Critical Response
The Advert I'm making will be talking about Vans shoes, Specifically about how fitting they are in any scenario that You find yourself in . But, this advert's main focus will mostly be on the Business aspect , like how fitting they are in business attire.
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social group or issues?
My advert challenges this idea by having an otherwise typical looking business man, living in your typical rich neighborhood do something that is completely out of the ordinary. Like using a skateboard and dusty old Vans shoes to work. Generally, a normal shoe advert would always show their product in the best light, looking all new and good. But My advert shows the product as something that is used and old, which challenges this idea that a product must always be new to be good.
There's a very clear Binary opposite in this entire advert, like when you see the sharp & slick looking business shoes compared to old & dusty Vans shoes, Which I can only describe as New vs Old. During the advert, before the person uses the shoe, He walks all classy and cool, shoulders up and hands in pockets but after He wore it, He becomes much more relaxed and loses His Businessman stance, like riding the skateboard much like how a regular skateboarder would. This helps establish the fact that You don't need to always act like a typical business man to be one, sometimes you just need to try something new like an 'Adventure'. This is also why I chose the motto " Start Your day with an Adventure"
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
The audience of my advert would likely be middle age men coming from medium to high income households, that I estimate would be around the age of 28 - 45 years old. Although my target audience is specifically men coming from business backgrounds, which typically represented in the media as classy, exclusive and fancy. As if they would expect nothing more than perfection. The way I show this is by, having the MC live and act like it. The house in clean, expensive looking and spacious and the way He walks really supports that idea of Him being in power. That way, looking back at the reception theory, people who are in similar households and jobs would have a preferred reading towards the advert and therefore be much more interested on the advert.
Another way I attract audiences is by using the Hermeneutic Code from Barthes 5 Code. Directly from the start of the scene we get asked this question of where and who exactly is this person? Why is the stickers and pictures shown with so much detail? Which sort of corresponds to the Semantic Code as those stickers do give a flicker of a meaning, like this person used to be a skateboarder which would play a big part in the later part of the adverts. But then again, if the audience does not have any reference or what we call a Cultural code about those stickers, Then they would have no idea on what they would imply. But what I would think is what keeps the audience interested is the symbolic code that is in the advert. The two contrasting elements of old and new or proper and 'improper' is really what keeps this advert exiting, without it, It would be far less interesting.
Personally, I'd liked if the advert would be shown in news or popular channels such as CNN, FOX, BBC and etc. as that's where most of my audience of business men would likely be tuned in at. For the time, Morning and Night time is preferred , as that's when my audience is either preparing for work or got back home from work and in most cases, view counts are highest during these times.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
As for the process of making the project, At first I found hard to find inspiration of the various angles and shots that would give the most meaning towards my advert, on top of that I'm not a very good at drawing which didn't help. But, as time passes, I figured out the shots that I found most interesting and conveys the most meaning not only on a physical standpoint but also in a theoretical standpoint. For example, the slow zoom to the stickers really emphasizes them on a physical standpoint as it draws the audiences attention to it. But in theory, the stickers are useful as a reference points for the audience. My drawings had also improved as I had practiced and obtained many refences online or through my friends, where we discussed the various styles. But what really made my storyboard change, was the usage of color. At first, I didn't use them at all as I thought it wouldn't be necessary. But as Mr Nick pointed out, color can be very useful to highlight things that I want people to see in my storyboard, I can also use it for color coding, where I can just color a specific shape for example in green and people would likely link it to associated meanings like Trees or grass. This is why I use color much more extensively in my final draft.
In addition to that, I made a few changes to my plot in the advert. In my very first draft, I had the idea of the MC jumping through buildings, going through the streets and doing parkour. As I'd hoped it would subvert the audiences expectation even more, As You don't tend to see anyone especially Business people doing stuff like that. But based on what Mr Nick had said and after some thought, It did seem a little bit overkill and would likely be a lot harder to draw. So I stepped back and decided that the advert would end when the person skated to the horizon, Whatever happened to Him, I would leave it to the audience's speculation which again is a play on Barthes Hermeneutic code.
4. How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?
In this project, I used a variety of technologies to achieve my goals. The main one I would say is BlogSpot. This website is really useful for organizing all my work into one single space and makes it easily accessible for me, my friends, the teacher and audiences. This allows me to work far more efficiently as I wouldn't be worrying about where I put my work. It also provides good reference material as all my other classmates have their work published there.
Another Website would be Google and YouTube. Besides BlogSpot, they gave me the most inspiration and reference for my work. All three of my advert analysis came from videos on YouTube and some videos like 'How to Draw a Storyboard' and 'All Media Angles or shots' really helped in developing my skills and integrating it into the project itself. On top of that, Google had allow me to view various other works coming from other students outside of my class, which benefits me greatly as It gives a different perspectives and even more references on how to get a better or the best scores. For example, I got the idea of my last shot ( Shot 11.2 ) from the internet, I put the picture on my Timeline essay in BlogSpot. Also, the style of walking and the overall design of my character is all inspired from the internet. I didn't know much on how to draw a Tuxedo before, but I'd say it turned out pretty nice as a result of those references.
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