Analysing The Influence of Genre

THEINFLUENCE OF GENRE

WILLIAM BEECHING

WHAT IS GENRE?“GENRE IS A WAY OF CATEGORIZING FILMS, MUSIC ETC INTO GROUPS, BY FOLLOWING A SET OF CODES AND CONVENTIONS THAT ARE PRESENT WITHIN EACH GENRE. GENRE IS A FORM OF CLASSIFICATION FOR ART FORMS”

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THE BRIEF &MY REACTION

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MAIDSTONE MUSEUM IS LOOKING TO PUT ON A NEW EXHIBITION ON THE HISTORY AND INFLUENCE OF GENRE. THEY HAVE EMPLOYED YOU TO PUT WORK TOGETHER AS PART OF THIS EXHIBITION AS WELL AS CONTRIBUTING TO THE MARKETING OF THE MUSEUM ON THEIR WEBSITE.

Task to break down:- Research into two genres- Select on of these genres as a group- Plan for two products within this genre- Select one of this products- Produce this product- Set up exhibition at Maidstone Museum- As a group produce a virtual tour video for the museum’s website- Host the exhibitions opening evening

My initial reaction to this project was shock. This was a momentous task and immediately I started to plan how this exhibition was going to be produced.

Recently I had visited a BBC Doctor Who exhibition in Newcastle, this was the type of exhibition that I wanted to produce, many of the set ups and displays that they had, I wanted to recreate.

Whilst receiving the brief I wrote down what I thought were the most important variables that I needed to consider, they were:

- Time Management- Health & Safety- Marketing Strategies- Sponsorship- Budget- Target Market- Interactive

My initial ideas were to either create a smaller, yet effective Doctor Who exhibition or a exhibition about music.

For this project we were tasked to research into four genre’s and then choose two, that we would follow up with in-depth research into. From these two we would then decide which to exhibit.

Since the beginning of the course we had been studying;

- Science Fiction- Documentaries

I decided to use these as a starting point as well as choosing to investigate;

- Advertising- Pop Music

It can be argued that Documentaries and Advertising cannot be classed as a genre in their own rights, but I believe that Documentaries have genre’s within the piece as the content and theme of the documentary can define the genre.

Advertising is a more tricky topic as many advertising styles come from the current social situation.

Advertising is about keeping up-to-date with the audience and appealing to them. By these laws adverts that are say from the 70’s will not be as effective nowadays as they were back when they were made.

I also think that advertising is a genre, because it has it’s own style, different to other mediums. It can also contain ‘traditional’ genres such as comedy or romance into it, depending on the desired impact on the viewer.

RESEARCH INTOGENRE’S

SCIENCE FICTION AS A GENRE IS RELATIVELY EASY TO DEFINE, THERE ARE MANY CONVENTIONS PRESENT WITHIN THE SCIENCE FICTION

GENRE THAT ENABLE PEOPLE TO DIFFERENTIATE IT FROM MOST OTHER GENRES.

Some of the most easily distinguishable features of a Science Fiction film are;

- Generally set in the future- High focus on technology

- Creative- Lack of sub-genres

Whilst exploring the Science Fiction genre, we had taken a look at Utopia and Utopian Society.

After researching Utopia, and the Utopian concepts we were tasked with creating a future city for a

new Science Fiction film, this could be completed by using either photography of graphic design. I

chose to use graphic design and using Photoshop created a contrast between a calm and peaceful

city scene to a fiery, fierce skyline.

I felt that this portrayed Utopia well as there are many different ideas on how people perceive

utopia as it is very subjective. This can be seen on the next page.

We also researched into 2 films, The Invasion of the body Snatchers and District 9. This shows how

although both are Science Fiction films and both have aliens, they are by no means the same type

of film.

This is where science fictions suffers an issue with classification, it can host such a broad selection of

films that when you compare 2 together, they are by no means the same.

Documentaries, was also an area covered by our course. We looked at many documentaries, all with

different styles and directors.

We looked at classics like Cathy Come Home on to Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. This gave us a

huge variety in style and characteristics.

Whilst Cathy Come Home was staged as more of a TV show and the meaning behind it was subtle

throughout the piece, Fahrenheit 9/11’s meaning was prominent throughout. The ‘in your face’ style of Moore showed that he felt very personally about

the topic that he was presenting.

Documentaries are not always considered as a genre. Although many believe that they should be,

Documentaries have styles and conventions I.e. The way in which the message is presented and the effect that it has on the viewer. People may argue that documentaries follow the ‘general’

conventions that are present such as interviews etc.

But I believe that if this is the case, surely Science Fiction and Fantasy are the same?

This is not the case as there are many small details that define the differences between these

two genre’s, they are not the same but they are similar.

Whilst Science Fiction is styled on futuristic, scientific advances, Fantasy is based on magic and

more supernatural.


RESEARCHCONTINUED...

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EVERYONE LISTENS TO MUSIC, BUT EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT TASTES. GENRE IS USED WITHIN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY TO DIVIDE MUSIC IN TO CATEGORIES BASED ON SIMILARITIES FOUND IN THE PIECE OF MUSIC.

The genre of a piece of music is usually dictated by the instruments used, this allows people to find music that is similar to the songs that they already like.

I chose to look at pop music as this is one of the most common genre’s within the music industry.

Pop music stands for Popular Music (Ironic isn’t it!) this is one of the most listened to music and is usually found the charts such as the Top 40 or iTunes’ most downloaded.

Radio stations such as Heart FM tend to play this style of music, as it can gain the interest of a vast variety of people. Pop Music could also have many other ‘traditional’ genre’s within it, popular music can contain styles such as country/rap/classical etc.

This means that technically Pop Music isn’t actually a genre, because it can contain many of the other genre’s of music.

Although, people may argue that there is indeed a certain style that the general public listen to and that it is a genre in itself.

Whilst looking at genre’s to research I noticed that my colleague was looking into advertising and whether it was actually a genre.

I found this quite intriguing and begun my own investigation into the advertising ‘genre’

After much research I found out that advertising did indeed have certain styles that could only be

explained and categorized into genre’s.

Advertising has been around for years, and is the way that you can present a product, service etc to people. Without advertising the chances of people finding your product is little to none.

As a genre advertising is a difficult topic as it can be extremely subjective, advertising has to as up-to-date as possible even to the point of predicting the next trend.

Each advertising concept has to appeal to the general public at that particular point in time. This is usually why you don’t see an advertising campaign last more than around 3 months without being changed.

There are many characteristics that are present in films that are also in advertising, such as a advert could be comical or science fiction based.

This would void it’s chance of being viewed as a genre if it were not for the fact that there are conventions visible in advertising that are not in any other mediums. The fact that advertising has to stay as up-to-date as possible is vaguely in films but not to the same degree.

MY IDEAS& THOUGHTS

FOR MY PROJECT, I WANTED TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT WE WERE EXPECTED TO DO. SOME OF MY INITIAL IDEAS WERE EXTREMELY

RADICAL; SOME INCLUDING HAVING MOVING PROSTHETICS AND ROBOTICS.

For my project, I wanted to push the boundaries of what we were expected to do. Some of my initial ideas were extremely radical; some including having moving prosthetics and robotics.

After my initial reactions I thought that I should do some more thinking that was more down to earth. This is where I was struggling to find a topic that would allow me to meet the specifications and push my creative ability. After some thought I came up with my initial topic as pop music. I chose pop music, as I felt that this would be an easily marketable genre.

Pop music is one of the most listened to genres of music all over the world. The general public mainly listen to this type of music as it is played on many different radio stations and there are music charts surrounding it.

After some research on pop music I looked at how I could exhibit this genre by using a cross-media approach and came up with the idea of a music video that could be played in the museum with information and leaflets displayed around it.

I felt that many people would be able to relate to this genre and this would draw many visitors into the exhibition. I also looked at Science Fiction as I felt that this was also a very marketable genre, science fiction is watched by millions and appeals to a variety of audiences.

Television programmes like Doctor Who are watched by family’s and generations alike. Also in our lessons leading up to our project we had been exploring the Science Fiction genre so I was extremely familiar with it.

As part of our project we had to individually present our ideas to Simon Lace the Maidstone Museum Director.

This was part of an initial consultation process to make sure that our ideas were going to fit in with the museum and there weren’t going to be any major problems with feasibility and resources etc.

I presented two slideshow’s to Simon Lace and both of them were overseen by our Creative & Media teachers. My first presentation was on Pop Music and the other was on Science Fiction.

I felt that Simon responded well to my presentations and the general feedback was good. The major problems that Simon presented were the Copyright issues surrounding both of my ideas.

For Pop Music I faced the problem of having to use copyright music, I did not feel that I would be able to create a piece of music myself, so there was no other way in which that I could create a music video based on this.

The issue surrounding Science Fiction is that I wanted to use Doctor Who as the theme and I was later to find the BBC are extremely protective over the Doctor Who franchise as it is so successful.

Simon said that the museum could be able to exhibit pop music as they can buy a license which allows them to play copyrighted music.

Although, Simon also mentioned that as this is a school project as well as a exhibition in a Non-Profit organization so there may not actually be a issue concerning the copyright.


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REFLECTION& FEEDBACK

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THE PURPOSE OF MY PRESENTATION WAS TO PRESENT MY IDEAS TO THE MUSEUM COORDINATOR SIMON LACE. THE PRESENTATION WAS DESIGNED TO SHOW MY IDEAS AND WHY I FELT THAT I SHOULD EXHIBIT THEM IN THE MUSEUM.

Also taken into consideration was how effective was the type of genre going to be to the audience and who the target market was.

I felt that my Science Fiction topic of Doctor Who was a good overall choice, as I felt that lots of families would be attracted to the museum as many younger children would like to see that exhibition. The marketing of the topic would also be quite easy as you do not have to go into detail as to what Doctor Who is about, as most people know what it is.

My other idea that I pitched was Pop music. I felt that this was a very marketable genre, as many people listen to main stream music such as Heart FM and I felt that a lot of people would be interested to know how pop music started and where it originated from.

My presentation received good feedback, the issue of copyright was presented to me about both topics. Mainly to Doctor Who as Simon felt that the copyright surrounding it was held with the BBC. Acquiring copyright would be a huge task and I felt that I would spend more time trying to get the copyright than concentrating on the final product.

Copyright was also an issue with the music, although Simon said that it may not be a problem as this is a school project, and also for a non-profit organization.

During my last holiday I had visited a Doctor Who exhibition in Newcastle, which I thought was fantastic. This inspired me to do this myself. Unfortunately I hit many boundaries and constrictions concerning copyright law.

After contacting the Doctor Who exhibition company, they were not able to give me any contact details at the BBC, and they only recommended using the BBC Doctor Who FAQ page, which had a contact form on. I realized that this would be a momentous task without having any details of how to contact the BBC using any other method than the standard person.

Also, after speaking to other people and having a brief discussion with Simon Lace the museum’s coordinator, the task of contacting the BBC and obtaining copyright allowances would be a bigger task than the project as a whole.Persevering with the idea of Doctor Who, I then thought about how to make my idea original but still draw in the wide audience that would be attracted to Doctor Who. I considered the idea of creating a spin off short film, as an homage to Doctor Who.

This short film would aim to be comical whilst also still showing respect for one of the BBC’s proudest television shows.

I would have to be careful when making this short film, as the content would have to be viewable by all ages and would need to be able to recreate some Doctor Who effects but not plagiarize completely.

Pop Music

After choosing pop music as a one of my feasible options, I decided to think up some concepts as to what I could create in the form of a product for this exhibition.

First IdeaMy first idea was to create a music video to a well-known piece of pop music, this would be displayed on a television in the museum and would most likely need headphones attached as to not irritate the museum staff.

Second IdeaI also thought about creating my own piece of pop music, following the styles that are visible in the pop genre. This concept would only require a mp3 player of CD player to exhibit the work, and this could be accompanied by a leaflet or board/poster explaining the product.


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As you can see from my e-mail’s with the Doctor Who Exhibitions team, it wasn’t

possible to get an e-mail address of someone at the BBC as the Doctor Who

Exhibitions are a separate company from the BBC.

I had my heart set on Doctor Who for a while, until I went back to the drawing

board and started from scratch. I looked on the Internet about what a genre is and in what medium etc. I also discussed the

predicament with my family members and one of them suggested that I should look at advertising as a genre in itself. At first I was apprehensive to this idea, but with some more brief research on You Tube I

realized how much opportunity there was in this concept.


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RESEARCHING &ADVERTISING

ADVERTS HAVE SHAPED TV CULTURE AND MANY PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER ADVERTS FROM THEIR CHILDHOOD AND THROUGHOUT

THEIR LIFE.

Many people are interested in reminiscing adverts from their childhood, and I believe that if I looked at iconic TV adverts like the ‘Shake N Vac’ advert from the 1970’s.

I thought of creating an analytical film of how advertising has changed through the ages and how it has shaped society. Advertising has the ability to promote a service, product, information and even lifestyles.

If you look at the Apple Corporation, their concept of their adverts is extremely simple. But the thought process behind them in huge. They produce a product and then create a niche market for them, which makes people feel as if they need one of their products.

This has been hugely successful and they have sold thousands of products and will probably continue to use the same advertising strategy for years to come.

Advertising is about making an impact on the viewer, and how the advert can manipulate the viewer into thinking along the same lines as the advert creators.

A lot of advertising on TV is frivolous, adverts such as the Compare the Market advert using Meerkats as the main character. There are many of these adverts telling the story of this Meerkat ‘Alexander’ the viewer feels sorry for this character as he tells how his family has endured great struggles in the past.

Many people would see this as an extravagant advert, but this shows how the advert is successful. The advert pokes fun at their own site by playing on the words of comparethemarket.com and making another site called comparethemeerkat.com this site actually gets more than the intended site.

After deciding on the topic of TV advertising I took the decision to work with my friend Edward Craddock, because we had similar ideas and tastes in what we wanted to do.

Originally we were going to create a sequence of adverts that we felt defined each decade, we would then have intervals between decades where either Edward or myself would analyse each decade.After some more though we chose to create our own adverts in the style of each decade, this would provide us with a lot more room for creativity.

To go with our adverts that we make would be our advert montage of all our adverts that we picked out from each decade, along with custom interval clips. Most of our research on the adverts has been through using You Tube and suggestions from friends and family. Some others have been researched on the internet and magazines.


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MONTAGE &IDENTS

AFTER PUTTING ALL OUR ADVERTS TOGETHER WE DECIDED THAT WE NEEDED TO SEPARATE OUR ADVERTS UP INTO EACH DECADE AND HAVE SOME SORT OF INTERVALS TO INFORM THE VIEWER OF WHICH DECADE

OF ADVERTS THEY ARE WATCHING.

We tried to make the intervals in the style of the decade they were portraying and use music that was released around that time. These adverts

were included in our montage piece and fitted into a piece nicely. The transitions between the clips were straight cuts which suited the montage as we felt that more extravagant transitions would be out of placed in our

montage.

Most of the clips were made using particle generators and templates in Apple’s Motion program.


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IDEAS &PLANNING

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OUR INITIAL IDEA, WAS TO CREATE A MONTAGE OF ADVERTS FROM EACH DECADE STARTING FROM THE 60’S. WE CHOSE TO START FROM THE SIXTIES BECAUSE WE FELT THAT FINDING ADVERTS IN DIGITAL FORMAT FROM THE 50’S WOULD BE A HUGE TASK IN ITSELF.

So, starting from the sixties we decided to complete some research on the internet and with friends and families asking what sort of adverts they remember from when they were younger and/ or more recently.

We wanted our montage to be a sort of nostalgia and allow people to reminisce.

Our analysis between each decade would be to explore how the adverts have changed from one decade to another. We felt this would interest the viewer as it would explain why the changes have occurred and how adverts are always up to date and are based on the current social climate.

After consultation and idea developing with our tutor, the concept of creating our own adverts in the style of each decade was put to us.

We really liked this concept and started to look at the adverts we had started to use in our original montage. This gave us an insight into the style of each decade and we created a list of traits that appeared in each one.

After our research into the traits we started to outline our initial ideas for scripts and storyboards. Ed and I decided to work on different parts for different adverts as this gave us both clear views as to who did what.

Our initial aim for this concept was to create adverts that didn’t require a high level of CGI. This applies especially to the 2000-2011 adverts as they require a whole host of CGI and green screen shots which neither Ed or myself have the abilities for.

The first American television advert was broadcast on the 1st of July 1941. This advert cost $9 and was an advert for the watchmaker Bulova.

The first television advert in the UK was on the 21st September 1955 for Gibbs SR Toothpaste.

Up until the 1990’s TV advertising had only been available to large companies as they had the money to pay for them.

Nowadays many companies are able to make adverts on their home computers that are able to be broadcast on local cable TV stations.

The current record for an advertising slot is quoted at being £250,000 for a 30 second advert during the 2010 Britain’s Got Talent show.On the following pages there are mind maps explaining how we came to the decision of choosing a trainer to advertise.

We looked at a variety of products including contemporary designs to create a modern feel to our adverts.

We looked at revolutionary products such as the Apple iPhone and 3D Televisions. We felt that these products could create a juxtaposition in our adverts as products such as these were not around in say the 1960’s.

In the end we chose to go for a more simple approach with a trainer, this was originally meant to be a brandless white trainer, but to save costs we choose to sell a shoe shop such as “Schuh” this gave us a lot of room for change a much more varied choice of advertising styles.


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EXHIBITIONRESEARCH

ORIGINALLY MY IDEA FOR THE ACTUAL DISPLAY OF THE PRODUCT WAS TO MIMIC THE DOCTOR WHO EXHIBITION. I FOUND THAT THE DOCTOR

WHO EXHIBITION WAS EXTREMELY INTERESTING AND THE DISPLAY OF INFORMATION WAS PROFESSIONAL AND SIMPLE. USING LARGE

DISPLAYS OF INFORMATION FITTED THE SCIENCE FICTION FEEL, THERE WERE ALSO LOTS OF LIGHTS AND ANIMATRONICS.

After typing in exhibition into Google Images a photograph of a Nintendo exhibition came up, I really took to this concept and the simplicity of the design. There are a few large format televisions, metal stands and eye catching colours. This style became the new epitome of what I was looking to create.

Ed and I spoke to Simon Lace about a week after presenting our genre concepts about using a television in the museum. He said that the museum was able to provide the Hitachi television that was already present in the cafe area.

We also researched into the exhibitions on display in the top London Museum’s, we spend more time looking at the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum as we felt they were more relevant to our product than an art gallery.

The main concept’s behind most exhibition was clean and simple, this allowed the viewer to feel inclined to read the information presented on the boards.


ORIGINALSKETCHES

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THIS IS HOW I FIRST ENVISAGED THE EXHIBITION TO LOOK FROM A FRONT ON VIEW, THIS WAS MAJORITY BASED ON THE NINTENDO EXHIBITION, WITH THE LARGE SCREEN TELEVISIONS AND LARGE BOARDS BEHIND EACH TELEVISION.


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CHOOSING THEPRODUCT

SO. THE PRODUCT THAT WE HAVE CHOSEN TO BE EXHIBITED WAS A SET OF ADVERTS CREATED BY MYSELF AND EDWARD CRADDOCK. THESE

ADVERTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CREATED IN THE STYLE OF EACH DECADE.

Points that we have to take into consideration are;

• Technological Aspects o What type of film was it filmed on o How far had CGI been integrated into advertising o How far had basic animation been included o Was it colour? o Picture quality• Ideologies o Traditional values concerning men and women • Men working and earning money • Women staying at home and looking after house and children • Men being more important than women • How did these values change across decades?• On camera o Scripts o Basic storylines – do they fit in with current morals and ideologies? o Are there subjects to be avoided? o How do you appeal to your target audience? • What age range are your target audience • What other adverts are there similar to your products • What is the competition?

We had to look at what product we would be advertising. Originally we started to explore current products such as an iPhone or a 3D Television that we could advertise, the problem with this is that we would be constricted as to what we could create as they would already have a style of advertising.

The reason we looked at current products was because we found it intriguing how a revolutionary product such as an iPhone could be advertised in say the 1960’s styles, i.e. product appearing on screen with logo and jingle.

After drawing mind map diagrams we chose to advertise white trainers. We felt that this would be a good product to advertise as they would have no brand and we would be able to create our own, this gave us much more freedom and we would be able to create our own ‘style’ of advertising campaign.

Currently we are looking at creating 6 adverts. Each styles in the form of each decade ranging from the 60’s up till the 2010+

We want each advert to capture the essence of each decade, and incorporate it’s style and conventions. This would allow the viewer to reminisce from when they were younger, and form a sense of nostalgia.

We chose to focus our adverts on the brand soles which we have created for this exhibition. The brand soles is supposed to be a shop like Schuh where it sells different brands of shoes but still retains it’s quality, which is one of the aspects that we want to push in our adverts.

The adverts that we create are needed to show how advertising has changed over the years and easily distinguishable to an outside viewer as to what decade the advert is from.

A montage of past adverts will be shown after our adverts, this will give the viewer a better experience as they would be able to converse with other people about whether they remember adverts etc.


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SCRIPTS &STORYBOARDS

Sixties Advert Script

At the Park with SOLES

Kid and mum are out at a park. Child wants to go play but he doesn’t have his new shoes on.

Child: Can I go play mum?

Mum: Not without your new shoes!

Child puts the shoes on and runs off

Mum: As a mother I want my child to feel safe and comfortable. That’s why I bought him the new SOLES shoes. With its “…ADLIB…” – use

descriptions about how the shoe is perfect for the child’s needs

Product shoes on screen accompanied by jingle and slogan


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Seventies Advert Script

Version One

What if trainers didn’t exist?

Man running through a parkClose up of his shoes, suddenly a ting noise and

his shoes disappear

Man stops and looks around for his shoes

Voiceover: Jim needed shoes that won’t let him down and he could rely on, SOLES shoes will go

for 400 miles before they wear out with their new extra grip soles.

Man picks up brand new trainers from a shoebox at the side of the path

Voiceover: Now with “Feature of the shoe” Jim’s shoes will never let him down again. You can throw

away those old ones away now Jim.

Man beams

Man: It’s all I need!

Wife tuts behind him

Version Two

Look the ‘Business’

Two men meet, first man looks at the shoes of the other man

Man One: What shoes are they?

Man Two: They are SOLES shoes!

Both men walk off, man one looks impressed.

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Eighties Advert Script

Man’s Best Friend?

Man walks out of house and slams the door. He leans back on the door and sighs.

He starts walking down the street throwing away his valuables.

He removes his watch/bracelet, his sunglasses, coat and ring.

He then goes to throw away his shoes but can’t.

He puts them on again and keeps walking.

Voiceover/ Text on screen

“SOLES Trainers won’t give up on you…. Even when everything else does.”

Camera pans up to stay with logo with man walking away into sunset.

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Noughties Advert Script

Colour is Beauty

Camera pans looking through window

Suddenly coloured water shoots at the window, orchestral music playing.

Many different colours shooting straight at the window, different shots around building with focus

on colour spectrum

Some focus on colours pouring into drains, ends with droplets of water falling in front of camera.

Message on screen; “Colour is beauty”

That’s why every trainer is colour matched to your choice, and water resistant to keep your feet dry.

Logo appears on screen with tag line.


Teens Advert ScriptWhat Do our Customers Think About Soles Shoes?

Even though there are actors within this advert there was no use of a script. Actors were told to ad

lib their monologues completely.

The only guideline, however, was to praise the shoes – this was simply for the purpose of the

advert.

CAST &CHARACTERS

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OUR CHOICE OF CHARACTERS WAS CAREFULLY CONSIDERED, AND WE BELIEVE THAT OUR CAST FITTED OUR BRIEF FOR CHARACTERS ALMOST PERFECTLY.

1960’s

The Mother - Should be around middle age and preferably with a motherly look - Should be seen as a positive character and someone that can be trusted. - Although she is promoting something, she needs to portray that she genuinely has faith in the product.

Young Boy - Any believable age, preferably still quite young, around 8-12 years old to ensure that he would still be in the care of his mother when they go out - No outstanding features that could relate him to the decade in which it was being filmed.

Casting;

Eileen Lewis and James Hall

We chose the actors as they were very easy to contact and direct. We had faith that they would play their part well and portray the feel of the advert that we required.

1970’s

Version 1

• Typical runner• Male in early twenties • Business man on his day of maybe marathon runner

Version 2

• Business men• Wearing suits and looking presentable

Ed Craddock and William Beeching

We decided to use ourselves in our piece as we knew exactly how we wanted this advert to look, also we were struggling to find a suitable character for Version 1 of our advert.

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CAST &CHARACTERS

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OUR CHOICE OF CHARACTERS WAS CAREFULLY CONSIDERED, AND WE BELIEVE THAT OUR CAST FITTED OUR BRIEF FOR CHARACTERS ALMOST PERFECTLY.

1980’s

The Despairing Man• Early twenties• Relaxed and blasé type person

Simon Thomas

Originally in our concept for our piece we wanted to use Simon as our actor as we had seen his previous clips in which he had acted. Unfortunately when the day of filming arrived, we had time constraints and we hadn’t had time to familiarise ourselves with our scripts as much as we wanted.

William Beeching

After Simon had to leave we decided to re-shoot using myself, we felt he was dressed appropriately and fitted most of the casting qualities. Also it was easier as I knew the script already and was familiar with the advert concept.

90’S REQUIRED NO SCRIPT AS FROM THE START THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A COMPUTER GENERATED ADVERT.

THE FIRST CONCEPT FOR OUR ADVERT DID NOT REQUIRE ANY FORM OF CASTING AS IT WAS MAINLY EXPECTED TO BE DONE USING WATER AND

BUILDINGS.

THE SECOND CONCEPT FOR OUR ADVERT ALSO DID NOT REQUIRE ANY FORM OF CASTING AS IT WAS COMPLETELY DIGITALLY GENERATED

2010

We needed around 3 people to complete this advert, we had no set requirements for these characters apart from;• No specific features• Main emphasis on being as genuine as possible• Everyday clothes• No make up or styling

Our Chosen Characters;

Jonny WarmanJonny agreed to filming himself on webcam for us promoting our shoes, we felt his clip was extremely supportive of our campaign and exactly the material we required for this advert.

Laura TaylorLaura also agreed to help with our campaign, she filmed a clip that we felt many people would be able to relate to easily.

Ed CraddockEd produced a few clips of himself holding hand drawn signs of smiley faces and the words ‘Thanks Soles’ this we felt was suitable as a ‘cheeky’ shot at the end of the advert.

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PROPS &COSTUMES

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WE HAD TO DETERMINE WHAT PROPS WE NEEDED FOR EACH DECADE OF OUR ADVERTS, WE FOUND THAT SOME ADVERTS PROVED MORE CHALLENGING THAN OTHERS.

The 1960’s

Costumes;

We required the costumes to be as traditional as possible, although we weren’t able to incorporate clothing that was of typical 60’s dress, we strived to make the advert ‘feel’ like a sixties advert through the costumes and also through the effects that we added in post-production.

The Mother;

No blatant contemporary styles or connotations - Coat - Scarf

The Child;

Neutral clothing, standard trousers with either jumper or shirt on. Satchel.

Shoes;

Brandless white trainers with sixties feel, although this may be hard to portray, as finding shoes from the sixties may prove difficult.

CONTINUED...

The 1970’s

Costumes;

For our first version of our advert with a runner, we needed clothing that a typical runner would wear.

For our second version of our advert we found that both Ed and I wearing suits portrayed a seventies feel especially when the saturation and other effects were added.

Runner;

- Standard cotton running shorts - Cotton polo shirt - Possible sweatband

Shoes;

Sports shoes with rubber sole, similar to previous advert.

Businessmen;

- Typical smart suits - Clean and tidy, no obvious style trends

Shoes; - Not Applicable as will not be in shot


PROPS &COSTUMES

42

WE HAD TO DETERMINE WHAT PROPS WE NEEDED FOR EACH DECADE OF OUR ADVERTS, WE FOUND THAT SOME ADVERTS PROVED MORE CHALLENGING THAN OTHERS.

The 1980’s

Costumes;

We needed this advert to epitomise the 80’s styles, although some of the 80’s feel could be added in during post production we needed the costumes to look just right.

Man;

- Denim Jacket, popular during this decade - Denim Jeans

Shoes;

Basketball/ Baseball shoes, as these were popular shoes during this decade, we chose to use Converse One Star which was one of the brands that we wanted to promote under Soles.

Props

- Sunglasses - Jewellery - Watch

1990’s

This advert required no costumes or props as this was completely digitally generated.

2000’s

The first concept for our advert did not require any costumes, but could have required props such as a hose, buckets of water etc as it was mainly expected to be done using water and buildings.

The second concept for our advert also did not require any form of casting as it was completely computer generated.

2010<

Due to this advert being filmed by the actors themselves, we didn’t have any specific requirements in terms of costumes and props, however we did ask them to dress sensibly and in non-offensive clothing.

SETTINGS & LOCATIONS


LOCATIONS WERE VERY IMPORTANT TO THESE SET OF ADVERTS AS THEY NEEDED TO PORTRAY A FEELING THAT THEY WERE FILMED IN THE DECADE CHOSEN, THIS PROVED A CHALLENGING TASK WHICH

REQUIRED A LOT OF THOUGHT A PRIOR PLANNING.

These were the two locations that we thought of for filming the 1960’s advert, in the end our choice cam down to feasibility and timescale. We were able to film one of the teachers in school, on the school playing field (Top Picture) we also had access to other students if we needed them for this advert.

If we hadn’t been constrained by time, we would have most likely chosen to use Mote Park as our setting, mainly because it is a more scenic location than the school grounds.

For our 1970’s advert, we had originally pictured a part of Mote Park around areas of cafe’s and playgrounds for the running shoot. It is a popular running spot and is a calm setting with a park atmosphere.

As our concept for this advert changed we decided to change the location to fit the concept better, as this new concept was based upon the Ben Sherman advert we wanted to have it out in the open and around brickwork.

We found a suitable location on the school grounds which was deserted when lessons are in progress so this was a perfect location for the advert.

Locations; These locations were chosen by both myself and Edward Craddock. We needed locations that were both familiar to myself and Edward.

CONTINUED...

44

SETTINGS AND LOCATIONS

Originally I had an idea in my head as to how I wanted the setting to look. I had taken the concept devised by Ed and thought about where to film, we needed a old-looking terrace and I immediately thought of Church Street (Bottom Image) in Maidstone.

This was agreed by Ed and we decided to use this as our location. On the day of filming we were planning to use Church Street, but unfortunately when we looked at angles and space around the properties we concluded that we weren’t able to get the type of shot that we had originally pictured.

After some walking around with the camera and looking around this area, we found a almost perfect locations on Marsham Street (Top Image) adjacent to Church Street. We found a house along this road. No 37 and knocked on the door and asked for permission as to whether we could film outside their house. Our request was granted and this was our main setting along with the junction on Church Street (Bottom Image) for the ending shot.

1990’s

This advert required setting or location as this was completely digitally generated.

2000’s

For the first concept of our advert we were planning to use the Maidstone Grammar School canteen as our location, although we moved away from this idea once we decided to digitalise the advert.

The second concept for our advert also did not require any form of casting as it was completely computer generated.

2010<

Due to this advert being filmed by the actors themselves, we asked them to film themselves in their own home where they felt most comfortable and we felt would produce the most ‘genuine’ testimonial.

CREATING THEBRAND

IT WAS IMPORTANT TO OUR PROJECT THAT WE CREATED A BRAND FOR OUR SHOES. WE CHOSE ‘SOLES’ AS IT SEEMED A FITTING NAME FOR THE

SHOES.

We knew the kind of brand we were promoting was ideally supposed to be a shoe shop like “Schuh” but we wanted a similar style logo to the K-Swiss shield.

On the right-hand side is the logo that I came up with, the logo was made of 2 different size shields with revered gradients one inside of the other.

The metal effect on the inside similar to a metallic grill was a texture I create of black circles on white. The outer of the grill then had a inner shadow applied around the edges to give the impression that the grill is indented into the shield.

Lastly an ‘S’ representing the Soles brand was added with a inner shadow and a slight white glow . Lastly a background was added in for framing and then a reflection over the top of the image with a low opacity.


46


48

Introduction


IDENTSWe decided that we needed to include some

short clips (idents) to breakup our adverts so that there was a clear difference between

each decade. But also to allow our piece as a whole to flow, this meant that instead of

simple cuts from advert to advert there were small clips with the decade name.

Our first ident to introduce our whole piece was based upon the DCM Cinema

Advertising ident, that is played in cinemas before films, this promotes advertising in cinema’s. Our clip also includes to music

from their original ident.


HEALTH& SAFETY

66

WHEN SETTING UP OUR EXHIBITION WE HAD TO CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE HEALTH & SAFETY IMPLICATIONS THAT WOULD BE PRESENT

When we were planning how our exhibition was going to look we had to consider what risks it could pose to us setting it up, and to the public when it was in running.

My group consisted of myself and Ed Craddock.

Our equipment consisted of; - 50” Hitachi Plasma Television - 1 Glass Cabinet - 2 Pop Up Banners - 1 Curve Stand - 1 Dell Tower Unit - 1 Cambridge Audio Amplifier - Assortment of cables for connections - 2 Over-Ear Headphones - Extention Lead

Safety when Setting Up

Television; - This will need to be moved on several occasions throughout the day, the television is attached to a base with four wheels. The wheels have clamps to stop the television from moving once positioned.

Precautions;

- When moving the televisions remember to take the brakes off the wheels and move it hold the pole protruding from the base with both hands and ensure there are two people moving the television at any one time, as this item is extremely heavy and could injury to the person and damage to the museum property.

- The television also has cables protruding from the stand, these could pose as a tripping risk. So make sure when moving that the television is unplugged and not turned on.

- The television base has four legs reaching out from the stand, make sure that the stand is tucked away underneath the glass cabinet to minimise chance of anyone tripping.

- The television stand is around the height of both myself and Ed, so make sure that when moving it we both know which direction the television is being moved in, to avoid head injuries.

Glass Cabinet;

- This also has to be moved and repositioned throughout the day, this cabinet is extremely heavy and has hydraulic opening mechanisms.

Precautions;

- When moving cabinet, make sure it is locked shut and you always use 2 or more people to lift, to prevent against back injury.

- When closing an opening the cabinet, be mindful of people’s fingers getting caught in the gap, this can cause serious injury to anyones fingers.

Pop Up Banners and Curve Stand;

- These banners are moderately tall and consist of multiple parts which without the appropriate care can cause injury.

Precautions;

- When erecting use 2 people, to make sure that one is holding the base, whilst the other slots the pole into the top frame. This will minimise the risk of the banner moving whilst being set up.

CONTINUED...

- When dismantling the banner, make sure you take out the support pole and dismantle this too. This will ensure that there is no threat of the pole accidentally hitting anyone.

- When setting up the stand make sure to have a large open space as it is relatively big, also make sure that no fingers are caught in the hinges as this can cause injury to fingers.

- When dismantling the stand make sure to be mindful of others around you and always dismantle before transporting.

Dell Tower Unit;

This tower is moderately heavy and can cause electric shock if used incorrectly.

Precautions;

- Make sure when moving, to unplug all cables and to turn the machine off before hand.

Amplifier;

- Same precautions as Tower Unit

Assortment of Cables and Extention Lead;

These wires can pose a tripping hazard to anyone around them so certain precautions should be taken.

Precautions;

- Ensure that all cables are tucked away

and behind the stand as this will reduce the risk to any passers by.

- Ensure that there is some slack in the cables so if they are knocked or pulled they won’t cause the whole exhibit to fall over.

- Make sure that you do not touch any bare connections if the other end is plugged into a machine or device. This should eliminate the risk of a electric shock.

Headphones;

These headphones can cause a tripping hazard and an electrical hazard if used in the incorrect manner.

Precautions;

- Ensure that the headphone jack is fully inserted into the computer or splitter, this should ensure there is no chance of an electrical hazard or loss of sound.

- Make sure the cables are tidied away from around the exhibit, to prevent tripping but make sure that is still a small amount of slack so people can still pick the headphones up and use them for the desired use.

When setting up the exhibition each member of staff from our school will have been trained for first aid skills, and should be able to administer CPR if required.


HEALTH& SAFETY

68

PAT TESTING OR PORTABLE APPLIANCE TESTING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF ANY HEALTH & SAFETY POLICY. THIS SITE IS INTENDED AS A GUIDE TO BOTH THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS AND TO THE TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS.

The Health & Safety Executive states that 25% of all reportable electrical accidents involve portable appliances. The Electricity at Work Regulations place a legal responsibility on employers, employees and self-employed persons to comply with the provisions of the regulations and take reasonably practicable steps to ensure that no danger results from the use of such equipment. This in effect requires the implementation of a systematic and regular program of maintenance, inspection and testing. The Health & Safety at Work Act (1974) places such an obligation in the following circumstances:

1. Where appliances are used by employees.2. Where the public may use appliances in establishments such as hospitals, schools, hotels, shops etc.3. Where appliances are supplied or hired.4. Where appliances are repaired or serviced.The level of inspection and testing required is dependant upon the risk of the appliance becoming faulty, which is in turn dependant upon the type of appliance, the nature of its use and the environment in which it is used.

According to these rules we would require these instances of equipment PAT tested;

- Television - Amplifier - Tower Unit

As the television and tower unit had already been present in the museum they had been PAT tested prior to our exhibition. The amplifier was provided by Maidstone Grammar School which has an obligation to PAT test all of it’s equipment so this too, was also PAT tested.

Fire Hazards

In the event of a fire, the museum should already provide appropriate fire fighting equipment I.e. A Fire extinguisher and an appropriate fire evacuation procedure.

The museum staff will have also been trained to deal with a fire and have designated people to deal with certain aspects of a fire situation. Such as;

- Fire evacuation strategy;- Action on discovering a fire;- Action on hearing the fire alarm;- Calling the fire brigade;- Power/process isolation;- Identification of key escape routes;- Fire wardens/marshals;- Places of assembly and roll call;- Fire fighting equipment provided;- Training required;- Personal Emergence Evacuation Plan.- Liaison with emergency services;

EXHIBITINFORMATION

TO GO ALONGSIDE OUR ADVERTS WE ALSO PROVIDED MATERIAL FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO READ, TO GIVE AN INSIGHT INTO OUR

PROJECT AND THE CHANGING WORLD OF ADVERTISING.

The 1960’s

In the 1960s advertising tended to be solely focused around the product. It also tended to portray family life and values with ideologies of the working male, household wife. From a technological aspect everything was still in black and white and computer graphics integration was very low, or non-existent. Many ads ended with an image of the product on screen accompanied by plain text to really enforce the image and brand.

Our initial idea was to create an advert that stuck to traditional views and ideologies, for instance the mother taking her child to the park. We wanted to instill the notion of family life and depict genuine advertising of the shoe and brand.

We focused on portraying the brand and product in a very explicit way. We made sure the shoe was in direct focus when the child pulled them from his bag and held the frame to re-enforce the look of the shoe. Having the mother talk about the product – explaining the benefits of the product fitted in well with the conventions of 1960s advertising and we felt the addressing to the camera helped give the audience a connection to the mother.

The 1970’s

Advertising in the 1970s hadn’t moved along a great deal in comparison to the 1960s. Technology was, however, improving and allowed for colour adverts to be broadcast. Ideologies surrounding men and women still stuck, but were less prominent.

Our concept was to set up an everyday situation and integrate our brand into it, establishing the brand as a common household name. We wanted to have the brand incorporated in the short ad, in some way.

The ad was inspired by an old Ben Sherman advert – we looked to follow in its footsteps.

The advert is similar to the 1960’s advert as the brand placement is blatant; many modern day adverts are tending to focus on more abstract visuals so sometimes you don’t know what the advert is for until the end. So the meaning of the modern adverts is implicit whereas the retro adverts are explicit.

The 1980’s

We initially based this advert on the famous 1988 Volkswagen Golf advert starring Paula Hamilton. The concept behind the advert was that the shoes were valued above all other possessions.

As he was walking out of the house, the meaning of why he was leaving was ambiguous. This left it up to the viewer to piece together the narrative.

Adverts produced around the 1980’s started to move away from explicit adverts and started to include a mini-soap style storyline. This engaged the viewer with the drama of the piece; these adverts were popular as they provided a small sense of escapism as audiences were able to emphasize and bond with the protagonist this convention is used in television series like sitcoms and soaps.

When producing the advert we took inspiration from many previous adverts and tried to recreate their style of advert. You can see this in the over-saturated colours, style of dress and the use of pop-culture music. Music was starting to play a bigger part in the advertising industry from around the 80’s. Many pieces of music were released at the same time as the advert and grew in popularity because of one another.


CONTINUED...

70

The 1990’s

During the 90’s many advertising companies were tending to go with their own style of advertising. We found this decade hard to mimic, as there was no continuing trends throughout that decade.

After watching a Sony Vega advert that was released in the late 90’s we were inspired to produce a similar advert. The Sony advert was a timeline of clips and famous events and how the inventions of the TV had affected people’s lives.

Our idea was to create an advert with a timeline of commercials that people could relate to from when they were children. We wanted to emphasise the theme of change and show how our business had changed over the decades too.

We included complex computer graphics in this advert to show the progression of technology, and how adverts were always kept up to date and contemporary. Lights rays and particle dissolvers were used to give a more modern feel whilst the timeline of adverts looked like it was being displayed on an old TV, this juxtaposition emphasised the narrative – ‘from the old to the new’.

The 2000’s (The Noughties)

Adverts from the noughties decade tended to revolve around technique and process rather than product and brand; however the techniques used would soon become associated with the brands.

There was a heavy focus on CGI and ‘WOW’ factor, as within this decade it was about out-doing and outspending the competition in the form of adverts – everything had already been done before

The concept for this ad was to focus on the choice of music being the gripping feature and the generated graphics as our impressive feature. We kept it simple, short and emotive. This connection to the music was heavily used in the noughties – for example the Sony Bravia ‘Bouncing Balls’ advert with accompanied music from Jose Gonzales, however within this advert the balls themselves contained no link to television, the vibrant colours was a link to the technology Sony was advertising.

This abstract element came through in our piece by our use of the idea that particles, used to create the shoe, which dispersed and disappeared, represented how shoes have a finite lifespan but our brand ‘SOLES’ is here to stay.

In 2010 (The Teens)

Nowadays many advertising companies spend millions designing and producing adverts to sell products. Adverts have come much more about integrating film clips and then adding CGI over the top of them. Take the Virgin Atlantic advert for instance. This advert has thousands of special effects, and the advert isn’t selling their prices or features, they are trying to sell a brand/ lifestyle.

Our initial idea to create an advert was to incorporate lots of computer generated graphics and this to be the main selling point. After further thought we decided that this was a lot less ‘genuine’ compared to an advert like the original confused.com adverts that used webcam clips that had been uploaded by users and then put into their advert. The clips were testimonials of what their customers thought about their services. We chose to use webcam clips of young people talking about their shoes; this advert came across a lot more positively than an impersonal computer generated advert.

Compared to the noughties the 2010+ adverts have changed a great deal, in the noughties advertising companies were always trying to outdo each other. In the end this turned out impossible as everyone can do the same thing depending on how much money is put into it. 2010 adverts are now more about making an impact and gaining the trust of the viewer. The Barclays advert is a very good example of this as it is very genuine and trustable as the narrator has a well-known voice and quite colloquial, the advert also isn’t trying to do too much to impress the audience. Genre and Advertising

Genre; ‘A set of protocols – or conventions – a piece of work, be it prose, music or moving image media, must follow in order to be classified under one of the categories – in this case a type of genre- for instance the Romance genre, or the Comedy genre.

SETTING UPTHE EXHIBITION

WE HAD TO GO THROUGH A VARIETY OF PROCESSES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF OUR EXHIBITION AND PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Genre in Advertising

Every advert takes influence from the world around it. Be it from a film, from music or from literature. Each advert has characteristics that are present in other media, this is how advertising is an umbrella for every type of persuasive media and text. Each advert pulls in techniques and classifications from genres relevant to the adverts narrative and uses them to create an almost movie like piece.

This poster was produced by our group as a whole. The ‘G’ was produced by Harry Valentine, the ‘E’ was produced by myself, the ‘N’ was produced by Sam Shaw, the ‘R’ was produced by Abbie McCarthy and finally the last ‘E’ was produced by Ed Craddock.


EXHIBITIONADVERTISING

72

WE NEEDED TO PROMOTE THE EXHIBITION AROUND MAIDSTONE GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN THE MUSEUM AND AROUND MAIDSTONE, AS A GROUP WE PRODUCED A POSTER WITH ‘GENRE’ TO ADVERTISE OUR OPENING NIGHT

This poster was produced by myself with a critique from the rest of the group and this was the final version, I produced some other posters (one shown below) which we chose not to use as we felt that this fitted our exhibition more so.

MY‘E’

THIS WAS MY LETTER FROM THE GROUP COLLABORATION POSTER. THIS WAS MADE USING A SIMPLE PAINT SPLAT AND A TEXT MASK.


CONTACTINGHEART FM

74

AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THESE EMAILS I SENT EMAILS TO HEART FM AND MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL TO TRY AND PROMOTE OUR EXHIBITION.

I emailed Heart to try and get our exhibition on their news page. The email to Maidstone Borough Council was asking whether information about our exhibition could be displayed on their digital sign in the high street.

I received no reply to either of these emails.

Ed Craddock and I visited the Kent Messenger Newspaper office in Maidstone to ask whether a photographer could be sent round on the opening night to take pictures and have the exhibition in the paper. A reporter took down our details but unfortunately no reporter turned up to the exhibition opening.

We asked the local Sainsburys to display one of the posters on their information board, they agreed and it was put up almost instantly.

We tried phoning the Maidstone Mayor’s office, but his personal assistant was unable to get through to him at the time, and asked us to ring back. By

the next day we felt that it was too short notice to ask him to visit, so we decided not to contact him again.

Another route that we tried to take was advertising in the local Mall on their plasma television screens, but unfortunately they told us that it would be around £300 and we felt that this was far too expensive.

THE GENREWEBSITE

THIS IS THE WEBSITE THAT I CREATED FOR THE CREATIVE & MEDIA EXHIBITION, THIS WAS MADE IN FLASH AND WAS SET UP TO PROMOTE THE EXHIBITION AND PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION.


SETTING UPTHE EXHIBIT

76

PRIOR TO OUR EXHIBITION ED AND I VISITED THE MUSEUM TO ENSURE THAT WE HAD ALL THE CORRECT EQUIPMENT THAT WOULD FIT THE HITACHI TELEVISION IN THE MUSEUM.

We had numerous problems with this television as it turned out in fact not to be a television but actually was a monitor.

The fittings on the back were for a BNC connection which is a relatively old connection for a flat screen. We bought a few adapters to try can convert it from a RGB and Composite into a BNC. None of the methods we tried worked, and we were starting to lose hope.

Then one of the museum staff said that they’d had the television working before but they had used a computer to drive it, she also said that they still had the computer and there was a possibility of us being able to use it.

They found the computer for us we connected it via the VGA connection and it instantly connected to the television and powered on. We then inserted our DVD into the computer and it played it perfectly.

Shown right was how Ed and I left our exhibit on the 17th March 2011 the day before the museum set up day. The majority of our exhibit was finished, all that remained to do was; - Place information in display case - Put up banners - Set up Amplifier and speakers - Finalise location


EXHIBITBANNERS

78

THESE WERE THE TWO BANNERS THAT WE HAD PRINTED FOR THIS EXHIBITION, THEY WERE AROUND 2M HIGH BY AROUND 70CM WIDE. THESE WERE ORDERED FROM A SELLER NAMED CLOISTER DIGITAL ON AUCTION SITE EBAY.

We paid £35 for each banner, we were originally going to buy two banners for ourselves one with advertising written on, and the other the same SOLES with the soles shield on it.

Instead we ordered two banners, one with the Creative & Media Diploma on and the other with SOLES.

We felt that having these pop-up banners framed our piece well and made it look a lot more professional than just the TV and cabinet by itself.

We ordered these banners online, and they arrived the next day within 14 hours, so this was one of the stress-free experiences of our project.

The banners, came out at an amazing quality, although it did take us some time setting it out right and sending them the correct format for printing.

Surprisingly one of the hardest tasks doing these banners was acquiring a high resolution copy of the Maidstone Grammar School logo which it seemed that no one had a copy of. In the end we found a black and white version of the original scan of the logo, and recoloured it ourselves using the school colours and rendering it.

This ended up working well, and the result was immaculate.

SET-UPDAY

THIS SECTION EXPLAINS HOW THE SET UP WENT, WHAT PROBLEMS OCCURRED AND THE OUT COME OF THE OPENING NIGHT

When we arrived on the day, Ed and I had already set up the majority of our exhibit, the main parts of our exhibit I.e. TV and curve stand had all been erected.

We helped the rest of our group bring their materials in from the mini bus, and then set about setting up our banners.

The banners went up without a glitch and looked stunning, we then set about connecting the amplifier, which turned out quite easy.

We did converse about the amplifier, as to whether it would be needed etc. We decided that it would be a useful asset, as when there are a large number of people watching our exhibit, two headphone’s wouldn’t suffice.

After all this was set up we set out our information in the glass cabinet, we had to make sure that this was perfect as this was going to be on display to the general public, we had small wooden blocks made to support the canvas boards holding the information on.

We made sure we cleaned the cabinet and ensured that it was all spotless before closing it again, otherwise it would have looked extremely unprofessional.

By this time, our whole exhibit was in essence set up, our next task was to buy the food for the opening evening.

We bought the majority of our food from Tesco and Poundland, this was mainly biscuits, juice and snacks.


CONTINUED...

80

Our teacher then spoke to us about whether our montage of adverts should be included on the DVD or not, at the time we had included it to provide the audience with a sort of nostalgia.

Our tutor felt that the montage took the emphasis away from our own adverts, which isn’t what we wanted to do. I was quite set on keeping the montage in as I wanted our piece to have the nostalgia effect, but in hindsight I realise that it would have taken the focus away from our adverts.

We burned a new DVD without the montage on, and set it on a loop so that the DVD would play continuously.

Also, we set up the computer so that everytime it started up it automatically played the DVD that was in the drive, and automatically logged on. This proved harder than we expected as the museum did not know the administrator password, so they had to call in their IT support team. After that we set it all up and it worked perfectly.

We also wrote a set of instructions so that the museum staff knew what do if anything went wrong when they turned it on everyday.

When it got to 4PM we were getting a worried that no one had turned up, we were quite disappointed, but knew that this was down to our last minute advertising - or lack of it.

A few people turned up, teachers and parents mainly, we then presented our work to them (pictures on following pages) they then had a chance to look around the exhibits and ask questions about them or the way that we produced them.

We felt that the feedback was generally positive and we hoped that they were impressed with out exhibit.

After Care

Over the few weeks of the exhibition we’ve been asked to fix certain parts of our exhibit, although when we’ve gone down their the exhibit seems to be in perfect working order, and they said they got it to work.

Also, we were asked to move our exhibition for the Easter season as they needed the space for kids activities.

We sorted this out and dismantled the curve stand, although we kept the backing sheet to keep the framing still.


MYEVALUATION

84

WE SET OUT TO CREATE A MUSEUM EXHIBITION AT MAIDSTONE MUSEUM, THE EXHIBITION WAS SUPPOSED TO EXPLORE INFLUENCE OF GENRE. I BELIEVE THAT I ACHIEVED THIS THROUGH A SET OF ADVERTS BASED IN THE STYLE OF EACH DECADE.

I looked at how advertising could be seen a genre in itself, as I believe that there is a genre in advertising, although advertising strongly mirrors the trends in modern culture of that time.

When starting out on our project we had to look at whether our choice in genre is appropriate for exhibiting to the general public. We had to find the balance of pushing our creative boundaries whilst in turn still creating a product which would capture the attention of the public.

Originally my initial idea of Science Fiction I felt would be a marketable genre, this was because it had the ‘all round’ appeal, simply because it is present so much in many films, books and other mediums. It invites the viewer to look deeper as it has a mysterious feel to it.

Ed and myself felt that many of the characteristics that made Science Fiction so encapsulating and exciting is present in past and modern day advertising. Characteristics such as new ideas and concepts that give the viewer a reaction of ‘wow, who thought of that!’ This was the reaction that we were hoping to achieve with our adverts. We needed to also make prominent the fact that if someone is asked to think about genre, they wouldn’t always think of advertising as a genre, or indeed think that advertising has genre’s within it.

We wanted to make our exhibition thought provoking and intriguing, we wanted our audiences reaction be to be positive and to have considered the way that we have viewed ‘genre’ as a subject. One of the main reasons why we chose advertising is effectively because it has a lot of scope and it also is something that people would call ‘different’ simply because as I mentioned earlier, it’s not the first thing that ‘jumps’ into your head when you think of genre. Also, with genre’s such as

science fiction and pop music, many aspects have already been done by other people so creating a product which was ‘new’ to the genre would be a momentous task. Whereas advertising is very ‘fresh and new.’

Adverts are quickly becoming a big part of modern television, ITV are now allowing for longer breaks of adverts in between our programmes. This means that we are going to see more and more innovative, creative and somewhat magical adverts on the television, well some of them at least.

Planning was a major part of this project, I felt that we did complete a lot of planning for this, and I think that it was a success. Although we did a lot of planning, I felt that we left timing extremely late, due to filming schedules and thinking that tasks would take less time that they did in reality. This is where we failed in one way, but we felt that this was a mistake that we could learn from, as it was the first time we had been given a project of this grandeur.

Nearly all of the adverts have been inspired by previous adverts which have all been subject to influence from the culture of the time when the advert was filmed. Effectively we have replicated the effect of these inlfuences in our adverts, and this relates to the popular culture at the time of the advert.

Another glitch that we can learn from is planning our storyboards more accurately, as although we had our storyboards and our scripts we hadn’t planned our shots and angles as much as we could have.

When looking at the feasibility of this project and researching aspects such as has this been done before, we had to consider what was our target

CONTINUED...“WE DID ENCOUNTER A FEW PROBLEMS”

audience. Along with most other media mediums we wanted our exhibit to be able to capture the imagination of everyone.

By creating adverts that we from the sixties this provided our nostalgia factor and allowed middle-aged to elderly people relive their childhood through the adverts. This effect was also heightened by the nineties advert which included a ‘mini montage’ during the start. These adverts were carefully considered as to what adverts to include and which adverts to not include. We had to also choose the snippet of each advert that we felt people would most be able to recognise.

Our later adverts, we also felt would appeal much more to the younger audience as they embodied computer animation which seems to be more beloved by the younger generations especially in films made by companies such as Pixar, although this is a different form of animation.

Although at first we were a little aprehentious Ed and I worked extremely well as a team, I felt that although we had similar ideas, we were still able to constructively argue a point if we felt differently about any aspect. The Co-operation between the two of us I feel played a major part in the success of our project.

Although many aspects of this project we worked together on, it was still clear who did different tasks. Whilst Ed did the majority of the filming, I did a lot of the editing. Although we did take some parts in turns.

We did encounter quite a few problems such as; - Wrong fittings on TV - Inability to find appropriate actors for some parts so modifications were made. - Time Planning

We managed to overcome such problems such as the television issue as we managed to find the computer to power the screen. Although if we had not found the computer we would not have been able to display our adverts.

The adverts pushed both myself and Ed’s skills to the test, striving to create stunning adverts including animation effects that personally I had not created or even had the skills to create before.

Before the start of my course, I had not used any video creation or editing software. I feel that I have picked up these skills extremely quickly and I hope that I am able to keep enhancing my skills in this creative field.

I feel that I have been able to take a lot away from this project, firstly I haven’t produced this sort of public exhibition before and it’s a real triumph for your work to be displayed for everyone to see. Positive comments were received too which was a real bonus, although I would liked to have seen some critical points so that we could build upon these and try to improve those areas.

Skills such as time planning, scripting, filming etc have all been skills that I have either learnt or have been bettered due to this project.

When creating our eighties video, our tutor suggested that we use a different shot for the ending scene as he felt that we could have picked a much more elaborate shot that would have been advantageous to our completed advert. Due to timing constraints partly down to planning and the hassle of refilming the shot in the same location and time (so that lighting was right) and lack of sufficient planning we decided that we would have to leave the advert in the state that it was. Although we agreed with this point we felt that it wasn’t feasible.

I personally am extremely happy with our finished product as I believe that we followed our brief and created a product that both Ed and I were happy with and one that we feel we can be proud of. I am pleased that I have learnt skills from this project, which is dissimilar from other projects as they mostly include the student putting their current skills to test.


THE COPYRIGHTAGREEMENT

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FOR OUR PROJECT WE HAD TO LOOK AT THE COPYRIGHT, THIS WAS GOING TO BE AN ISSUE AS WE NEEDED TO USE COPYRIGHT MATERIAL IN MUCH OF OUR ADVERTS.

The copyright mediums we needed were;

- Music - Adverts

This was the copyright material that was provided y the museum.

ASSIGNMENT OF COPYRIGHT IN PHOTOGRAPHS

THIS ASSIGNMENT is made on

1. Particulars

1.1 the Assignor

1.2 the Council The Maidstone Borough Council of Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, ME15 6JQ

2. Definitions

The following terms shall have the following meanings:

“Photographs” the photographs taken by the assignor and described in the schedule below.

“Price”

“Rights” all vested contingent and future rights of copyright and all rights in the nature of copyright and all accrued rights of action and all other rights

of whatever nature in and to the Photographs whether now known or in the future created to which the Assignor is now or may at any time after the date of this Assignment be entitled by virtue of or pursuant to any of the laws in force I each and every part of the Territory.

“Terms” the full period of copyright in the photographs and all renewals, reversions and extensions of such period subsisting or arising under the laws in each and every part of the Territory and afterwards so far as permissible in perpetuity.

“Territory” the world.

3. Recitals

The Assignor owns the Rights and has agreed to assign them to the Council on the terms and conditions set out in this agreement.

1. Assignment

1.1 In consideration of the Price now paid by the Council to the Assignor (the receipt of which the Assignor acknowledges) the Assignor as beneficial owner assigns to the Council the Rights TO HOLD to the Council its successors and assigns absolutely throughout the Territory for the Term.

1.2 The Assignor acknowledges the Council’s unrestricted right throughout the Territory during the Term to license the exploitation of all or any part of the Rights to third parties.

1.3 The parties agree to do all such things and to sign and execute all such documents and deeds as may reasonably be required in order to perfect, protect or enforce any of the rights

COPYRIGHTCONTINUED...

assigned and granted to the Council pursuant to this Assignment in any part of the Territory.

2. Warranties and indemnity

The Assignor warrants to the Council that:

2.1 The Assignor is the sole owner of the Rights and has full power to enter into this Assignment and to give the warranties and indemnities contained in this Assignment.

2.2 The Assignor was at all material times during the making of the Photographs a “qualifying person” within the meaning of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Section 154 and is the sole author of the Photographs which are original to him.

2.3 The Photographs have not been published in any part of the Territory and the Assignor has not previously assigned or licensed the Rights to any third party.

2.4 The Assignor will keep the Council fully indemnified against all losses and all actions claims proceedings costs and damages (including any damages or compensation paid by the Council on the advice of its legal advisors and after approval by the Assignor to compromise or settle any claim) and all legal costs or other expenses arising out of any breach of any of the above warranties.


OURTHANKS

88

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS FOR THEIR CONTINUED SUPPORT THAT HELPED MAKE THIS EXHIBITION POSSIBLE

I Want To Know What Love IsArtist: ForeignerAlbum: Foreigner: The Definitive CollectionYear: 1984Label: Atlantic Records

God Moving Over The Face Of WatersArtist: MobyAlbum: Everything Is WrongYear: 1995Label: Mute Records

American DreamArtist: JakattaAlbum: VisionsYear: 2002Label: Rulin

SidewaysArtist: ElliotAlbum: RocketshipsYear: 2008Label: Ten City Music

We would like to thank MGS and all the staff, particularly the media teachers who have helped us with this projects and spent hours and hours reviewing our work, to ensure that the project hits the standard we envisaged.

We would like to thank YouTube and it’s community, as if they hadn’t had adverts from the relevant decades we wouldn’t have had inspiration needed to create our adverts.

Without Maidstone Museum with Simon Lace and his team, all this couldn’t have happened. We thank them for their continued support with this project and putting up with all the noise and disruption caused on our set up day.

Lastly, without all our actors our adverts wouldn’t have been possible. I would like to thank Eileen Lewis, James Hall, Simon Thomas, Jonny Warman and Laura Taylor for participating in our adverts and putting up with our directing.

I would also like to personally thank my colleague Ed Craddock for all his time, effort and commitment to this project. Without our collaboration I don’t think our project

would have reached the same level of professionalism.


This book is copyright © William Beeching 2011www.zuuve.co.uk

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