The aim of this project was to create a two-minute visual storyboard advert on Doctor Marten’s Jeans for a mixed gender. My colleagues were Chris Foley, Dominic Lintner and Stuart Rippington. Before the production, we researched into existing television adverts, the brand and the product of Doctor Marten and did an audience research into the already established name of DM and modernised it to the 21st century styles of clothing. We had many varied initial ideas; each good point was taken and formed the final idea. The final idea was teenagers wearing DM jeans doing crazy things bending the rules. This related to the brief as it shows the youth of today and their lifestyles.
Process
Before the production, we used planners, production logs, researched into locations, made storyboards, shooting schedule and script, exchanged phone numbers and made an edit schedule to plan for the production. During production we went into town and did some photography using our camera skills, we used many techniques such as framing, composition, different distances, multiple angles and perspectives and different shot styles as it makes an advert more lively- the main point of our advert.
After the shots had been taken they were all put together and edited; a narrative was constructed, transitions were used to link shots together, text titles, cropping and framing was used, every single shot had a use of filter and a music soundtrack was added. Analysis We have created an advert for DMJ, it appeals to a contemporary audience- youth. The advert is approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds. It features a sequence of still images together flowing like a film with a music soundtrack to make it more appealing. Each shot has a filter on it- Martian atmosphere, a faint red colour; we have done this as this has made our advert more unified. The redness represents the craziness of our world. Also, titles have been added to make the narrative clearer.
The advert starts off by a DMJ CD being inserted into a PC and it starts loading the advert saying ‘loading DMJ…’ Our music soundtrack is where’s your head at by basement Jaxx; we chose this because the music artist are popular with the youth. It starts with a loud singing of the chorus and as it carries on it shows teenagers walking into the library wearing DMJ, then it shows a no mobile phone sign, immediately after this shot there is a long shot of one of the teenagers is talking loudly on a mobile; then it shows a long shot of them climbing on a bookcase and falling off, then they move onto a shopping-centre; a long shot of them falling off benches, medium long shots of one of them walking into a lift and lying on the floor the next, then there are some more long shots of them in shops mucking around wearing tutus.
After they go onto the road, there is a medium close-up shot of them climbing fences to dangerous areas and medium shots of them pushing each other around in a trolley in a car park, medium shots of them going into the wrong toilet. Finally there are establishing shots of the bus stop and several very long and long shots of buses and them jokingly trying to stop buses and getting run over and they get arrested- close up shots of them next to a police car. They are bending the rules.
The desired feel we were hoping for was liveliness, outrageous and cheekiness; the craziness is representing a celebration of misbehaviour. The models represent the youth of real life and their everyday things; they are bending the rules having a party. Their dress codes represent the trends of the youth today (popular culture) and their gesture code is happy and always having a laugh. The location we chose was a local shopping centre where the youth like to hang out.
To add to the desired feel, several angle perspectives, distances, framing and composition were used and many different transitions have been used crazily, e.g. instead of using cross zooms into the next shot we cross zoom in to the same shot into people’s faces and reaction to the models behaviour, at the bus scene cross zooms are used madly and fast zooming into upside down buses and reverse shots all in a flash. The idiocy creates a sense of enigma so the audience don’t know what is going on until at the end the slogan comes, a word play- it’s not our fault…it’s in our genes and it is all clear.
The soundtrack, pace and rhythm fit together well because each shot length was different and it made it more crazy, the soundtrack suits the images well as it is related to silliness as well. The advert was well anchored and the DMJ brand was brought out well because on every text shot, a DMJ logo was at the bottom of the screen; it is set on the street making it urban and the red buses anchor the British ness of the brand. Not all shots were used; some needn’t to be there and was not included.
Evaluation After completing our advert, we conducted our post-production. We created a storyboard, accurately drawing and colouring in the key shots/frame of the advert, we held an audience focus group so that we can evaluate from more perspectives, we had a one to one questioning and we compared our advert to a real media advert. After looking at the audience questionnaires I found a trend in responses, most of our audience said that the play on words at the end should be jeans not ‘genes’ but we realised if it was jeans then our audience won’t get the word play. But most of the audience questionnaires we gathered were positive and they were able to identify the product, what type of media it was and they would remember it as it was well anchored.
Comparing the advert to real television adverts, we found it was quite positive. The pace, rhythm and interest matched quite well or was similar to ones on T.V. I think that our advert will work and be accepted by DMJ and should be broadcasted on popular youth channels such as MTV, Q, E4 and channel 4. I achieved what aimed for and we worked well together. The SFX, transitions, filters, images and sound fitted well together meeting the brief. But I can see that the advert is targeted more towards males, as the advert contains no females and this should be changed.
