This project was comprised of a series of 3 images shot to a creative brief which are to be displayed in bus stops to reach my target audience of able bodied British people in order to promote the idea of giving blood.
All of the images are constructed images and the subjects are aware and have agreed to be photographed in the studio.
I have mixed feelings towards whether or not my project was a success. From a technical point of view, I am very happy with how the images look. I shot the images with a canon 5dmk2, canon 85mm 1.8 lens using F8 and a shutter speed of 1/125sec. I feel the lighting is perhaps the best I have ever achieved which help the ad's to look stylish, professional and clean. The high power studio lighting allowed me to shoot at ISO 50, I think the image quality achieved by this shows through in the final images.
I feel like I did stick to my creative brief but it would have been nice to have included some female characters to appeal to a wider audience. I feel rather foolish having not noticed this until my project was completed.
I also feel like I stayed too safe and could have taken the project further creating a riskier series of images which played further upon the viewers emotions, making use of colour, symbols and connotations to create an edgy, cutting edge advert.
This project has sparked a passion in myself for advertising however and since undertaking this project I have applied to intern with some of london's top advertising agencies to better understand the industry and improve my skills and experiencee in working to a creative brief.
Friday 6 January 2012
The final images which went to print
I wanted to keep the adverts very clean with a very simply design, choosing a plain black background and plain white text. I didn’t want distracting colours to take away from the message of the ads.
The use of the silly faces aims to create a sense that the viewer has a higher status than the characters in the advert. It turns the characters into a bit of a joke which makes the viewer think, if this silly guy can be a hero and give blood, I certainly can too.
The advert deliberately denies or disregards the hospital and needles side of giving blood. Nowhere in the advert is there a reference to hospitals, medical personnel or needles.
The tag line "Some of us were born to be heroes" attempts to poke fun at the characters as they come across as silly but yet has a serious not which associates blood donors to heroes.
This image is perhaps my favorite of the series.
It aims to be ironic, the guy is pulling a real funny, silly but over all very happy face. It attempts to show in a very light-hearted way the pride and happiness that giving blood makes you feel.
This image shows an older guy which tries to appeal to the older generation. The funny face lightens the mood and attempts to grab the attention of the viewer at a glance. It is almost a juxtaposition mixing silliness with a serious cause and a guy who you might guess due to his age would otherwise be a serious character.
This image shows the modesty in the character, his expression is almost saying to the viewer, it was nothing which is a value I wanted to portray, that giving blood is no hard thing.
Selecting the final images
Here was the short list of the image I had to choose from to include in the final advertisement.
Selecting the final tag line
The 2 tag lines I had to choose from were
" This man saved a life today"
and
"Some of us were born to be Heroes."
in the end I chose to go with the later as I liked the idea of linking blood donors to heroes.
" This man saved a life today"
and
"Some of us were born to be Heroes."
in the end I chose to go with the later as I liked the idea of linking blood donors to heroes.
Processing the final shoot
I edited my images in lightroom first reducing the colour temperature from 5600 kelvin down to 5295 to cool off the images giving a fresh, cool tones. I then reduced the saturation to around half and increased the vibrancy to just over 60%. I increased the blacks by about 20% to increase the shadows and make the image a little more contrasty. I then increased the fill light to about 40% to bring back some of the details lost when I brought up the shadow detail. I then increased the clarity to 90% and reduced the exposure of the raw file by nearly a stop leaving me with the final processed image I wanted. I then sharpened my images and exported them into photoshop where I did a light retouch removing any major spots or blemish’s using the spot healing brush
This is the original image
This is the same image after I had finished processing it.
more behind the scenes of the final shoot
Shooting my final images
The images were shot in the studio using a large polystyrene board which had been painted black as a background and using a 3 light set up. I lit my subjects from the front using a 24” softbox which I positioned directly in front of my subject, raised slightly higher than the camera angled down at about 45degrees to the subjects face. I then flagged off the edges using black flags which I held in place over the softbox leaving only a strip of light in the middle which lit my subjects face in the middle and then rapidly fell off evenly on both sides of the subjects face. I then lit them from the back using 2 400w bowen studio strobes which were flagged off from the black background by black flags and positioned slightly behind my subject at an angle slightly more than 90degrees.
I then flagged the edges closest to the subject applying black tape to the edge of the light to control the spill and reduce any flare caused by aiming the strobe light towards my lens. This created the specular highlights and rim light present at both sides of my subjects faces. I fine tuned these lights until the highlights wrapped around the edges of my subjects faces but didn’t continue on to their nose.
I continued to shoot portraits of my subjects getting them to pull silly faces as I snapped.
Thursday 5 January 2012
Give Blood - Video Ad Campaigns
Albert Einstein hospital blood drive
Filmed real customers in a store as they come across blood on display as if it was a soft drink. Lets the viewer watch the characters reaction to the discovery in the film and recreates the feelings as if the viewer was experiencing the discovery of blood in the store themselves.
Makes people question how hard it is to get hold of blood and whether blood should be easy to get hold of when you need it.
What if anyone in need of blood could find it anywhere? Based on this question, Hospital Albert Einstein created an innovative way to make people aware of the need for blood donations. We’ve placed blood bags in refrigerators of several convenience stores throughout São Paulo. The costumers were amazed to found them beside sodas and sandwiches. Their reactions were filmed, and the resulting film was posted on the Internet and displayed on movie theatres under the tagline: “If getting blood was this easy, we wouldn’t have to ask you to donate.
Advertising Agency: Z +, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: Alan Strozenberg, Leo Macias, Mané Zanzoti
Art Directors: Danillo Ferrari, Luigi Alliegro
Copywriter: Zé Ricardo Novoa
Account Managers: Renata Vieitas, Juliana Sanches
Production Company: Mixer
Director: Rodrigo Ferrari
Photography: Dado Carlini
Sound company / Sound track: Tralálá
Creative Directors: Alan Strozenberg, Leo Macias, Mané Zanzoti
Art Directors: Danillo Ferrari, Luigi Alliegro
Copywriter: Zé Ricardo Novoa
Account Managers: Renata Vieitas, Juliana Sanches
Production Company: Mixer
Director: Rodrigo Ferrari
Photography: Dado Carlini
Sound company / Sound track: Tralálá
Give blood Scotland. - stv
Plays on family values, being real, telling it like it is.
The pitch is a personal message to the viewer. “Its not someone he’s talking to, it’s you”.
National Blood Service – Mar 2010
“do something amazing, give blood”
"Without this man" …
Plays on the viewers emotion and sympathy. Uses celebrities to grab the viewers attention and attempts to portray the celebrity as a normal person giving personal information that the viewer might identify with.
The advert tells the emotional story of how an ordinary person has helped save the life of a celebrities loved one through giving blood.
“Please don’t leave it to someone else”
Plays on the relationship between a father and his young (primary school) child who has been involved in a road accident, a father who’s daughter needs a liver transplant and a young women with cancer and a young girl.
The advert doesn’t show any gore or blood itself but shows the happyness when you are well and the sadness and worry when someone you love is in the hospital.
Indian blood advert
Plays on the relationship between an uncle and his niece. The niece is thanking her uncle on behalf of all the uncles and aunties who donate blood which she needs every month due to her thalessemia. It also plays on the sympathy of the viewer when they find out that the cute little girl has a serious illness.
Tag line – “Try it, It feels good”
Donate life – organ donor Australia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8FYC8lMopA
“Donate life”
“To donate life, discuss it today”
Encourages people to give the permission to donate their organs to those in need should they die.
The video campaign shows short clips of peoples faces surrounded by black space, adding drama using classical music and long fades between each video clip.
Thai Red Cross Society
Shows an animated clip where children’s arms control drawings of blood bags. It follows the story of how the blood is used to help people who have been in a violent robbery and how the blood has been used to help babies.
It uses the story that the grim reaper would like to take the soul of a soldier away who has been injured by war, but how he has survived due to the blood that has been donated and the grim reaper is sent away.
It plays upons the idea that all the people in the world are connected by showing children holding hands around the globe all linked up by large veins to one central heart which is supplied by a blood bag that has been donated.
Photographer - Steve Neaves - ford fiesta shoot for Empire magazine
During an Intership I did last year with Bauer Media which is the company who produce many massive magazines in the UK such as Empire, FHM, Nuts, Kerrang and Q I was able to be present at the shoot of the promo shots of the ford Fiesta which was featured in Empire magazine.
I was able to speak to Steve although although very briefly about the techniques he uses and I was able to watch over his shoulder and watch him and his team work. This was very helpful in learning the techniques I use myself today. Above is one of the shots which was created during the shoot.
I was able to speak to Steve although although very briefly about the techniques he uses and I was able to watch over his shoulder and watch him and his team work. This was very helpful in learning the techniques I use myself today. Above is one of the shots which was created during the shoot.
Portraiture preparation test shoot
In preparation for creating my advert where I plan to use portraiture to get my point across I created this image. I extracted it from its background using a graphics tablet and the brush tool on a mask and posted it onto this background taken from one of the movie studios at Ealing studios.
Service Plan - Blood,Sweat and Tears Ad
Service plan used blood in their recruitment advertisement with the idea that their creative employee's do all that it takes in order to get the job done. The 'posters of passion' shown below attempt to persuade the viewers that the employees of service plan are cutting edge.
I am not convinced that this campaign is in the best of taste considering that blood banks are always short of the blood they need and this advert seems to be a complete waste of donated blood.
It is however very creative as the employees literally put their blood, sweat and tears into it !!
American Red Cross
The aim of this advert is similar to my own, to encourage people to support the organization through giving blood.
The images focus on the impact that giving blood has on a person's life using the tag line "see the need"
They also include an interactive website which went with the campaign where people could submit their own images and add the blood graphic to them in the attempt that this would further make the point that giving blood effects us all.
The images focus on the impact that giving blood has on a person's life using the tag line "see the need"
They also include an interactive website which went with the campaign where people could submit their own images and add the blood graphic to them in the attempt that this would further make the point that giving blood effects us all.
Botafogo Praia Shopping: Donate Blood, Boots Campaign
I don't really find this campaign particularly effective.
“As easy as make any donation, is to make a blood donation.”
This advert relies upon the colour red and suggests the idea to its viewers that making a blood donation is just as simple as donating your old clothes and shoes.
It plays with the idea that donating blood is no big deal and not something to be feared. The advert doesn't picture blood itself which could perhaps put off people who feel faint at the idea or sight of blood, rather it uses a symbol to represent the blood, in this case the red boots.
Advertising Agency: Casa da Criação, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Creative Director: Heleno Bernardi
Art Directors: Luis Paulo Gatti, PatrÃcia Medeiros
Copywriter: Andrea Moniz
Photographer: Rafael Coppola
Published: November 2009
Creative Director: Heleno Bernardi
Art Directors: Luis Paulo Gatti, PatrÃcia Medeiros
Copywriter: Andrea Moniz
Photographer: Rafael Coppola
Published: November 2009
SANBS – South African National Blood Service
This ad Campaign is for the South African National Blood Service.
Ad agency - ogilvy
Art director - blake duerdan : http://notsorandomltd.com
This advert compares the way that simple everyday items run out with how blood is always running short in blood banks.
It uses techniques usually associated with product shots making use of white negative space.
It also uses red as a colour to make a visual link to the product that in this case is blood.
Tag line - “If you think this is an emergency, imagine our predicament”.
Bangalore traffic Police Campaign
The ad replies on family values and shock tactics to gets its message across. The inclusion of blood works for this ad but for a blood drive ad I think the image should be much less gory.
Give blood logo
I will attempt to make some slight changes to the National Blood Service logo pictures above and include this in my final advertisement.
Project Proposal
Creative Proposal
I will create a series of promotional advertisements for the National Blood Service to raise awareness and promote the need to give blood. It is important to remind people to give blood as often this is over looked and the supply of blood is much less than the demand. The advertisement aims to drive additional people aged 18+ to give blood in their local area.
Many blood donor campaigns have been made in the past, most of which focused on appealing to the viewers emotions and sympathies making the viewer feel sorry for the people in need of blood. With this campaign I plan to use humour to appeal to the British publics light-hearted nature. I also want to promote the idea that people who give blood are like heroes and give the viewer the sense that the character in the advert is of a lower status than the viewer making the viewer feel good about themselves. I want to achieve this by making the character in the advert seem silly although they have the status of being a hero.
The advertisement aims to appeal to the general public of Britain, to everybody of good health aged 18 and over. I therefore propose to create a paper vinyl poster to be display at bus stops where the target audience can view it. I propose to have the ad shell ready by 6th January 2012.
Movie Posters - a further example of persuasive images
Movie trailers and posters are a great example of how images are used to make us desire to watch the movie they are advertising.
I like the grit and edginess present in the movie poster shown above, this is a commonly used technique often used when working with these types of subjects and is something I would perhaps like to try to include elements of in my images. I can not be sure as I do not have access to behind the scenes photo's or access to talk to the photographer who shot this image but I would imagine that the main shot was taken in a studio with a low fill lighting the subject from the front and then a bringer light (+1 stop from the key exposure) was flashed on the subject from both sides positioned slightly behind the subject to give him the rim light which adds contrast, drama and separates his body from the background. The dirt or grit which seems to be surrounding him is most probably a filter or graphic added in photoshot and layed directly on top of the studio image.
It's interesting that they have got the actor to look down and shut his eyes, this denies the viewer a chance to connect with the super hero. This image was created to encourage the viewer to watch the movie, perhaps the connection was intentionally refused so that the viewer would have to watch the movie in order to find out who this character is. It's ad's another layer of mystery to the character. I'm not sure whether or not this is something I will want to incorporate in my images, most probably I will make my subjects make eye contact with the camera and therefore my viewer but I will bare the possibilities in mind.
Ad Agency - Taylor James - Pretty Polly Ad shot by Aitken Jolly
Taylor James – Jessie J, Pretty Polly Tights Campaign
Studying this Campaign and how it was approached has been very useful in helping me to define how I want to construct my composite images.
I like the use of bright colours and the contrast they give when set on top of a very desaturated, urban background.
The background images are all shot separately at the same location and then the people were shot individually in the studio and then edited into the image at a later stage. Each shot seems to have it’s own colour scheme, this is an idea I may consider for my project as I feel it works very well here and gives each image its own feel and makes the collection as a whole visually interesting and colourful.
The photographer for this campaign was Aitken Jolly.
http://www.taylorjames.com/project/pretty-polly-jessie-j
Research - WWF Desertification Campaign
Photography is often used to raise awareness of the worlds problems. These images used in the WWF Desertification Campaign make the statement that "Desertification destroys 6'000 species every year" depicting animals which are crumbling into dust. This advert relies upon the visual demonstration where the dust represents the growth of the desert and it's impact in killing these animals.
Advertising Agency: Contrapunto BBDO, Madrid, Spain
Chief Creative Officers: Carlos Jorge, Félix Del Valle
Art Directors / Copywriters: Aurora Hidalgo, Raúl López
Account Manager: Paco Ribera
Producer: Javier Luján, Raúl López
Account Executives: Verónica Félez, Dalal Solaim
Chief Creative Officers: Carlos Jorge, Félix Del Valle
Art Directors / Copywriters: Aurora Hidalgo, Raúl López
Account Manager: Paco Ribera
Producer: Javier Luján, Raúl López
Account Executives: Verónica Félez, Dalal Solaim
Photoshop research and notes
I've noticed from my research that advertising images involve a lot of photoshop so in preparation for this project, I have been reading up and improving my photoshop skills.
I have studied alot of photoshop tutorials and have been making notes along the way as and when I came across something that I deemed to be useful.
Here are some of the notes I have made collected from various tutorials. The tips n tricks are written for my own benefit using phrases and terms that make sense to me when talking about photoshop. They may not therefore be written grammatically correct.
......
I have studied alot of photoshop tutorials and have been making notes along the way as and when I came across something that I deemed to be useful.
Here are some of the notes I have made collected from various tutorials. The tips n tricks are written for my own benefit using phrases and terms that make sense to me when talking about photoshop. They may not therefore be written grammatically correct.
......
Creating a Clipping group to isolate an adjustment layer.
Clipping group.
To isolate an adjustment layer so that it effects just 1 layer, you can use a clipping group.
This can be done by holding down the Option key and putting your cursor between the layers and clicking once whilst holding down the option key.
Clicking between the adjustment layer and the layer you want the adjustment layer to be grouped with in the layers pallet until the clipping symbol of 3 circles appears.
The adjustment layer will now only effect the layer which it is grouped with.
Isolating an adjustment layer using a mask - (alternative to using a clipping group)
Adjustment layers load up with masks pre loaded so rather than creating a clipping group, you could just select the area which you want to be effected and mask out the rest.
Decrease healing brush smudges / dark circles under the eyes
Using the clone stamp, set the mode to lighten, click on a light tone and paint in under the eyes with an opacity of about 30%.
Increasing contrast in the Eyes/Bringing back and adding contrast to facial features
Levels adjustment layer, raise the shadows and bring up the highlights a little, (CMD + I) inverts the layer mask to black, then set the brush tool to white and paint over the eyes to reveal the contrast eye.
Creating dark circles around the eyes
(Shift + opt+ CMD+E) to create a new layer, (opt + click) to oadd a black layer mask o the layer. Set layer style to Multiply, paint in a dark circle around the iris, reduce the opacity until it looks convincing. This can help the eyes to "pop".
Correcting skin tone mis matches
Select the paint brush tool and set the blending mode to Hue. The brush will now only effect the colours of the skin and not the luminosity. Reduce opacity to approx. 30%. Using the colour picker select an appropriate skin tone and paint over the areas of skin that are too picnk etc. (great for ears and nostrils).
Reduce blood shot in the eyes
Healing brush, choose a small brush and paint over the blood shot parts of the eye.
Dodging and burning
Start with the burn tool, ensure that protect tones box is clicked and that midtones is selected in the range box, paint over the shadow areas to darken them up a little, following the bone structure of the face. Use a low exposure, something between 15-20%.
Use the dodge tool to paint over the highlights in the same way as the burn tool.
Try setting the layer style to luminosity to see how this effects the image, sometimes gives a beneficial change to the skin tones.
Liquefy
Liquefy is found under the filters menu.
Use the forward warp tool to make adjustments to the edge’s of the face, the jaw line for slimming effects.
Use the pucker tool to make the nose smaller.
Use the bloat tool to make the eyes a little bigger.
Use the reconstruct brush to revert the area back to its original state how it was when you opened up the liquefy dialog box.
Pen pressure
When using the brush tool you can turn pen pressure on or off by open up the brush pallet by clicking the icon which can be found next to the brush size and selecting shape dynamics.
Content aware fill
Some large area’s can be taken away from the image using content aware fill. I have found that in the right circumstance, this can save a lot of time !!
General tips for a good PS workflow
Create copy of original image
New layer, choose fill in the menu and fill with history.
Use an Intuos4 graphics tablet to give you further control over a mouse or touch pad.
(Shift + opt+ CMD+E) creates a new layer containing all the visible layers
Time savers
Opt + click the layer mask icon to bring up a black layer mask
Fill with fill dialog box
Press Shift + Delete to create a fill and open up the fill dialog box to allow you to choose the colour and change the blend mode of the fill.
Creating a Lighting effect from scratch
Make a gradient, filter – Render – difference clounds. Image – adjustments – invert, Image – adjustments – levels, bring down the blacks and the midtones,
Add colour by image – adjustments – hue/saturation, click colourise box and adjust the Hue to add colour.
Research - Advertisement and Humour 2
Honda - This advert relies on advanced photoshop skills to create the reality that the advertisers want to portray. This image uses a play on words to suggest that Honda owners should "use original parts" buy depicting animals parts combined with a human body. The suggestion is made that you wouldn't use non human parts to fix or repair your body so why use non Honda parts to repair you Honda?
reflective surfaces are also a common element in product advertisements which ass to the visual interest and add a little glamour to the product.
Nikol roasting dish - This is a fun image demonstrating how objects are often depicted to take on human characteristics or behaviors in many adverts. Here you can see a chickens body bathing in a roasting tin soaking in a boiling broth as if it was human and enjoying a jacuzzi . The slogan "treat your food to something good" is used.
Research - Advertising and Ethics - ASA and Codes of Conduct
This advert takes advantage of the double sided options offered by magazine advertising. It makes light fun of religion which could be considered offensive by some people, this could result in the advert getting banned which is certainly not a rare occurrence in the advertising industry.
Advertising Standards - ASA
Advertising is controlled and regulated by the ASA. ASA regulations suggest that adverts need to be Legal descent, honest and truthful. (Although in practice advertisers don’t need to self regulate so these values are not always adhered to)
Just 1 complaint can lead to an ad being withdrawn.
If a complaint is upheld, the advertiser must withdraw or amend the advert ASAP.
Code of conduct
A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual or organization. In other words they are ethical and honour codes.
Adverting Research - Humour used in advertising
Many adverts use Humour to get their message across.
In these adverts 3M are advertising their quality photo printing paper by suggesting that using this paper, the quality of the prints is so high that you wouldn't get away with some of the forgeries that were submitted in the past depicting blurry images of flying saucers and the lock Ness monster. I like these images and feel that they work well in promoting the product as an advertising campaign as it puts me in a good good due to the humour whilst viewing the image and this is the mood that I take away and then associate with the brand and product.
The gimmick in the product is that the toothbrush bends. I think this image works well as it's a fun take on an otherwise boring product, in reality there is nothing fun or entertaining about booth brush's or brushing teeth so I think the advertisers have done a great job here in creating excitement. I also like the way that the logo is located in the top right corner as apposed to the traditional placement of bottom right. The gimmick is demonstrated once again in the illustration in the top right.
Political propaganda
Images are often used in the news to persuade the public in various ways.
A classic and very famous example of this is the image below titled – “Migrant mother” shot in 1936 by Dorethy Erlang. The image which was commissioned by the US gov. to strengthen Pres. Roosevelt’s campaign depicted the great depression after the wall street crash. This image was a very successful piece of political propaganda used to reflect a mothers pride and determination to go on regardless that the going was tough and that the whole country was going through a really hard time. The image was used to motivate and boost morale among the women of America who could identify with the motherly figure in the image.
Fashion Photography
Fashion photog – people are often sold a feeling or atmosphere rather than the product itself. Fashion advertising suggests that if you buy the product, you will be envied by others and that our lives and relationships will be instantly better. The notion of you are what you have comes into play as suggested by John Berger in his book 'ways of seeing'.
Here are some current examples of the types of images used to sell products in the fashion industry today:
Many more contemporary examples of Fashion photography can be found at Showstudio.com but the images are always the same depicting these dreamy, sexy women.
Here are some current examples of the types of images used to sell products in the fashion industry today:
Many more contemporary examples of Fashion photography can be found at Showstudio.com but the images are always the same depicting these dreamy, sexy women.
Semiotics and Psychoanalysis
Point of interest – something to be considered is that things that are concrete are easy to represent in dreams. Ideas are hard to represent in dreams, there is also no sound in dreams.
Every element in an image used for persuasion must be essential and must have a purpose within that image as every aspect of the image and text tells us something different which effects our overall reading of the image and interpretation of the message.
Case study looking at the implied narrative of a bag of western style potatoe chips.
Elements to consider
Colours – cold/warm. Colours suggest a brand, feeling?
Lens choice
Focal length, relative relation to main osubject, other subjects.
DOF – blurred/ sharp elements.
Observations
Signifier signified
Colour – sandy, bage
Red/blue chevrons Like an air mail flown in from abroud.
Script – The original looks hand written
Hot hair balloon 1880 – round the world in 80 days
Banner – “new lighter texture” Victorian posters. Banner dragged by plane. Fog
In balloon 2 characters, 1 in top hat sitting on the banner so immediate link to him.
Scrolled banner, Phileas Fog.
Serif type face – “Fine foods from around the world” – red signifies hotness, red n green, Mexican flag colours.
Handle bar moustache, winged collar
similarities to an etching portrait.
Red and green letters, western type face.
The image on the packet depicts 4 people as follows-
1st person, the leader has sombrero, poncho, rifle ready, spurs
2nd person, tie, moustache, top hat
3rd person, boots, broud checked suit, rifle over his shoulder
The image depicts a baren landscape – cactus, domed building, pink sky All these elements in the image spark a response when we view the packet and this persuades us in making our decision and in forming our opinion about the contents of the packet. This may well influence us to purchase the product based simply on the implied narrative suggested by the packet.
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