This is useful in some ways as it has allowed us to have more flexibility when creating our products. Despite this, we did follow some of the typical conventions and when took elements from existing media products for inspiration.
We focused on the Specsavers advert and used this as a guideline for how our advert would be formulated. Something used across all of their adverts was the use of dramatic irony for comedic affect. Timing is an essential component of comedy as the audience as the audience gain pleasure from watching the character experience humiliation.
We have ensured that we don't reveal the punchline until the end in both adverts. In comedy, the character that is often humiliated is represented as powerful, accident prone, socially awkward or a fairly regular character that has accidents occur around them.
Todorov's narrative theory: EQUILIBRIUM . DISEQUILIBRIUM . RESOLUTION
The effect of this is to leave the audience satisfied knowing the final outcome for the character. Comedy is often present during the state of disequilibrium as humour is created from their being a disruption in the narrative where problems happen. In both our main task and sponsorship, we have left an unresolved, open ending. Therefore this allows the audience to imagine what will go on to happen...
Toothpaste advert:
In our toothpaste advert, the girl (played by Kate) is represented as quite a gentle character as she is seen painting and through her image, we tried to indicate that she is a teacher - not a typically powerful character. Rather than removing the power from an individual, she fits into the 'regular character that has accidents occur around them' category. We have chosen to instead build up her character through mis-en-scene and finish with her walking away into the distance leaving an open ending allowing the audience to think up possible funny scenarios.
How we have portrayed her as regular character:
Costume:
-doesn't indicate a particular career e.g police officer
-colours used are relatively ordinary, not particularly glamorous or implying power.
Mis-en-scene:
-setting: house isn't particularly grand
-we show her carrying out ordinary tasks such as painting, clearing away
1. State of equilibrium- Kate is painting
2. Disequilibrium: paint on teeth. Dramatic irony as Kate unaware
We have left the narrative unresolved - comedy tends to finish with a new resolution. As the focal point of our media product is to advertise our product, we have used the '20/20 vision' to imply a resolution to this narrative. The message given to consumers is that complex narrative issues are resolved through buying our product.
'This Morning' sponsorship:
'This Morning' sponsorship:
1. State of equilibrium - audience are not yet aware of mistake
3. Situation left unresolved, but 20/20 appears on the screen to suggest a possible resolution...A typical convention in the media is the stereotype of females being portrayed as sensitive. We have conformed to this by using only females in our advert and showing them crying. In this was we have not challenged conventions as if we were to have a man crying, it would be more noticeable and thus detract away from the punchline.
1. 3.
2.
This advert has a slightly different pattern however it follows roughly the same guidelines. The 1st screenshot is at a state of equilibrium. The 2nd and 3rd however are both states of disequilibrium as in the second screenshot, the people look upset and almost disgusted, implying that normality has been disrupted however it is not yet revealed to the audience what that is. The joke is revealed in the last screenshot along with the 20/20 vision logo to imply a resolution.
Dramatic irony used in toothpaste advert as we don't reveal the punchline until the end, and also in the life drawing advert as the door sign 'bereavement support meeting' isn't displayed until the last shot and in the
Web pop-up: The rule of thirds is often used to make the photo more interesting and dynamic which is essential in our media product as we are aiming to catch the audience’s attention.
I have divided our web pop-up into thirds to see if we have used the rule of thirds. We have aligned our subject near the vertical line on the left hand side of the picture and the written information is near the vertical line on the right hand side. An improvement could have been that the banana be more central to the left vertical line as this is essentially, the punchline. The right vertical line runs approximately in the middle of all three written texts.
Another way we conformed to conventions is with our use of 'click here' on the bottom right of the picture which is often where advertisers place the piece of text that they want the audience to read last.
Technical codes: mid shot, straight on to emphasise the banana and make it appear bigger. We have challenged conventions as typically a low angle would be used to make the subject look more powerful. We decided that as it was an advert with a joke pun, we didn't want the subject to look too threatening as it would be too great a contrast. A neutral shot, which we have used, has no psychological affect on the viewer which was our intention.
Symbolic codes: Dark clothing, balaclava to indicate that he is a robber.
Our adverts have an element of the sub genre satire. Satire often involves irony, it also uses wit to expose human foolishness. Although in our adverts we have replaced foolishness with bad sight, it follows the same guidelines.
Other conventions we have followed:
- Slogan comes at the end of all 3 products. This is usually where adverts put their slogan.
- We have kept the length of our products similar to existing ones. 30 seconds, 48 seconds and slightly shorter for our sponsorship (23 seconds)
-Technical codes in comedy:
Iconography: lighting used in comedy is often bright and shot in daylight. We have conformed to this convention in all of our products.
In general, we have conformed to conventions of existing products and haven't challenged conventions. This was mainly because as we are producing adverts, we need to ensure that we have kept to our brief by using strong marketing techniques. The audience are more likely to remember something that conforms witht their schema, including stereotypes.
Another way we conformed to conventions is with our use of 'click here' on the bottom right of the picture which is often where advertisers place the piece of text that they want the audience to read last.
Technical codes: mid shot, straight on to emphasise the banana and make it appear bigger. We have challenged conventions as typically a low angle would be used to make the subject look more powerful. We decided that as it was an advert with a joke pun, we didn't want the subject to look too threatening as it would be too great a contrast. A neutral shot, which we have used, has no psychological affect on the viewer which was our intention.
Symbolic codes: Dark clothing, balaclava to indicate that he is a robber.
Our adverts have an element of the sub genre satire. Satire often involves irony, it also uses wit to expose human foolishness. Although in our adverts we have replaced foolishness with bad sight, it follows the same guidelines.
Other conventions we have followed:
- Slogan comes at the end of all 3 products. This is usually where adverts put their slogan.
- We have kept the length of our products similar to existing ones. 30 seconds, 48 seconds and slightly shorter for our sponsorship (23 seconds)
-Technical codes in comedy:
Iconography: lighting used in comedy is often bright and shot in daylight. We have conformed to this convention in all of our products.
In general, we have conformed to conventions of existing products and haven't challenged conventions. This was mainly because as we are producing adverts, we need to ensure that we have kept to our brief by using strong marketing techniques. The audience are more likely to remember something that conforms witht their schema, including stereotypes.
