Evaluation

For this project I reconstructed a hair advert for the brand herbal essence. I researched in to things such as the form of the advert by this I mean finding out if my advert was realist narrative, animation or so on. Also the codes and conventions of my advert this research was really important as it helped me put my advert together and gather the information I needed to make the advert.

My own view on my research is that it was quite detailed. Firstly I watched adverts similar to my idea and generated some ideas. After that I conducted detailed research firstly in to market research I looked in to three different companies that I could air my advert on, I looked in to its statistics, reviews of the companies and what they have aired to see if it’s similar to mine, the point of that was to see what the best company was to choose for my advert. I then looked in to research issues and needs and found out who my advert would be aimed at and what the people would be like and why i decided they are my target audience. I also investigated in to legal and ethical considerations these were things such as “advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so”. This was helpful as it meant I knew what I could and couldn’t do, so when I began filming there were no hold ups. Another element I looked in to was the codes and conventions this included what shots to use, lighting and sound. Alongside that i found the style to be dramatic. Furthermore I looked in to techniques this being something such as the hair product is a solution to a problem.

Last of all in my research I looked in to characteristics of product services this being what the benefits offered are etc. Moving on when I began filming it was raining, honestly I didn’t want it to rain but then I thought it helped the idea of the advert that the girl running to give her friend herbal essence was determined whatever the weather.

When filming I struggled to keep the camera still as I didn’t not have a tripod, so I found I had to redo some of the shots. I left filming quite late I didn’t really have time to wait for a day without rain. Some of the shots I did weren’t very good, they were the wrong angle and all together the wrong shots, this has made a huge different as it is harder the person watching it to understand what is going on. So all together filming didn’t go very well, I don’t think I planned very well and improvised quite a lot which was not beneficial. The actor was not too keen on re-doing it as the whole advert is of her running.

When I put the clips in to premier pro I realised without sound you couldn’t significantly see what the product was I was advertising it just looked like a girl running and at the end handing over a bottle of shampoo, this could have been any brand. I didn’t edit very well and the whole concept of the advert made no sense unless you explained it to someone before they watched it. The footage was not of a good quality so was hard to work with, I needed a lot more different shots and angles to work with, I lacked footage so didn’t have a lot to work with.

I realised there needed to be more about the product (herbal essence) in the advert so I I decided to use a green screen and film the product, these shots would then go at the start of the advert with a voice over so the audience knew straight away what it was and then at the end having it again so the last thing the audience have in their head is a picture of the brand herbal essence. This helped to understand what the product was and maybe help the audience have more of an idea of what was going on and the concept of the advert as I mentioned before.

What made it harder as I didn’t film a stereo typical shampoo and conditioner advert, so if it was played on television people may not understand and not like it as it is nothing like a normal hair advert. I feel if I wanted this idea to work, I needed to put a lot more effort in, more shots so I could edit, use a green screen more for the product.

In conclusion I was not really that happy with my end product, I think it was ok, but I didn’t convey the stereo typical hair advert, so I think people would either love it or hate it, it needed more depth and more shots and edits so people could understand what I was trying to do.

If I did it again I would probably stick to the stereo typical advert type of a celebrity with beautiful hair swishing their hair about as most people know hair adverts to be like this and for me to change that idea I would of had to really thought through my idea and how it could of been to every ones taste. Although I made a questionnaire if did do it again I would of defiantly used a questionnaire but next time round make it much more detailed and really think what questions would help me to produce a much better product.