I am a visual learner and seeing how the outcome should roughly look, helped me to create my own in the same sense of advertisement.
For my after effects experimentation, I watched Youtube tutorials which showed me the basics of after effects and what you could possibly create. They show you step by step tutorials in which is how you create a cool looking logo, video, effect and outcome for your project. You can use text and motion tracking, animation, logo animation or dissolving effects and anything you could possibly think of. The tutorials really gave me a head start on after effects as I was able to create cool looking effects, transitions, products and advanced video work. After effects teaches you a lot as it is one of the last software programs you would use when creating a product. It gives the finishing touches and visual effects needed to create your animation scene.
These two videos are one of the first tutorials I watched for after effects as they require no extra plug-ins or advanced knowledge for after effects. They are broken down in simple and easy steps for anyone to follow even if you have next to no knowledge on after effects. They are logo animations that you could create with text or your very own logo introduction and outro. I really like these effects as it gives me a insight into particles and smoke particles showing how they work. I was aloud to see how Youtuber's make they're intro and outros for there videos and how I could manipulate this to make it my own. After applying this knowledge to the text, I think my own production using this technique, worked very well. I was very pleased with it as I had never really used after effects before-hand. To improve I will pick out more advanced tutorials such as the third one shown below.
This third tutorial is much more advanced as it is slightly 3D, using more colour and lighting, smoke and using its very own text effect. This may be something I wish to follow in the future once I have practiced more with the basics.
What have I learnt from the experience and what will I be taking forward?
I have learnt the meaning and concept ingredients within my visual productions. The experience of creating my own independent productions and productions within a group has expanded my knowledge on how products look like within the media, what they contain and what mood they convey. This meant that I was able to see the layout and look of the outcome products within the media and manipulate them to my very own devices. From this experience, I will be taking forward the knowledge and understanding of what the media will be looking for within your own product. This means how someone within the public may be looking at you product and what information they my take from it. I will be taking forward the beginning skill I have gained, the experience and knowledge of what the media is looking for and how I can meet the medias recommendations. For the future, I will be developing my ability and knowledge but as of yet, I have gained a solid understanding of what the media is looking for within every product I make.
In conclusion, My visual productions have taught me what the visuals mean within a production. The audio and the visuals are just as important as each other but without the visuals, you would just ave a track which means nothing to the viewer as they are not being directed to look from one character or place to another. Therefore they would not feel as if they are in the story because they would not be able to easily visualise the story.
