Advert One (Male Target Audience)

This short story board is an outline of how we see our advert progressing into a successful piece. This first shot will be an establishing shot, to demonstrate the scene and the realism and relation to the audience.

This character has woken up and dressed for work as he would do almost every day. This is the 1930's so everything is styled in that era, including props, costume and hairstyle. Mike is tired of waiting for his Brew in the morning and is already ten minutes late for work! We start the advert in black and white to show the time era. This first shot will be the expression that symbolises impatience that his water is taking too long to boil.

In this shot it is important to make sure that the viewer understands the frustration of the actor, his frustration that his kettle is taking too long to boil. We showed this through the facial expressions of him. For example we use close ups and close up zooms, this ensures that the viewer understands how he is feeling. It was key to make sure that the viewer understands his emotions, as the basis of the whole advert focuses on how angry it is to have a slow boiling kettle.

The sound in this advert also is important, as it is the beginning of the track. The beginning of the track sets up the time era for the advert. For example, we use rather dreary music and this sets up the mood in the advert. The mood being a negative one, negative because of the under performing kettle! If the opening music was to be techno from the 80s it would not give off the right vibe to the audience, because that would create a very high energy and exciting advert.

This second shot will be all based around the Kettle.
We will use short fast cut edits to demonstrate the different angles of the 'old' rustic kettle, highlighting what is important of the advert and what the advert is all about.

This Kettle must be portrayed as a slow frustrating object, the object that is to be replaced by a quicker and better model. In our advert we would like to stress the importance of a kettle and how it was when first invented, we feel this is a good way to promote a new product, by comparison with an old one. This then means that the viewer will compare the two different products. We highlight the kettle as the important factor in the advert by using a powerful light directly on the kettle, if a light is not shown in the kettle at one given point it is because we want to highlight maybe the reaction and facial expressions of the actor or actress.

The sound again is the same as the first scene, slow and not exciting. As much as it is important to make the music create the mood, it is also important to maintain the music. This ensures that the viewer knows throughout the advert that she/he is still in the same setting. And maintaining the music also makes the change of music later on in the advert more dramatic and effective.

The shots used in this scene were mainly slow zooms and slow cut edits mainly fading away into black. Having a slow zoom will create a sense of longing and that time is moving slowly. In film, fade away edits to black are mainly used to show that time has passed, so in using them alot in our adverts we can also ensure that the viewer will feel that time has been passed.

After this we would like to concentrate on the 'Gas'. Gas played a massive part in that time decade, as it was starting to be essential in everyday life. However it was more expensive back then and was also very time consuming. In hindsight, we decided that by promoting electricity in the new and improved kettle it would be a healthy way to also show how useful our Electric Kettle product shall be. So now we have the new element in our selling techniques; it will be much quicker with electricity and not gas.

On this shot, in contrast to the previous, we decided that we wanted to emphasise that gas is slow, we will use a slow zoom in and many different angles of the fire to show that time is passing by. In comparison with the elcectric kettle, we will make it clear to the viewer that by pushing a button you can have bolied water. Instead of having to boil your water over a gas stove which takes a longer period of time.

Again we used fade away edits to black. This gave the impression that time passes and that the kettle is taking a long time to boil.

In this image, we wanted to try and get a way of showing the frustration in the 1930s character that his water is taking too long to boil. As a middle class man we would have him reading the newspaper, adding to the mise en scene of the advert and adding to the realism of the scene.

In having the newspaper in the shot we could then use it to add to the concept of time passing by, for instance the turning of the pages and having him stop reading and looking over at the kettle both suggest that time is passing. At the peak of his annoyance we see that the man has thrown down his paper in frustration that the kettle has taken too long boil, we use the shot of the crumpled up newspaper to represent that he has given up reading due to the fact that it has taken up to much of his time.

In this scene we will stick with the slow edits and the fade away to black. We still want to maintain the mood of the advertisement, one which is slow and getting the point across which is time passing.

This is the most vital part of the advertisement, as this shows the jump from 1930s straight to the 1960s, this skip of 30 years also brings in the idea of electricity in the home and how much it is going to be easier to use.

This is also the part of the storyboard where we switch to a much brighter contrast and also colour is introduced, telling the viewer again that we are obviously in a different era now. The costumes also change, from dull coloured formal wear straight to bright colored, funky informal wear. Again this change of fashion is highlighting to the viewer about the two different time periods.

We are going to bring in some graphics in this part of the advert as well, so we can show the addressee about the concept of the new technology that is electricity. Getting this point across is very important as our selling point focuses on how the brand new electric kettle is much quicker than the old style.

This is part of the advert where the music also changes, from a dull slow paced beat to a very high paced fast beat. The introduction of the new kettle brings in also colour to the advert, the introduction of colour brings the advert to life. The viewer will associate the addition of colour with the brand new kettle, colour will represent a more bright and vibrant mood. Now the mood has changed to a much more positive one, with the onset of colour and also a faster paced piece of music. When the music changes, it will have the same effect on the viewer that it does with the introduction of colour. The addressee will now be aware that a change has occured in the advert, the change being the new kettle being introduced.

The final shot will be based around the sudden appearance of a mug of tea, showing the result of what the electric can achieve. We are keeping both of our adverts similar, however aiming them at different audiences, a male audience and a female audience. This then gives us a much more of a wider target audience and therefore it will appeal to a much more people, increasing the amount of sales. If our product only came one style, it would have less of an opportunity of selling.

One of our inspirations for naming them Kurt & Kate the

Kettles are that someone of a certain sex can be drawn towards the product, in other words drawn into actually buying the new and improved kettle. Another point we wanted to make was that in naming the kettle, it personifies our product. It gives an extra lovable element to it, there is more of an attachment with the product, rather than calling it `my kettle` you can call it Kurt Or Kate. It works the same as Henry and Henrietta the hoovers, it personalises the object that you are selling.

When highlighting the brand new kettle edits will be sharp and quick. The tempo of the advertisement changes half way through when the new product has been produced in front of the audience. When the edits are much more faster in comparison with the beginning part of the advert, it relates back to our USP (unique selling point.) The new electric kettle is so much more efficient and faster than the old model, so in looking at the slower beginning stage of the advert, once sped up a little more through quick cut edits it also reflects the quickness of the new kettle.

Advert Two (Female Target Audience)

In this first scene, our actress is still waiting for her morning cup of tea, at this point she is starting to get quite frustrated. We are trying to get across how long it is taking the kettle to boil, the more we do this the more we can compare it to the product. This is where we shall be focusing on the kettle and the time element of this situation. The gas kettle will take so much more time than the electric kettle, and that is what we are trying to focus on the most.

The props in this establishing shot must be clear to demonstrate a realistic scene, (using mise en scene)
we must make sure we include surface realism and concentrate on realistic props and costume to help create this. If this scene lacked the props that were considered relevant to a kitchen, it would pull the consumer off focus and take his/her mind away from the product.

This is the establishing shot, it is used in a majority of advertisements to set the scene and it tells the addressee where they are and what there about to view. As well as setting the scene, the establishing shot also tells you what the advert is all about, as we see in our advert. Straight away we can see that it is going to involve a housewife, and the focus on kettle with lighting and shadowing also says that the advert will be based around the kettle as a product also.

The next part of the storyboard is again the main focus of time passing, while the old kettle is slowly boiling. We use a close up of the kettle, which emphasises the kettle in question. An old watch is also in this shot, adding to the whole concept of time passing. We use this theme through out the advert, our main aim is to make the viewer compare each products, the old and new kettle.

The concepts of time do change slightly when the adverts progress. When the time era changes from the 1930s to the 1960s the we change the aim. From making the viewer think about how slow the time is, we now want the viewer to feel how quick time is passing. Again talking about the comparison with each kettle.

We also use a zoom on this still image, as again this type of camera shot creates a sense of time passing by. We also use a tilted angle in this scene, the tilted angle is normally used in television when representing confusion. So we used the tilted angle to show the confusion of why the water is boiling so slowly.

Again we see a close up used here, to heighten the tension of the kettle taking its time to boil. We also focus on flame here, this will make it easier to compare when we introduce electricity to the advert. As we must make it clear to the viewer that boiling water is going to take a long time when boiling on an open flame, where as electricity is going to be 10 times quicker. This shot also helps us to establish the old kettle, highlighting the whole point of the advertisement.

The stove is also in the bottom of the shot, adding to the mise en scene of the image. This will remain the addressee of where the advert has been set and what time era it is in. For example if it were the same but on a digital plate it wouldn't have the same effect, it would not have the same impact because it is not realistic at all. We use the fade out to black technique here as well. Creating a sense of time passing by.

This stage of the advert shows the frustration of the women. A close up is used here to emphasis her expression of anger towards her kettle. Close ups are used to create a sense of tension, by using this type of camera shot you can focus on certain objects and make them stand out.

Relating to our advertisement, we use the close up shot to highlight the fact that the women is getting annoyed about the situation that is arising. The expression on her face immediately suggests that there is tension around the room, and therefore will turn the mood of the advert into a tense one. Adding to the relief when she finds a better model of kettle, the electric kettle will get rid of all the tension in the advert.

This works well in relation to operant conditioning, the viewer will associate the brand new kettle with the disappearance of the tension built up in the advert. An therefore increases the chance of the consumer purchasing our product, as when they see it on the shelves they will associate it with tension vanishing.

Scene five will focus on the brand new kettle, using graphics and brighter colours. We see the jump from black and white to colour again, highlighting the fact that the time era has changed. The music will also show the viewer that the time era has changed, changing from very slow orchestral music to more up beat 60s dance. We see here the introduction to graphics, such as the golden lightning bolts and green poofs of smoke. This will help us to emphasise that the electricity is running through the kettle, an ho bright and wonderful it is compared to the old rusty kettle of the post war era.

The Kettle & Co logo will also be seen here, advertising the company and what it has to offer (the brand new kettle.) We will either create logo from card and place on the electric kettle or we can use graphics and add that to the already glowing kettle. The edits of the new kettle will also be much more faster once the new 1960s kettle has been shown for the first time in this advert.

Having quicker edits of the kettle suggests the quickness of the new kettle, we will have slower edits on the old kettle and with the slow music also we can build up the atmosphere of the kettle taking a long time. With a pacey style of music and quick edits on the section of the advert with colour, it automatically suggests the more preferred product in terms of speed.

Here we come to the final shot of advertisement number two. Shot six is the climax of the advert, as we see the wonderful and very pleased face of the housewife. Using again a close up of her face so that we can really focus on her emotions and what she is going through. We can obviously see what emotions she is going through, the sheer joy of having a kettle that works quickly an efficiently.

In juxtaposition with scene four, she is feeling quite the opposite. In scene four we see black and white, grumpy face by the housewife all relating back to the old kettle. In contrast, we see in this scene that she is happy and there is colour back to the images. Brighter colours and quicker edits all point towards her emotion of being happier that this electric kettle has entered her life. We also see that she is jumping for joy, again representing her happiness about the outcome she has had.

Actors and Actress

As we studied existing advertisements we noticed that mots of the adverts were chosen due to stereotypical factors, for example the way they look, our age or what emotion is the acting portraying ( happy or sad.) Do they use direct address to include and enhance the audiences response. The actors must be relevant too the advert, for example it would be strange to see a male acting in an advert for Tampax. Or a women acting in an advert for Men's Gillette razors.

When we chose our actors and actresses for our advert we shall consider these options to our target audience to make them feel that our product is for them specifically. The term target audience basically means who you are aiming your product towards, who do you want to buy your product.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a technique used by advert designers to create a warm feeling of looking back on the past, where 'life was simpler' 'everybody was happier', usually a comedy approach is added to make the viewer smile and feel good about this product.

Everyone's thoughts are always good looking back on memories and the past is always better than the present. This is why we have decided to use nostalgia for our kettle advert, because it is comic and we intend to make people smile by re-inventing an existing product which we all take for granted, when at first it was a electrical breakthrough, now almost every house hold owns one.

Interview & Advice

I had an informal interview with two gentlemen in this industry to ask there advice and tips or tricks on how to make this advert be most successful.
Tony Sankey -Camera Grip. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0762858/
Worked on Films & Dramas such as:
The Shooting Of Thomas Hurndal
The Virgin Queen
Touching Evil
Desperate Romantics
Ashes to Ashes etc...

Matt Duffield :http://spiderjar.com/
Graphic design company called SpiderJAR.
SpiderJAR works to promote companys and to design and create adverts and animations.

Some of the ideas suggested were:
-The Black and white lighting must be in high contrast to demonstrate the best black and white image, this is so it is of the best quality and sharp
-All close and cut edits as they have to have a quick impact
-Only one establishing/long shot to show how
-All adverts get straight to the point to draw attention to the product of or the association
-The Tag lines must be humouras and smart
-Hair and makeup must stay immaculate from shot to shot otherwise it will not link in if it changes
-Advert must include mild humour to make it memorable
-special effects are key at the end to emphasies that it IS a modern product
-Sparks spot lights etc demonstrate a clesha advert to be cheesy however this works
-End this with a catch animation for exampkle ( an old kettle lid rattelling and then changeing into the flash product.. or a drop down teabag or something)

Lighting & Effects

For lighting and effects we have decided to use a theme of black and white which then transforms into a coloured aspect when time travels. All our lighting and effects have been specifically chosen due to several different factors;

-Mood
-Emphasis of light and effects
-Time of day
-Product
-And when it has been filmed. For example if it were to be filmed before colour television or if it was filmed when colour television was used.

The lighting and effects is key to what of atmosphere we want to create and what certain vibe you want to give off to your audience. We will have to consider all of these elements and demonstrate an understanding of why and how they are used. How they are used to create an advert that will stick in the viewers mind and subconsciously inform them of the product.

After producing a number of scene shots and different ideas with lighting we shall manipulate these into the beast produce possible, to do this we will use photo shop and numerous other programmes to change saturation, mood and correct imperfections. This type of software is vital in our coursework, as it gives us the opportunity to change any errors that occur in our final drafts and also a chance to evaluate them.

Voiceovers

On our blog of Other Advertisements, you can see the analysis of the voice overs in the adverts we analysed. Most of the voice overs we have studied have similar conventions. All of these conventions should be looked at closely, and there are tactics that should be absorbed.
For instance;

- Females with a soft well spoken tone seem to offer comfort and security.
- Well spoken as using the use of standard English so everybody can relate to the product and relate to the actual person that is talking to you.
- Male voice overs are strong and powerful normally with a bright or husky voice, which again offers the viewer security. But can be used to intimidate and scare the viewer into purchasing the certain product.
- The sexier the voice the more likely you are to listen and remember it, as everybody knows sex sells.
- Pronunciation must be definite and the semantics must be clear, and the of effective stresses on the highlighted and target words. Such as "BUY NOW" or "CALL US ON..."

Target audience

Target audience is the most important seeing point for any product.

Hair, Makeup and Costume

Hair, makeup and costume are the key techniques that make this advert a success.

Costume-
This image is of both of our actors dressed up in 1930's style costume.
The female is dressed in a classic Aline dress with patterned lace for that era and has complimented this dress with a cupcake apron to make her look more like a housewife.
The male on the other hand looks sophisticated and older/ wiser than she does, keeping a stern look to show authority.
Accessories-
The female is wearing a pearl necklace which is the kind of jewellery the women of 1930 used to wear, with this we are trying to create realism. Whereas our male actor has glasses again to make him look well educated and intelligent.
Hair & makeup-
With hair and make up, research is key, before we decided which types of costume mode our actors would be styled in. For our female actress we studied styles of hair which complimented the housewife character.

Props & Equipment

The props and equipment of the advert obviously must be relevant to the product or what ever the advert is trying to sell to you. For example, it would be strange for a kitchen cleaning product advert to have props such a games console in the background, as it does not have any relevance to the product. If something like this occurs then it will take the focus off the product the advert is trying to sell, and the consumer will become confused which will decrease the chances of them buying the product.

The props all contribute to the mise en scene of the certain advertisement, the mise en scene creates realism in adverts. The advertisements we analysed (see other advertisements) were the well known PG tips adverts, we see mise en scene in these advertisements. The most recent advert selling PG tips is set in a kitchen area, with props such as a kettle, teabags and a stove etc. We associate all of these things with a kitchen setting and this creates the realism we are talking about. The kitchen sets the scene for the viewer , when they see these props ( the mise en scene) they immediately know where they are which in turn helps with the understanding of the product. As if the product of PG tips was in a bathroom it would confuse the viewer and it would take their mind off of the product which is being sold to them.

Sound

The majority of adverts rely on sound to get there point across, weather it is in voice over from, or sound effects, or the actors and actresses voices they all contribute to making the advert more easier to understand.

When researching different adverts we found that the majority of advertisements on television use sound to great effect. For example, in some cases there is a familiar soundtrack to the advert or just one single jungle or song that most people will recognise. The Halifax advert has taken a popular song of the 1960s, "Something Tells Me Your Into Something Good" by Herman's Hermits and changed the lyrics to describe the company, and also telling us what the company has to offer us.

This is a great technique to use as whenever the public hears that song they will automatically think of Halifax, and with remembering Halifax comes remembering the lyrics, so it then gets you thinking about what Halifax is all about and what it can offer you as a consumer. The advertisement is selling you what ever the need to sell in the form of musical sound, because it is memorable to the viewer.