Skills Development (11/11/10)

For this practical lesson, I learned and improved on two different skills.

These skills are storyboarding and the use of a video camera. The storyboarding skills I have improved on or necessary so that future projects have structure and so that both the performer and I know exactly what to do and when. I also improved and learned new techniques on simply using the camera is this project. With no previous experience, it was imperative that learning how to use a camera was my main priority. I will need this in future projects because without it, each project I create will look very amateur and ruin the effects they will try and create.

Both skills used were not at a very high standard with no outstanding strengths on either of them. For the storyboarding, it was very rushed drawings and the writing was very hard to decipher. I will do a better job on this in future projects. The camera work wasn't very good but that would be expected at the first attempt. I made simple errors in the filming such as stopping it too early or starting it too late. These will naturally stop as I do more projects.

Both of these skills will benefit me in the Unit 3 project as I will need to make a detailed storyboard of my final design so that no errors are likely to happen. Also the camera skills that I have picked up on this project will be very important as they are the main things used throughout the course.

I will need to develop both of these skills further as I struggled to come to terms with them. I should naturally get used to both of these processes as time elapses which would be ideal.

Introduction Project

Induction Evaluation

For my induction project, I have been set the task to rebrand a product which is targeted at the older age group being 50+. My product was a can of prunes. I have rebranded the prunes and changed the target market to the younger generation being aged from 16 to 21. In the project I have developed many skills which, prior to the competition of the project, had not been as good. These skills include the use of “Photoshop” on my final print image, using a camera to create a story board of events for a 30 second television advert and my ability to think of a sufficiently good idea that can be used for the advert itself. Though I have developed my “Photoshop” skills, they are still a big weakness in developing adverts and print pictures. If I were to repeat this project, I would have to get more knowledge of the software I am using first as I struggled with it on many occasion.

A skill from my initial assessment which I have used in my Induction project is Storyboarding. I have used this effectively as it is a good base to work around if I produced my moving image. It gave clear details on how the scene is set and what the actors would be doing. It also states whether any sound effects are needed; this is so I know if I need a Foley artist to do the sounds stated.  This work shows a clear example of use of a story board which is the first time I have used one so I have developed my skills by doing something new. If I were to achieve a standard of work that could rival professionals I would have to use the software a lot and get used to all of the features of it so I could maximize its use and make a project at a professional level. I would also have to create better print pictures as the one I have used for my final design is slightly blurry. I could combat this by either altering the settings for the camera I used or I could simply retake the picture.

Before I rebranded my product which was prunes, they were aimed at 50+ age group. The new target audience after I rebranded my product was to the 16 – 21 age groups. Also, we have targeted both sexes and heterosexual people for the product. On the print advert, I believe that the purples I have used for both the writing and the colour at the bottom of the advert attract both the male and female audiences as purple isn’t really a feminine or masculine colour so it can be used for both sexualities. As it is very different from the background picture, it contrasts and makes it very eye catching and noticeable which grabs the audience’s attention. I used Photoshop to do this and have developed my skills with that software.

Elements of my project which haven’t gone as well as I had hoped are the photographs used on my storyboard as some of them are blurry and not exactly how I would like them.  Also, I would have took another shot for my final print picture as it is again not exactly how I would have wanted the picture to turn out. If I had another opportunity to do this project I would have taken a lot more pictures for my storyboard and thought of and produced a few more original shots. The other shots I would take would be different camera angles and settings so I can choose which of them is the best and decide how my advert will look using more than just the one picture I took for each shot. Another thing I would improve is my final print image as it looks very simplistic and doesn’t have much detail.

My project is not fully tailored to meet the demands of my target audience as the techniques I have used to do not necessarily advertise directly towards my target audience. As my target audience is towards both sexes, I should have used colours which would have attracted both to the product but the colours I have actually used are more feminine colours. Also, my final print picture could be improved my making it more interesting as it is very simplistic now. This could work in my favour as it makes it easier to understand and nicer to look at but may also backfire and turnout boring. This shows my knowledge and understanding of market segmentation as it has made me think about how I should sell different products to different people and how I can please more than one group of people in one advert. This has been done through analysis of my finished project and how small details of it make it targeted to a specific market.