PG Tips Advert Analysis

Technical aspects of video editing

Technical aspects quiz questions and answers. 

1. What is 16:19 an example of ?
- This is an aspect ration of width by height.
2. What does 1080p refer to ?
- This is the quality of the video (1080p in width and 1920p in height)
3. what does 720:50p mean ?
- This means that it is 720p progressive and is 50FPS,
4. What does P and I mean ?
- P = Progressive, I = interlaced.
5. What is the frame rate of real film ?
- 23.976
6. What is good about a height frame rate ?
- This is good because it can remove blur but also makes the film run smoother.
7. What does lossy mean ?
- Lossy means that the file removes any of the detail that is not needed, but it means that the file size is larger.
8. Name 3 file types...
- MP4, MP3, MOV.
9. What is the difference between a video file type and a codec?
- The file type is the container and the CODEC is how it is contained. 
10. What is bitrate?   

- Bitrate is the rate that the file processes information.

Pre production diary and Preparing material for editing

Pre-Production Diary.

Week 1

Originally we all came up with our own individual ideas of a Unilever product for us to re-brand. After presenting our ideas on 'Prezi' to the class, we got put into groups, mine consisted of Sam Cattee and Sam read, then we started to debate upon who's idea we should use. Eventually we decided on going with Sam Cattee's idea which was to re-brand Marmite. We all seemed to like the idea of Marmite and went with her advert plans. We decided to get started immediately to produce the pre-production paperwork. We worked really hard to make sure that we got it done as high quality as possible and completed quickly before the holidays so we could get started on filming as soon as we get back. After returning from the holiday period we will crack on with the filming and follow are schedule as much as possible.

Week 2

After returning from the holidays we immediately got our equipment together and started filming. As Sam Cattee will not be here on the Thursday and on the Friday we are going to complete all the shots with her in withing the first few days. We followed this plan and successfully completed all of the shots with her in which left me and Sam Read to finish the shots with me in on the Thursday / Friday. We knew we needed to get all the shots done this week as else we would have to finish filming on the Monday which would put us behind on our production schedule. As we finished filming half way through the lessons on Thursday we had time to import them onto the computer for Friday. In this lesson we made a new project and imported the clips that we were going to use and set up the project ready to start the editing on Monday.

Week 3

Sam Cattee was back in the team on the following Monday and so we could start editing the advert properly. Some basic editing like cuts were done by Mondays lessons and with Sam's help we could continue with editing the sequence. Throughout the whole week we completely focused on editing the advert ready to upload for Friday. On the Friday we had nearly finished the entire advert but we experienced problems with the mac we were using and had to copy everything over onto a different one as the computer kept freezing and crashing. This put us behind by a lesson on the schedule but it was nearly finished.

Monday

We had to get cracking as the problem with the Mac put us behind, but we managed to finish touching up the edit to make it look better and smoother like the slogan and the opacity. We then successfully uploaded it to YouTube for the class to see.

Preparing Material For editing. 

Firstly we log onto a Mac using the code 'MediaC' upon a local network. Once logged on we copy the 'Private' folder off the SD card into the local 'Movies' folder.







After this we created a folder called 'Marmite advert' within the movies folder, this is because everything was then together and easy to find. Within his folder we copied and renamed the private folder so we had direct access to our clips. This made the files easy to navigate.

Setting up the project

When setting up our project we had to open up premier pro and then create 'New project', after this we had to set it up to make sure that it matched all of the clips and the settings that we filmed in. Once this is done we could import all of the footage into this new project. We had to set up the project to match the settings from which the clips were recorded in, for example we had to make it in 1080p and 25fps.


We then opened up Premier pro and went 'File' > 'Import' and opened up the folder with our clips within the media browser. This contained footage from that day of filming. These folders are called bins, these are the folders that contain all the footage.








A mistake that we made when importing out files was that everything was in this folder and therefore in the wrong place as the clips and the audio were all mixed and badly organised. So what we did was rearrange all these files and rename them in the location. This meant that we had to re locate the path in order for it to successfully find our clips.

Marmite Advert Evaluation

The Advert

Tv Advert Evaluation

The brief

What was the brief ? 

The brief for our task was to pick a Unilever product and to design and make an advert to re-brand or to aim at a larger or wider audience.

For this advert we decided to use Marmite as our product of choice. My original idea was based on Brut but as a group we discussed our ideas and voted  to base our advert on Marmite. This was because the idea for the Marmite advert was more achievable, better and would be easier to aim at our target audience.

Marmites current target audience is based around adults and parents with younger children. We established this by looking at Marmites past adverts and we could see what the target audience was. Marmites previous adverts were not only targeted at adults but also at parents, I could see this because they did a series of adverts that had Paddington Bear in them eating Marmite sandwiches. After doing some research into the target audience we decided that we should re-brand and aim it at teenagers and young adults. But why ? We did this because we didn't see any advertising that was aimed at our age group,  so we decided on this because we saw a gap in this demographic. 

Product and feedback.

After our advert was finished we had to collect some responses based on peoples views about the advert. How? Originally we had to show our advert to the rest of our class and each person in the audience would fill out a short questionnaire that would identify in both a technical way and for the mise-on-scene what they enjoyed and areas for improvement.  As collecting responses from just class friends was not a wide or broad enough audience we decided to create a survey that we could hand out and distribute to get a broader prospective which would hopefully give us a more reliable and less biased response.

What did we find out?
From these results we could discover what are target audience was, as I created questions that would help identify the people involved such as gender and age. After looking at the results I found out that the majority of the people that viewed my advert were male and that they were aged between 16 and 20 which was the age group for the target audience. These demographics allowed me to see what type of person was viewing the advert, although I got the odd anomaly here or there, the main focus was based around  these age groups.


Was this production appropriate? During pre-production we decided on certain demographics such as age, for example we wanted to target it at teenagers and young adults. After looking at the results and getting responses from peers that are within this age group our overall response showed that it was indeed appropriate and that people liked and enjoyed it. I think that we did get the message across as we kept with the 'love/hate' theme with the Marmite but I think that we could have emphasized some of the points to make the message stronger. All in all I think that the advert made an impact to our target audience but I think that the message could have been made stronger by making some of the technical elements within the advert better, which would lead on to the advert getting a greater/better response.

Analysis
Overall I think that the advert went well but some of the technical elements and the aesthetics of it could have been improved. For example the lighting, dialogue and the editing could have been improved upon. The mise-on-scene within the advert was relatively good, there were only a couple of faults with it, but nothing major. The camera work throughout the production I personally think is very good as we used a large variety of angles distances and movements as we tried to make it characteristic and to flow well. The only thing that could have been improved upon when filming was that we could have used some better equipment, for example a jib could have been used for some of the higher shots and that we should have used the stabilizer for panning shots for example when I tracked from a high to a low shot focusing on the Marmite, this would have made it less shaky and cleaner and so it would have looked better aesthetically.

The editing in the advert could have been improved on but this wasn't possible due to our time frame, the only problems we had during the editing was the lighting and the audio, other than these 2 points the editing segment went well. The reason that the lighting wasn't very good was because it was difficult to keep it the same as we were  filming outside at different times of the day and so the ambient light varied, if we had a larger time frame then we could have filmed at the same time on different days but this wasn't possible to do. The only other thing that was faulty within the advert was that the audio for the dialogue was unclear, this is because we had to record it outside with the camera and so it was low quality and distorted due to it being windy. The only way around this was to film it in the studio but this would have made it sound fake and out of place.

Do I think that the advert was effective? Overall I think that the advert worked well but the effectiveness wasn't as we hoped, even though the advert got a good response I think that the small faults within it put people off.   Although in the results the majority of the people said that it would make them buy Marmite and that it did grab their attention throughout. There was still a minority that said that it didn't persuade them, and also in the survey they said that there were some faults, so I think that these errors changed the effectiveness of the production even though it got a good overall response.  The story line itself worked very well and I am very happy with it, the chase scene all the way to the end contained a good narrative.
The effectiveness of the story line was the reason that people enjoyed it, although the idea was very good it still could have been better. Persuasion techniques are vital in order to get a good response to something like advertisement, this is because they are there to help convince someone that they need or desire the product. Within our advert we used a question 'Which path will you take?' this in itself is a persuasion technique because you are interacting with the audience. Another thing is emotional appeal, although it wasn't very strong, it was still there, this is because we stuck to the 'love and hate' idea between the characters.

The message that we wanted to send across to our target audience is that Marmite is not just for older people and adults but it can also be aimed at teenagers. This is the message that we wanted to send to our audience and so we thought about what us, as teenagers liked in terms of genre. We discovered that horror was a very popular genre within our age group, from this idea we decided that we should make our advert with this theme and so this lead to our idea of us making it fast paced and darkened the opacity of the clips in the editing. Another thing we did with this theme is that we made it so that the Marmite was not revealed till late in the advert and so it was made mysterious for the viewer, we used POV shots in the chase scene of the advert to also add to the horror feel. By using this horror theme we hoped that our age group would engage and relate to it.

Rules and regulations
All in all I think that our advert was fit for purpose and with further post-production it could be close to professional standard. Other than the few faults during production I think that it was very good. Parts of the advert look professional but others bring the quality down. This advert applies to all the advertising regulations and does not break any of the rules within the BCAP code. After looking at the regulations our advert stays clearly within all the rules and does not mislead audiences about anything within the content of the advertisement. After looking at the rulings on both the BCAP and ASA websites our advert is safe and does not compromise any of the regulations. For example after looking at these regulations I searched for viable categories that it may have breached like 'Harm and offence' and 'Misleading advertising'. An example would be '4.1 Advertisements must contain nothing that could cause physical, mental, moral or social harm to persons under the age of 18.' The advert that I created does not breach this rule or any of the others.
On the ASA website I looked at the complaints that have been made about adverts that have 'offended' people. From this I found examples of adverts which never got aired or were removed after complaints from the public.
Lastly I looked at the OFCOM website to look at their overall rulings, once again I did not breach any of the current categories for their rules and regulations.

Personal reflection

Did my advert turn out as expected/how I imagined? Personally I think that our advert mostly went to our pre-production plans and came out more or less as I imagined it to be. I think this is because we planned  efficiently and this effected the quality of our pre-production paper work which I think came out very well and the idea came together as planned. I think the other reason that it came out as I hoped and expected is because we worked very well as a team even though Sam Cattee was not here for two of the days that we were shooting.

Pre production paperwork presentation! from SamCattee

Our story boards were our main consideration as we knew that these were very important in order to make the advert as good as possible and as close to our original idea as we could. During the production of the story boards we went carefully through the idea and created a shot list to make sure that there were no mistakes when making the story boards. Due to our careful planning the storyboards came out very well and I think that this heavily reflected in the final production itself.

Other paperwork that we had to create in order to make our production was a script, recce, talent releases, budget sheet, prop list, risk assessments and a production schedule. All of these pieces were vital in order to make our production happen. For example our recce needed to be carried out in order for us to find a suitable location to film upon, in this instance we decided that we wanted to film in the woods opposite our college. What we had to do was go out on location and take photos to see if it would be suitable for us to film in.

 After we went out on location and took our photos, we realized that it would be a very good place to film in and would match what we imagined it to look like. Even though the location we were going to film at wasn't on college premises we didn't have to contact the police or complete a location release even though it was open to the public. We didn't do this  because we didn't feel that it was necessary to do so as we were out of the way and the area isn't very busy, but also we were not using any fake weaponry or using anything dangerous and so we didn't feel the need to contact them.

After going out on location we decided to fill out our risk assessment, this was vital for our production as we didn't want anyone to get injured and we needed all of our production team to be safe. By doing a risk assessment we were able to take some precautions to prevent anything from happening.
Other things such as talent releases needed to be filled out as both myself and Sam would be in the advert. As I am under 18 I had to get written permission from my parents in order to be a part of the production. On the other hand Sam didn't because she was 18.

Overall I think that the pre-production planning and paperwork reflected strongly on the final outcome, due to this the advert did come out as we hoped and this resulted in positive feedback from our peers and teachers.

Self Evaluation
Personally I think that the advert went well and as I hoped and expected it to be. I think that there is a lot of room for improvement but overall I am happy with both the result and my own involvement within the project. I think that the bits that need to be improved on are some minor continuity errors, but I think that the majority of the faults are in the editing, for example some of the audio is unclear and faulty but also we should have used the ambient light more effectively and consistently within the filming stage of it, this was difficult to keep it consistent as we were filming outdoors and over a period of a week and so the weather changed and because we were filming at different times during the day.  This led on to difficulties when editing as we needed to change the opacity and the brightness of the clips as they were not all the same, furthermore we needed to make them darker anyway to make it suit the slight horror feel to the advert as the darkness connotes the horror. The sound was always going to be a problem as we were filming outside and if we had recorded the audio in the studio it would have sounded fake and would not have worked but due to wind the audio is then made unclear during the sequence, this could have been avoided if we knew how to change the audio settings in detail when editing.

What would I do differently? If we were given the opportunity to remake this advert I would do a couple of things differently. I think up until we started filming everything was perfect, including planning, ideas and paperwork. When we started filming I think that our timescale and planning was good, for example Sam was not going to be here for the last 2 days of shooting and so we did all the shots with her in first. This had an impact on the planning from then onwards as Sam and I had to film the rest of the shots with me in afterwards and this meant jumping around in shots instead of doing them one after another. Furthermore if we were to do it again I would have made sure that we were filming at the same time of day everyday to make sure we didn't have any lighting problems. If we had a large enough time frame to film in I think that we would have done this but as we had only 1 week to film all the shots it made it very difficult to do so as our lesson time that we were filming in was at a different time each day. Another thing is the audio, in this piece the dialogue is very unclear and so this was a problem in the final production. In order to make this work we would have had to wait for a day that wasn't windy and there weren't any outside noises. This is what the problem was with the dialogue in this piece as the wind had distorted the quality of the audio. Lastly something that most people didn't notice in the advert were the props as Sam was running with a piece of toast but this was not made significant within the film. If we were to re-film this then I think that we would include it more as it was meant to have a significance within the advert.

My involvement
I think that throughout the project I had a large input into all of the steps in making the production, all the way through from pre-production to acting, filming, directing and editing I have had an input into the production. I think that if we were to do the project again I don't think that I would change anything as we all put in 100% effort into the production and we all worked very well as a team. Due to there only being 3 people in the entire production team it meant that each person had more than one role in it, for example everyone took part in filming, editing and the pre-production paperwork. This meant that we all worked very well together, the only thing that I would change is to maybe have someone as a leader so that the organisation was slightly better and then we could have someone as director that can control everything instead of it being a little bit of a free-for-all. If we had more members in our film crew then we could assign someone to take lead but due to there being 3 of us this wasn't possible although I think that we all did our best and worked  well as a team to make this production.

Editing Techniques

Introduction to Editing

The early forms of editing started in the late 1800's and early 1900's. When cinematography was invented the film was physically printed, this meant that they would have an individual piece of film for each shot, the only type of editing that they were able to compose was a cut; this is called splicing. In the days when they used film they would literally cut the film in order to combine the different clips together. Film is made up of hundreds of different pictures which are known as frames, these days everything is filmed digitally but originally the film was made up by cameras that rapidly took photographs and imprinted them onto film, by moving this film rapidly it would show the movement of the images. By cutting the film after a certain frame they could then combine the end to the start of another piece. this is where the cut originated from. In the days where all films were still made with physical media but not able to convert digitally there were not many effects that they could use; for example dissolves were made by placing pieces of film over each other and playing with the exposure, this was done in a similar way to how it is done now. An early example   of this would be 'The Phantom Carriage'. By keeping the camera in a single location and using freeze frames they could make the effect of someone / something being semi visible. this is an early version of editors changing the opacity of something. Editing became very much easier as the technology of film turned digital, for example formats such as mp4 are used. This is because now they can simply paste all of the film into software on a computer such as Final cut, Sony Vegas and Premier Pro. Within this software you can apply many different effects and transitions, this is because the digital technology allows you to add; cuts, dissolves, fades and wipes a lot more easily compared to when they had to manually add these transitions. A cut is when two clips are put together with a quick sharp transition. On the other hand dissolves are more complex as the two clips over lap and show both at the same time. Furthermore a wipe is completely different and shows a motion between clips as they slide across the screen, this can be shown in many different ways. Even though most modern films are still filmed with film, editing is made much easier through digitalization. Because of the ability to turn the film digital and apply it into software, editing and digital effects can be enhanced and are easier to do.  My Sequence
This video clip is from a film called Troy - 2004 David Benioff , I chose to use this for my analysis because it has many different camera shots and angles, but also has other techniques that give effect within the sequence. 

At the beginning of the sequence it goes straight from a long shot into a POV of Achilles (0:06). POV is where the camera angle is from the perspective of the character (point of view) and this gives a very good effect because it puts the viewer into the eyes of the character. The POV shot is used continuously between Him and Hector until (0:23).This is then followed up by a sequence of over the shoulder shot reverse shots and POV's until (1:04). The effect that this gives is very good because nearly all the dialogue within this scene is within these shots, it gives a perspective of the characters and puts the audience in their eyes, but also with the shot reverse shot mixed in with eye line matches means that you know that there is tension building between the characters before the fight begins. An eye line match is where a character is looking off screen but then cuts to what he was looking at.  At (1:08) the fight begins, this is made through an establishing long shot, this gives the viewer a sense of perspective and scale but also shows them the area from which they are surrounded. Furthermore identification is used through these camera angles to portray the protagonists in certain ways. The following sequence is very fast paced and has an interesting variety of camera angles, movements and match on actions. For example the first match on action within the fight (1:10) is when they run at each other and Achilles lunges his spear at Hector. Match on actions are used very well within this sequence, the technique of match on actions is used to show the movement or action of something and then it to be carried on into the next shot. It is used so that the audience does not get confused when an action within a scene is made. For example in this scene in the first clip he starts to lunge and in the second he is already in this action.  My favorite match on action is when Achilles runs and jumps at Hector stabbing his shield, close ups, camera movement and match on actions is used in this 3 clip section. This little sequence goes from (1:16) - (1:19), the first shot is a medium shot of Achilles running and then starting his jump at Hector, the following shot is a close up of him mid jump with a slight extension of his arm, this then continues to him lunging at him from a low shot, this shows dominance and power in this as Hector is fighting on the back foot. In this sequence the 180 degree rule is not broken, this is where the camera cannot pass a certain axis in a scene and has to show the same side of the action so that the viewer is not confused. For example Achilles is always in the left of the screen. Camera angles and movements are used well in this section because at the start it is of normal height but during the attack and after in the last shot they have used angles to show Achilles dominance.   During this same fight sequence the 180 degree rule is never broken, although the characters swap sides throughout it is not broken because you can either see them swapping in shot or match on action to them swapping sides, for example at (1:11) the characters swap sides, this is shown in shot, at (1:28) the characters swap sides again in a match on action of Achilles spinning to dodge Hectors spear, this works well because it allows the audience to follow the positioning of them through a match on action. Eye line matches are used frequently throughout the fight sequence, for example every time that a character is looking off screen, they are looking at each other, we know this because the next shot after this is of another character. 

Also Hectors family are looking down from above the walls, these people are looking off screen at the battle this is also an eye line match. For example at (1:14), (1:20), (1:26), (2:03), (2:22), (2:40), (2:48) and many more times throughout this fight scene. This shows that eye line matches are used very frequently within this scene. The best example of an eye line match is at the very end after he kills Hector, his family look down at the devastation, but Achilles only looks up at them once, as he is driving away in his carriage.  Screen time is vital within a scene like this as the main protagonists (Hector and Achilles) have to have the most time on the screen. This is very obvious within this as there are only a handful of shots that contain people that are not the people fighting. Even though Hectors family are important within the story, they are not given very much screen time within the scene, also when they are seen they are always with other people and there are no shots with just one of them on their own. On the other hand Achilles is given the longest screen time, which is very obvious within, this is because he is the main protagonist throughout the entire story.  How do they make the audience infused with Achilles?  Within this scene they use many different techniques in order to get the audience concentrated entirely on him. Shot variation is vital in order to make the audience involved, within this sequence it is done very well. For example; Panning, high, low and tracking shots are all used to get the audience more involved and to be fluent in his movements within the battle. Tracking shots are used frequently within this sequence, mostly these are aimed at Achilles, after each time that he makes a move on Hector Achilles has moved,  in these movements the camera tracks to follow Achilles but not Hector, this shows that they are trying to get the audience to nearly always be focused on Achilles more than Hector. Another thing that is commonly used to show that Achilles is the main protagonist is the use of zoom. 

This shows a medium shot zoom into a close up, this is used to show that he is about to do something dramatic and gets the audience involved and intrigued as to why and makes the viewer think, what is he going to do? This shot shows great importance into the character and identification. This shot is used to physically draw the audience into the character. Lots of different camera angles and shot variations are used to portray Achilles as the main character. Another thing that I noticed is that the shots of Achilles are not just more frequent but also longer which further increases his screen time as the main protagonist. 

Cutaways are also frequently used within the sequence, this is where the camera suddenly cuts away to something else in the scene and away from the main action for a short amount of time before returning back. An example of these cutaways are during the fight scene, on many occasions it has gone from a medium shot of one of the characters to a long shot of the spectators (2:40). This gives great effect and adds to the editing pace and rhythm. but using these cutaways it means that the viewer doesn't forget about the characters watching as they are still very important within the scene, after these cutaways it almost always goes back to the action. These cutaways add rhythm to the editing as it is generally very fast paced for the majority of it as the fight scene is full of match on actions. The use of these slows the chaos of the fighting down and for a few seconds shows Hectors family, but then returns back to the fight.

Audio
Audio and sound is very important within this scene, it starts off with just ambient sound which is naturally occurring noise in the background, this is then overlapped by the dialogue at the beginning, this works well as it creates tension within the scene as all you can hear is them talking along with the sound of the breeze in the background. Followed by this at (1:07) the fight begins, but as soon as this establishing shot comes into view the music starts. The music is a rhythmic drum beat which really works well in order to keep the tension going within the scene, what works the best with the music is how it syncs in with the fighting, every time a move is made a larger drum beat is sounded, this just furthers the tension in the sequence as it mixes well with the sound effects. The final set of music/audio (3:38) is when Achilles hit Hector with his spear and is about to kill him, this change in music makes a big impact on the viewer and makes the audience feel emotional.

Other Techniques - 300

Other techniques that are commonly used for effect in scenes are; Montages, Cross-cutting, Speed and jump cuts. These are added for effect in a scene to get the audience more involved with something for example a main protagonist. To show this I have used a clip from the film 300 - 2006 Zack Snyder, This includes most of the following to give effect to the viewer and to grab their attention.


At the end of this clip (3:46) there is a sequence that contains a lot of different effects and techniques within it. For example the entire last segment is made to look like it is in one take. This is done to look like a very long tracking shot, but it contains a lot of jump cuts, and different zooms. By doing this it makes the audience involved with the scene and grabs their attention throughout. As well as this it has been edited to change the speed and duration of the clip. By doing this and mixing it with the jump cuts to match on actions it emphasizes some of his movements and keeps the viewer involved with the fluidity and the rhythm of the edit. Other techniques such as cross-cutting and montages are not used in either the Troy or the 300 scene.
A montage is used within a scene or sequence to show lots of things happening in a very short amount of time. An example of this would be using a large amount of shots of a variety of different actions or locations and squeezing them into a very short time frame to show that a lot of things have happened over a period of time. An example of this would be in Rocky where it shows a lot of different clips of him training for a fight in a period of a couple of minutes where as in reality it would be about 3 months.
Jump cuts are also used in this sequence. A jump cut is when it cuts between two clips but they have a slight change in shot distance or angle. Jump cuts are used very discretely in this as they are used in the slow motion sequence and have been used to make it look like it was all taken in one shot but after closer inspection you can tell that it is a series of jump cuts. This works very well to great effect
Cross cutting is also known as parallel editing. This is used to show action happening at the same time in two different locations, for example the shot would cut in one scene into another to suggest that these things are happening simultaneously. This quite often happens in battle film as you may have more than one main character and the film wants to show them both fighting at the same time even though they are in completely different locations.

Pre-Production Paperwork

Pre production paperwork presentation! 

Brut Unilever Re-Branding Prezi