Evaluation

Task 4 - Evaluation

From this Christmas advert I have learnt many things that will help me for future projects. I have learnt that when it comes to making the advert there is a lot of thinking to do. From an audience point of view when you watch an advert it seems like it’s easy to make but in reality it is not. I now know this because my team thought hard of an idea and we thought of an emotional storyline and thought how it would affect the target audience and how they would react to our advert. I have also learnt that a lot of research has to be done before you decide to make your own project. You have to research how the industry produce adverts and what type of music they use. Also, you have to research different camera shots and also look really deep into what the story is telling the audience. Furthermore, I also learnt that a lot of work is to be done before the filming begins. This is because a lot of paperwork was completed during pre-production such as script, shooting schedule, risk assessments, call sheets and much more. I learnt that these paperwork’s are really important and are needed if you want to be organised and successful. Personally I think I could have improved a lot of things during the production of the Christmas advert. Also, as a team we can all improve when it comes to communicating as there was a few problems. One major problem was when we got to the location to film we had no camera to film with so we had to use a phone camera which the quality isn’t actually that bad. I could of improved organisation as we wouldn’t have had a problem with the camera and equipment. Also, improved organisation would have mean that we would have had all the paperwork which was required on location while we were filming. Also, we took 15 minutes longer to get to the location because we weren’t organised enough to find out where the location was and we took a bit longer to think on where the crew would meet to get to the location. I think I probably could have improved the shots that were taken. We couldn’t retake any shots because most of them had to be in one take as the actors opened up the wrapped presents. If we used the Cannon camera or the Sony camera the shots would have definitely looked nicer but that was our mistake. Personally I also think that I could have been more creative with the shots and possibly used my imagination more to create better shots that look more appealing and interesting. I did learn that researching John Lewis adverts definitely helped with our advert because we used John Lewis style music and we also used a storyline that John Lewis would probably use. We used BusterTheBoxer as inspiration for our advert and we also used mimicry by using a trampoline for our advert. Even though we could have improved a lot of things, it means that I have also learnt a lot of things and learnt how important certain aspects of pre-production is. Also, even though we could have improved a lot, there is also a lot of success in our project. In our advert we used a bear named timothy for our product advertisement. We believe the industry would also use a teddy bear like the one we used. Our teddy bear is very John Lewis style and fits perfectly when it comes to promoting a product. Our main goal was to implement pathos in our advert and we believe we have successfully done so by using an emotional storyline with emotional music just like John Lewis would actually use. We believe our project was successful because the pathos used connects to our target audience and would be able to relate to our advert. Our target audience is for all genders and anyone who likes enjoying Christmas with their families to enjoy the festive season. Most people like to enjoy Christmas with their family so we are successful when it comes to our target audience. Our project is somewhat comparable to industry examples because they also use emotional music and they also have a deep storyline with a hidden meaning especially John Lewis. Also, just like industry adverts we have a deep storyline but we are also advertising and promoting an item in this case it’s a teddy bear. Just like industry adverts we have a catchy tagline which is #TimothyTheTeddy. Our final production is really effective because kids are opening presents and the present is the teddy so the audience will be affected and they might have the urge to go on buy a teddy bear for their kids because they have seen in our advert that the bear has made the kids happy. Also, there is a special connection with the teddy bear throughout our advert which is effective because it illustrates that the teddy is an amazing gift and it has to be with the person for life and has to be looked after. Our advert is also really effective because during the Christmas and holiday period everyone wants to be happy and they want to see their family happy and enjoy themselves. So our advert is really refreshing and will bring a smile on the audience faces and they will also feel pathos which in this case is both happiness and a bit of sadness because of the emotional music and emotional story. This for me is successful project because we want the audience to react in this way and if they did we have completed our objective for this advertisement. For this project I used many research tools. I mainly used secondary research because I used the internet and especially YouTube to take ideas but also develop ideas to make the quality of the ad much better. Also, to develop our ideas and skills for the project we used Homage. This is because when I watched other John Lewis adverts I respect and really admire their work and the quality of their work and of course we used their ideas and implemented into our advert as we really like what John Lewis have done. Also, John Lewis have a similar target audience to us which is great in terms of comparing. We also used Pastiche to develop our ideas and skills as took a load of ideas from multiple John Lewis adverts and we combined them to make our own work. We took inspiration from BusterTheBoxer ad to help develop our ideas for our own Christmas advert. For me personally during this project it was about me learning the basics about equipment and getting more comfortable using the camera. I learnt really basic stuff like making sure I focus the camera so the quality is good. I can improve on making sure I click focus and making sure the quality looks good before I start to film. We had to reshoot certain bits as the quality was blurry and it was really shaky as there was no tripods so I had to film free hand which was disappointing.


We are going to get audience feedback on our advert because feedback from the audience is really important for the evaluation but is also really important to improve and develop skills to get better. We decided to use a survey to get audience feedback because we want clear answers and honest responses so we know what to improve in the future.


We have got feedback from the audience and I have analysed the results. Everyone agreed that the advert compares well to John Lewis which Is a success and is very important. This is because the whole point of our advert and our style of advert was meant to be like John Lewis so I am very happy that the audience agreed with us. Also, everyone agreed with the storyline which is also a success and is important. This means that the audience understood the deeper meaning behind the advert and they understood that the teddy bear is very special to the girl who grows up into an adult. However we did receive a bit of negative feedback which isn't bad because we can improve this in the future. 16% of people disagreed that the music suited the style of the advert and of course the rest agreed that it did. The people that disagreed may of not liked the beat of the music. Maybe we should of used a slower pace of music a bit more like John Lewis. However, a lot of people did agree so it isn't all that bad. Every person agreed that the advert contained pathos and was emotionally moving which is a huge success and is important. This is because our main target of this advert was to fill the audience with emotions and make them tear up. Just like John Lewis adverts where they are all emotional, people thought that our advert was also emotional and contained pathos. Also, I asked what would people improve about the advert and we got some feedback. Majority of the people said cinematography and camerawork needs improving which is honest and good feedback. This is because I can now work on this and improve this for future projects. Also, we got some feedback in the editing department. A person said it needs colour correcting to make the quality and advert look more like John Lewis. Also someone mentioned that the actor shouldn't of looked at the camera so now we know in the future that directing skills also need improving when it comes to directing the actors. Someone said that the advert is too fast and the pace is too quick and that everything moves along quickly. This was because the advert had to be 60 second longs we couldn't have it any longer. However in the future we can make sure the clips are long enough and that the audience can understand and see everything that is going on.


Overall, I think our advert was a success because everyone agreed it was emotionally moving and it was like a John Lewis advert. I have learnt that camera skills need improving and some people didn't like the music in the advert.