Evaluation

Overall, I think that our stop motion animation turned out successful. Our target audience also agrees so I think that is a good indication. We produced an advert advertising the energy drink ‘red bull.’ The red bull can had a pair of googly eyes attached to it, to show emotion and to give the impression that the can is alive. The advert starts with a shot of a man waking up, looking extremely tired and hung over. He desperately shouts “red bull”, which shows that the product is a necessity when people are feeling how he is. This is followed by a shot of a Red bull can which is placed on a shop shelf. The can will wiggle from side to side as if it is responding to the voice. The audience then watches the can travel by itself through various scenes until it reaches to the man who is in need of it.

Our advert appeared to be quite successful, however it did have its downsides. The majority of our target audience said that they wouldn’t make any changes, whereas the other half suggested some. Laurie Butcher said “you should have a tagline at the end to make it clearer”. I personally thought this too. This would have been a clear indication to the audience what the brand is and it would’ve grabbed their attention. We originally were going to have a sign come up at the end, but we unfortunately didn’t as we were short of time. Issy Lock said “maybe at the end you could’ve made it a bit more clearer that the guy was in need of the drink”. When viewing our advert to the class, people had also said this to me. When the guy drinks the redbull, he should’ve looked relieved that he has drunk it. The main reason why people would want the drink is to feel relieved and refreshed, so as Issy has stated, if we were to film the advert again, we would shoot this scene again. Film makers should always ask the audience they are targeting their opinions in order to produce a successful outcome. Their opinions are what matters most as the overall outcome is targeted at them, so they obviously need to love it.

 

Throughout the advert there are noises which the can is making. This makes the advert fun, and reminds the audience that the can is alive. We produced the noises the can was making, by recording it on garage band, then changing the pitch to make the noises higher. We gathered the other sound effects, such as the can dropping on the ground, from garage band and youtube. I thought this was a very successful part of our advert, as the sound effects were precise and on queue. We recorded the voice at the end of the advert, using a microphone, then connecting and saving the footage to the computer.

By creating the illusion that the can was moving, we used stop motion, by taking a picture then moving the can ever so slightly each time. Even though the outcome will be very effective, the problem about this technique was that if the camera jolts slightly, the sequence is ruined. A problem we had whilst doing this technique, was that half way through our recording, the sun came out and there was a defined shadow on the concrete. So we therefore had to wait a long time until it disappeared. We had to wait for many things and people that suddenly came in the scene, so using this technique was also very time consuming. However this technique has proved to be very popular with our target audience. Georgia Imrie especially liked the style and way that it was filmed and thought it made the advert really interesting.

One thing we thought was quite difficult, was moving the can and having a person walk in the scene at the same time. Through each movement of the leg that the person made, we had to also move the can slightly. I think we should’ve just had the person walking and not of moved the can, because our outcome of this scene looks quite unprofessional. When showing the people in my class our advert, Harry said one of the improvements we could’ve made, was this scene and suggested we should’ve re tweaked it. 
The main shots we used were close ups and mid shots. When the can slid down the log from the bench, we recorded a hand held over the shoulder shot, which we thought looked very effective. We had to do a lot of preparation to finally create our advert. We didn’t completely follow all of our preparation in our production folder, e.g storyboard, but they all gave a good indication into what we were going to produce. Our production team all worked fairly well together. I think the main thing is to all agree on the idea and roles set in order to work successfully. We had a number of discussions and differences on our own ideas such as different storylines and what the can should be doing. We eventually agreed on what to do.

 

 I would compare our advert to the works of present stop motion animator Tim Burton. Both his and our animations bring things to life which shouldn’t be alive. I would compare our animation to the music video for blur-coffee and tv. Both this and our animation consist of an object made to come alive, travelling by itself through various scenes. However they have produced the character using special effects on the computer, whereas we have just used a can and the stop motion technique. I would also compare our advert to the lucozade energy drink advert. Firstly because they are both advertising energy drinks. Secondly the audience is watching something travelling through various scenes in both adverts. I feel like this advert is more effective than ours, because when the actors finally get the drink, they give a sense of relief and happiness, whereas in our advert I don’t think we properly convey that message. Another advert that could be compared to ours, is the “animated coca cola coke factory” advert. Here, is also a drink which is being travelled across different scenes of the factory. All the characters helping the coke bottle to travel, are animated and make noises, like we have done, to make their character fun and effective. Our advert used pixilation of live actors, as do many stop motion animations. One example is the music video for coldplay – strawberry swing.

If it wasn’t for the pioneers and developers, we would never of been able to create this advert. They were the ones who gave people inspiration, who then gave the people ideas to develop something even more extraordinary. To exhibit my work to a range of audiences, I submitted our advert to an online competition.

 

Overall, I think we produced a fairly good advert, reaching to our target audience and target channel. My opinion can be backed up as all of our target audience said that the advert makes them want to buy the product and they think that it would be suitable to be broadcasted on e4. However, I do find that our target audience could be adjusted to a younger audience. I feel that the character is slightly childish and a younger audience may appreciate it more. We did make the song choice suitable to the advert as Maggie Coffee had pointed out.

I feel like we used the stop motion technique to a high standard and used a range of techniques to a standard quality. I feel through doing this topic I have achieved many different skills that I wasn’t so confident with at the beginning of term. I have especially become confident with the stop motion technique, general camera skills and using final cut pro. Not only have I learnt skills through creating my own animation, I have learnt skills along the way through researching different animators.