Presentation Planning...

Now that all our re-branding is complete, it's time to plan the presentation. You might be thinking that we have left it late, but we wanted to make sure we had all our re-branding strategy done so we knew exactly what we would need to discuss in our presentation - and of course, we would have visual aids to put into the presentation!

I feel that in order to make the most of our presentation, it must be engaging. In order for it to be engaging, we ourselves as a team must be engaging! Sounds a lot easier than it actually is, especially for someone who isn't that keen on presenting, but the more you do it, the easier it gets! Anything has got to be better than our first presentation when our group member failed to turn up and we ended up filling in his parts on the spot... not easy, but we managed - just!

The most effective form of presenting to an audience in a clear way is through the use of powerpoint, so our old friend will make a returned appearance! However, I think we should concentrate mainly on the visuals in our powerpoint - otherwise the presentation can seem a little unprofessional. Though we may have to use some text, but we shall see how that goes first. 

We should think about handouts too as part of our presentation. This is engaging for the audience and always seems more professional if there is something to physically remember the presentation by. Even if this just includes visuals of our re-branding - visuals are the way to trigger the memory. Hopefully our presentation will be memorable after all!

What we aim to look at in our presentation include:

• PRODUCT WE ARE RE-BRANDING:
• INTENTION:
• Audience we are aiming the product at.
• Why?
• What we have done reflects intention - essence of youth, yet retain an amount of maturity
• RESEARCH:
• Aims of our research (Packaging/Posters/TV Advertising)
• DEVELOPMENT:
• Spam Character - "SuperSpam"
• Slogan
• Different shaped packaging
• PROCESS:
• How we worked as a group.
• Time efficiency
• Final result
• Would it sell in the real world?
• VISUALS
• We must have visuals of our re-branding strategy
• Poster
• Packaging
• Television Advertising

All that is left now is to meet up and put our presentation together - it's a good job we have modern technology to communicate!

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Additional Analysing...

Feedback from Peer Assessment suggested I should analyse the work of others in order to not only gain better marks but compare the work. So, taking this on board, i will analyse the work of my fellow peers, Lauren and Katrina (who are in my learning team and consequently are the people i will be doing my presentation with) in order to realise their own strengths and weaknesses and how this can be applied to the criteria. After all, the criteria is what we are assessed by so i should attempt to get the best possible grade i can!

I'll start with Lauren, who, as part of the Spam project has chosen to do a variety of Television Advertisements in the rebranding of the product.

Lauren's work - Television Advertisement for Spam

Easter Campaign

Halloween Campaign

Christmas Campaign

Her idea is based around having a "seasonal Spam" to attract children to the idea of having spam for special occasions too and not just all year round. As with my ideas, Lauren has incorporated the idea of using a character to improve the sales of Spam, which i think is a major selling point especially for the market we are aiming for, where visuals are everything. 

Lauren has created a storyboard for her Television advertisements, which give a basic overview of the story, though i'm not too sure what this is because it is written on the back of the story boards! Nevertheless, it is clear to see from the bold and understandable visuals of the story line she is aiming for, and i think this will work well!

The idea behind advertisements which are seasonal is to create the concept that Spam can be used for special occasions, and work well in this way, it is not just a treat to have now and again. Furthermore, having different  advertisements mean children will not become bored of them - this might be different if Lauren chose to have one television advertisement for the whole year. 

As we are part of a learning team, in our original discussions over the product and what type of rebranding we  were aiming for, we had decided to stick to a similar colour scheme so the types of marketing all worked well together, even though we are assessed individually. This gives a feel of continuity across the board and Lauren has stuck to this.

Overall, i feel Lauren's idea is strong. She has understood the techniques that need to be used in order to attract the market that we are aiming for and has worked hard to achieve what she set out to do of creating different campaigns for different times of the year. The colours are bright and she has also included the idea of using a character in the advertisements - as we all have in our individual marketing. Perhaps one criticism is that the story could have been made a little clearer on first glance - but i'm sure with a bit of description, this will become much clearer! 

Katrina's work - Poster Campaign

First Poster Design

Second Poster Design

Third Poster Design

For Katrina's part of the re-branding project, she has decided to create a poster campaign to attract more attention to the product for our chosen market - children. Akin to myself and Lauren, Katrina has stuck to the chosen colour palette so our pieces are all coherent and fit well together. Furthermore, as discussed in earlier meetings, she has kept to the idea of using a pig character to sell the brand, which although we all have different styles we have used, it is easy to see that we have a similar idea of what is needed to sell the brand. 

I like the use of the engaging text on the posters, which children would be able to understand and hopefully be intrigued by, resorting in the sale of Spam! However, i feel there could be more emphasis on the product in the poster as this is what we are trying to sell, but overall the ideas Katrina has developed i feel work well within our re-branding of Spam.

Final Poster Design

From Katrina's ideas, she developed the final poster, which incorporates ideas from her ideas into one final piece, which looks good! Again, the use of the colour palette is the same throughout for continuity and this works well. Furthermore, the slogan that we decided "The Ham that Can" has been used to a great effect - in the way it is really engaging and bold in the poster. Perhaps my only criticism is that the background appears a little too dark against the colour of the character, other than that, it is a persuasive and bright poster that I'm sure would catch the attention of children that the product is aimed for. 

Hopefully, this post has been enlightening into my thoughts on the work of the others in my learning group. Looking at the work of others has helped to see that we have worked together well in our group, as even though we will be individually assessed, our work all links well together and makes a convincing re-brand!

All that is left to do now is to do our presentation... fingers crossed!

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Positive Peer Assessment...

Peer Assessment, something that most people dread! However, today's assessment was quite enlightening - in a good way! It enabled us to pinpoint our weaknesses and where we could improve with our project and such as well as a boost to the morale of things that we had been doing to a good standard according to the criteria.

My peers gave me an overall grade of a B-, which I was pleased with considering I was thinking the worst! It was really helpful to see where I needed to concentrate my work more to get the best i could. My peers suggested I analyse their work (Lauren and Katrina's posters and Tv adverts) in my blog to meet the criteria more, which states that the person is able to analyse their own work and the work of others. I feel that i am comfortable in analysing my own work, but it is true in that i haven't looked analysed the work of the others in my group. This is something i can easily work on and change however (as you will see in a later blog!). Furthermore, they suggested possibly having more research on Spam packaging of the past, as this was my part of the project - to redesign the packaging - so it could be put into context more easily. 

My peers said that my generation of ideas was good, which i was pleased to hear, as it isn't always easy trying to redesign a product that has been the same for so many years! I had done sketches and then picked the best one of the three to use as my final packaging idea. They seemed to like my ideas that i had come up with (earlier blog post). 

We also did a self assessment of our work... something that is easier said than done! I gave myself a C- overall, as i felt this was true to the criteria for me. I realised the points i needed to work on in order to make my project the best it can be, such as having more contextual research and using more materials. Having something to assess your work on makes it so much easier to see what you need to do in order to get the best out of what you are doing - It really helped! 

Overall, I need...

• More Research!
• Analysis of other's work
• Possibly the use of more Media (this was something i decided myself when looking at the criteria)

I also intend to add more into the project about our concept. We are aiming Spam at children and i feel i need to look into this market more and about the past of Spam in order to make the most of the concept. 

I feel more comfortable knowing what i have to do now in my project and i feel this is something that i can easily achieve. All that's left now is to keep working on our presentation to be delivered in January... here's hoping all runs smoothly!

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Back to the Ham that is SPAM...

Our group have all come up with individual ideas for the SPAM project now (which I will share a little later!) and we seem to be doing ok!

As my role was to redesign the packaging, I came up with a few ideas which had to be related to our target market of children. In order for our Spam product to appeal to a different market that had never been a target before, I decided to use the introduction of a character on the packaging. You don't need to be the brain of Britain to realise that for children, characters sell! This type of marketing is everywhere, I'm sure there isn't a supermarket shelf that doesn't have something aimed at children! So, i designed three characters and decided that two of them didn't suit the criteria for children, so went with the third... "SuperSpam" - a superhero costume wearing pig.

"SuperSpam" in all his glory.

There was also the issue of different fonts in the packaging, which would appear best...

Though i liked quite a few of the different styles, i though some of them wouldn't work because they were either too simple, or there was too much going on. I was quite fond of number three but i thought this wouldn't stand out on a shelf amongst other products and so opted for a much bolder style in the packaging ideas (that you will see later) and was consistent throughout by using the same font on all three on the designs - though the colours do vary.

Furthermore, to just the visuals on the packaging, there was the actual packaging itself.. what shape would it be? I tried various different styles, one similar to that of a baked bean tin and the other replicating the shape of a pig. However, i decided these were too much of resemblance to cat food... off putting for any child i'm sure!    So, in the end, I stuck with the traditional Spam shaped tin. It may seem a bit strange in that we are redesigning the brand, but most children are unaware of the connotations with Spam anyway, let alone even being aware with Spam itself, so it wouldn't be off putting. Besides, children eat with their eyes, it was more about the shelf appeal of the product rather than the shape that i felt needed the most detail. 

From these different ideas, I designed the final packaging idea...

It was inspired from my earlier sketches and i tried to incorporate some of the styles i had used earlier into this design. I have used the same basis of colours to keep the packaging consistent throughout and i feel this would appeal to children because it is bright and stands out (though the blue is more prominent in real life). I Also used the same font as i had in my earlier designs though altered it slightly so the slogan become part of the ribbon from the logo. 

Overall, i feel the packaging has been quite successful. It will appeal to children because it is bright and will stand out on the shelf, and will also appeal to parents alike who will reminisce of their childhood with Spam and maybe want their children to try a piece of nostalgia, who knows!

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"A Sweet Surprise"... The Making of!

This weeks lesson involved us putting all our planning and preparation into practice... despite the terrible acting on my part (I never was destined to be in front of the camera) our film worked considerably well. There were a few hiccups along the way, there always seems to be when some form of technology is involved, but overall Lauren, Katrina and myself worked very well together, and "A Sweet Surprise" was formed!

We had already planned our film, which involved a chance encounter between two girls who had once been separated 10 years before, and we had our storyboard, script, treatment and placards at the ready. After we had got over the initial "giggles" of Katrina and myself being filmed on camera, as well as the excitement from Lauren, who was shooting, we commenced with filming.

Everything seemed to be running smoothly until our technical hitch. Through no fault of our own, the camera decided blur, resulting in our film looking like an extra scene from the Blair Witch Project rather than the story of two innocent girls. However, this was soon sorted in a very technical manner - zooming in and out again... always works! So, we carried on with filming until we had a finished product.

In all honestly, the film appears to be a lot better than i had anticipated. Look through the dodgy acting and we have included a range of shots from close ups to full body shots, as well as smooth transitions (from the help of placards in places) from one scene to another.

I have learnt that the need for planning is vital in production. Without our story board and script we would have been lost in a tornado of shots and angles and transitions, but this wasn't the case - to our delight! Furthermore, our story line could have become quite difficult to get the grasp of as on the outset it did seem quite complicated, but keeping the filming simple ensured that the story line wasn't lost in the hype of filming.

Overall, i feel our team worked well together and in the end, we kept to our planning and produced a film, what more is there to say!

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"A Sweet Surprise..."

As part of the module, we have to create a small film based on the title "A Chance Encounter". However, the emphasis is not on the actual film, but about all the pre production planning, such as arranging a story line and deciding which shots we are going to use.

The skills we learn will be useful when arranging our presentations of our major assignment project. As this small project is all about pre production, it will be helpful for us to prepare a convincing and coherent pitch of our new Spam product.

My part of the planning included creating the treatment for the film. This was a brief description of what we planned to do. Unfortunately, i cannot put the document on the blog, so here it is...

A Sweet Surprise

Lauren, Katrina & Laura

For our “A Close Encounter” project, we have chosen to make a short film following the story of two young girls, who after an unanticipated parting ten years earlier, unexpectedly meet at a bus stop once again.

As our film is not allowed to be edited in post-production, our plan must be clear and concise in order for the film to flow smoothly and form a coherent piece. Each scene must be filmed in order from start to finish, so the need for preparation in this task is highly important.

The storyline of our film involves the two characters mirroring each other’s actions as the film progresses. The characters will be involved in both the beginning and end scene of our film – but throughout the film they will be disconnected, which is why the idea or mirroring is so important.

Our film begins with two young girls (played by Katrina and myself) in the kitchen. As there will be no sound on the video, we will be using placards to communicate our ideas with the audience, so they have a better understanding of the film and the direction it is heading. The shot will be a long shot in order to convey the ideas that the characters are in fact school girls. Our next shot will be a medium close up of Katrina’s face to emphasise her expression of the shock of the news she has received that her friend is moving. We will then use a placard to show the transition into the present day, it stating “10 years later…”. This placard plays a vital role in order for the transition from one scene to another to flow smoothly, as when it is removed, the camera will be filming down by the river as opposed to the kitchen where the film begins.

We aim to use a variety of shots in our film in order to keep and audience entertained and to convey the message. The next few shots involve the characters being on their own, walking by the river and then across the bridge. Although the characters will be separate, a constant motif (in this case a bracelet) will be used to emphasise the thoughts of the characters – each are thinking of the other throughout the film. In these scenes we plan to use both medium and full body shots. As the characters separately walk over the bridge, the camera will pan 180 degrees to emphasise the “walking away”.

Our next scene involves using a sweet shop, as it carries all the connotations to a stereotypical schoolgirl, even though the girls are now older, the place in which they started they were both younger. The shots will once again be varied in order to keep the audience enticed by the film. Furthermore the transitions will emphasise the theme “A Chance Encounter” as we plan to shoot the scene so the characters miss each other by a fraction of time. The audience have superiority in knowing that the characters are soon to meet, yet they themselves do not know this. In this case it is involving the audience on a greater level.

The final shot will really enhance the chance encounter. The scene starts with a long full body shot of the two girls sitting on a bench in the bus station. The camera will show the back of the characters as this is emphasises the fact the characters are still slightly unaware they are about the meet because we cannot see their faces. Finally, the last shot will feature a wide close up of the two girls finally meeting, after all the build-up there has been. This will be the final scene.

Though our idea in planning seemed a challenging concept, the use of placards and symbolism as well as smooth transitions and a variety of shots will convey our concept of “A Chance Encounter” smoothly and concisely.

All our planning has been done, all we need to do now is film!

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Spam... The Ham that Can!

Our group have decided to go with the Spam theme, creating a new concept aimed at children... a bit of an oxymoron, yes... but it hasn't been done before and we are going for a brand new concept after all!

We've decided that, as a group, each individual member will have a separate advertising campaign so to speak. I am opting for the packaging, Kat will develop a poster, and Lauren is in charge of a television advertising campaign.

After researching Spam, I've learnt that there is more to the product than first meets the eye. The range of flavours that there has been is more than first expected... Hickory smoked, cheese - You name it, they've done it. However, it seems to little avail as Spam is a declining product after all. I've also noted that there is little aimed towards a younger market, perhaps because the sheer thought of Spam and the connotations that come with are just completely off putting for little ones. However, we hope to make it more enticing with some colourful packaging, a catchy slogan and some better nutritional information (to aim at the parents off course!)

Hopefully, we will be able to develop our concept to make Spam more appealing and deliver an interesting presentation at the end!

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Project Proposals

So, it turns out I had grasped the wrong end of the stick. I got so caught up into not wanted to do the wrong thing, that in the end, I did the wrong thing. I should listen to my instinct more often! Never mind though, we all learn from our mistakes.

In this weeks lesson, we had our project brief delivered. It sounds quite interesting to be honest. I was worried that it would all be completely technical (being a Creative Digital Media module and i know I'm not the best when it comes to technology, especially in the form of an Apple Mac.) Turns out that it won't be all that technical, so came a sigh of relief!

Our project brief is to re-brand a product that has seen a significant decline in sales since it's first release and present our concepts as part of a design pitch. We were given a range of products, from alcohol to aftershave to Spam. We were sold on the latter, and so our learning group are re-branding good old Spam! I've got a few ideas on what concept to go for, but I am not going to share those just yet!

When doing a bit of contextual research into our chosen product, I came across this... It's so cheesy, it's off the scale.

Queue cheesy Spam Advert...

Hopefully, we'll be able to create something much more appealing and modern. We shall see!

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Raving Researchers

Our task this week involved something a little more "old school" than our usual form of research... trawling the web to find something relevant. We had to visit the Library!

It was a bit daunting at first, trying to locate all our chosen books amongst the hundreds lined up on the shelves, but we got there eventually. Then came the task of pinpointing information which would be useful to our chosen topic of "Television". In hindsight, this was probably a bit too broad of a subject to research in a limited time of an hour, especially without the help of our trusty computers!Perhaps we should have focused more on a particular part related to television, such as analog and digital, as other groups had to achieve a more constrained  speech.  Nevertheless, we managed to pull a quick speech together using the knowledge we found in the books, albeit a brief one at that!

Our task this week was, if I'm honest, quite intimidating at first. I was confused about what the task actually involved and so, emailed Jane in the hope she would be able to help me make some sense of the situation. Her reply, to someone who understood the task, would have been so very helpful (Sorry Jane!). Maybe i was  just being a bit simple, who knows! Anyway, I did try the task, incorporating the earlier research on the television, although I think I may have grasped the wrong end of the stick... at least I had a go!

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Perfect Presentations!

Last week, we all indulged in a bit of creative presentation work for part of our module work. It is safe to say my group and myself had put a fair bit of time and effort into our 2D Animation presentation, researching and including videos. On the surface, it was looking like an interesting and fun presentation to keep our audience interested... this was until we remembered we were in the Apple MAC suite and a team member didn't turn up! Okay, so they weren't exactly perfect!

There were a few minor hiccups along the way. Our videos refused to play in the format they were in; perhaps a better idea would have been to post a link instead as other teams had, but we wanted our presentation to be one chronological, continual piece and having the videos made this happen, whilst giving our presentation a light hearted and fun edge. Furthermore, the lack of a team member meant Lauren and I had to improvise through our presentation. I don't think we did a bad job, but had we known, it could have been rehearsed more to seem professional! However, our research was good, we had an interesting range of history and techniques about 2D Animation whilst learning and expanding our knowledge on the subject more. Even though other groups had done the same topic, they all varied in their style and research... hopefully we didn't bore the group too much!

Overall, considering our difficulties, we did a pretty good job of our presentation, speaking clearly and getting our message across.

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Here's a little something myself and Lauren found inspirational in our journey through 2D Animation, enjoy!