Evaluation

My advert is for Barry M nail polish, standard nail paint. It involves fingers walking
down a catwalk, wearing the nail polishes. My advert is for teenagers and women
up to the age of 25. http://cmpalexgilbey.weebly.com/u30-lo3.html
Storyboards & Mindmaps
When I was coming up with ideas I made two mind maps of my final choices. I
thought one of these mind maps was a lot more
successful than the other one, this is because I was unsure
at the start as to how I wanted my ideas to look, I had a
clear vision of the nail polish advert (the idea I went with
in the end). However for the hairspray, which was my
second option, I found I was relating it too closely to
other similar hairspray adverts, for example the Elnette
Gold hairspray with Cheryl Cole. This is also what my
peers found when I conducted a focus group to find out
which one they believed to be better. In terms of my
pre-production the storyboard was an accurate
depiction of how I wanted my advert to look it, it was
very useful as I was able to see how my advert was
going to look
in terms of the
layout and the
shots. It made
the filming process a lot easier as I knew
what I wanted my shot to look like and how
long I wanted the shots etc., therefore also
making the editing process slightly easier as
well. The storyboard is almost the same as
the final production, however, the order of
some shots has been changed around and
some of the colours have changed. For
example I used blue, yellow, green, grey
and pink rather than my original intention
which was, blue, yellow, orange, pink and purple. This is because based on the
bright lighting I was using I felt like some of the colours wouldnt stand out as much,
the orange in particular. Other than that, my storyboard
matches the final production, for example the way it looks
(depite the fact shots have been moved) whats going on
in the shot is still the same as the production. I have also
added in side shots to my prouction. As you can see in the
storyboard it doesnt show any side shots however in my
final production I felt it would add a different point of view
and a different feeling to the advert.

Discussion Notes / Comments From Others

Originally my backdrop was going to be a plain white background using the green
screen to create the catwalk. However this changed after speaking to my teacher,
it was suggested that perhaps I build a small set. After
building the catwalk using a box I then decided to
change the backdrop to the New York skyline (as you can
see here in this screenshot), this is because New York is
one of the fashion capitals of the world therefore it would
give it that high-end fashion feel, which is what I wanted
to portray through the advert. Another idea I had
originally but then decided to adapt was the start of the
advert. I was going to have the shots cut every time the
singer says dum, however after discussing this idea with
one of my peers it was then decided to cut to the clap in
the song. I much preferred this idea as it would give a better chance to see all the
different coloured nails, as if Id cut it to the singing then it would go a lot faster. I
also received positive feedback from my advert, one of my teachers said that he
enjoyed the humorous aspect of it and the concept was well fitted to the audience.
Also that it was intimately appealing.

Visual Style
My final production both did and didnt come out how I expected in terms of visual
style. As I had to make the set it was a lot more hands on, I
also found there was more room for mistakes. When
building the set I had to cut up a cardboard box, the
problem I faced was that it wasnt a very clean cut. For
example here, you can see the top of the box and where
its been cut. Looking back on the final advert I should
have made sure it wasnt as
noticeable. However I was
happy with the positioning and
the speed of the fingers, the final result was what I had
originally pictured.
I was also incredibly happy with the lighting. I used the
lights in the studio so they were very bright which is what I
wanted. The lighting in this shot in particular I believed
worked quite well as the nails really stand out against the
red carpet, which is what I hoped for as then there would be more focus on the
product itself.
Another issue I encountered based on the visual style was that
sometimes it was hard positioning the camera to be able to cut
out the top of the actors hand, allow enough room for the back
drop as well as allow enough room for the fingers to get to the
end of the catwalk and still remain in shot. I think I managed to

cover this relatively well however in some parts of the advert it is clear that I had
trouble with this. For example here. The top of the nails are ever so slightly out of shot.
I believe I achieved a professional look throughout my advert however some
aspects such as the cutting of the set etc. give it a slightly less professional feel.
Despite this I feel all other aspects give it a professional feel such as the lighting and
the cutting. In comparison to other Barry M adverts in terms of visual style they relate
to my advert. For example the use of bright lighting and colours throughout is similar
to my advert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6n6-yghM04 this is an advert for
Barry M gelly nails and lips. This is somewhat similar to my advert as the colours are
emphasised which is what I tried to do through lighting and having the focus point
being the nails.
Soundscape
The sound in my advert, overall, I thought went really well and worked with the
advert and the target audience. I decided to choose Uptown Funk Mark Ronson ft.
Bruno Mars
(Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (Audio) ft. Bruno Mars - YouTube). I had this idea in my
head right from the start. I didnt find the music choice hard as immediately I knew I
wanted to use this song, I thought it could relate to the target audience based on
the fact its an incredibly popular song and has been for a while. It was performed
on The X Factor and that severely helped its popularity, it was released early due to
this performance. This played quite a big part in the reason I chose this song as the
audience I was aiming for are also part of The X Factors audience as they appeal
to families. In my final shot my slogan walk your own way was said. I think the
slogan itself works as it relates well to the advert however if I were to do it again I
would have recorded the sound in a different location. This is because I feel it echos
a bit too much making it harder to hear. I also had to pick a song which was
appropriate to the theme of the advert, so a song that worked well for a catwalk.
From research and looking at other catwalk shows such as some from London
fashion week I discovered that upbeat music tends to be used. This was a key
feature when choosing my song as I needed something with a beat the fingers
could move to. I believe uptown funk worked well in the catwalk scene as it is an
upbeat, happy song. The fact that the song had a beat meant that the fingers
could move to a rhythm/ beat.
Appropriateness To Audience
I feel I successfully achieved planning and filming this advert around my audience
and its appropriate for the audience I intend to market at. I believe the idea itself
will relate to my audience of female teenagers and women up to 25 because I think
the slight humour and the iconography in particular will appeal to them. My music
choice played a huge part in making it appropriate for the audience because not
only was I trying to appeal to my primary audience but also my secondary audience
of men wanting to buy this as a gift. I had to pick a song that would attract both of
these as it would be a lot harder trying to get men into a nail polish advert, therefore
I had to do this through sound. I feel I was successful with this as I chose an incredibly
popular song that has a large fan base of both genders and all ages. I feel the
slogan walk your own way works in particular for the younger side to my target

audience. This is because, subtly, painting your nails is a sense of freedom as you get
to choose what colour you want and when you do it etc. therefore I believe it works
well with the younger audience because freedom is key to them. This sense of
freedom is portrayed through the your own way part of the slogan. I had some
trouble when coming up with the slogan as I wanted something that people can
relate to, yet I needed to keep it short and snappy as its a slogan. I didnt think of
the slogan until quite far in to the planning. My original slogan was let your fingers
do the walking but I felt that was too simple and not incredibly original. It wasnt
until I spoke with one of my peers on how to adapt this slogan when I came up with
the new idea.
Comparison Of Finished Product To Original Intentions
The final production both reflects and differs from my original intention. The most
drastic change I made to my production I think was the fact I didnt use the green
screen for the most part. I only used it for a backdrop rather than the entire catwalk
which is what I originally intended to do. I felt it would be difficult to get the
positioning accurate as I still needed to be able to cut out the characters and their
arms. This was more easily achieved using a built catwalk as it gave a clearer
indication on the space we had to work with. One of the more minor
changes in my production was the choice of nail colour. Originally I wanted
to go for blue, pink, orange, yellow and purple. However I felt that some of
the colours, especially the orange, wouldnt stand out amongst the red
carpet considering I had bright lights pointing at the set. I decided to add in
some darker colours such as the grey and the dark green to emphasise the
product more. In this window you can see all the different colours against the
red carpet.
Not only did my plans change intentionally but also unintentionally. When it
got to the day of my filming I was originally going to use the portable lights
which were slightly smaller than the main lights attached to
the ceiling, but they broke. This meant I had to use the
larger lights. This is what made me decide to use the green
screen. My original idea was to use the green screen for the
entire production but once I changed to building a set I
wanted a white background, I was going to achieve this by
just having a white board placed at the back of the set.
However considering I had to move positions in the studio
(due to the lighting issue) I found I had filmed in front of the
green screen, it wasnt until the editing process when I decided I needed to make
use of the green screen behind, prompting me to decide on
the New York skyline back drop (as you can see here in this
screenshot).
Another change I encountered was the final shot. Originally I
wanted to have all the nail polishes lined up and have them
changing, like in this Barry M nails and lips advert (Barry M
Gelly Nails and Gelly Lips TV Advert - Barry M at Superdrug -

YouTube). However I didnt have enough nail polishes to do this so I decided to just
so 5 of the nail polishes Barry M sell.

Effectiveness Of Techniques
My intention was for my advert to be relatively simple in
terms of shot types and transitions etc., this is because I
felt the iconography played such a huge part in the
whole advert that a variety of techniques wasnt
necessarily needed. Within my advert mid-shots are
predominantly used. I did this because I felt a mid-shot
would show all elements of the set (the crowd, carpet
and backdrop) whilst having the fingers central in the catwalk. I thought this would
work well as a big part of a catwalk is the atmosphere the audience give. Here you
can see the start of my advert, everything is in shot
giving it a more fashion feel as it is clear that its a
catwalk. However, I varied my shot types occasionally by
adding in a side-angle mid shot. This is because I felt it
would be dull and boring if all I included was front-angle
mid-shots. I felt doing the side-angle shot made the
advert look slightly more exciting and gave the
impression of a slightly different point of view. Mainly
because you can see all of the audience on the other
side, suggesting the camera is in the audience on the
other side of the catwalk. My intention was for then the audience to feel as if they
were there and part of this. I feel like I should have
varied my techniques a little more, for example by
perhaps adding in a birds-eye-view shot. Although
because the advert is just under 30 seconds I felt like if I
had too many shot types then it would take away the
focus of the iconography and the product itself.
Effectiveness of Advert
I wanted my finished production to attract my intended
audience, sell the product in an appropriate way and
be an original idea, I feel I achieved all of these. I believe attracting your target
audience is key to a successful advert, I attempted to do this through song choice
and the concept of the advert. I feel the plot attracts to women 15-25 as it doesnt
target any particular psychographics. This was an important part of my planning as it
needs to be an aspiration weve all had in order for it to relate to both the younger
section as well as the older section. I feel the advert portrays the product
appropriately as the main focus in this advert obviously is the fingers as that takes up
most of the attention on screen. As you can see here the fact that the fingers are
central make it clear that that is the focal point in the advert.

Technical Qualities
In terms of technical qualities, my editing was relatively simple to edit and not
incredibly time consuming. I had a very clear idea already as to how I wanted my
advert to look. However I did make a few adjustments along the editing process. For
example at the end when my slogan is said, I wasnt aware that the sound would
echo as much as it did. This was a problem as I couldnt
find an appropriate place to re-record it in the time I had
left. However I felt slightly this issue was overcome as I
decided to increase the sound of the speaking and
continue to have the soundtrack playing in the back. This
took a small amount of the attention away from the
slogan however I still wanted that message to be clearly
portrayed. I feel by increasing the volume of the speech
and reducing the volume of the soundtrack it balanced it
out enough in order for the echoing sound to not be as noticeable. By adding a
zoom effect (as you can see in this screenshot from my production) between the
final catwalk shot and the ending brand shot, I felt this added to the illusion of being
part of the catwalk as the zoom into the predominantly
white and cream coloured shot gave the advert a
dream-like feel. The lighting I used was incredibly bright,
originally I wanted to use the portable lights, however
due to the technical difficulty I had to use the larger
lights attached to the ceiling, these were incredibly
bright which is what I wanted as I wanted enough light
to light up the whole hand yet still make the nail polish
stand out. I believe I achieved this in my advert as each
nail colour is clear. In this window you can see the
lighting is incredibly bright on the whole of the shot emphasising the nail colour.

Aesthetic Qualities
I feel my advert is nice on the eye and aesthetically pleasing in some aspects,
however there are certain moments in my advert I feel need improvement. I think
the start is how I wanted it to look, for example the shot cutting to the clap in the
song I feel works well with the advert and the song. However the positioning is slightly
off.

Above is the start of my advert, here you can see the positioning is slightly off as the
image on the right is a little less central than the image on the left. This was because
each time an actor sat on the table next to the set, the set would move ever so
slightly, I failed to realise this until I got to the editing stage of my production.
However I like the precision of the cutting when the shots cut to the clap. In my
advert I have recreated the aesthetic catwalk in terms of the movements and the
set. I have referenced the imagery of fashion as people always think of a catwalk
when thinking of a fashion show, this is key to the advert because if it didnt
effectively reflect the imagery of fashion then it wouldnt work as well.
What would you improve upon?
Overall, I believe as a whole my advert worked and marketed the product
appropriately and to the necessary audience with only minor improvements. I feel I
should have improved on making sure the positioning of my advert was perfect, by
looking over my footage before I left the studio to decide there and then if any refilming was necessary. This would make the advert more visually pleasing overall. I
would also improve upon the set itself and the cutting, I feel it isnt a very clean cut
around the box and it is quite clear to see that it is a box. However, despite this I feel
the advert works well in promoting the product and engaging the audience.