Web Based Video Advertising Idea

Over the summer, from June till middle of September I had been working for a web based company called Clove Technology. We specialise in selling PDA’s, Smartphones, GPS systems and GPS software, Ultra portable laptops and accessories. We sell these products all over the world. The website is crucial for this business, as 80% of the business comes from it. The website has to be powerful, informative, easy to use, good looking; creative, updated regularly, contact details and create a good image for Clove. Part of my job was keeping the website updated, by putting new products on, checking our prices against competitors, designing banner adds for our products to put on our website and other sites to advertise Clove.

As Clove is so web based, I had been brain storming ideas with the Business Development Manager at Clove new ideas to advertise the products that Clove sell, but on a very low budget. We both came up with the idea of creating short un boxing videos of the products. I then thought what could make this more appealing to an audience, un boxing video would be great to have as the customer could see the device and see what they are getting for there money. However what could be better, so I thought of doing short 30 – 45 second promotional videos of the devices. Many of the devices that Clove sell are extremely stylish and the companies that create these products send us pictures of them, and the images that are sent make the products look like you must own it. For example here is the link to the manufacturer’s website, http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro/overview.html

It makes the product look beautiful and appealing. I thought if I could create a short advert which will advertise the product being sold at Clove Technology. This can be placed on YouTube.

If you type in on YouTube HTC Touch Pro (one of there devices) the first video that comes up is a getting started video, with over 446,000 views. Many people are interested in these devices will first of all go onto YouTube or research into the device they want to purchase, they are not cheap and creating an advert or un boxing video with Clove Technology all over the artefact could mean the person viewing the product they are interested will go onto the clove website and order the product from them. These videos that I produce do not just have to be simple adverts; they could have voiceovers describing the features, showing off what the device could do. Yes there is competition for this, but as its free to put on YouTube, and so many videos get viewed, if what I produce is good quality, and gets views, this could result in more sales for Clove, which will be the sole purpose of what I will be doing.

In essence I could be employed as a freelance by Clove to produce videos for them, these videos will be embedded into there website and onto YouTube. With it being all about technology, every month new devices are being released, so there is always going to be work to do. Many of the devices that are good sellers do not have videos, so creating adverts for older devices could still help. People want to know what they are buying before they buy them, and these videos are what they want. IF they are on the company’s website, it gives better customer service because its better so see something in a video than just reading about what it can do. For example iPhone adverts work really well because they often show off the features of what the phone can do, they do it very simply but it works because it makes you want that device. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZU7Alv6p8

I believe for a Final Major Project this could be quite a unique project. I could be creating many videos making me have to think about what the product is, who its target audience is going to be, and its going to be pushing my creativity because I will have to think of different adverts for all the devices. Many of the devices are from the same company, so keeping the same theme if the devices are similar in looks could happen, creating a on going theme for certain devices but making it relevant to the device. For example, again HTC’s new range of devices all have a similar look to them, they have a contoured back casing and are all black with the same key styles. They are just different styles. When pictures get sent to us, they are all using the same theme, just different devices.

There’s many different ways I could carry out this project. My main aim would be to generate more business for the company, so I would have to make the quality extremely high. I believe it’s viable to do as the device would get sent up to me as soon as they receive them, which is often before anyone else because of the relationship the company has with many suppliers. I would get told the device and get sent pictures before receiving the device so I could plan how and what I wanted to do for it. So as soon as I receive I could start straight away, and create the video as soon as possible. Planning, research and pre production would be vital in this project as I would need to get the video created as soon as possible to beat competition, as many forums where people who buy are products come from are extremely up to date with release dates. If we get videos posted and we let forums know as soon as, they will look at the adverts created and go to Clove before anyone else. This would be the idea anyway. What makes this project stand out is that I would have a client. Not many people for there final major projects will have a client they will be doing work for. This would mean my all would have to be going in 100% of the time.

As for relevance to this module, I believe it relates to power and memory. The advert needs to be able to capture the eye of the onlooker; it needs to eye catching and memorable. The future customer will need to remember the advert, and what company it came from. This is all part of what I will need to think about if I carry out this idea. The whole point of advertising is to sell a product, and by doing that I need the onlooker to want to go know where else other than Clove Technology. The advert will have to be extremely professional and make the onlooker want to purchase that product as soon as possible. If not as soon as possible then it has to stay with them, for example many car adverts are so powerful, many people remember and love the Honda Accord advert, not many people like the car or remember what car it is advertising, but they remember the advert because it was so powerful and entertaining. I will need to have the same effect, but making sure the advert really boosts the product, make the product as memorable as the advert.

Here is the Honda Accord advert that has nearly had 1 million views on YouTube.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc

Short Film Idea

After last year, when we created a short film, I enjoyed it but I always felt TV was the area I wanted to go into. However I still have been trying to think of short film ideas. After watching the film Crash, I loved how there were so many characters in the story and how they all linked in together. I wanted to take this approach and adapt it to my own idea.

To begin with I wanted to there to be 4 different characters, a mother walking her two children to school, a middle aged business man driving to work, an elderly man walking his dog and a homeless lady. I want the basic idea to be about how the power of a spectacle happens, which brings these completely different strangers together. The event that happens I first thought would be an accident, which some how brings these people together. They are all from the same area or in the same area at the same time of the event that happens. It will represent how people from different backgrounds, different classes, when something happens, those strangers will work together to help if someone is in need. People’s classes or cultures are put to one side if someone is in need of help. I want this film to follow the people in there normal, day to day lives, in the morning on the way to work, or school. I want the spectacle that happens to bring these people together, for it to make people release that it doesn’t matter where you are from, people are people, when someone is in trouble, the image of class or culture is dropped. This may not always be true in today’s society, but I still think this could make for an interesting and moving film. I would want it to create emotions from the audience, make them feel something and make them come out of watching the film thinking about it, questioning perhaps would they stop to help a stranger in street. For the look of the film, I would want to use very smooth shots, perhaps using a dolly of some kind, as I love how these shots look, keeping the shot held for a long time but very slow, smooth movement. I think this really helps capture a moment so well, and if this is what I want this piece to be about, I think using techniques like this will help. I would not use many fast cuts as I want the film to capture the emotion of the moment. This moment being when people from different classes and backgrounds join as one to help in the situation that has happened.

I obviously need to develop this idea, but I believe it could create a nice film. I would really focus on making the shots look perfect and beautiful; I will want the mise en scene to be perfect to capture the emotion that I want. Even thought the situation may be horrific, I want the lighting to be soft, and audio will be vital. This is something I need to develop.

Cov TV

Cov TV is a society set up for students to carry out as there add vantage modules or just as a society. We have set up a youtube channel for Cov TV where the societies members will create television shows about the University, Coventry or to showcase there own work. I am the Head Of Production and Post Production. We have set up the meetings on a Wednesday, where so far we have had idea workshops, idea development workshops and pre production workshops. I have been part of the teaching team, teaching the non media production students that belong to the society about pre production, what is involved and why it is important. I have also been heading some of the idea development workshops. Many people who are members are very enthusiastic about the society and the channel. We have a mixture of members, from Journalism students to graphic design students. We are going to using the University as a Spectacle, promoting it but also making fun, entertaining shows. For example some of the ideas that have come up include car shows, cooking shows, game shows and sports shows. We are going to be creating weekly news updates about the University and the City. Many of the members have had some very good ideas. A group of us are leading the Society, all in various roles. I believe this could work as an idea for my final major project because we can do so much with it. We are using the University as a spectacle and using power of the internet to show this. So far a team has filmed a rugby game that happened between Coventry University and Warwick University. It was a fresh game, with the players being not in the main rugby squad. I and a member of the society who wants to learn more about editing are going to be editing the game into a 2 minute highlights show with an interview with the players at the end. There is a huge rivalry between Warwick and Coventry, and with matches like this people will watch as Varsity day is a huge event between the two universities, and with build up games like this one, people will be interested in seeing what the other University is going to be like. The channel is in its very early stages at the moment, and we are still in the ideas stage, but as soon as it starts to pick up, we are going to be promoting the channel and hopefully be putting up a lot of high quality shows. Here is a link to the youtube channel. It has not been adjusted yet and designed for how we shall have it, but this is at the beggining stage what the channel looks like. http://uk.youtube.com/user/covstudent

After Training Interviews with Coventry Blaze

Today Ian and myself went to interview two Coventry Blaze players after there morning training in preparation for there game on Saturday. We shall be putting these interviews up on our Blaze TV channel once edited. We had the BBC reporter, Jeff Foster, asking the questions whilst we filmed the interviews. We were asked to do this by the Blaze because they have seen that the highlights that we have put on youtube have had such big viewing numbers, lots of people are interested in the team. If we can get the players talking about future games, it will be a powerful advertising tool. Even if people can not come and watch the game, they know that there will be highlights next week. I believe this can relate to the theme of spectacle. Its using the image that these players have, people who are interested in the sport are going to watch interviews of there teams players. If the player is talking bout next weeks game, it can remind the audience or make them want to go and watch the game. It is using the player as a spectacle, to promote the team and this week’s game. We are going to be doing lots of outside work with the team, for example documenting all there community work. This channel has a lot of potential and there is going to be a lot of work for us to be getting on with, where we can build up experience and build up a large portfolio of work.

Blaze TV

A team of us, consisting of Ian Winterbottom, Scott Page, Ollie Watts and myself are filming the weekly games for Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey Team. Coventry Blaze is one of the best ice hockey teams in Europe. We have been approached by the owner of the Blaze to make an online TV channel for the club. No other club in the country has this, so we want to be the first to make this happen. The channel will include weekly highlights and reports of the home games, documentaries of the players doing there community service work, interviews with the manager, coach and players. We have been given access all area passes when the game is on. We have been talking about how we are going to be having the camera’s set up to make the highlights the best they can be. The club has given us to cameras, unfortunately these are Sony Handycams. They are good, but we need better to produce the quality we want. We have decided to use a two camera set up. We have one camera getting a wide shot of the game from the top of the stands. This will give us the main shot of the game. We are going to use camera 2 on the side of the ice rink, at the end where the Blaze are shooting to get close up’s of the goals. In the edit these close up’s will be used in slow motion to show the goal. We believe this will be the best way to shoot the games. Camera 2 will be handheld. We want to maximise movement as the game is very face paced and using a tripod will be too hard to get the shoots we will need. For example many times the players tackle each other hard into the sides of the rink; if we are using a tripod it will be hard to get these shots if the tackle has happened on the camera side. We are going to use Z1’s as this the best picture quality and we need a good lens for the close up shots. We do not have to worry bought lighting as the rink is very well lit. The audio is sorted as well. We are going to play music over the top of the highlights. We have an account with a company that allows us to get any music we want off the website and use that. The music is not well known stuff, but it is good enough for what we want. The owner of the Blaze, Mike Cowley is giving us loads of support and anything we need to make this the best we can. We also have spoken to Jeff Foster who does the game reports for the BBC, he does an after game interview with the Blaze Manager, and we have been given permission to film this. We wanted to interview the Manager, but using a specialist asking the questions, and we have certainly achieved this. Coventry Blaze already has a large fan base, and a successful website where Blaze TV (our channel) is advertised. Here is a link to the website. http://www.coventryblaze.co.uk/

I would like to use this as my final major project as it relates to the themes we have been set in our brief for this module. This idea relates to power, memory and spectacle. The power of the internet is a major importance to this idea. Also this sport is getting bigger in this country, if we can make it more widely available to people through you tube, anyone anywhere can watch it. We want to make the sport wider known. It is already huge in Canada and America; we want to make it bigger over here. Many people are interested in this sport, and because of this we already have an audience to watch our channel. You tube is a very powerful tool, and using this to our advantage we can really push the channel and make it something really good. The sport itself is very powerful. The players push there bodies to the extreme, the tackles, the fights and the goals all show how powerful these people are. The skill that is involved is huge. Its not like football where you have to just concentrate on the ball or forward thinking to what tactic or pass you are going to use. Ice Hockey players have to think all about this, but using a massive stick, on ice, less players, smaller pitch, smaller goals, and huge tackles being allowed. It is a hugely entertaining sport to watch, and for this reason spectacle can relate to this idea. Before we took over the channel, the website already had subscribers and people viewing the footage on there. The channel already was known, and with our help we can make it big. Memory can also be applied to this as the highlights are showing what has happened. Someone may have a memory of the game, or a part they loved. Now because of us they can view it again. Overall I think with research and hard work this could be a fantastic final major project idea. I do not want to be a film maker, I want to work in TV, and I believe this is what will help me into the direction I want to go. Our team all have designated jobs within the channel. We have the camera operators, camera assistants, editors, editing assistants and we will once this begins to take off Channel Manager. I am very enthusiastic about this idea, I believe the potential it can have is massive.

Blaze TV – The first highlights

We edited and posted on youtube this week our first highlights. We posted 2 games, one from Sunday 12th Ocotober and one game from 14th Septmeber. We set ourselves a breif we have to work to. The length of the highlights could not be any longer than 3 – 3 and half mins long. We had to create an intro, stings and outro to separate each highlight. We have decided to include goals, fights and good saves our plays into the highlights. But this will vary depending on each games content. At the end of the show we have the final score and man of the match. We were going to put all the information up about who scored what goal, who assisted and who 2nd assisted. But this would have been a lengthy process and would have taken along time for the audience to read everything, and it could double the time of the show. Plus does the audience want this? All this information can be found on the Coventry Blaze website anyway, so we decided not to include it. We had to decide how we wanted the final highlights to look. We wanted quite a fast paceshow, but the problem is many goals in ice hockey come from a big build up, but we dont have have time to show all this. We (we being Ollie, Scott and ian) all decided that show some of the build up, then the goal and then a quick zoom or cut to the players celebrating, as they are celbrating we wanted the Coventry Blaze Logo to go across the screen, as the logo went across we used a wipe transition to bring in the next highlight. Overall i am very pleased with how they look. But the main thing is our client, the ownee, the Blaze manager and staff all loved it. We need to use better quality camera’s so we are going to bring our own. But other than that they were very happy with the result. However we are going to improve it still, by getting a graphic design student to do the score board, information bar and various other graphics we need, as we did the graphics which are ok, but we want better. Overall for the first highlights, we are very happpy iwht how they have come out. To view the highlights, here is the Link. The channel on youtube is blazetv. There are two highlight shows we have created, one for Covernty Blaze vs Hull Stingrays, and one for Coventry Blaze vs Cardiff Devils. http://uk.youtube.com/user/CovBlazeTV