Codal Analysis

Timed Analysis - Schwartz

0:00 - 0:01 - A master shot is the first thing that the audience are introduced to with this Schwartz advert. This master shot involves a group of hessian sacks in the shape of a circle, spaced out evenly around a machine sat on a kitchen top in the middle of the circle formation.

0:01 - 0:03 - This next shot moves over the sacks from an angle, conveying the contents to the audience as being filled with herbs and spices and garlic etc. The colours are all of a wide variation which makes this shot visually pleasing.

0:03 - 0:06 - Up until this point the commercial had been silent and innocent, until sound effects begin to erupt and close up shots of scales and a cooker begin to appear on the screen through quick cuts. The sound effects add drama to the scenes to illustrate a turning point in the advert, as they consist of a screwdriver spinning, a heated hob firing up and a big dong.

0:06 - 0:07 - An establishing shot captures the table that the audience saw in the beginning, in a closer proximity to the lens, allowing them to witness a kitchen set up consisting of a hob and a pan, sliced ingredients such as tomatoes and onions with a mechanical machine acting as a robot grabbing hold of a shot pot with dark brown contents. It positions the shot above the pan and begins to pour.

0:08 - 0:09 - The shot cuts to a close up of the shot pot continuing on from the previous clip, As the contents falls out, the camera tilts down with it. So far the camera movement has been appropriate and creative, switching from an assortment of shots and allowing the audience to follow the lead of whatever action has so far occurred in the advert. There has been no music up until now.

0:10 - 0:12 - The camera stops it's tilt and settles at the bottom of the pan where the frame consists of a close up of the poured contents, splashing out slowly into the pan and making the sound of one piano key being pressed. This piano key is the first sound track inserted in the advert.

0:12 - 0:24  - The footage cuts back to the beginning master shop where a hessian sack has just erupted from behind the kitchen counter. A green substance emerges from the sack and floats up into the air in slow motion, as another piano key chimes through the air. The green substance disappears in the top of the frame as another sack erupts, this time with a brown substance, again in tune with a piano key. It is almost like the sacks are behind each chime, as though they are the piano, and each time one explodes, a key is pressed. The deeper the chime, the more substance erupts. The higher the chime, the less substance erupts. Ingredients and spices and herbs are continuing to float up in the air in time with the piano sounds, continuing on for 12 seconds. That slow paced master shot created a settlement in the audience after watching the beginning of the advert be so fast paced and feature many quick cuts.

0:24 - 0:26 - A point of view shot from the floor in between some sacks is looking up out above the sacks at red, yellow and green substances powdering out from their holders into the air as piano keys continue to play. This shot makes it look like someone so small is looking up at the action through the hessian sacks, creating a dramatic effect resulting in the footage having a big impact on the viewers.

0:27 - 0:29 - An extreme close up of a herb rising up into the air is shot whilst the rest is blurred out. The tilt follows this herb until it collides with a touch of the yellow powder and a sheet of mint.

0:30 - 0:33 - The slow paced action takes a halt as the next scene features a faster and deeper piano tune making chimes so quick down the piano that the hessian sacks all explode one after another in sync with the soundtrack. This process starts from the back of the group all the way to the front, where the sacks are closer to the camera and therefore create a 3D effect, as though the powders are about to explode in front of the audience.

0:33 - 0:34 - A birds eye view from the top of the room that the sacks and kitchen top is situated in illustrates all of the contents and continues on from the previous shot of explosions. The eruptions continue in this shot, taking over more and more sacks as the outbreaks travel further.

0:34 - 0:37 - Garlic clovers collide with each other in the air, creating a high pitched ding on the piano, which cuts to another birds eye shot looking directly down onto the kitchen work top instead, all of the powders and substances evidently sprinkling up towards the camera.

0:38 - 0:40 - Another close up shot, this time of powders, is filmed to convey a different perspective of the advert and keep the imagination and creativity of the already inventive commercial alive. Red and yellow powders embrace in the air against a dark black backdrop to allow their vibrant colours to stand out.

0:40 - 0:45 - A shot from the right angle of the set up illustrates another creative angle of more exploding hessian sacks whilst the red and yellow powder from the previous shot is still up in the air. This technique conveys continuity which is important in an advert like this one because it would otherwise appear as just a jumbled up mess. Instead of just one sack erupting alone, three sacks erupted together twice in this shot which would correspond effectively with the harsher and louder piano tones that were beginning to come into play.

0:46 - 0:53 - We return to the beginning establishing shot again, this time illustrating even more explosive sacks all erupting one after another as the piano livens up and speeds up. This could be the grand finale of a dramatic performance that is Schwartz. A high pitched piano key concludes the performance, swiftly followed by one last deep press of a piano key, where the front sacks exploded in sync with each other.

0:54 - 0:57 - The first appearance of typography appeared after the ending of the piano tune, in the middle of the frame, through a fade. It reads "unleash flavour" which would most definitely explain the constant explosive spices and herbs and garlic that the audience would have just experience.

0:58 - 1:00 - The slogan "unleash flavour" quickly fades away, to then be replaced by a picture of a Schwartz shot packet with the words "flavour shots" underneath, and the Schwartz logo beneath that, all whilst having the previous explosive master shot blurred out as the backdrop.

Timed Analysis - Innocent

0:00 - 0:05 - The advert begins with a narrator (Harry Hill) making odd noises with his mouth as a bottle of orange Innocent juice tumbles it's way onto the screen, starting from the left and ending at the right side of the frame. This scene was filmed through the technique moving image where a multiple set of photographs were taken to show a process of something when merged together into a piece of footage, so it appears the bottle has a life of it's own waddling on the bench. The bottle then spins around, still doing it all by itself whilst the narrator says "proudly presenting, Innocent orange juice". This introduces the brand of the drink and it's flavour. By having the narrator introduce the product, this advert becomes one that is appropriate for those who have lost their vision, unlike the adverts that don't include a narrator - this one appeals to a variety of people.

0:05 - 0:08 - A 'ding' noise is played after the narrator "proudly presents" the product, followed by him stating that the drink is "made from lovely juicy oranges". At this point, oranges begin to pop up by the side of the Innocent bottle in time with the "pop" noise that has been used. Full oranges appear, sliced oranges appear, and segments of the oranges appear, creating a versatile pattern and a creative appearance. The oranges have been placed by the side of the bottle as if they are embracing it as they are all huddle rather close to the packaging.

0:09 - 0:11 - The establishing shot of the top of a bench with orange bushes and blue sky filling the rest of the frame above has remained on screen for the past 9 seconds so far. Not much camera movement has happened because the action taking place in the frame is what's leading the plot of the advert. A red arrow attached to a stick then pokes its way onto the screen, emerging from the top right hand side. This arrow points towards the Innocent bottle to visually portray that the oranges are "squeezed into this rather nice bottle", also complimented with a wolf whistle sound effect. These small elements to the advert are humorous, which should be expected from a narrator like Harry Hill who represents all things comical.

0:12 - 0:13 - An extreme close up then follows the long winded establishing shot with a cut, conveying an orange being split into two. The footage is put into slow motion so that the audience can witness the juice oozing out of the oranges contents from the middle.

0:13 - 0:14 - Another extreme close up follows of an empty glass soon being filled by orange juice from the Innocent bottle slowly and gentle being poured, again in slow motion so that the process of it dropping into the bottom and running up the sides then curling back into the middle of the glass is illustrated. Harry Hill emphasises his "mmm" at this point to exaggerate the tasty flavour of this beverage.

0:15 - 0:17 - A less close up of the glass is then filmed from it's other side, filling the right side of the frame whilst the Innocent bottle fills the left. Continuity has been used effectively here as the glass of orange juice is still filling up, presenting to the audience that a small glass of the product simply won't fulfil a craving; a big full glass is needed because the drink tastes that good. Harry comments that "everyone loves it, even this chap".

0:17 - 0:21 - The screen cuts to live footage of a puffer fish in his tank facing the glass and moving his mouth up and down in the water. Harry gives the fish a voice by putting on an accent and saying things that are in sync with the fishes mouth movements. The camera pans around the tank whilst Harry/the fish says "love it" three times, referring to the orange juice. Having a fish love this juice is quite absurd to put into an advertisement that isn't advertising a product for any type of animal, however the comedy element should definitely win over some of the audience that are into that style of genre.

0:22 - 0:28 - A fast pan races back towards the beginning establishing shot, this time positioned so that the Innocent bottle and its fellow oranges are positioned on the left side of the frame. The sticks are then introduced again, the one that previously had an arrow on now has tags on with the words "never sweetened" and "never concentrated" written on the card attached. Harry also narrates these words aswell, attracting a variety of audience again.

0:28 - 0:31 - The words "innocent orange juice" then dings onto the screen in white curvy font, the same one used for the typography of the brands name. Sound effects of birds in the trees/bushes then tweet to harmonize with Harry's finishing slogan "juicy by nature".

Timed Analysis - Special K

0:00 - 0:01 - The advert opening begins with a medium shot in the fields, where a young women is positioned just outside the centre of the frame blowing a dandelion towards the camera. Here is where the song is also introduced as "I can see a rainbow". It's an uplifting song that corresponds with the woman's facial expression - a bright smile.

0:01 - 0:04 - Each second in this segment consisted of a different shot. The song began with the word "red" when an extreme close up and slow tilt conveyed a couple of red strawberries to the audience. At 2 seconds the song sung "and yellow" when another extreme close up was used to illustrate honey comb consisting of the colour yellow. 3 seconds in and the song continued with "and pink" where gentle camera movement glided across a girl dressed in a pink blouse. At 4 seconds, "and green" was sung which matched the close up shot of someone picking a green grape from its bunch. 

0:05 - 0:08 - The rest of the colours in the song were then conveyed in the next few shots of the advert. At 5 seconds the word "purple" paired with the extreme close up of blueberries. At 6 seconds "and orange" paired with the shot of a lady running along a beach with her dog whilst the sun set, illustrating the colour orange. Then from 7 - 8 seconds a close up shot from under the water captured a woman diving in slow motion to match the words "and blue".

0:09 - 0:12 - Eight separate shots were filmed within these 4 seconds, all flowing with a cut between each clip. There was a close up of peaches being cut, barley blowing in the wind amongst the fields, cherries, chocolate being poured onto almonds, a collection of multicoloured shoes (matching the lyrics of "see a rainbow"), water dripping from a peach, more nuts, and finishing with an extreme close up of somebody applying red lipstick to their lips - to match the red theme of Special K.

0:13 - 0:16 - There is an establishing shot of a woman running through water that runs from the waterfall in the distance in slow motion. This clip conveys intelligent editing because it lasted 4 seconds, but so did the previous 8 clips. Having the slow paced editing follow the fast paced editing matches the lyrics being sung, as "you can sing one too" was a lot more relaxed, gentle and slow to harmonise with the footage.

0:16 - 0:19 - The lyrics "red and yellow and pink and green" then repeat themselves again in this commercial, this time with different clips. The colours in the clips still match the colours being sung, so the pattern of the adverts layout has remained consistent in the second half - this reduces the adverts risk of going off track as the advert still feels relevant unlike those that are sometimes irrelevant to the product they're advertising. A close up of red apples is shot, a tracking shot of a girl running her hands through yellow flowers in the meadows is shot, along with a medium shot of a girl holding a pink top up against her chest, finished with an establishing shot of another woman sitting on a chair reading a magazine surrounded by a green forest.

0:20 - 0:23 - "purple and orange and blue" are the lyrics paired with an extreme close up of purple grapes, an establishing shot of the orange meadows and a shot of a woman's legs from knee down running through the blue sea water with a blue summer dress on.

0:23 - 0:25 - At this point, words begin to appear in the centre of the frame. "Full of goodness" is propped on top of a close up shot of raspberries and a close up shot of grains falling out from a knitted sack. The word "goodness" mingles well with the healthy food being filmed.

0:25 - 0:28 - "Full of deliciousness" is propped on top of a close up of cherries being washed and a medium shot of a mum and daughter spinning around in the summer sun. The word "deliciousness" mingles well with the delicious looking cherries and the after effect that they can have on you - happy family time.

0:28 - 0:31 - "Full of colour" is propped on top of a close up of a girl in a red dress with white polka dots riding her bike through the meadows, as the camera pans up her figure performing this healthy exercise whilst the sun setting in the background creates blind spots on the camera lens. The word "colour" mingles well with the vibrant red dress that the girl is wearing - another visual mention of the colour red to conform to the products theme.

0:32 - 0:40 - A red backdrop then cuts onto the screen whilst more words fade into the middle - reading "live in colour". These remain in the frame for 4 seconds, stamping them into the audiences brain in comparison to the quick snapshots of the previous words. The song fades out, and the words fade out, along with the red screen which appears to be zoomed out of, producing the red K from the Special K packaging. The "Kellogg's Special" words then fade above the K, presenting the appearance of what the product looks like without the outline of the box - just a white screen with a vibrant red K in the middle, emphasising it's presence.

Colours were apparent all throughout the commercial because the finishing slogan was "live in colour". Colour is a formal element that has the connotation of positivity and happiness which would pair perfectly with the effect that a healthy cereal should have on someones body. Females were present all throughout the commercial as Special K is supposed to be a cereal that urges a woman to feel body confident and help them keep slim by eating this cereal as part of a balanced diet. The overall advert is extremely relevant to the product and the variety of quick shots mixed with slow shots was an interesting yet successful technique used by the producers. 

Primary Research

I carried out my own research in preparation for my advert by creating a questionnaire that will gather me the information that I am looking for. 

This will help me to decide whether or not I should include people in my advert, eating and drinking the products I advertise. It will also help me decide whether or not using a narrator, a music track or maybe even both would be the best decision for my audience. Additionally, I can find out what style of advert my audience will prefer where I will then be able to decide on what genres to apply in the production stage e.g. two genres might have equal appeal to people, therefore I will attempt to apply both of those genres into my adverts; a hybrid. 

Below is an example of my questionnaire that I handed out to people. I gave away 40 of them and received 40 responses, which have all been presented in this word document through pie charts and bar graphs. 

After gathering up my results, I have come to many conclusions about the decisions I will make for the production stage of my advert. As food is a topic that is not gender specific, I gave out 21 questionnaires to females and 19 questionnaires to males in order me to accumulate a good proportion of male and female results.

After undergoing some secondary research about my target audience, I figured this would be for both the younger generation and the older generation - which is correct according to my results as 3 of the people I gave my questionnaire too were aged 10-14, 16 of them were aged 15-19, 6 aged 20-29, 6 aged 30-39 and 9 aged 40+. This was a successful balance of ages which resulted in me having fair feedback.

The genre artistic is the genre that most of my audience preferred when it came to the four options I gave them. This means that M&S being one of my influences for my advert is now going to be my main influence, as their food adverts are all round artistic, so I should try my best at attempting to create an artistic advert myself in response to the feedback. My audience also liked humorous adverts, as this was the second favourite. It is possible that I could apply humorous elements as well, if I perhaps involved an actor/actress; however the responses I received on question 5 means that including people eating and drinking the products I advertise is not a very popular idea at all. Only 8 people out of 40 would prefer to see an item of food or beverage be consumed, which means that having an actor/actress in my advert is unlikely. This is further backed up by the results from question 9. Only 10 people think that it is important for an advert to feature a person, which results in 75% of my target audience finding it unnecessary for there to be a person in an advert in order for a product to sell to the audience.

From the results from question 7, it appears that Hive, Go Compare and Compare The Market were the most popular adverts that my target audience (10 of them) despised because of the reasons below:

"It has a pointless rhyme"
"Annoying/irritating" x5
"Repetitive" x4

Hive and Go Compare both have a rhyme/song to go with their advert, but this doesn't seem to be a popular element as they have been classed as annoying and irritating - so I most certainly won't be creating a poem of any sort for my advert. Also, many of my audience commented on the adverts that had people trying to lip sync to what they'd said, but being out of time e.g. Clear Blue Pregnancy Test and Oral B adverts. Therefore, if I was to include a person in my advert I would need to make sure that their speech being filmed was in sync with their speech through the microphone as this is a major set back when advertising a product.

Finally, question 10 informs me on whether or not a narrator or a music track is the most important element of an advert. Surprisingly, only 4 people feel that a narrator is important, whilst 26 people find that a music track is more important. However, 10 people believe that there should be both elements involved with an advert. Therefore, I will most certainly be including a music track in my advert, and perhaps a narrator in certain segments of the commercial; perhaps the end when a slogan needs to be read, as this is not the main necessity for many people, but still for 10 people out of 40.

Secondary research - Target audience

M&S

I have chosen to look at creating an advert based around food, specifically colourful food and drinks and ones that are related to the Summer season to form a positive type of advert. I am also interested in perhaps relating my second advert to the Christmas season and have foods related to this holiday be shot in attractive and interesting styles. M&S are a company who create extremely appetising and appealing food adverts for their food and drinks section of their stores. They base their adverts around certain seasons and holidays in the year, filming close ups of the food and drinks that this store sells. No packaging is involved in their shots, instead the actual product is filmed, for example, chocolate bunnies out of their tin foil packaging, meat being cooked, kebabs being BBQ'ed and cake being cut etc. These foods are all filmed against a black background, each one having a quick part to play in the advert (2 seconds maximum) allowing the combination of dinner and dessert delicacies to build up an appetite in their audience, slowly yet satisfyingly. Because of the indulgent and attractive fast paced footage of M&S food, it can be suggested that the target audience for these types of adverts are the older generation. A 10 year old or 15 year old isn't going to go to M&S and buy a steak from seeing it be advertised on the TV. Parents are more likely to perhaps be inspired for dinner and dessert ideas through these appealing adverts. Or, they could attract the older generation who fancy throwing a dinner party for their friends, and those who like to enjoy the finer things in life, as M&S's food most certainly comes under the "fine" category from how it is portrayed in these "adventures in imagination" ads.

The types of dinner style food that these adverts display is pulled pork, black bean and chipotle tacos, and chilli verde with coriander rice. It also focuses on a collection of high-end cuts from the butcher's counter to display fresh sourcing, including Presa pork steaks from Gloucester Old Spots pigs and steaks aged in salt-brick chambers. Even the descriptions of these foods convey how they are targeted at an older audience who are interested in and care about certain flavours, seasoning and sides unlike a child/young teenager interested in chicken nuggets or a simple pasta dish for example; or the ever so famous McDonalds. 

M&S very first "Adventures in Imagination" advert currently has over 2.5 million views on their YouTube channel. This is a broad advert, not specialising in any type of season or holiday, instead just simply advertising the types of indulgent foods that M&S sell. It was clearly a very highly anticipated advert that did not fail in attracting an audience for the release of this new theme for their adverts. 

Nathan Ansell, M&S head of brand for food, says: 

• "We looked at what out customers value about M&S food. They think of us as a food hall rather than a supermarket, get excited when they see new products, and think of buying our products as something special. Buying them is an adventure for our customers - and that was what we wanted the ad to represent. The idea is that it's the food that is the hero in these ads, so we wanted to show all those textures, colours, flavours and smells; even if it's just a potato, it's going to be a great potato! We wanted to show the astonishing passion, creativity and expertise that M&S has for its food - as well as create something that people actually want to watch".

A younger audience would not pay much interest to the attention of detail that has evidently gone into these adverts, whereas an older audience would because most of the older generation cook for themselves, their children, or their friends and other family relatives, and would probably find it refreshing to watch an inspirational advert that could benefit their dinner time in comparison to sugar coated annoying bill, gas and money adverts taking over their TV's on a day to day basis. 

Innocent

The innocent smoothie adverts are a little less complex in comparison to the M&S ones. They are created through moving image, which is a sequence of consecutive photographic images projected onto a screen in such rapid succession as to give the illusion of movement. The adverts are always filmed outside in the sunlight to emphasise their fresh taste. The fruits in the adverts are also involved often with the packaging to convey to the audience what is included in the ingredients of these products; which seems to be nothing but a beautiful combination of tasty fruits. The target audience for this brand would most certainly be children, as many of the titles for the adverts on YouTube include "for kids" which immediately conveys their main target audience, or those who can buy the product for the children (parents/guardians).

 Teenagers and parents, maybe even ordinary adults who would like to simply make it easier to get part of their five a day, could also be included in part of Innocent's target audience. They would be younger than M&S's target audience because there is less complicated fast paced shots involved in the commercial. Furthermore, the advert is a lot more child friendly with all of it's bright colours and simplistic advertising techniques; moving image, sound effects and pop up illustrations. I have documented the sequence of the illustrations below, which has a popping sound effect to match each ones sudden appearance on the screen.

Having the theme of the five-a-day featured in this advert would most certainly encourage a parent to immediately buy this product and give it to their child, as it is always a struggle to get your children to 'eat their greens' so by giving them a tasty smoothie they are already close to having their full five-a-day, sometimes without even knowing it.

  

Drinking a smoothie is a very quick and simplistic way to consume part of your five-a-day without the hassle of peeling an orange, spending 10 minutes eating an apple or picking the heads off of strawberries etc. This could mean that the product has the potential to attract young adults as well as young children, those who are in a rush to college/university and missed breakfast; Innocent smoothies could be there saviour in the mornings. Even though the style of their adverts are childish, their message is never clouded by any unnecessary additives in the advert. Sometimes simplicity is best.

These two adverts, M&S and Innocent, are ones that have inspired me the most to make an advert myself for this unit. By me dedicating a lot of my advert time to attractive, artistic and stylish close ups of food in a similar way to M&S's, it seems that I would be attracting an audience from the ages of 20 years old and over. However, I want my adverts to appeal to a wider variety of audience. After doing some research, I have come to the conclusion that I could create an advert like M&S's, but with less sophisticated food, for example, I have already decided that I will base one of my adverts around summer, so ice creams, cupcakes, fresh drinks, ice cubes and fresh fruits are all summer related refreshments that could easily be appealing to children, teenagers AND adults. To add that extra little child friendly element in the advert, I may conclude it with an illustration that reads the slogan out to the viewer. By applying elements from the M&S adverts and elements from the Innocent adverts in my adverts, would mean that my target audience wouldn't have to be specific, but open to a variety of viewers who are interested in eating tasty food balanced with a healthy diet "this Summer".

Moreover, I am also extremely interested in the technique moving image that Innocent uses, so this could be included in my second advert that I may base around Christmas food where I bake a cake and add candy canes to the top or mix it up with filming the process of a cake along with having shots like the M&S ones slotted in between each filmed process for example. Cute little Christmas cupcakes with toppings that look like a Christmas tree would be the types of treats that would appeal to children. Unique baking ideas would be the type of treats in the advert that would attract anyone going to a Christmas party, family party or Christmas dinner. Because this season is an all round attraction for everyone of any age, it means that I could really go to town with this advert through attracting a variety of viewers.