Evaluation

My Evaluation

Overall I thought my final moving image and print based advert went well and it looked how I wanted it to look. I think it achieved its purpose of being an advert that plays with human emotion as the background music achieves this. I think I also came across as a warm friendly character in the advert (in fact one person in my media group said that this really came across) which is something I really wanted to achieve, as I thought the Apple advert I watched lacked this human expression and was slightly irritating. Other people online agreed with me on this, one person said: “I hate this commercial” on Reddit. As for the print based adverts I was really pleased with them – Molly ( member of the media group) said they look close to professionally shot official Apple photos. I shot these using an LED panel light, a reflector and multiple sheets of paper and then took the pictures using my phone (iPhone X) – they turned out really well and I will definitely remember this photography technique for future projects. I think the aspect of my moving image advert that didn’t go as well as I hoped was the audio quality. You can hear some background noise the audio quality isn’t really high quality which takes away from my high quality apple advert that I wanted to try and recreate. In fact I asked 5 other media students in my class, and they agreed that the background noise was irritating did take away from the premium finish I was going for, that  being said I definitely did improve it a lot by using Adobe audition to remove some of the background noise such as the air conditioning. One of the main features I used in Adobe audition was the spectogram tool which to to identify and remove the fan noise, furthermore I adjusted the gain and EQ of the audio to clean it up and make it sound better. I felt I really got to grips with using Adobe audition and I understand how to use many of its features. Tony showed how to use adjustment layers on Premiere Pro to help brighten and clean up the image of my moving based advert. If I had more time I would have either re-shot  my advert and ensure there was no background noise, or I would have re-recorded the audio using the condenser microphone in the sound booth so that the audio quality of my voice is more high quality. In terms of my print-based advert the aspect that I really could have improved was ensuring both the moving and image based adverts link together more  – some people in my group said that they didn't really see a clear ink between the moving and image based adverts, which meant the overall advertising campaign wasn't as effective. 

I think my TV advert was successful in addressing my target audience, as I played the role of a senior TV editor for CNN news which would be a high paid, and usually a role filled by a white middle class member of the public, and all these aspects make up my target audience. In fact I asked 10 people in my media class, as they were in the target audience age range, and they said it looked professional and premium just like an Apple commercial. One person (Tom) that it looked like a professional advert based on other technology adverts he had seen on TV. Furthermore as I’m targeting my advert to people in New York I am speaking in an American accent to address the American audience which helps me target my specific audience, again the 10 media students I asked thought this really made the advert look authentic, one said “the accent sounds like a genuine American accent, and it really adds to the authenticity of the advert.”

My print based adverts look cleaned and professional according to the 10 people I asked in my media class however they did say they lack information on the product (MacBook Pro) so if I had more time I would definitely rectify this by including more important information.  One person (Nathan) said that previous technology adverts he has seen had more information on the product, such as information about the computer processor and which to him was really important to know in an advert.

Overall I thought my time management for this project was good. I managed to plan when I was going to do what, for example filming and editing. I ensured I stuck to this schedule and ensured I left time close to the deadline to make any finish touches, and so I wouldn’t have to rush. I really learnt how important time management is during this project to ensure you meet deadlines. One aspect of this project that I ensured I done was working with other people to help me create my moving image advert. I asked Holly (a member of my group) to help me film my advert and I really learnt how to work well in a team. I had to direct her for the different camera shots and angles that I wanted, and she managed to really help me pull off my advert. Furthermore I requested the help of Nathan to instruct me with some of the features in Premiere Pro, which also really helped. Working with other people also helped me improve my confidence.

Research played a big part in developing my target audience. To get my target audience I had to do a lot of research into the type of people that buy Apple products such as the MacBook Pro. I found a lot of information from my research such as Apples main target audience is middle class high earners and that there main age focus group for the MacBook Pro is 17 to 34. I also found out that the USA was Apples largest market, so using this information I decided to target my advert campaign in the wealthier areas of New York, and use the New York Times to advertise my print based advert in as this has a middle class and high earner target audience as well, so this would be a great paper to advertise in. Secondary research played a big part in my research for my target audience as I found out many facts and statistics from different websites that allowed me to come up with a specific target audience for my advertising campaign. I also used primary research, for my print based advert campaign as this allowed me to find out what people of my age (teenagers and young adults make a large proportion of my target audience) thoughts on different adverts which then allowed me to ensure my adverts incorporated the aspects they liked about certain print based adverts such as ensuring my advert is not to dark and that it has a premium look. The research I gathered really allowed me to develop my idea into my final product – it gave me a specific target audience to focus on which ensured my advert was short and concise. I do believe however that if I had more time, more research would have been beneficial to my project. For instance I think I should have done more research into the setting of Apple adverts, I now know that the settings used in Apple adverts and other tech commercials are more clean and simplistic, whereas the setting I used was not clean and premium looking for my advert.

It's fair to say that I gained a good depth of knowledge into the media and advertising industry. One of the main elements of the advertising industry I learnt was the wide range of techniques advertisers used to persuade consumers to buy their products. For example I learnt that advertisers use Pathos, Logos and Ethos to help sell their products. I ensured I incorporated some of these techniques, for example I used the pathos technique (an appeal to emotion) I used emotional uplifting music to achieve this, and one person that I asked in my media group said that"the music is really inspirational and makes you want to buy the laptop", which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. I also used the ethos technique - I played the part of professional editor for CNN, and some of the people in my media group did in fact say that I did and act like a well respected senior person so therefore the things I said about the Mac Book were more credible. Finally I used the Logos technique such as explaining that the MacBook Pro has a quad core processor, which means that there is an appeal to logic or reason.


Evaluation notes:

1. What:

• Happened.                 e.g. Shoot, edit, FX, how, what, where, when, why
• Role                          Director, doing

2. So what:

• Elements of situation              e.g. Did you apply from your planning
• Theory

3. Now what:

• Potentially is my plan for the next time the happens.   e.g. therefore write in this section new theory and new practical knowledge.