Producing my first Advertisement

From November to December 2022 I worked on a small project for merlin, which was an advertisement for employment at alton towers. this was a great learning process and gave me one of the first looks into industry professionalism, and working with a real client.

AC1

Our client is Alton Towers Entertainments. Although as a whole Alton towers is a huge well-known brand, not many people consider the importance of its singular departments. For example, the rides are not run by the whole of Alton towers, they are primarily looked after by our rides department. This is identical to the entertainment provided at the resort, as all the performers, shows, selected products and venues, even the set, lighting, music; pretty much everything that you interact with on your journey around the park will be overseen by the ents department. We have the responsibility of gaining the most out of our seasonal events and bringing magic to the magical concepts of our rides and themed areas. With that being said, our advert was specifically for the entertainments department not Alton towers itself. Due to the park only hiring its employees on seasonal contracts, AT find it hard to recruit their next big array of talent each year. They do get a lot of returners, but they will eventually leave and go onto bigger things, which means we need to find people to fill their spots. Our advert will be designed to attract new entertainments employees to join our 2023 team.

Our main issue was that we had to incorporate footage from all events thought the year, but we only had 1 month to record and edit. This meant we had to use external footage from merlin from which they had used in previous years. This was hard as it didn’t match the footage, we had gained at all! But we must use it to fit client requirements. We also began our initial pitch to the client of using a narrative at the start to show the kind of audience it was going to be aimed at (graduated or current performers in training), but that didn’t work due to lack of communication from external parties, which destroyed our schedule and meant we needed to rethink fast and improvise with what we had. This wasn’t our fault therefore we cannot let this affect our outlook for the final product, but it does affect communication between our clients. After a discussion with them and after having to falsely admit that this was our fault, they were alright with having to redesign slightly, but I can only feel this proved we weren't getting this done at the professional level as promised. This ended up messing up our promised deadlines by 4 days and meant we had to change all our story boards, shot lists etc.

After spending weeks perfecting them. It was incredibly inconvenient and frustrating. The week we wanted to film Alton towers were also preparing for their Christmas opening so they had been closed the majority of November/ early December. This meant we had to wait until they could give us a dedicated time and day to film. This chucked us into a lot of uncertainty and waiting around. However, this did give us time to plan in depth, so we were more than prepared when it came to the day of the shoot. Alton towers is also not local to everyone in the team, therefore we needed to overcome this by arranging transport alterations, but this worked very well. Another issue was during our agreement with Alton towers when discussing filming grounds, we were long and had to agree that we did not take any large tripods, lighting or filming rigs, which was an issue. We were all not extremely technical people or had done an extensive bit of camera handling, which mean shots did become very Shakey and something like a shoulder rig would have been very useful. We evidently just fixed this by using warp stabilizer in post.

The purpose of this video was to encourage employment in the entertainments department. The video is meant to showcase what you could be a part of if you joined the 2023 season. In the ad we showcase past events from 2022 and delve into some of the year-round products. It's there to show the versatility of the job and how you could be doing anything each day all year round. There is something for everyone at Alton towers. This video will hopefully also get the work out about the entertainment department and hopefully boost their social media platforms. The client had also specified they wanted the video to make people aware that being a performer at Alton towers is a huge milestone in your performance career, and that If you are local, Alton towers ents is great career option!

All ages. All genders. All people! Whether you're new to the industry or an Alton towers returner, they would love to hear from you. The video was meant to showcase the journey of a young performer in college who. I had the opportunity of auditioning and got a place. Therefore, this would have proven that audience of ‘new/ fresh talent’. When I started Alton towers as a performer, I was only 16 years old. I was the youngest performer there at the time. Which felt incredible. To be dancing and presenting alongside others who had been all around the world and in the industry for years just felt inspiring, and I learnt so much. This is something I would love to share with others. That it is possible even if you think you are too young, just try your luck and go for it, because if it happens, who knows where you could go.

I hope to have done this positively. I want to portray those in training and as an exemplary audience, as excited and confident young performers who are most of all READY. I wish other to watch the video and think about taking that leap or watching it and imagining themselves working there. I hope to also portray the ents employees in the video as fun, positive, energetic, and most of all I want to show that family like atmosphere that the department really is like. It can be hard, intense and stressful, but I didn’t want to show that light as let's face it it's not a great selling point; however, we are like a family and even if it is hard work, it’s worth it.

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We did research through existing websites and recorded it on docs to share, I had also done a profiling task on their social media, going in depth on what they are missing or how a video could improve them. I had also asked. A few people on the ents department fb group about what kind of stuff they would like to see if they were a new employee. I had also had many informal conversations with my high management and colleges about their thoughts as we were developing our ideas and plans. We did audience profiling and poll tasks to get the best evidence to support our decisions and used this when designing the desired look. For example, a lot of people that were interested tended to be local therefore we focused more on attracting those that were willing to jump straight in, rather than focusing on the questions surrounding accommodation and travel. It would have been great to answer these types of questions, but we only had limited time, so we needed to prioritize.

We also investigated many other alike adverts. We focused on other theme park videos and past Alton towers videos, as we thought it would be better to stick to the same dynamics as people would recognize it immediately. We noticed their family friendly approach to appeal to a wider audience and their bright unrealistic colors to make the place seem dreamlike and more joyful compared to realistic representations. There were also many who pans and jump cuts which created a fast-paced chaotic light on their videos, this would work in our as we want to project that chaotic nature of the nets department and how things are always fun and busy. We also looked at other employment videos including a Cineworld one and the wicked west end performance ad. These were helpful and we wanted to investigate the wording of the video and how they attract their employees. I struggled in post to figure out what to say so this gave me ideas Aswell as ideas on how imbed it into the ad.

We were inspired by their effort to project employment into their social media accounts. However, they failed to keep this engagement and reach as they did not keep it consistent and lost the ability to gain that loyal following. We loved the way they used key images and videos of the cast being themselves and being ‘human’ as it gave off a great aesthetic and a nice atmosphere of familiarity. It is also using past and present media from AT in the video. Regarding the evolution and historic and contemporary media techniques I feel this is more swaying towards that contemporary feel and will combine the video of techniques from both.

AC2

We began by discussing our contacts with local companies and then weighing up possibilities. I happened to mention I worked at Alton towers, and we mentioned as a joke how cool it would be to film there. We then just tried our luck after I mentioned it to a work colleague. Then once we realized the potential, we did 5 rough ideas and sent them to a few others asking for input. Once we received that input, we had two left. These being the day in the life and the other being the dream. After input from our teacher Mr. Butler, we decided to merge the two similar ideas and create one. We then just had to turn this into a practical idea that we could use and pitch to Alton towers. Once we created this idea, we sent it over to ents who then put forward an agreement and it was forwarded to the press team for confirmation. The ideas themselves were created via spontaneous thoughts I had that had of course been inspired by other things I had seen and had heard. The dream, however, had always been my favorite due to the narrative feel that could also be combined by a product element.

We used feedback as an incredibly reliable asset throughout the whole project, we wanted it to appeal to our audience, so it was beneficial to us to let our audience have a huge input. As mentioned, before they had a huge part to play when picking out the final idea. Our client, however, contrastingly just left us to it with full trust, they had agreed on the initial idea and let us just go for it with free reign.

Starting this project, I'm going to be honest I knew Hardley anything about cameras, techniques or even editing, but this has given me the opportunity and time to dedicate to developing these techniques. I used to hate premier pro, but now I would rather it any day over iMovie. Regarding camera techniques, as my job was director, I had the responsibility of suggesting shots, but the issue was I had no idea what shots were called. This was why I knew I had to make the shot list as it gave me the opportunity to learn camera angles and shot names, and I hope by reading that you can agree I went from knowing nothing to looking like I know what I'm talking about. I also wanted to include that advertisement feel but also incorporate elements from a shot film, so this required me to research techniques used in both and find a way of merging them to create a good balance that worked together well.

AC2

- Mr. Butler- 1. 0:54 - warp stabilizer effect 2. Pacing of the introduction - include fast paced jump cuts 3. Font - see Defont.com or Bree Serif font free 4. Use text to communicate what the entertainer does - just short quick phrases or keywords

- I have improved this by adding warp stabilizer, speeding the clips up and taking the beginning audio out, changed front to natural towers font, added better lettering.

- Client- "hi jess! Loving the 2nd draft so far, you and your team have captured some great coverage to showcase the park. I love the idea of the text in the middle, but I think maybe some audio and dialogue would work to make it easier to follow- I'm perfectly happy for you to do this with your voice. I'm loving the music it fits the 2022 vibe. I understand what you were saying about the montage and the dynamics being off, but it’s important for it to be in the video; I don’t think it looks as bad as you think."

- I have responded to this by adding audio over the text and trying to make the transitions on the montage more noticeable to eliminate the harsh dynamic balance.

It changed dramatically. We changed our narrative, cut the begging and end out a lot, cut clips from the montage to make it shorter. This was due to the edits being too long, missing content and just to keep interest. It became clear in the early post phase, that our aim was going to be very hard to create perfectly also due to the deadline, we just didn’t have time to recreate or rethink really. We had to work with what we had. However, we did meet most aims and it feels like it still gives off the same message just a little less strong than we had hoped.

My first draft was hands down awful in my opinion which made me terrified that I had promised this amazing professional product for our client, and I couldn’t deliver it to the same standard, I felt awful, but this was all down to my editing ability. This made me work harder, it made me realize my strengths and weaknesses and as I noticed them, I was able to find out what needed improving. Especially with feedback, this helped me massively and I think I would still have been stuck on my first draft struggling if it wasn’t for feedback from different individuals. As time went on, I did manage to create a solid vision finally that I could send to the client. It wasn’t a finished version, but it was enough to picture that professional result. As agreed, we were there to create a video to encourage people to apply for 2023 in the entertainments department, and subsequently that is what we have done.

It does subtilty have elements from many of the secondary research inputs if you watch them carefully, but I think it's amazing to have inspiration from others because it gives you a starting point to Sper more creative ideas on. I hate to compare it because those high-level videos will have been created by very experienced professionals, so I think it is very unfair to compare that to mine. I understand we must match the professionalism and create industry standard videos but hats off to those guys as their videos are an elite standard that I aspire to. Regarding match inspirations I do feel that we show it is a very different way than there's as every mind thinks differently therefore, they will always be communicated to everyone's unidentical perfect standards.

AC3

We needed to plan ahead. That was a thing we lacked, as we had all these amazing ideas but none of us had the technical skills to create its postproduction. We managed it on slightly different level, but it made more work for ourselves, as Aswell as creating a video, at the same time, we had to use external time on educating ourselves. However, production day considerations were crucial in pre-production, as it's all about planning for that day really, we needed to make sure we were prepared and as organized as possible in order to get everything we needed on that one day on location.

I think Sam did an incredible job of camera opp. He almost set the setting on a black magic auto to allow us to have more freedom when editing, but we made sure the shots were right. He will admit they were a little Shakey, but it was a very cold day! The only downfall was that we didn’t notice our Lense had small marks on it until we reviewed our footage. This did dramatically impact on our coverage, but it was something we can only just deal with moving forward, there's nothing that can be done now. We have had wonderful feedback on our camera work though, so I hope Sam gets that credit and is proud of his work achieved that day.

This took ages! I can't enthuse how long it's taken me to find a related song that I liked. This song I have now is owned by Alton towers and has been used through all their events over 2022. It works well. I didn’t really need to use anything else regarding sfx and foley, just music. I have, however, manipulated the tune by cutting and moving part in the song and manipulating the levels to match the video as it progresses. One example being that the audio starts as a roomy atmosphere but as our protagonist enters the dream the music lifts into full.

We have done this by using our resources and natural set at Alton towers, and of course by taking advantage of the Christmas designs there for the seasonal event. To a contrasting effect we did, however, must create a classroom effect in the studio using props like tables, chairs, backpacks etc.

I have now finally learnt how to apply these therefore they're definitely in there. I have done this by altering colour correction, adding video and text transitions, using warp stabilizer on most handheld footage. I have also added effects in certain places to create a magical and unrealistic feel during the ‘dream like’ section. I have created and imported videos to ensure the flow of each section works.

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I feel I completed the responsibilities of my role. I was the director and production manager for this project as suggested by my team. I was hesitant about taking the role, but I loved it once we got straight into it. I enjoyed these two roles as I could be heavily involved in pre during the production management side, but I also had a great input during decisions and especially when filming. I had also written all the contingency plans, shot lists and call sheets, therefore these two roles merged perfectly.

I feel due to me being very hot on with these roles, I made things easier for everyone as people didn’t have to worry whether would get stuff completed, as I got everything done on deadlines and because it meant I could take the lead on client communications, which was handy as I could just speak to the client when I was at work. I feel I worked at a professional level and spoke to other members with professionalism, we used the correct etiquette in order to communicate the correct messages and we were honest in a respectful way when we had something to comment on.

We applied the correct lingo when filming such as rolling/ quiet on set/ another take/ reset/ stand by etc. This allowed everyone to know what you were on about or what was about to happen, so people could prepare.

We started with a checklist and every time something was completed, we would check it off and write our names next to it. This made sure we knew who had this document and if it needed to be done. Once everything was completed, we added it to a document each so everyone had access to everything in their own space and they could edit it with notes depending on their role. We would always put a deadline 2 days before, if possible, for when we needed it, e.g., booking out equipment, printing, booking trains etc. This made sure we kept on time and would be done by when we needed it to be.

We had done our risk assessments and contingency plans already for filming, we had consent forms all prepared and ready to be signed when needed. When location scouting, we were cautious, and the Alton towers scouting was done via facetime which was less risky. We also had to sign external contracts and risk assessments at Alton towers, and I attended a meeting with the press team to discuss the terms and conditions of filming before we signed any documents.

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I want them to experience pure joy and excitement and a slight bit of admiration for the ents team. They put in so much hard work throughout each season and for someone to watch it and just smile at their hard work and dedication would be incredible. I would love a young trainee to watch and consider being the young person in the video and relate to the story of starting at AT. I would even be happy if I just inspired people to visit Alton towers if not apply for a job. Every video we watched when doing our secondary research made us smile and all go “i want to go there” so, I guess that's one thing I would love to put forward into my video. Most of all I hope people watch and ended up wanting to apply for a job at Alton Towers Entertainments!

I used this when discussing initial ideas alongside practicalities, but when we were beginning to start our editing, I also used it then. When we did our drafts, we all showed each other and took on feedback, thing meant we had to communicate to each other our opinions of what our end product would look like. We achieved our audience impact by using collaborative opinions and skills to contribute to creating an idea we were all happy with. For example, Sam had experience in working the camera, so we took on board what he knew in order to get good camera work from us all, and leorge has good knowledge surrounding editing, therefore we used his input massively when it came to starting to edit.

We have not yet revealed the finished result to our client. We are waiting till the group reunites after Christmas break to discuss which video, then our deadline for AT ents is the 15th of Jan.

In my opinion and from my video as a demonstration, I feel it does reach all our intended goals, even with a few tweaks to the plan. It was advised by the client that they wanted a video created in landscape even though it is designed for social media use. From speaking to them they're idea is to send this video out to the merlin careers website for people to view when they apply, to be also shared on multiple websites and shown during school workshops to trainee performers during talks. I think this will be very fitting especially if it's being shown to a younger audience in schools and colleges. I will have to disagree that this video will work for social media use, but I have left it up to the ents department on where they want to put it, but it is in their hands whether it boosts engagement or not, but I have prewarned them it may be too long for socials.

WRITTEN BY JESSICA-CHLOE WATSON