Meeting/Breaking Conventions

SPONSORSHIP SEQUENCE

We have followed the conventions of a sponsorship sequence with out

soundtrack being upbeat. We chose a hip-hop track which doesn’t have

lyrics. We feel the song went really well with the sponsorship sequence

and it allowed the models to feel confident and empowered.

For our sponsorship sequence we have used a narrative. This narrative then linked to the

programme in which we chose to sponsor, Gossip Girl. This is not a typical convention and is not often used. Although, we have used it and we feel that it is very effective. However, due to the short period a sponsorship sequence is (around 15 seconds max) we weren’t able to portray as much of the narrative as we would have liked to but we are happy with

style of narrative we have chosen. The audience will be able to relate to the models and gives them an

inside onto how to be like the characters in the programme but in their own interpretation.

Another convention of a sponsorship sequence is the brand name and the name of the programme they are sponsoring being said as a voiceover at the end. We

have followed this convention by having a voiceover and on screen text showing the brand name ‘Ellie-May’ and ‘Sponsors Gossip Girl’. We feel that this was effective as it was on a white screen and black bold font. However,

the white screen is very basic and isn’t very interesting, we could have possibly kept the moving image of the models up and also we could have made ‘Sponsors

Gossip Girl’ in slightly larger writing so that the audience will see that Gossip Girl is just as good as the Ellie-May

brand.

We used jump and quick cuts in between all the shots which

is a typical convention of a sponsorship sequence. We

think this is very effective in our sponsorship sequence and it is makes the sequence fast moving and interesting as we didn’t want the audience to

get bored. However, we could have added some other

techniques including strobe cuts which involves the image

before to flash back and forward with the next image, this would have added more action into the sequence and would have added an extra

link to the day and night advert .

Another convention is having a stationary camera in every shot, we have challenged

this in our sponsorship sequence. Our production contains camera movement as

we felt it would liven up the advert and give it variation to other sequences. We believe that this will make it more memorable as

there will be movement making the models not seem bored but they will seem confident and sexy which is what we want to portray

to our audience.

Radio Advert

A convention that we have followed for radio adverts is the length, our radio advert is 40 seconds long and the convention of a radio advert length is 15-60 seconds long.

We are happy with the structure of our radio advert as it included all the relevant information that the audience would need. We feel that our radio advert is affective as

our audience can relate to the two characters when trying to find a new outfit and they will be able to hear whether we

sell the item that they are looking for.

Another convention of a radio advert is an upbeat voiceover who talks about the brand. We have followed this

convention with having two girl voices whom are in our target audience age. A convention that links with this is the

accent that the voiceover has, which is British. Whatever country your in, its conventional to have the same accent as

in the same country, this way the target audience in that country can relate to the advert more closely. It also creates

brand identity, the audience can relate to the characters. However, we could have made the voiceovers in our advert

a little more upbeat to make the characters seem more excited. It was difficult for the characters to re-act in the

same way as they would in real life, and not being able to show expressions in the face and body, the voice was the

only way of expressing feelings. We are glad that we added in the folly sounds in at the beginning with the door

creaking and the sound of a mouse clicking and the sound of a key board at the end.

Another convention of a radio advert is that they feature a jingle, however we did not include this. This is because in the adverts that we analysed, there was no significant jingle in them and for a

fashion advert, it didn’t quite sound right. Instead, we have a tag line ‘wear it your way’ which we

believe is just as effective. Another convention is adverts feature rhetorical questions to make the audience think about what

they are asking them, however we have broken this convention as we wanted to give our audience all the information that they wanted. This way, the

audience hear exactly what they needed to head in a short, effective way without them getting bored.

In a radio advert, there is usually a narrative, which will target the audience. This is the main

convention that we followed with our advert having a narrative which links to our sponsorship

sequence. We believe this was very effective as our audience are able to relate to the characters in the

advert and will be able to sort their situation out the same way that the characters in the advert do. We found the radio advert the most challenging to put together as there are not many fashion radio

adverts around to target our age audience. However, we think that we have targeted them in the most appropriate way and are happy with how

the radio advert turned out.

Television Adverts

One convention of a television advert is having a voice over. We have followed this convention but only on a

small scale as we only used it over the brand name and tag line at the end of the adverts. Conventionally for a

fashion advert, you would not have a voice over throughout the whole advert as the audience need to be induced onto the clothing itself by watching the moving images. However, we did use text on screen to show the pricings of many of the adverts, this also is conventional

for a television advert and is very popular in fashion adverts. We believe this is most effective towards our

target audience as we needed to get across the price of our clothing being cheaper than most high street brands

as this was one of our USP’s.

Another convention for a fashion advert is to use celebrity endorsement. As much as we would have

liked to use this within our advert, it was not possible so we had to break this convention. However, after

having to change our models, we found models which we most appropriate for our advert. As we are a cheaper brand, it made sense to use models which are in fashion but are not celebrities. We felt this was most appropriate so then our target audience were able to relate and get brand identity of the models. Our target audience can then be like the models in

their own way.

Another convention is that radio adverts is the length, the traditional length is 15-30 seconds, but in more modern day they are now lengths of 3-4 minutes long. We have followed the traditional convention because we believe that to get our target audience’s attention, the advert

needed to be short but full with of clothing. This way the audience gets to see exactly what they want without

getting bored. Whiles putting the productions together, we found that some of the shots didn’t quite look right so we either

changed them or took them out with changed the timings slightly of our production. By the end of putting the

production together, we are happy with the length of both the adverts and they are full with the right information for

our target audience too see and know.

Another convention of a fashion TV advert is the lighting being high key. We followed this convention because we believed having bright lighting you are able to see the clothing more clearly. In the day advert we used the

natural light which we believe looks great and makes the model look fresh in the clothing. Bright colours is

another convention of a TV advert, we have followed this by editing our productions bringing the brightness up in all the shots. This way the adverts look less flat and the colours of the clothes are emphasised more. Especially in our day advert, we brought the brightens up in the

phone box shots to bring more of the red through. Overall, the colours in our adverts have really worked well throughout and we happy with the changes we

made.

We used a variety of different editing techniques throughout our adverts. This is a modern convention in

advertisements on TV. Following this convention we were able to make our productions looks more lively and interesting. In both the day and night we used a

mirror effect which mixed up the shots a bit. We believe this is very effective as it gives this advert a different look against other adverts. However, the software we

were using (Final Cut Pro X) did not have the capability to allow us to do effects e.g. in the day advert on one of

the phone box shots, we wanted to make the whole shot black and white except the phone box itself which would stay red. We did not have the software to enable us to do this, which was a shame, but we overcame this

by changing the brightness so the red was more radiant.

Finding the correct soundtrack for out adverts was very important as it sets the mood of what is happening. An

upbeat soundtrack is a very important convention in the fashion industry when it comes to adverts. The model needs to be seen as feeling confident and sexy so the correct track would enable the model to move with the music. We felt that the soundtracks that we had chosen were perfect for the moods and themes of the adverts themselves. They were both upbeat, both in their own ways but they fitted with the personality of the model

and the clothing she was wearing. However, we did wish we could have used a soundtracks of some older modern music which had been in the charts but unforchantly we

were not able to get hold of any copyright tracks. But the equivalent we found worked just as well and we love

the soundtracks that we found.

An obvious convention to fashion adverts is showing the actual products itself. We picked around 3-5

outfits in each one to show the audience. We believe we showed the correct variety of clothes the brand

had to offer and they were all very different. We wanted to be able to show to the audience that we accommodate to all different types of personalities

and styles. For the day advert, the weather was most appropriate for the outfits that we had chosen which we were very lucky about. The complement of the

sun on the flowery top and trousers worked well and leaves a good sense of confidence and happiness. We

are happy with our outfit choices and we wouldn’t change anything about them.

The last convention that we followed was the variety of camera shots and angles. Throughout both the day and night advert we incorporated

different angles and types of shots. We felt that this has made our productions more interesting and creative which our audience can relate to when putting their outfits on, they can feel individual.

However, when putting the productions together we found we hadn’t put in enough camera movement,

so we had to use Kens Burns to enable us to introduce more movement in the adverts. With this added extra movement, it gave more character to the adverts and made them less boring too watch.

Overall, we have both followed and broken

conventions of a (fashion) television advert. In doing so, it has made our production

individual and effective.