After creating our stop motion advert for
Nikon, I created a survey to show how our audience responded to it and receive
feedback. The majority of the feedback was positive comments although we asked
some questions that would help us to make improvements and receive useful
criticism.
*There are continues negative responses
from one of the members of audience who watched the footage before the video
was finished.
Q1. Did the advert leave you feeling uplifted?
By asking this question we were able to see
if we reached one of our targets and set the right atmosphere for our audience.
Everyone* who watched the final clip agreed that the video left them feeling
uplifted. This was our main target throughout the process of making the advert
resulting as a success.
Q2. Did the flow of the images create the illusion of movement?
This is an important aspect of our advert
as it tells us if the use of stop motion complimented our final product and if
we achieved the basic principles of stop motion animation. From our survey
results we can see that it was effective and the images did flow well to give
the illusion of one continuous moving image.*
Q3. Was it obvious that Nikon was being advertised?
All* the audience agreed that while watching the advert, they where aware that it was Nikon that was being promoted. It was important that we made sure that it was clear otherwise we would not get Nikon advertised and the audience wouldn't know that it was Nikon.
Q4. Did the different range of photos create an effective story line?
Unfortunately, not everyone agreed that the photos created an effective story line. I wanted this to be success as that way the audience would be able to feel emotionally attached and engaged to the advert and have an overall more enjoyable time watching the footage. This is something I would improve on to make sure that the advert would be a grater success.
Q5. If you where to direct this advert, what would you do differently? Why?
This question is key to us as it lets us understand in more depth what i was we need to improve on and why the reason to why that is. Most people agreed that they would increase the speed of the advert so it wouldn't be as long and so the motion of the pages turning are even more effective. Other feedback suggested that we had closer shots of the photo's to make them clearer resulting to the photo's and storyline becoming clearer and create a more effective ending to the final advert. We would also change the location of the photo album throughout the advert to ensure that our audience wouldn't get bored of it staying in one location.
Q6. What would you keep about the advert?
We asked this question so we were able to know what the audience preferred and what is best for us to keep when making improvements. Although some people disagreed that the photos made an effective story line, our feedback on this question suggested that we keep the photo's used due to it creating an effective narrative- from this we will need to have to improve on a way that involves using the same photos but making the story line clearer so that all of our audience agree that it was effective. Another person commented that they would keep the music, the music was important to this advert as i believe it is the main reason why everyone agreed that it left them feeling uplifted (question 1) and that it compliments the emotions portrayed in the photographs shown.
Q7. Do you think it used the principles on animation well?
It is vital that we achieved this in our stop motion advert as if the principles of animation wasn't successful, the advert would not look as effective or run smoothly. Everyone* agreed that the principles of animation were used correctly, therefore showing that we understand these principles and are able to apply them to our work.
EVALUATION
After showing our advert to a number of people we interviewed someone from our target audience to find out what they thought of the advert. We listed a series of questions relating to the advert for Nikon to find out the positives nd negatives to help us make improvements.
Over all our advert seemed to be successful due the survey showing the majority of people agreed it had positive effects on them and had very little negative comments to make. However from our interview we were able to identify some issues in the video that could be worked on to make the advert have a higher level of professionalism to it. We asked them how we could improve our final piece and were left with the response that we could "show the photographs clearly so that the storyline is more noticeable" and that "the ending seemed rushed as some of the photo's weren't focused properly and were a bit 'jumpy'" From this response we were able to notice these issues during the editing process and so I knew if i were to remake this advert I would need to use shots that show the photo's more clearly and take more time with the camera moving at the end of the advert making sure that all the photo's were in focus and that the images would have a smoother transition.
Another concern of our advert was duration, adverts are usually round 30 seconds long however ours was just under a minute. It is important that the advert doesn't go on for too long as the audience would start to lose focus and would have no attention toward the advert at the end, where the product logo is shown. To improve on this i would make sure that the story line is not dragged out and use less scenes that perhaps aren't as important to the narrative.
I compared the Nikon advert that we created to a original Nikon advert made by the company and a stop motion style advert, 'The Pen Story' that uses images to create a storyline. I could see some similarities but also some differences, most similarities were based upon the atmosphere created, both adverts left me with a positive view on the product being promoted mainly by the music chosen and the storylines created, i think we did this well, particularly the choice of music we had chosen. 'The Pen Story' used stop motion animation to create the illusion of the photographs moving and showing the story of one boy/man throughout his life. I think that if i were to improve on my advert i would focus mainly on one character and the development on their life rather than other a few characters to that show the main 'happy moments' in life to create a stronger relationship between the character and audience. Another thing that i would use from this advert is the fact that the background changes as well as the photographs, this was an improvement listed in one of our survey questions as it would bring more life and movement to the scene.
I compared the advert to a book on advertising called 'The Media: an introduction'- this told me that the key elements when creating an advert include 'advertising was made to create and sustain brand loyalty'. I believe we achieved this as we kept the idea of photographs and that they capture the best bits of life giving the company a positive and uplifting reputation.
Overall the Nikon advert was a success, however, if i were to make improvements i would need to adjust a few things to give it a more professional tone. I would focus on the background of the advert, shorten the duration and make sure that the photo's were more visible to ensure a stronger storyline that the audience can feel attached to. These were points given during the interview as well as through the responses from the survey. Although we were given this improvements we were given a considerable amount of positive feedback showing us that the advert as a whole was an achievement.
