My Smile Campaign Evaluation (Smile Advert And Podcast)

So the Smile campaign advert is something I made for the mental health charity Mind. I did this by researching into Mind as a charity and finding out more about who they are and what they do. I made a PowerPoint diving into Mind and their history so I could get a better understanding of who I was working for. This links to AC1-Informing Ideas since I was informing ideas about my client. I researched into pre existing products and events that Mind have been involved in such as Charity Football events. I did this to get a better understanding of what type of products Mind invest in. This helped me with my product since it helped me get to know more about the companies tastes and interests. I posted a few pictures above. 

I then began to research into my target audience by making a google survey and sharing it around the class. I felt that this was important because if you don't know your target audience and you make a product that doesn't appeal to them you could end up getting into bother. This also links to AC5-Communication along side with AC1- Informing Ideas since I am communicating with my target audience in order to inform ideas about who they are and what they are interested in. I did this by asking questions about their current mental state, past mental health experiences, social lives and interests. The answers I received helped me plan what type of advert I was going to create for my lost youthful audience. After I had all of the information I followed up by making an audience profile which highlights and simplifies the information I have about my audience. This gives me a clearer understanding of exactly who I'm working with which then helps me to inform ideas about my advert.

Here are a few a pictures from my PowerPoint which show you what I did.  

I then did my pitch PowerPoint where I explained my ideas and displayed them to others. This will help other people get to understand my ideas. I then presented my PowerPoint to a small group of people and received some feedback. The feedback i received was add the last part of my previous PowerPoint (target audience) to my pitch which is something I would change if I did it again. I also did some research into editing and camera angles to get a better of how people create adverts and the techniques they use. After that I also did some research on the benefits of smiling and how it can have a positive impact on someone's mental health.

The next thing I did was plan my advert. Thankfully my idea came pretty quickly and I put it on my pitch PowerPoint. I then created a script and storyboard to give the company a better idea of what I'm going for. I made my script using Celtx because I believe it's convenient and useful meanwhile I drew my storyboard and scanned it in. If I did this project again I would have improved the quality of the storyboard because I think that it looks very amateur. However that aside I think the Script and Storyboard helped me stick to what I was doing and not get distracted by other concepts and ideas.

These also apply to AC1: Informing Ideas because they help inform ideas and display them in a way in which others will understand. It also links to AC4 : Professional Practice because I am practicing some things that are actually done in the media industry. Here is a picture of storyboard as you can see it could be a lot better however I was panicking a bit at the time so I quickly did it and uploaded it to blogger. 

I would change it by doing it on a better piece of paper, Improving the illustrations and adding some better quality text. They importance of completing these pre-production tasks is that you need them in order to plan your product and make it clear to an investor what your doing. If the investor hasn't got a good understanding of what your doing and you fail to have a competent plan, The investor will almost certainly not invest in your product. This would be due to them not knowing what they are investing in and why they are investing in it.

Now all of that was out of the way it was time to start filming my product. I decided to film the advert using my Phone (Galaxy S20 FE) because it is super convenient and the camera quality is just as good as the cameras. It also means I could film outside of college without fuss. It also means I don't have to mess around with SD cards because the videos save directly to the phone which reduces the risk of losing footage. The locations I chose where my bedroom and Barnes Park. I chose my bedroom because the start of the advert is set in a bedroom so it makes sense for the advert. As well as this it is easy and safe to access so it makes sense to use it. I used Barnes Park because it's close to college so it's easy to access and it ticks all of the boxes when it comes to scenery. I think these 2 locations work really well with my product because they tick all of the boxes in terms of  relevance, convenience and practicality.

When it comes to the shots I chose I made sure to use a variety of angles. I used a high angle for my first shot because it looks down on my character which reflects his feelings. The fact the camera is looking down on him shows that he is feeling down and worthless. When someone is looking down on you it makes you feel weak hence why I thought it would make sense. For my next shot I used a medium wide shot of the door. I used this because it gives everyone a nice shot of the door which helps the audience understand what's going on with the door. The next shot I used was a high shot of the ground. I used this shot to show everyone where the camera landed as well as my character picking it up. This shot works like glue because it helps stick the 2 previous shots and the next shot together without confusion. After this I decided to go with a medium wide shot showing my character open up the camera. I paired that up with a close up shot showing my camera. These 2 shots sync together in a way in which shows my characters reactions as well as their view on what's going on. The camera close up is supposed to represent my characters eyes and what they are seeing. These shots help the audience understand my characters feelings on the camera which fits in well with Mind.

Here are some pictures of the shots I took whilst recording my advert. I think these shots worked fairly well and did a very solid job of delivering they advert. 

After these shots I took in my bedroom I then travelled to Barnes Park to film the rest of the video. In order to link the 2 locations together I used a screen wipe to show they audience that time has past and we have moved locations. For the first shot I pointed the camera at my feet whilst I walked to the park bench. This shot helps the audience get to understand where I am and what I'm doing. After that I did a very similar thing to what I did with the camera scene, I pointed the camera at the lake in one shot meanwhile I pointed it at me in another one. This makes it seem as if my character is filming the lake which helps the plot of the advert. After that I made sure to sync the 2 shots together to make it as if I'm actually using the yellow camera to film. I also added a little picture effect to make it as if I took a picture. I panned back to me Smiling because I think it makes sense for the "Smile" campaign. 

Here are some of the shots I took at Barnes Park. I think that they are solid enough however if I where to do them again I would definitely try to get someone to help me film a shot of me sitting on a park bench because I think that would improve the quality of the advert.

After I finished recording the video I quickly edited in Kinemaster (Detailed Analysis Of My Edits Is On My Post Production Diary). I managed to edit everything all together in about 5 minutes. The editing process was a huge success since I did it nice and quickly with time to spare. After my first draft was complete I uploaded it YouTube, imbedded it into Blogger, created a quick google survey and asked for some feedback. I asked for feedback because I think a fresh pair of eyes can sometimes pick out flaws that you otherwise wouldn't see. Thankfully the feedback I received was very positive with the only flaws being minor and not requiring me to go back and re-do certain parts.

Here is a quick picture of my feedback survey I have a blogger post where I dive into more depth about this. As I said the feedback I received was super positive. This feedback helped me know whether not I did well and produced a suitable product. This task also linked to AC2 Problem Solving, AC5 Communication, AC4 Technical Skill (filming and editing) and AC5 Professional Practice. 

Along side all of this I also produced a Production Diary, Post Production Diary and a Feedback Diary. These are to help document the process of making my product so the company can understand what I have done, learned and achieved. These help document the progression of my project and how I have improved whilst producing it. 

The advert wasn't they only thing I produced for Smile I also produced a podcast. The podcast I produced was targeted at the same audience as the advert and had more or less the same purpose. The podcast I made was discussing Pokémon BDSP which was a game I played which improved my mental health during the winter. For this I did a quick PowerPoint analysing what equipment I would need to produce a podcast. This obviously gave me a better idea on what I needed for a podcast which ultimately helped me to produce my own. By expanding my knowledge and understanding I was able to make sure I produced a better product.

To film my podcast I went to the studio room with a Rhode microphone accompanied with a stand and a pop protector along side that I also brought a digital interface box and a an SD card to save it on. I recorded my podcast using Logic Pro which was on an Apple Mac computer. You have to make sure you are recording with the necessary equipment in an appropriate environment in order to produce a solid podcast. 

Here is a picture of my set up as you can see I have all of the necessary equipment laid out in a appropriate and practical way. This setup task helped me to get a better understanding of podcast setups so now if I ever need to do a podcast I know how to equip and appropriate setup. As a whole I didn't bump into any issues when recording in this studio so I'd say it did it's job well. 

When I was recording my podcast I made sure to use a nice clear voice to make sure I don't bore they audience and mess up the purpose of the podcast. I also made sure to dedicate some time to Mind just to promote and remind the consumer on what this is about as well as talking about the game and my opinions. Once I had finished my recording I saved it to my SD card and began editing the project using Logic. I chose to edit using Logic because it's nice and convenient to use since I also recorded the podcast using Logic. When editing my podcast I made sure to cut out all of the blank parts to remove any unnecessary filler.  This helped polish up my podcast and improve the quality of my final product. Another thing I did was add background music to my podcast to make it sound better and less bare. I did this by emailing myself a bit of music from my phone and downloading it to the computer then opening it as a separate audio file in Logic Pro.

Here is a picture of the editing software I used (Logic Pro). It's important to make sure you edit your podcast to a suitable standard otherwise you will end up producing a poor podcast.

After I had filmed my podcast I saved it to my computer and sent it to Janek to submit it.

So as a whole I did these projects to promote Mind and raise awareness about mental health. I think these projects have helped me to develop skills and learn new things about the media industry and how it operates behind the scenes. I think my projects turned out fairly well and linked to Mental Health in some way or another. If I where to do this again I would improve the quality of my video by recording it in 4k as well as maybe trying to find other people to help me do certain parts since I felt as if I was very restricted when it came to trying to film alone in the park. I think there is better shots I could have filmed if I had more hands and less limitation. I would also definitely improve the quality of some of the research and storyboards because I know I can do better than what I have done. The reason I think some of my earlier stuff wasn't as good is because it's was my first time doing a media project so I was quite unfamiliar with everything going on so I think that panicked me into rushing certain aspects of my work. However now I know what to expect so I think I would do a lot better. One thing that really helped me earlier on was SlideShare since I was unfamiliar with blogger so I used PowerPoint a lot at the start. All that aside I think I did a fairly solid job overall when it came to getting most things done in time. The things I thought I did well where the editing since I was very quick at getting that done and I didn't spend multiple weeks editing together a 1 minute advert, as well as that I thought I did a good job with the post production diary since I got to explain the edits I did and why I did them. So that said I think the Smile Campaign has helped me gain a better understanding of Mind as an organisation as well as further my understanding of the media industry.