Holly Powell - Final Major Project
Alcohol Moving Image Advert
Wine Bottle
I bought a bottle of J2O Apple and Watermelon Spritz to use as a replacement for a wine bottle, because I thought it would be silly to buy wine and have to pour it away to pretend to be drinking the glass. I created my own labels to cover up the J2O labels, and went through a process, which is below.
1.
I started off by drawing a rectangle out, and then I drew a circle inside of it. I erased all of the circle except the parts where it crossed over the top of the rectangle. I copied this and rotated it to make sure it was equal at the bottom in terms of size and placement.
2.
I decided to colour the label in teal, because it's a bright and eye-catching colour, but it isn't too overpowering. I thought it would look good as I could also add a darker blue for another part of the label, and I wanted to stick to one kind of colour scheme so that the label looks consistent and there's not too much going on.
3.
I drew another rectangle inside so that I can write the information on the label.
4.
I deleted the blue colour from the middle rectangle in order to be able to colour it a darker blue. I wanted to get this done first and then add the information on afterwards.
5.
I deleted the black outline from the middle rectangle and rounded off the edges. I coloured the inside of the rectangle a darker blue, so that it worked with the teal colour. I thought this looked pretty good and worked well together.
6.
I used the font Brush Script MT for the title 'Howeller's Rosé Wine' because I wanted the words to look fancy, to resemble a typical wine bottle label. I added the 'Established 1999' and '2017' in the Lucida Handwriting font, because I wanted to use this for the main type of text giving the information on a label. The Brush Script MT is for decoration, as it's my own design for the name, whereas the Lucida Handwriting is for the rest of the other pieces of information that you'd find on all wines labels.
7.
Since it's rosé wine, I drew a rose in my SketchBook app and added a darker blue outline, to stick with the theme of using different colour blues. I added this image to the bottle label, and I think it look pretty good. I got feedback from my peers that the rose was very well drawn, and the fonts helped make the label look more sophisticated, and give a sense of professionalism.
1.
I also made a smaller wine label for the top of the bottle. I started off with the original blank label I'd made and added another outline around it. I then made the height smaller and left the width the same. I wanted to do this because I thought
that I could add more colour to this label instead of just keeping it as one teal colour.
2.
I coloured the middle teal to stay consistent with the other wine label, so that it would be recognisable that they're for the same bottle of wine.
3.
I added the image of the rose I drew again for this label because I wanted it to be my distinctive feature - I wanted someone to look at it and understand what it stands for. I deleted the dark blue outline from the rose and instead placed it against the teal, which worked out nicely together. I felt like if I had the dark blue outline around the rose still, it wouldn't look as effective as it does on the other label.
4.
I experimented with colour for the outer part of the label, and coloured it a gold yellow kind of colour to see how it looked. Originally, I liked it, but after one of my peers told me that it didn't look right, I started looking at the colour differently. I realised it looked wrong and didn't match the other label - it made this label look off.
5.
I changed the colour to a dark blue, like the colour that had outlined the rose. This consistency with blue worked well, and I thought that it looked a lot better than the gold. I was happy with this colour, and I was happy looking at the label and seeing how similar it was to the first label.
6.
I used Lucida Writing again to write 'EST 1999' on the sides of the label, to tie in with the first label, and to have a tiny bit of information on there. I thought this would make it even better, because it would be obvious that it's for the same bottle, and it establishes the skill of branding.
Bottle of 'Wine' Before and After
I used the labels I created and took the J2O labels off of the bottle, replacing them. I liked the way this looked, at to a degree it looked professional. I was happy with the way the bottle turned out and the way the label looked, because it looks like it could be a real wine bottle if the labels were created with a different type of material.
Pre-Production Documents
I've put together this shot list to figure out exactly what I want the advert to look like and follow. NOTE: This note is from after all of the filming and editing was finished. I didn't follow the shot list exactly how I wrote it out, but I believe the finished advert is still quite similar to what I had planned. Some of the shots I had originally wrote aren't what I followed when filming, but the direction and the plot is close to what I planned and I'm happy with the finished advert.
Everything I need for the advert is available to me at home, and I've planned to film during the two week holiday. I've planned to start filming on the 3rd of April from 2 pm onwards for the first part of my advert, which involves the drinker drinking the pretend wine and then getting into the car and revving up the engine. NOTE: I filmed the second part of the advert with the victim and injuries on the 13th of April.
This second call sheet is for when I decided to film the second part of the advert with the victim and the injuries, which I wrote out a few days beforehand once I scheduled my filming. That's why on the Props and Costumes List, the fake injuries are stated as being needed during the two weeks, because I wrote that out first when I'd decided on my first filming date, but not my second.
I've put together this shot list to figure out exactly what I want the advert to look like and follow. NOTE: This note is from after all of the filming and editing was finished. I didn't follow the shot list exactly how I wrote it out, but I believe the finished advert is still quite similar to what I had planned. Some of the shots I had originally wrote aren't what I followed when filming, but the direction and the plot is close to what I planned and I'm happy with the finished advert.
I wrote out the health and safety document and signed it, but I was unsure of putting it on Wix because of having my signature on a website.
I didn't write out the cast and crew contact details because I didn't want to put my or my friend's details on Wix. I also didn't do the location release agreement and cover letter because we're filming the advert at my house and outside so I didn't need permission. I also didn't write out any meeting minutes because it's me working alone, so I don't need to keep track on a document when I can write out my planning and also evaluate it all myself. I wrote the talent release form out because my friend is acting in the advert, but I didn't want to put it on Wix due to her signature being on it.
Bruised Make Up
Day 1
Day 3
A lot of people were surprised at the sight of the bruise and how harsh it was - it looked real and everyone believed it. This made me proud of creating it accurately enough to make everyone believe it and ask about how I got it. This response made me a lot more confident in recreating the bruise for my advert and adding a lot of blood to make it look even more realistic, as if it's just happened.
Friend's Photo Shoot
I agreed to be photographed for my friend's domestic abuse magazine article and came into college with the bruised eye make up on. I thought it would be a good opportunity to be a part of someone else's photo shoot in order to evaluate what I would've done differently and how I would've changed it, had I directed it. I made a few suggestions for the photo shoot to work better but they weren't taken into account, and I felt like I had very little direction to follow - she constantly wanted me looking away from the camera and more often looking at the floor. There's a couple of shots of me looking directly into the camera due to my own initiative - I thought that looking straight at the camera made the shots she was taking a little more effective. I also noticed she had a small variation of shots and angles, and she wasn't incorporating body language. She didn't tell me to act with any emotion so my face is constantly blank - when I went to attempt to act with emotion by raising my eyebrows in order to look fearful, I was told not to and just to stay how I was. I felt that the photo shoot wasn't really planned out in advance, and it got boring quickly. She focused a lot of photographing the side of my face which wasn't bruised, which I thought was idiotic because the whole point of the photo shoot and having the bruise was to portray domestic abuse. Her limited shot types meant she also didn't work with any body language, which I would've done had I been directing the photo shoot instead. My suggestion of also adding another person to act as my 'partner' to further strengthen the understanding that the campaign is on domestic abuse was turned down.
I was also disappointed to see that the photo she chose to use for the magazine article was of the side of the face without the bruising, which was also put into black and white and therefore the bruising couldn't be seen at all anyway. I wondered what the point was of the photo shoot and having to put the bruised make up back on for her to photograph when she didn't use a photo to showcase it and changed the colours so that it was hardly seen anyway.
Testing Shoot #1
I wanted to try a front close up of the drinker getting into the car, but the reflection on the windscreen meant that this shot looked bad. You can't see the person properly because trees are being reflected, so ultimately I decided not to use this kind of shot.
This shot was used to test out where I should place the camera for the drinker getting into the car. This position was alright at first, but the reflection on the window meant that it didn't look correct and that I should shoot from a different angle. The tripod I used was also slightly stiffer when I began filming, so the movement was kind of limited and looked unprofessional. After loosening my tripod a little, the movement became much better.
The wind during this shot threatened to ruin the sound of the engine revving up, which wasn't as loud as usual anyway. I disliked it also because there wasn't that much visible going on in comparison to other shots where you can see the drinker behind the wheel and starting the car.
Screenshots For Advert Version 1
I started off with having the drinker open the bottle of wine in a wide shot, and then do a close up of the wine being poured into the glass. However, I didn't like the way the editing turned out because I noticed there was a continuity error with the placement of the bottle lid - it moves position from where the drinker puts it down to when the wine is being poured into the glass. I decided to use the close up shot first, then the wide shot afterwards, so that the wine would be poured in the close up and then the drinker would raise the glass to drink it in the wide shot.
I changed the shots over and then looked at the advert again. I realized I didn't like some of the parts in the middle of the clips, like the hesitation of putting the bottle down in the close up, so I trimmed them down to exclude these parts.
After I trimmed the first two clips, I then added the shot of the bottle being moved and the drinker going to grab the car keys.
I added in the car scenes, switching between front and back shots, then focusing on close ups of the drinker struggling to put the keys in the car door. I also used side shots as the drinker begins to rev up the engine. I thought that the order of shots worked well together, and I had more than enough to work with.
I finished off the first version of the advert by adding in the titles I planned to have, following my storyboard. The line "not everyone listens" is shown after the car keys are picked up, and the line "but everyone regrets it" is shown after the drinker gets into the car. I then plan to add in the lines "when it's too late" and "don't drink and drive", and also add music and a voice over.
Advert Version 1
I created a first draft of my advert, but I didn't use any sound besides the last shot. I want to put music into the advert, but use the sound of the engine being revved up as the key point of the advert so that it's isolated. I thought doing this would make the sound significant and recognisable that something horrible is about to happen. I also plan on adding the sound effects of a car screeching and then a thud, to explain that someone has been hit by the car.
Screenshots For Advert Version 2
I found the song 'Safe and Sound' by Taylor Swift and the instrumental piano version, which I thought would be a perfect fit for my advert. The lyrics talk about experiencing a loved one dying, and while the victim in the advert hasn't died, there would still be a strong sense of pain from the victim's loved ones over the accident, even though there's no plan to show it on screen. I also thought that in a way, if the victim's life has changed that drastically since a drink driving accident, it would be like mourning the person they used to be.
I also added the voice over recorded by the person that plays the drinker, and I shortened the titles to correlate with the
length of the voice recordings.
I asked for feedback on this second version of the advert and it was well liked, especially now with the addition of the music, which worked well, and the voice over made it even more like an advert produced by a real company.
Voice Over
"Not everyone listens"
"But everyone regrets it"
"When it's too late"
"Don't drink and drive"
Background Music
Advert Version 2
I decided to use this song because out of all of the ones I researched, this stuck out in my mind afterwards and I was intent on using it for the advert. While I know that this song talks about the impact of death on those around the person that's dying, I thought it would be a good match for the advert because it deals with the impact of pain for the victim and the loss of different things taken away from them due to being a victim of drink driving. While nobody else will feature in the advert besides the drinker and the victim, it's understandable that the victim's loved ones will also struggle with the situation. I also thought that in a way, the victim's life would be drastically changed and they wouldn't be the same person they were before, so in a way there's a lot of grief for the old version of the victim, and who they were before being horrifically injured in a car accident.
Rolling with the idea that the victim's old version of them self is being mourned, and the worry that anyone in this predicament could die, this song starts to make a lot of sense. I can imagine the whole of this song relating to the tragic drink and drive accident, without the consequence of death. While my advert doesn't show the accident because I want the extent of it to form in the audience's mind, I want to explore the aftermath a little by showing the injuries and writing about the other long term consequences not visible. I want the audience to take their own ideas fro this, and hopefully at least one person will recognize the song. I want the audience to come up with the idea of what the accident could've looked like, as I could imagine someone lying in the road in someone's arms just from listening to the piano instrumental version due to the gentleness and slow pace of the song, which makes it sound more heartbreaking. I'm wondering whether I should add in the voice for the song because that may make the advert even more effective, but I'm wondering whether it could work alongside the voice over.
I added the instrumental piano version of the song 'Safe and Sound' by Taylor Swift as well as the voice over to this version of the advert, plus the sound of the keys being lifted from the table, as I thought that would be another significant noise to make the audience pay attention to. For the next version, I need to add sound effects and possibly the injury clips which I still need to film. I also want to compare the possibility of using the normal version of the background music to the instrumental, to see what difference it will make on the advert and whether it works better.
Injury Diagram
I started off by drawing the diagram on paper, including the injuries, but I decided it would probably be more beneficial to transform it into a drawing on my SketchBook app and outline the injuries properly. I took a picture of the diagram and put it into my SketchBook app, then started erasing the paper marks and drawing over the pencil outline. I knew this could've been made easier had I just scanned the diagram, but I wanted to do it this way in order to see just how well I could transform the diagram into a piece which looked like it had been drawn out on the computer. I then started colouring the diagram and redrew some of the facial features. After this, I got to work on drawing out the injuries. I knew I had to draw the black eye and mix it with a lot of red to make it look fresh and still possibly bleeding. I also drew the gash on the cheek which has been poorly stitched and has opened back up and is bleeding. I drew cuts on the lips, and blood coming from the nose which is going to mix with the blood from the cut lips. The blood on the eyebrow represents the bandage that will be placed on the head, freshly bleeding. While I know that the person would've gone to hospital, horribly scars like this could've reopened and started bleeding again, or it could even be interpreted that the person has tried to fix themselves up, hence the poor work on the cheek gash and the bandage.
I really liked the way this diagram turned out and the injuries look really well drawn out - I think that when I actually put the fake injuries on, it'll be even more realistic. I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I also asked my peers for feedback, who agreed that the drawing looks really good and the injuries make sense for the situation, plus it's thoroughly planned out.
Make Up Injuries on Day of Filming
I started off by creating the black eye using make up, and then applied the temporary scar tattoo, which looks like it's been stitched but some stitches have broken open. I then put on the bandage and added some fake blood to it, to make it look as though a wound underneath it has started bleeding again. I then put on the sling to finish off the visible injuries. I decided against adding the blood coming from the nose and lips because I started to rethink it, and I didn't believe that it was realistic enough for the situation. I realized that although wounds may bleed through bandages and stitches could come undone, it'd be unlikely that someone would continue to have their nose and mouth bleed if they'd been to the hospital and been treated for their injuries, so I decided not to include them.
Screenshots for Advert Final Version
I started off with adding the scenes of the victim, focusing on cutting some of the clips to make it a fitting ending to the advert. I then focused on creating the text around it, choosing to list 'paralyzed from the waist down' and 'post traumatic stress disorder' as the long term effects of being run over by the drunk driver. I also added the line 'will never be the same again' on the close up shot, and put 'don't drink and drive'' for the end wide shot. I went back and added the thump sound to the gap after the drinker revs up the engine, although I originally added the title 'when it's too late' to this gap as well. I changed it because I didn't like it. I also added the voice over for the line 'when it's too late' to the beginning of the scenes with the victim. I went back and also un-muted some of the sounds I previously didn't want, like the sound of the bottle being placed on the table, and the car door opening. I made some of these noises quieter, but I wanted to put them back into the advert to give it more realism. I preferred it this way, because it made it feel even more like an advert.
Advert Final Version
The advert went well, and the final changes that I made with adding the sound effect of the car thud, plus the titles explaining the long term injuries really helped show off my editing skills and what I can do in terms of figuring things out on my own, and producing an advert to a high quality standard. I also thought my choices on music plus the arrangement of shots was also well constructed and well thought about, because I wanted to fit it all together in the best way possible, which I believe I've achieved. I know that originally the advert was supposed to be just 30 seconds, but my advert is just over a minute long. I believe that it's worth it because of the story unfolding and the entire message being broadcast, and while the advert is longer than originally intended, it is still quite short anyway. The development is quick, the advert remains interesting throughout, it holds a strong message and makes the audience feel guilty through the sight of the injuries inflicted by being a pedestrian run over by a drunk driver.