Final Planning Before Filming

Cast
Adam Dean - Main Protagonist, Runner

Crew
Christopher Dean - Director, Camera 1 (Creative Vado HD) and Editor
Adam Dean - Editor
Haran Timana - Camera 2 (Casio High Speed Exilim EX-FH20)

For our AS media coursework our group made a video called 'Parity.' Given the success of this we decided to keep our roles for this years coursework the same as we had experience in our given roles. Despite a few members going their separate ways we didn't have much trouble in organising for filming. Adam, who played the murder victim in last years film, stayed in his acting role due to his success in this field last year. In last years piece I was in charge of camera 2. With Haran, who did camera 1 last year, leaving to make a music video I decided to take up the role of camera 1 as well as director. Haran offered to help out on the day of filming and as someone who had expressed a keen interest in the slow motion camera, having used it in his own A2 coursework, we decided that he would be best suited to film with this particular camera. Our only problem came when deciding who would edit our video. Last year our video was edited by Sam who had now left to create a video game for his coursework. Neither me or Adam had any great experience in editing but Adam expressed his enthusiasm so we decided it would be a joint effort with Adam doing the majority.

As Haran had offered to help out we needed to decide on a time to film when we were all free. As we had media studies on a Wednesday morning it seemed an ideal time considering we all had the afternoon off should we need it. We had provisionally set a date of 15th February, however when it snowed the week before we thought that it would emphasise the effect of the drink if it was visibly cold as that is when it is hardest to exercise for obvious reasons. We therefore brought it forward a week to Wednesday 8th February and started filming.

Pre Production - Storyboards

Before thinking about filming we decided to create a storyboard to get our initial ideas onto paper so that we could plan more thoroughly scene by scene. Although still in the early stages it allowed us to think in more detail about the final product. By using images and a brief description there is a clear indication of what we wanted to achieve at this stage of planning with the first scenes shown on the left and the later scenes below.

As you can see the storyboards show a male protagonist exercising. As he begins to tire the colour fades from the advert until he stops. He then starts drink the 'Regenerate' energy drink which returns the colour. He then sets off again showing an obvious improvement on before and then to finnish the advert we will have a close up of the product clearly showing the brand name in order to get the name out to the viewers.

   

By preparing the storyboards it allowed us to think of any props that we would need when we came round to filming. We wanted the runner to be wearing headphones as if the runner was listening to the soundtrack featured on the advert. We also wanted him to dress in the typical exercising clothing in order to make our advert as authentic as possible.

Testing the Slow Motion Camera

Whilst developing our ideas we had the idea that the protagonist of our advert would replenish his energy in slow motion. This would give the maximum time for our brand name to be shown on screen, and applying the hypodermic model would result in our brand name being absorbed by the viewer. It would also emphasize the effect that the drink has on the protagonist as the rest of the advert is not only in normal speed but he would be sprinting which suggests a vast improvement in performance as a result of the energy drink.

We thought it would be best to test the slow motion camera before deciding on whether we would use it in our advert. This particular test was filmed at 1,000 fps and shows the flicking of the earlobe.

Using Social Media To Support Our Advertisement

Social Media consumption is one of the fastest growing industries. With this knowledge we decided to use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter in order to help promote our product. This advertisement will supplement our main TV advertisement and get our brand name known not just in the UK but throughout the world. These pages will act in the same way that 'word of mouth' advertising would as joining these pages is broadcast on the users respective page. This spreads the brand name faster than just our TV advertisement alone. It is also free for us to make these pages making it one of the best value for money advertisements around.

Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Regenerate/326761610709631?sk=info 

Twitter Page -    https://twitter.com/#!/UK_Regenerate

Ideas For Our TV advert.

After discovering the codes and conventions of adverts and how the slight changes they take for energy drink advertisement we had to try and apply these whilst brainstorming ideas for our final product. Our initial ideas (pictured right) met some of these conventions, especially showing our product to someway enhance performance. After this brainstorm our preference was towards idea number 1 which we decided to develop further.

Further Developments
Idea number one was that a man begins his exercise with everything as normal. As he begins to tire the colour fades from the shot, until he drinks some Regenerate which brings the colour back into his workout. We then decided that to emphasize the effects that drinking Regenerate will have we would film the drinking part would be in slow motion. Also rather than continue as he was before the workout would intensify and it would finish with a sprint and the final shot would be a racing style finish.

Sound

We decided that all sound in our advert would be non-diegetic. The main sound would be the soundtrack. We wanted the soundtrack to be music the viewer could imagine exercising to. We also wanted the soundtrack to reflect the advert, i.e when the protagonist slows down to replenish energy the music would also slow down. In the end we decided to use Avicii - Levels, because of its beat which we could imagine someone exercising to. Also the lyrics in the clip we would use are "I get a feeling that I've never had before," this worked because it could imply to the viewer that the product has an effect like none other.  Other non-diegetic sound we considered was the use of a voice over to complement the visual effects that the drink has. We decided to make a decision on this at a later date.

Setting

We wanted a location outdoors which wasn't restricted like a gym or fitness centre. This was partly due to the fact that we wanted the runner to be alone and looking for motivation which he seeks through our product. Also filiming in a gym may have complications such as needing permission from staff and members. We chose our final location due to its remote setting and also the bridge which was ideal for a long sprint finnish after the product had been consumed.