Evian ‘Keep on Running’ Advert Evaluation
On 1st November we were given an assignment of TV Advertising. We had to make a 30 second advert and pretend that it will be aired on TV.
We started to do our pre-production in which we had to research the purpose and impact of advertising for television, and then we made it in a presentation video to look at three adverts so to understand about and how advertising works. Once that was done we had to come up with 4 different ideas to choose which we think is the best to make and if we can make it. I chose my first idea, as I can make it outside of my hometown Shenstone and with interesting techniques like jump cuts and the music. Then we had to do a script, the storyboards, budget sheet, treatment, treatment budget, health and safety and a questionnaire to find our audience. All of that paper work will help me in production when I am filming.
The product I chose is ‘Evian’ which is a water bottle. I wanted to do this product for my advert because that not a lot of the youth (teenagers) do any exercising and parents would like to get them off their feet and do some excise so this advert will encourage them to exercise but also to get them drink more water by buying ‘Evian’. So I was tying to think an interesting way in which I can make it and how it can be eye catching to the audience. The idea is where a teenage boy is tying his trainers outside of his house, then he put his ear phones into his ears, once that is done the song comes on and first it will echo as it is like it’s coming from his ear phones as it is so loud. The song choice is ‘Spencer Davis Group – Keep on Running’, I chose this song because the lyrics fits to the theme of the advert where the song says ‘Keep on running’ so the teenage boy is listening to the song while he is running and to tell the audience to keep on running. The technique is use is jump cuts where you get them from music videos and jump cuts came in around about the 1960s of French New Wave as I was inspired by ‘Breathless’. I use the technique when he is running where there will be a close-up of his legs on a pavement then there will be a jump cut to the same type of shot but at a different location like at a Park. I did this technique I think it was very good technique to use to show that the teenage boy is running around at different places and specially being a 30 second advert not a lot of time to show him running. I also use it because of the song so it is like a music video. With the ear phones echoing the next shot when it is the wide shot the song will be at normal volume and loud, I did that because there was need to play the whole song echoing and the audience will know that the song is playing by his ipod. The other idea I had is when the teenage boy is walking back to his house to the front door and he takes his earphones out of his ears and the music goes dead, just stops. I took that from Quentin Tarantino’s film ‘Reservoir Dogs’ where Mr Blonde goes out of the door and the door closes the song stops playing once he goes back in to the building opening the door the music comes back on as the radio is in the building. Once the teenage boy grabs ‘Evian’ from the fridge the end of the song comes back on.
On Saturday 19th November, I filmed on that day with my friend’s brother who is 13 years old which he is the actor of my advert. He lives the same hometown as me and I filmed my advert in Shenstone. I said to Chris to meet me at my house at 11.30am and when he was there I gave him the release form to sign. Once that is done we started filming. For the first shot I didn’t want to get my dad’s taxi in the shot so we had to film at the end of my drive. The first shot is a close-up, which was a low-angle of Chris’s trainers tying them. We filmed the first shot of 5 takes. The next shot still at the same place, I filmed many takes like 10 takes of a mid-shot of Chris putting his ipod ear phones into his ears and I wanted to get the sky in the shot as the sky was white which is the same colour that Evian uses to present themselves. The next shot I filmed was shot 3 where I filmed on a pavement where Chris runs on it. The shot was a close up of his legs to see him running, we did about 5 takes. I was filming on a green grass but one of the next-door people said this is a garden, which I did not know but he said it was fine. The next shot I filmed was shot 7 at an ally way as I filmed another close-up of his legs running. It took 4 takes, as I didn’t want any cars going pass where filming. Then the next shot was shot 8 where I filmed a mid-shot of him running towards the camera again it took 10 takes because of the cars getting into the shot. For shot 4 I wanted to film of a pavement with a row of houses but there was cars parked by which I wouldn’t able to film that shot so I decided to film somewhere else of a quite place on a pavement with a row of houses. Shot 4 is a wide shot of him running into and out of the shot. Then I filmed shot 5 at the Shenstone Park on the green filed again the same shot from shot 5 of him running in and out of the shot. Then I filmed shot 6 at the same location of a close-up to his legs running. I just realize I made a mistake on shot 4 because Chris was running the wrong way as he was running left he was spouse to run on his right, so we went back and did the shot again. We went back to my house to film the last 4 shots. Shot 9 filmed at the same pavement from the start but running back to the house so it was a mid-shot same as shot 8 so it contracts in editing of jump cuts. The next shot I did what shot 11 where Chris is walking slowly to his front door while he takes off his earphones out of his ears in editing the music will go dead. That shot was a wide shot to get the whole of his body. The next shot was shot 12, which was a close-up of the fridge of his hand getting the water bottle. The shot was too dark so I had to use the exposure to light it up so you can see the water bottle ‘Evian clear. The last shot was the mid shot of him drinking down Evian showing the logo on its side towards the camera, we did like about 10 takes on it. Most of the shots are the same and linked from one another so it will be jump cuts. I filmed the shots at different parts as the first 3 shots were the closets which was my house then the next shots that was close to film was the ally away then the street of houses then the park and back to my house again to film the last shots as the shots were in my house. I filmed it last because I can film outside first incase if it was to get dark or raining and to give time for my mum to be finish with kitchen so I can film the last shots. I thought the filming went well I had got all my shots, the only thing I could have done better was the last two shots being a bit dark and over exposure so I wish I used the lights and pull down the kitchen window curtain.
On Tuesday 22nd November I started editing my advert. The first think I did was to get a picture for the water bottle and the logo of ‘Evian’ and then to import it onto final cut pro. Then I got the song ‘Keep on Running’ from youtube and imported it onto final cut pro. Once that was done I captured my footage from Z1E Camera from a tape. I filmed about 10 minutes of footage. Firstly I started to listen to the song to see where I can place my slogan, the image of the bottle and the logo. So I started to place a white box for the background colour for Evian, as that is Evian’s colour ‘white’. Then I put the image onto the right end of the frame after that I used a text for the slogan and the font I used was ‘Charcoal CY’ as that was the right kind of font that fitted to the logo of the bottle. The slogan is ‘Keep on Running with Evian’ meaning that to get the audience which is teenagers to get them exercising and buying Evian while they are running. The colour is pinkies to get the colour right like the logo to match the colour and font. The text is just ‘Keep on Running with…’ which the text is place on the left and middle of the frame so the slogan fits to the water bottle with the logo on it by matching the size, font, colour and lining it. I did this because I thought it was very effective and it looked eye catching but also I saw it before in a coke advert as they used the same technique. Next I went back to the start of the song and used a effect on final cut pro which was ‘echo’ to get the song to echo from his ear phones and I had to quite down the song by -10 so it seems to be coming from his ipod. Once that was done I started to place and cut my shots on the time line. As his shot must be 3 seconds or less because they were 12 shots and being a 30 second advert the shots couldn’t be any longer than 3 seconds. The shots would have to be quick and fast of being jump cuts and like a music video. Then for the third shot of the wide shot of the teenage boy coming in and out of the shot the music becomes aloud of normal volume on final cut pro and with out any echo which I put a cross dissolve. Once I done the advert I went over 30 seconds which was 38 seconds, so I had to cut down 8 seconds off. So I cut of bits from some shots and shortened down the text and white box and managed to get to 30 seconds. For shot 3 with the close-up of his legs on the pavement the next shot is when it’s a wide shot of him running at a different location as that is a jump cut and I do again with that wide shot when he runs out of the shot he runs into the next shot which is the green field park and when he runs into the middle of the shot the next shot is a close-up to his legs then it cuts again a jump cut of the same type of shot but at a different location which is the ally away.
On Wednesday 23rd November I finished my edit but I needed to do the colour correction on all the shots. The last two shots were quite dark and I had to lighten it up with the colour correction so you can see the water bottle, the logo and the teenage boy’s face clear. If I knew it was quite dark I would have bought a light kit, as it will look a lot better. With shot 12 of the boy drinking the water, the exposure isn’t that great with the sun shinning from the window. I should have closed the curtain to block the sunshine or film at a different angle but yet again I wanted to see the logo from the bottle and the side of his face which is on the left as it always have been from the start of the trainers and the running. Once I finished using the colour correction I completed my edit and exported it to quick time and uploaded it onto youtube.
I posted my advert on my blog ‘Grimsta Films’ and people from my course commented on my advert. These are the comments:
Chevy Thompson – “The advert is very creative, shots are edited together with meaning and grammar. Concepts such as the headphones linking with the wild track audio are very effective and smart thinking. Well done”.
IamKeilan – “I believe you showed the message clearly throughout the video, the earphones was a clever idea and the song works well with the video. I do think it can be improved by some minor adjustments: the music being full volume when the earphones being placed as most mp3 players do not fade the song in. Also the running sequence is too short for my liking and the end text too long. However, I do believe you've done very well on this piece”.
Howlingmadfilms – “well put together commercial, easy to understand. Clear precise cutting”.
Smalls – “I like the range of shots and the choice of music works really well with the theme. The only thing I wasn't sure about is the music levels - when he goes in the house and the music stops, I can see that its because of his headphones but it doesn't quite seem right. Perhaps add some atmospheric sounds e.g. door opening, fridge opening before you bring the sound back in. you could also change when the music comes back in to when he drinks the water, otherwise its a bit like the fridge is making the music. The fades are also a bit out”.
Joel – “Its good advert, you could fix the music up if you get more time to edit, I like how you created the video, well done”.
These comments I am very please about because they all like my advert and like the idea and the theme. They also like the earphones technique. I know some of them said that I could improve on the music levels but it was spouse to be like that with the song being quite at the start then at full volume. One-person thought I could do better when the song goes dead it doesn’t seem right to them. It is spouse to be like that, when it takes his earphones out song goes dead and there is spouse be no sound. Also they said about that it seems the music is coming from the fridge. I did this because when he picks up Evian from the fridge the music comes back on because of Evian it self the product ‘keep on Running with Evian’. One-person said that the running is too sort for them and the end text too long for them. I do understand that but the jump cuts and being like a music video it was spouse to be quick and fast, the end text is spouse to be long showing the product, the logo and the water bottle but also to fit the length of the ending of the song ‘Keep on Running’. I keep watching back my advert and looking at the comments I see if I could improve it by what they said and I gave it a go by editing it. But it doesn’t work because of the song being at the right place and needs the cross-dissolves to make the song clear and quite and loud being cross-dissolve. Putting the sound effects of the door closing is too short and doesn’t sound right it’s better to leave it as it’s fine when he takes out the ear phones music goes dead and you do hear a bit of the vibrating fridge.
Overall I think I did really well and I am happy with my advert, it looks good and the sound and music I believe to be fine. It went my way with the shots and it worked of the jump cuts and the music with the song and when it is echoing and the music goes dead. I still think I need to improve on my camera work, of the cinema together also I would have bought lights for the last two shots. I think I made the advert clear and what I am selling also the theme works with the song keep on running. If I did again, I would booked out lights, film at different places like Lichfield or Black Street or Sutton Coldfield to get different places and locations which would be more variety to choose from and create more interesting shots.
