Timeline - Cutlery

First Lesson: with Julie, we came up with idea and taglines, typing potential taglines into InDesign and testing fonts. We also considered how to avoid reflections. My first idea was very simple, but it gradually got more interesting towards flying cutlery.

Second Lesson: in Tom's lesson my idea evolved again to dancing of walking cutlery. We then took test shoots in the studio; through testing I discovered that walking cutlery (such as on a cat walk) would be easier than dancing cutlery

Third Lesson: in Matts lesson we had a crit of each others work and edited images from the lesson before.
Crit: 
Is the image fit for purpose: Yes
How could the images be used (what products could they advertise): Cutlery, Video/Stop Frame/Poser
What good practice can you see in the image: Layout, Logo/writing placement, Idea - different, interesting, makes you look and remember - Lighting - cutlery looks shiny.
How could the image be improved: Use rulers when placing/lining up images, possibly move logo to other side of text, swap top corner image, decide shadows or no shadows
Any other constructive comments: try to avoid reflections in cutlery

Fourth Lesson: in Tom's lesson we took our final photo's and edited to the final image.

Fifth Lesson: with Mike we finished off everything  and started writing up work

Evaluation - Paper Clips

For this project, we had a choice of: bin liners, paper clips, takeaway boxes, plastic cups, plain black or white socks and dish cloths to advertise. I chose paper clips, I liked the idea of trying to make paper clips fun - and after a little research, I decided to make figures out of them. Initially, I tried to bend them using just my fingers, but it was very difficult, and painful, so I used pliers instead.
The first photographs I took were on a plain white background, which was very dull and did not convey the idea of paper clips being in any way fun for bored people.
For the second shoot, I had a computer keyboard and mouse in the background - the images were much more interesting with these included, however the keyboard was very dirty, and I spent a lot of time on Photoshop 'cleaning' it up. I could have solved this problem before shooting by using a different keyboard, if I had noticed. I should have taken some more photographs, using a cleaner keyboard, once I had noticed, but wasn't sure I had the time - although I now realise that I would have done. I would also like to add the other paper clip scenes - the engagement and the wedding, for example - but in the photographs I took with them, all the dirt in the keyboard and mouse were very visable.
I like the tag-line that I have used, 'Bored? Paper Clip!', and that the pictures now look office-y - they work together to provide an interesting, but simple image, that grabs your attention and draws your eyes to the paper clip. I do feel, however, that the images would probably work best in a magazine, rather than on a billboard or poster - but I have an edited image for all 3 mediums; I think I should have made a TV/film advert, showing the paper clips being bent.

lighting set ups

First Shoot

 

Grey: clips
Red: table
Black: camera
Peach: lights
Yellow: using Umbrella, not soft box
Line at far end: background

Final Shoot

Grey Circle: clips
Grey Boxes: Keyboard and mouse

Red: table
Black: camera
Yellow: lights

Pack Shot

Grey Circle: clips
Red: table
Black: camera
Yellow: lights

Edits - 1st and 2nd

First Attempts 

These pictures seem forced - unnatural and badly thought through. The bold, colourful text doesn't suit them and the story (on the left) is difficult to understand - they make friends (taking under the moon/sun) they get engaged, they get married. Also, the groom is upside down in the wedding.

Second Attempts - much better, final pieces?

I prefer these ones - they look more sophisticated and give the clips context with the keyboard and mouse in the background. However, I don't like the 'Bored' one on the bottom left -  the angle and lighting combined to make the picture look dull and rather lifeless. I like the contrast in the portrait picture (poster), I got this effect from 'Colour Lookup', a layer add-on in Photoshop CS6. 

Proposal - Paper Clips

For this project I would like to look at creating people out of paper clips. I like the idea of creating scenes with them - such as a trip to the park or some at their desk. In order to create these people, I need to bend them - ideally using pliers -  and make some sort of scenery for them. I'm not sure whether to have the clips standing - using blu tack - or flat on the table. Standing would give the paper clips more life; I shall have to experiment with it.
I would like to make poster, billboard and magazine adverts.
The main objective of the campaign would be to weaken the boring, work only connotations of paper clips being to clip paper, and show the wider world that you can actually have fun with them - and not just completely straightening the clips out so you have a bit of wire. The campaign would make paper clips useful/interesting to a wider audience and increase sales.

Research - General

T-Mobile -

"1. T-Mobile Life’s For SharingLiverpool Street StationBackground The first video in the Life’s For Sharing flash mob trilogyCampaign is aimed at appropriating T-mobile as a feel good, social brandChallengeIdentify and influence niche audiences to drive engaged views and sharingSeed viral content to the social web to encourage sharing and upliftGenerate positive sentiment around the content and brandResults#1 ViralVideoChart, Top 5 for 2 weeks beating Cadburys Eyebrows Beat Obama’s Inauguration AddressViral uplift of 366% across Facebook Seeding320 copies of the video across 50+ video sharing sites33.8m total plays (18.0m on YouTube upload)Highly positive sentiment across 29K commentsStrategyLaunch: contact niche dance, flash mob and London bloggers with exclusive content to generate editorial posts on influencersAmplify: follow up targeted outreach with mass social seeding to Facebook

"2. T-Mobile Life’s For SharingTrafalgar SquareBackground The second video in the Lifes For Sharing flash mob trilogyCampaign has multiple creatives as different edits of the video are released incrementally ChallengeBuild upon the brand loyalties gained from the previous campaignSeed the first cut of the footage on site at the event, as soon as it is editedSeed 7 subsequent creatives aimed at different audiences to mimic the success of the Liverpool St mash-upsResults44K shares across 252 uploads>11M plays – paid and organic1K blogposts including 500K plays on Perez Hilton Blog as a result of influencer outreachTop sentiment across 35K comments is highly positive and includes brand nameStrategyPre-launch: Identify the 100 most influential posters of the previous campaign, invite them to the event and promise them exclusive footageLaunch: On site seeding of initial videoPost launch: mass seeding of each creative to specific audiences, timed to coincide with TV ad releases

"3. T-Mobile Life’s For SharingTerminal 5Background The third video in the Lifes For Sharing flash mob trilogyGenerate a new excitment around the flash mob series and a cool factorChallengeReward brand loyaltiesKeep the niche seeding local to maintain relevance of London focussed contentSeed to premium trend leader locationsActivate social media buzz across new sharing locationsResults6m plays12K tweets; high profile tweets including @StevenFryFront page of DiggTop of IAB viral ads chart and #3 of ViralVideoChartMore positive sentiment recorded than on all other Lifes For Sharing videosStrategyPre-launch: previous posters of the first two videos and trend leader sites contacted with the content before mass seedingLaunch: Social media activation across Digg and Twitter as well as mass Facebook and blogosphere seeding

"4. T-Mobile Life’s For SharingTrilogyBackground Saatchi & Saatchi created 3 flash mobbing campaigns during 2009-2010“Dance” (Jan 09) at Liverpool Street Station, “Sing” (Apr 09) at Trafalgar Square and Welcome Back (Oct 10) at Heathrow Terminal 5ChallengeSeed viral content into the social web to kick-start viral sharing and maximise earnt mediaGenerate positive sentiment around the contentBuild brand loyalty and drive handset salesResults500+ uploads, 190k comments and 54m views to date across the Life’s For Sharing video assets“Sing” Featured on Perez Hilton and “Welcome Back” tweeted by Stephen Fry#1 YouTube’s Most Viewed Sponsored ChannelMost commonly associated comment concepts were “Love” , “Like” , “People” and “T-Mobile”T-Mobile reports 52% increase in year on year handset salesWon IPA Effectiveness Award, 2010StrategyBuild relationships with dance, flash mob , viral and London bloggers, giving them early/exclusive campaign content to generate editorial posts, conversation and brand affinityBig seed approach, delivering mass reach via social media platforms and video sharing sites"
http://www.slideshare.net/UnrulyUK/mobile-t-mobilelifes-for-sharing

Crabbies Ginger Beer - George and Camilla
"Halewood International, the UK’s leading independent drinks manufacturer and distributor has announced its biggest ever TV campaign for Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer to kick start a wave of high profile activity over the summer.

"Crabbie’s will hit TV screens with a brand new creative concept featuring the brands renowned retro duo, George and Camilla in a spiffingly English picnic scene, and will run for six weeks from 11 July to 22 August – the brands longest running appearance on TV to date.

"Running a national network campaign with 20 second adverts, the TV campaign will have a massive impact across the UK adult population. It will provide a constant stream of air time over the key summer period to drive awareness and sales in both the On and Off Trade.

"As part of the summer schedule of activity, Crabbie’s will be attending twelve picnic in the park music events organised by Stonegate Picnics across the country providing an opportunity for sampling and sales as well as offering VIP picnic packages.

"Crabbie’s marketing controller, Al Cross, said: “With a full summer of activity planned to support the broadcast, we are really urging customers to stock up for summer to avoid missing out on the continued fast paced growth and demand for Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer.

"“The new creative follows the usual essence of the Crabbie’s brand and will add to the all year round refreshing taste of Crabbie’s. This is one part of our large scale activities, capturing summer drinkers but due to the versatility of Crabbie’s we continue to enjoy fantastic sales throughout the year.”"

http://www.talkingretail.com/products/product-news/crabbies-alcoholic-ginger-beer-back-for-summer-tv-advert

http://www.crabbiesgingerbeer.co.uk/tv-ads/
http://www.ponderosagroup.co.uk/work/crabbies-alcoholic-ginger-beer/

paper clips research

http://www.officemuseum.com/paper_clips.htm

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12353171/#.US8sqmhYWJU

http://smilepanic.com/fun-with-paper-clips/

http://www.funology.com/paper-clips-in-love/

http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/feature/2153953/-aayp-generation-ys-expectations

http://lifehacker.com/5152309/diy-heart+shaped-paperclips

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/c/clip.asp

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/c/clip.asp

Photographs so far

Evaluation - Biscuits

I think that the whole think worked our quite well. The finished poster is missing the Mcvities logo (I'll add it on after half-term). I lightened the image and cropped it in photoshop so that it was a little more cheerful, easy to see and fitted exactly how I wanted it to on the page. Taking the photos not difficult - I used a table from a classroom, with a white table cloth over it and documented a my models pretending to play poker. I think it went a lot better than the cutlery assignment from the week before.

THESE ARE NOT REAL ADVERTS

Lighting Layout - Cutlery

Yellow shape: Light, Black circle: Camera, Grey circle; Cutlery

Lighting Layout - Biscuits

Yellow shape: Lights, Red box: Table, Brown circle: Biscuit/s, Black circle: Camera, Grey/Blue ovals: Models

Pack Shot of biscuit (taken from above)

Playing Poker

Proposal - Biscuits

In order to advertise McVities Digestives to a new audience, I shall use a gambling theme. Poker being especially simple - and easy for work restricted to the studio, will be the game I focus on. For the poster I will have 2 people playing poker, side on - camera level with the biscuits - and only the players hands visible - removing any personal element. I will have a sort of halo around the biscuits from a light shining on the background - other than that one very bright light, the lighting will be even.

Timeline - Biscuits

First Lesson: with Julie, we came up with idea and taglines, typing potential taglines into InDesign and testing fonts. My first ideas were very simple, but it gradually got more interesting so that people were playing cards with biscuits

Second Lesson: in Tom's lesson we then took test shoots in the studio; I found I needed a fairly large table and a bigger back drop to avoid getting the walls in the images.

Third Lesson: in Matts lesson we edited images from the lesson before

Fourth Lesson: in Tom's lesson we took our final photo's and edited to the final image.

Fifth Lesson: with Mike we finished off everything  and started writing up work

Cutlery Adverts

These are just adverts picked up from the internet, but they show 2 distinctive styles towards the products. There are the simple, laid out images and the mixed together - probably though editing - perfected images.

Proposal - Cutlery

I would like to sell the cutlery by making them look like they are dancing or walking. Initially, I started by looking at traditional cutlery photographs, which evolved into cutlery attacking people to dancing cutlery, which may be hard to replicate in the studio.
I would like to have a sort of stage like set up for the cutlery, like a catwalk or theatre. If I can't make a stage then the image will look like a bit like a stop-motion animation, or comic strip. I have decided to use digital media for this project as I need an image thats easy to manipulate.

Evaluation - Cutlery

Deciding to use digital media was a very good idea - as the planned images would have taken far too long to have put together otherwise. Unfortunately I was unable to make an image with a stage due to time restraints, but I was able to create the catwalk comic strip.
All the images needed editing as the hands of people holding the cutlery were in the images and they were too wide.
I'm please with the out come, although some of the editing could be better and my reflection is in the spoons - I didn't know how to edit them out, I think for a first attempt, I've done pretty well. It looks good. However, it would be nice not to work with reflective things next week

Cutlery Ideas (and Font Names)