Evaluation
Once I was told what the project brief was, I instantly had the idea to create a smoking advert. I was also told that it was a group project. I had the choice of choosing my own group and chose my mates who work hard and enjoy what they do. So once we got together, we started talking about ideas and when we will be shooting the adverts. I did struggle with the visual side of my advert but everyone else seem to had theirs all planned. So I knew I had to think quick. With my advert I had faced many problems and obstacles during the time we were meant to be shooting. I had this idea of using one of the members from my group to act as she was the only one who smoked. The idea was for her to be in the advert smoking and then she coughs and the camera blurs to suggest health problems. Then she decides to quit smoking and her life gets better each day. Someone asks her for a lighter and she says 'here keep it'. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she fell ill and due to her having asthma, I couldn't risk it by her feeling worse. So I then asked someone else who does the same course and she agreed. But the next day she cancelled as she was already helping someone else with their work. The only option I had left was to post a Facebook status asking if there was a smoker who would be willing to act for me and someone replied. I didn't have a lot of time left so the next day I met her and her friend outside the University and we did the shoot and in my opinion it could have gone better, if I had my group there supporting me but I showed I can work independently and so I got on with it. I have done a little bit of video before during my time at college and secondary school, so I knew how to do the basics with editing. So editing would never be a problem with me. I found the most suitable music that I thought worked online and the clips I put together in the order that looked best. Comparing it professionally, I don't think that it will have a massive impact on people who smoke because it isn't a professional advert but if it gets the message out then that's what counts for me. Looking back at the final outcome of the advert, there are certain areas in which I would love to improve on but what is done is done. There are certain parts that I like about it, with the tagline and the factual parts of the advert as they are the main parts that I wanted people to focus on and thats why with the text, I had to make one or two words bold and a different colour so that they stood out and made people read the consequences of smoking. The reason why I chose to do a smoking advert is that, in college, I did something similar as a group project but using stock frame animation which was shown to a lot of people and it actually did have an impact on some people and made some people quit. That feeling was the best one ever. Hopefully I did the same with this advert.
Area To Improve: Focusing
The main area that I do need to improve on while filming is the focusing part. Although it isn't in focus in some cases this could work. An example that I looked at, could improve on the focus but it looked more realistic and that is why I chose to keep it like this. To make it look like real life. I think it fits in with the idea but I would love to improve on my focusing to get a better result and maybe would have a better impact too.
RM
