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pre-production
production
post-production
evaluating
pre-production
When tasked with creating a multimedia advertising campaign designed to impact audiences' views on teenage mental health, I had to first begin by conducting some research.
To begin, I started to research more into teenage mental health, what affects this and methods to cope. I used multiple online websites and sources to gather statistics and information so as to have a greater understanding of teenage mental health.
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Afterwards, I then began by researching four charity adverts that I felt had a wide range of techniques, modes, and audience appeals in order to get a good sense of conventions within charity adverts. I created a video explaining what I had discovered, further looking into how the adverts were made, who they were targeted to, and how they appealed to audiences. From researching these adverts, I not only became more knowledgeable on the charity advert genre, but they also served as inspiration for my own advertisements. This was super helpful as I now had a basic understanding of what techniques real-life adverts used to target their specific audiences. Additionally, within my research I learned about the rules and regulations of advertising by looking into the ASA.
problem solving
After I had sufficiently researched into how to create a successful advertisement, I began planning my own.
I created a mind map to sort out my ideas along with the research I had done. By creating this mindmap, I had a source of information that had a good balance between my own creative ideas and facts that were backed up by research.
From there, I formed 4 different video ideas and used a PMI document to help me decide which to continue with. The PMI document was quite helpful as it allowed me to visualise which idea was most feasible and would satisfy the brief.
I also created 3 different moodboards to further help myself visualise the different ideas. Finally, once I had settled on 2 video advertisements for my campaign, I created annotated storyboards in order to plan the shots.
In theory, these storyboards were extensive and detailed and sufficient to create a good advertisement.
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However, when shooting the first advertisement, “The Black Spot”, I did not follow the storyboard very well. A few shots, such as this bus stop one, or birthday cake scene, matched the shots I had planned via my storyboard.
Bus stop shot and storyboard
Birthday cake shot and storyboard
As for the rest of the shots, some of them were simply not feasible when on location, for example this one was planned in a restaurant however filming was not allowed. These mistakes were down to a lack of quality location scouting. Other shots were not achievable due to poor time management and communication with the actors regarding availability.
Interview shot and storyboard
On the other hand, my second advertisement went according to my planned storyboard as it was simpler and easier to follow. For example, these interview shots were simple to plan and execute as there were no drastic locations, lighting, camera movement etc.
I had also planned a set of print adverts and created a mock-up of these. I came up with the print ad idea and sketched a quick version of what I had visualised the final product to look like. It was roughly based off of the family game Guess Who. After completing these mockups, I realised that as a campaign, these three advertisements did not correlate to one another. They did not have the same aesthetics, colour scheme and even targeted different audiences. The only thing they had in common was the theme of teenage mental health. Despite this realisation, I decided to continue and complete these prints as I believed in the creativity of the idea. Overall, I was satisfied with the final outcome and believed it was a good idea for a standalone advert but unfortunately just didn't fit within the same campaign.
Overall, I believe my planning was extensive yet quite ambitious. The first advertisement was quite ambitious in regards to time scale and practicality. However, I managed to be proactive during shoots, recognize mistakes/things that weren’t going to work out and adapt around this, producing an advertisement I was still proud of.
production
technical skill
In terms of technical skills, I decided to challenge myself more on the editing front. The cinematography was overall pretty simple and consisted of basic shots, and so I mainly focused on the editing of the videos.
For my first advertisement, my initial idea was to create these growing black spots all across the screen, as seen in my storyboard. However, when it came to editing, I found it was more effective to use a black vignette that slowly overtook the entire frame. I played around with the best way to do this and learnt how to use keyframes in order to create this effect. Personally, I was satisfied with the final result and think it acted as a super effective metaphorical visual.
post-production
professional practice
Additionally, I wanted to challenge myself with designing and producing a print advert with little experience. I used both Adobe Illustrator and Lightroom to create this piece. I began by taking photographs of the subjects and editing them to black and white using Lightroom. I learnt the importance of shooting images with the intention of editing them black and white and how to accentuate highlights and shadows with lighting.Overall, I think my idea had a lot of creative potential, however, as mentioned before it just did not match the branding and theme of the overall advertising campaign. Using bright colours and the theme of a family-friendly game targets the different audience of younger children and parental figures. Despite this, it was a good learning experience and opportunity to learn more about graphics and illustration.
Overall, I believe my professional skills helped to create these advertisements to a high quality. The overall process, from pre-production to post-production was pretty smooth and well organised, meaning that I was able to submit everything on time and in a professional capacity. Throughout the process, there were a few hiccups, such as a lack of communication between actors and equipment being unavailable, however I feel as if I managed to overcome this through better communication and adaptability.