Holly Powell - Final Major Project
Alcohol Moving Image Advert Research
My initial thoughts towards this advert was that it was ridiculous - I thought that using a superhero made it more inviting to drink because he acts like the saviour for the drunken girls. However, at the end it turned out to be a lot more effective than I first thought and I had misjudged it too quickly. Having the man fall off of the building at the end showed that being too intoxicated makes you do stupid things, and like the advert says, it makes you think that you're invincible. The ending is the brutal reality that drunken antics have dangerous consequences, which really surprised me considering the first part of the advert looked too fictional and unrealistic. I think using this to thrown people off until the very last part where the man falls from the building is very clever, because it acts like a red herring, and it definitely shocks the audience. While it should've been obvious that the
video ended with this outcome, I was still surprised because it wasn't on my mind. As soon as the advert finished, I realised that I probably should've seen it coming, yet it was still a surprise. This shows the cold hard truth about the consequences of being drunk, and having the element of surprise helped get my attention fully. I want to do the same kind of thing with the shock factor, to expose my audience to what actually happens when you get too drunk. I ended up really liking this advert because it escalates quickly from a calm plot to a sad ending, and it also shows the audience that you cannot always cheat the consequences of your actions. Eventually, you'll run out of luck, and you'll wish you'd changed beforehand.
This part of the advert made me believe that the company making the advert had missed their mark, and their direction was too irrelevant to what the subject was. I thought that using a superhero would be encouraging an audience to believe that they're invincible and it wouldn't explain that too much alcohol consumption could be dangerous.
The end of the advert has a great shock factor - even though you should be expecting it, you don't realise that this will probably be the outcome until it happens. Seeing the man having fell from the building and land like this shows that your luck will run out, and you will have to pay major consequences eventually. I think the quick movement of the advert helps make this shock factor even greater, and I happily admit I was wrong about my initial thoughts, thinking this was a pointless advert. I think this creates a lot of fear and guilt for the audience, which is the same kind of thing I want to do with my advert.
I don't really like this advert much, because it looks a little amateur and the plot is slow. The girl wakes up from binge drinking, starts to try and get ready and ends up being sick twice. It doesn't really show any of the other consequences, and the setting of waking up at home and being sick isn't enough to convince someone not to binge drink. A lot of people get drunk and are most likely sick anyway, even if it's just a one time experience, so it doesn't really have much of an impact. This kind of advert doesn't hold the element of surprise, doesn't shock the audience and doesn't do enough to discourage someone from drinking. In my opinion, it's too drawn out and boring, and the plot doesn't develop past the morning after the night before.
This advert doesn't develop at all, and the only screenshot I could find to sum the point of this advert was the one to the right, showing that the girl that's been binge drinking is still drunk. The entire video is pointless and I wouldn't consider it to be an actual advert, because of how uneventful and underwhelming it is. It doesn't look as though it's been produced properly and doesn't have much of a concept besides someone trying to get ready to go out whilst fighting still being intoxicated. This isn't enough to make anyone stop drinking alcohol or binge drinking, so I think it's a big disappointment. The screenshot I found is probably the only indicator that something is wrong if the girl is still this affected in the morning by still being under the influence of alcohol, even after sleeping it off. The video also shows her drinking, being sick in a lass and re-drinking from the same one, and also
being sick in the toilet, but besides those events, the rest of the video could be argued by an audience as just being seen as what would 'normally' happen after a heavy night of drinking, and therefore doesn't make an impact to convince anyone to stop drinking.
Compared to the previous advert, this advert is a much better portrayal of binge drinking: waking up in a bad environment, surrounded by your own vomit and completely regretting the night, plus wondering where you are and what you did. These situations are also more dangerous, and the advert isn't drawn out. It gets straight to the point and shows exactly what conditions most people wake up in after a heavy night of binge drinking. This advert is much more realistic than the previous one, and is definitely more effective, because it looks so disgusting that it encourages you not to be that person - not to be the person that wakes up next to a dirty public toilet. I like this advert a lot more than the previous one because it disgusts me, and I know that this is the aim, so it clearly works. It's supposed to be so disgusting that it makes the audience think that they never want to touch alcohol ever again. This is the equivalent of shocking someone so badly or making them feel so guilty that they never want to drink again.
This advert starts off with creating an enigma, making the audience wonder what has happened to this person. After showing shots of both a man and a woman intoxicated, covered in vomit, with one on the toilet and the other passed out next to another toilet having wet themselves, the advert asks the audience to download their 'survival guide'. It also shows how much they've drunk to land them in the states they're in, because this is a binge drinking awareness advert. I think this is extremely realistic for the situations young people these days find themselves in, and being intoxicated after a lot of heavy drinking isn't as glamorous as everyone believes when thy want to get drunk. The harsh reality is that many people are passed out with nobody knowing where they are, or are barely conscious without any idea about what's
going on around them. The vulnerability this causes means these people can easily be taken advantage of, so I think raising awareness of the reality of binge drinking helps show that even though they're just passed out right now, there could still be worse to come even if it hasn't been shown. This advert is much more effective than the previous one, and has much more of an impact because it's short and has a point, where as the other one looked lost and not sure of what they was supposed to be showing. This advert has a clear objective, and I think it does a good job of discouraging binge drinking by showing the reality of the aftermath.
This advert is an Australian advert, showing another potential consequence of drinking too much. The main character is so intoxicated that he ends up attempting to dance, but he accidentally knocks into a pregnant woman, who hits her bump against a table corner and subsequently loses the baby. This just shows that intoxicated decisions can affect everyone around you, as this man has accidentally caused the loss of a life and ruined the lives of the expecting parents. The message is strong and the truth is brutal, because it's devastating for everyone. It's another advert where it makes the audience fear ever drinking again, plus creates guilt because they realise it could've easily be them that causes this for someone else. It's also difficult to forget, because the image of the woman having fallen to the floor is so sad that it's bound to stay in your mind for a long while afterwards, and so much more likely to hit home for alcoholics.
The advert starts setting up the plot by showing a drunk man acting irresponsibly whilst at a party by trying to pour his alcohol on a barbecue. I think using a comedic element at the beginning of the advert is a great red herring, because the audience wouldn't expect this advert to get dark, and while it would raise suspicion that something may happen, it convinces people that the level of drunken antics will stay the same, and there will be more stupid actions rather than life changing consequences for someone.
The next scene where the man is dancing shows how you lose control of your mind and how you would act when you're intoxicated, leading to making stupid decisions. Because the man is dancing so stupidly, he ends up tripping up on the carpet and falling backwards, knocking into a pregnant woman. I think this brings a shock factor because of how intense and heartbreaking it is, and it's something you wouldn't expect to happen.
The ending where the couple are told that the baby has been lost is absolutely heartbreaking, and shows that when you're intoxicated, you can become a danger to yourself and the people around you. This uses fear and guilt to encourage an audience to want to seek help for their alcohol consumption, because knowing that something like this could happen and you'd be responsible for death is horrible.
This advert looks into how children being exposed to their parent's alcoholism means they're more likely to become alcoholics when they're older. It shows that children are growing up in the environment where their parent's are being rewarded for drinking alcohol, so they copy this behaviour. The main message is to be a positive role model, not a negative one who drinks into oblivion. The entire advert constantly loops, where the child fetching the beer turns into the adult asking for one. This advert is another Australian one, and while I agree with the message behind it and the exposure to the social learning theory, I feel that it is kind of boring. Their attempt at looping just makes it feel too repetitive and over done, because after the first time it's looped, it's clearly understand and seems too stupid to continue to relay it. It doesn't have that much of an impact either, because the audience is waiting for some kind of twist that isn't coming, and that feels like a major letdown.
I like the concept of this advert, advertising the social learning theory where children see adults being rewarded for drinking alcohol and then are more influenced to do so themselves. I think this first part showing the normality of the situation for the adult to drink doesn't have much of an impact.
This part where the child reaches for the beer in the fridge and then as the fridge shuts, he's now an adult walking in his father's shoes and acting exactly how he does, is really clever. After this, I think it would've been good to finish off the advert, because continuously looping the scene makes it become repetitive and boring.
The Alcohol Think Again campaign, which is one of the campaigns that I researched for my pitch, shows this advert on giving alcohol to youngsters under 18. It contains real accounts from people voicing over that have experienced seeing the pain that getting drunk for people under 18 is like. It aims to show that these conditions are so bad and cause lifelong consequences, but the target audience is more so adults, as it's trying to discourage them from giving alcohol to young people. I don't think it has much of an impact, although I like the use of voice over with real accounts by people that have had to help these young people. There aren't any twists or surprises which keeps the audience on their seat and the truth doesn't seem that brutal - exaggerating the truth would've been better by just showing it on an even larger scale rather than trying to lying about parts of it. If it was expanded further I think this advert could've been better.
I think that using real accounts from all types of people that have seen young people getting drunk is a really good way to expose underage drinking, and makes the audience feel more compelled to listen to it. However, I also think that it doesn't have enough of an impact, and could've been made even better too. I think it does an alright job of raising awareness but could be made stronger.
This advert is supposed to be on drink driving, but I don't feel like it really advertises it. It shows someone asking another to prom, who ends up dying in a random car accident. It's not revealed that it's a drink driving accident until the very end, whereas it could've been exploited a lot more. While death is spoken about, it's not examined as much as it could be, and nothing else is addressed, when there are actually a lot of different consequences for drink driving too. This advert is underwhelming and I don't feel like it provides much awareness on the issue of drink driving, which is supposed to be the main focus. The acting is also very amateur, which doesn't make the advert believable and therefore nobody would really take much notice of it - it feels like a chore to have to watch this advert, whereas adverts should be quick, to the point, informative and exploit their main awareness issue.
This first part of the advert creates an enigma, because the boy laying on his bed looks like he's nervously waiting to go out. Cleverly, the advert is about a prom date which is cut short by a drink driving incident. The prom event gives the excuse of the boy dressed in a suit, as the audience would assume he's going to pick up his date after they see him ask her to prom.
Seeing the boy carrying flowers, the audience would naturally expect they're for his date when he picks her up to take her to prom. However, this takes place after the prom, and he's instead visiting the grave of his prom date, because she was killed in the drink driving accident, which isn't actually explained properly until the end. I think the advert could've been exploited a lot more to raise more awareness of drink driving. I also think that the level of acting is amateur which makes the advert quite boring. The concept is really good though in terms of mixing the scenes and story, but the execution could've been improved a lot more by actually addressing drink driving more.
I think this end part probably could've been looked into a lot more with the issue of drink driving, to have more of an impact on the audience. I think the advert is too long and while the idea is good, there's nothing shocking that happens, so while the girl dies in a drink driving accident, not enough guilt is created to convince an audience to stop drinking. I want my advert to be short and simple, plus have some sort of a shock factor in order to make my audience feel guilty, so that I exploit the topic of drink driving more than this advert does.
Looking at all of the adverts above has helped me understand what I want from my advert and what I don't. I want it to be quite quick but still get a message across and have a good, understandable story behind it to be able to follow. I want my advert to be clear on what the topic is right from the start and I want to keep it quite simple so that it's more effective. I also know I want to have a voice over because I want to write a few lines that don't necessarily have to explain the advert, but just act as a narrative to add to the plot and make it more interesting. I want it to help make the audience feel more guilty, and I want to exploit it like a part of the actual video instead of considering it as a voice over.
I also know I want to avoid dragging the advert out and not addressing the main points of the story that I really want to, which is what kind of influence alcohol can have on you, what kind of long term consequences are born from reckless decisions, and that you shouldn't drink and drive (and hopefully all of this would also be enough to subconsciously make people want to get help for their alcoholism). I think the above adverts have put into perspective a few things about making sure the story of my advert is straightforward, moves quickly, addresses everything that I want it to, and encourages change, plus that I'm thinking about my voice over, sound effects and music too.
Make Up Tutorials
This tutorial looked simple enough to follow, but I felt the end outcome looked overdone - I want to use scarring too for my fake injuries, but for some reason the model at the end of the tutorial looked more so Halloween horror-ish rather that believable bruises and stitched up cuts. It still taught me the basics of creating bruising though, so it would good for the first part, although I didn't feel that the bruises look as real as they should've done, so I looked for some more tutorials.
This is probably the best tutorial I've seen so far for bruising because it looks so realistic, and it's simplistic to follow. The artist uses different shades of purple, red and yellow, plus examines the point of impact as if someone would punch you first, to be able to get all of the bruising in the correct place. I think that following this tutorial would be beneficial because I can grab some face paint colours and, as shown, create bruising without overcomplicating the process or having to spend an extravagant amount of money to create the effect that I want.
This tutorial looked good too, but I don't think it looks as realistic as the one above. This tutorial also shows how to create a bloody lip, which was interesting because I was thinking about doing this too. I'm thinking of following the tutorial above for the bruising around the eye, and I want to follow the bloody lip portion of this video as well. I also want to use a bit more blood, because I want it to look like the accident has happened on the same day - my character's bloody scar would've been stitched up a little but still ripping open with fake blood over it, the bloody lip would still be really bloody, and the bruising would be fresh and really dark, and the bandage around my head would be seeping blood too.
This tutorial looks really complicated, and requires a better degree of experience in special effects and make up. It also requires having money to spend on necessities to create the exact same effect, plus a lot of time to master. While the outcome looks good, I still don't believe it looks as realistic as the tutorial above, which is a lot more simple to follow, plus doesn't mean you have to spend so much money to get the equipment you need to create the bloody lip and cut. While it looks good, I don't want to follow this tutorial because it's too time-consuming, whereas I need to be able to create the cut and busted lip really quickly in order to film. Overall, I don't really like the final outcome of the tutorial, so I don't want to follow it.
I looked at this tutorial simply because it was interesting and eye-catching, but I don't intend to follow it. I was curious about how the artist managed to create a broken wrist like this, as I see it as a learning experience and also realised that if I do change my mind at some point and I want to recreate this, then I've found and reviewed a good tutorial. However, it requires a lot of time and equipment that I don't have, so I see it unlikely that I'll change my mind.
While some of these make up tutorials are a little out of my depth in terms of skill, I still appreciated the effort and the realistic outcomes of most of them. However, having found the second tutorial which is created without needing to spend too much money for the correct make up supplies and is also simple to follow, I'm happy with creating the black eye. Looking at all of them made me understand where I needed to start with my research and what I actually needed to be looking at, like the jump from the first tutorial to the second, with the first being a Halloween kind of tutorial and the second being a really good and effective fake bruise. The first tutorial gave me a foundation to understand that I needed to find videos explaining how to create realistic, normal bruising rather than a Halloween zombie kind of scarring and marks. I also looked at how to create a bloody lip and a broken wrist, but I decided against trying to recreate either of these because they weren't as straightforward, and they would be too time consuming.
Overall, these make up tutorials have helped me find out an easy and quick way to apply make up to look like a black eye without being too extravagant and unbelievable, plus what types of injuries would be too over the top and unrealistic for the fake car accident I'm planning for my advert. I'm going to use the black eye, although I still want to research what kind of other injuries can be gotten too.
"Don't Say Goodbye" by Ylona Garcia
Analysing Songs to Use as Background Music
"Don't Say Goodbye" by Nina
"Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
"Can We Work it Out" by Gordi
I came across this song whilst looking for another which used the same line. However, after listening to this one, I thought it sounded like a suitable choice for the background music for my advert. I want to use a soft song to contrast the dark situation of the advert, because I want to add a little bit more shock value. While it's obvious what the advert is about and the audience will know what's coming, I want to create a different atmosphere with the song, almost like using irony with the tone, and comparing that to the title and lyrics, asking someone not to say goodbye to them. I wondered whether this would be a good fit for my advert, because it suggests that this person's actions has taken someone else's life, and this song could very well represent the aftermath in which the family of the victim have to deal with their loved one being gone.
I also listened to this song, which I thought would've also created the sense of irony with the soft tone compared to what's happening in the advert. Although I liked the song, I was reluctant to use it because I feel like it would be overshadowed by the fact that the song is more so a love song, and I don't feel like this would convey the right type of loss.
I liked the idea of using this song because it's about alcohol and the biggest problem it can cause - death. It explains that alcohol in this instance is used to forget about problems and the result of that is dying, although it seems intentional for this case. However, I'm thinking of getting an instrumental version of whatever song I choose, and I know that without the lyrics, nobody will realize this song tackles the issue of alcohol. It's still a contender though, because I feel like using this song would be clever and would tie in well with the theme of the advert. I'm not sure whether not using an instrumental version would hinder the advert because I'm wondering whether it will be a big distraction and take away focus from what I'm trying to explain.
I liked this song, especially the piano version, because of the way it is sung. However, I didn't think it would be the best choice because of the lyrics, mainly the chorus, saying about "working it out". Since my advert is about serious injury due to drink driving, I didn't think this song would work well with it. Possibly as an instrumental it could work because the song is beautiful, but I'm not too keen on using it for this advert, although I thought it would be good to review.
Sound Effects Analysis
This sound effect was good until the woman screamed, the sirens blared and then the heart monitor started up. I felt like this took away from the realism of the sound of a car accident and I didn't like it very much.
This one sounded like a giant car crash involving many cars, which isn't what I want to use for my advert. I want to have one sound, in order to make the audience believe the drinker has run down the victim. Therefore, I don't think I'll use this sound either.
This sound of tires screeching didn't have the type of effectiveness that I wanted it to. I listened to it originally because I wondered whether it would be a good sound to use before the accident, to focus on the build up to it. However, it didn't sound right - the screeching is too low and didn't grab my attention, so I know it wouldn't grab the audience's attention.
This thud sound didn't have much of an impact - I thought maybe it could've been the sound of the car hitting the victim but I don't really like it and I don't think I'll use it for the advert.
This sound is effective - it isn't over the top and has a strong, convincing delivery with the car crash. It also doesn't add any unnecessary sound.
This sound is really good and the thud is also convincing, as if someone's just been hit with a car. I believe that using the sound of a thud would have a larger impact and be more beneficial to the advert, as it'll will keep the audience interested and create an enigma as to what has happened to the person that was run over.
Long Term Injuries Research
While I know that I had picked a few problems to include on the long term injuries of the victim for my advert, I still wanted to research some more injuries to read up on in order to make my advert as realistic as possible. I want to know more about the type of long term injuries I'm including in the advert, so the best way to do that is to look at examples of them, to see if there's anything else I should add too.
The first website I looked at explained some injuries such as whiplash, brain damage and PTSD, although I think this was aimed more so at the drivers instead of the victims. However, I was intrigued to find out PTSD can develop from car crashes - I was aware that it develops from different situations, but I've never really known anyone that's developed PTSD from a car crash, so I may add that to the injuries of the victim in the advert, so that it can also raise some awareness.
This website looks at the mental health issues that are created after a car accident, and more so focuses on the passengers in the cars as the victims. While this is helpful for looking at the mentality developments of car crashes, this isn't the type of long term injuries I'm exploring.
Reading up on pedestrian injuries from car accidents, I discovered that most victims are at risk of head, leg and pelvis injuries, plus also can suffer a lot of head trauma. This is the route I'm more interested in looking into, so while this website doesn't tell me too much about the sorts of problems pedestrian's definitely acquire, I'm on the right track with my research.