Cumnock Media Class
Tone?
Camera angles and movements?
Lighting?
Special effects?
A sense of time?
Diegetic and non-diegetic sound?
Role of media – purpose of ad? How do you know it is really a commercial for a supermarket?
Preferred reading?
Differential decoding?
Can you read the text? Are you a media know-it-all yet?
Repetition and emotional connection.
This is the sort of picture which will appear in the press,
Note that this is not appearing as an advert – which it really is – but as a news story in the Daily Record. It tinges Irn Bru as the drink of youth and winners. It doesn’t hurt that this 13 year old is being referred to as a beautiful mermaid in some sections of the media. This is the kind of product association that manufacturers dream of.
It’s why so many American athletes said for a while in any after match interview where they had won -“I’m going to Disneyworld!” The connection was made in the mind of the viewer between product and success. In America, the athletes were paid. It would be interesting to see if this young girl received sponsorship for the “money shot”.
Article here: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/commonwealth-games/glasgow-2014-scots-sweetheart-erraid-3928631
Did you spot the product placement in the opening ceremony? Tunnock’s Teacakes and Irn Bru holding up the Forth Rail Bridge?
Did you spot the stereotypes? Tartan and kaleyard through and through.
But at least we had Billy Connolly.
Product Placement works:
Herald Scotland reported on July 25th ”
Sales of Tunnock’s teacakes have soared after they featured in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, a supermarket has said.
Customers have been stocking up on the sweet treat after giant dancing teacakes whirled around Celtic Park on Wednesday night.
Waitrose said that in the 24 hours following the ceremony, sales of the chocolate-coated marshmallow snack rose by 62%.”
Underlying themes: eternal optimism even in the rain, friendly banter.
Gone is the aggressive stereotype seen in Irn Bru 32 Derek the Cuckoo. This has been replaced by rowdy pensioners, a maternity ward, crossed toes, “numpties” in odd costumes, “walking in the molehills of achievement” and Glasgow’s George Square full of supporters. What does it tell you about the target audience? Is it for the local market? Is it for the visitors to the country for the Games? Do the Scots have iron in their blood? Does this reference an earlier campaign – “Made in Scotland From Girders”? Are the Leith advertising agency going back to their roots? What is the tone? Nostalgia?
Stereotypical imagery:
Monochromatic people and background in rain sequence allowing man in centre to stand out as he is in colour.
Red haired girl facing camera with bottle of product beside her on wall with male draped in St Andrew’s flag facing off into the dark skies (of despair)
Earning money on commercial TV even when it’s not the ad break.
Celebrate Ayrshire – green and gold – connotations of health, nature, luxury.
Note how the elongated A which begins Ayrshire also links with “celebrate” and draws attention to “Ate” linking food, celebration and location. The dot above the I becomes a firework and is the only other colour apart from the deliberately chosen blank space (negative space) of white. Why white and not black? The colours might have looked bolder against black so why was white chosen? Is it more summery? Will it be changed to black later on in the year? Sans serif font. The “A” almost looks like a 4 – is it suggesting 2014? So many connotations in one little logo. Is the “C” a snake’s head, evocative of some monster? Can you be this clever? Of course you can!
When a media text is being planned, perhaps the most important question the producers consider is “Does it have an audience?” If the answer to this is ‘no’, then there is no point in going any further. If no one is going to watch/read/play/buy the text, the producers aren’t going to make any money or get their message across. Audience research is a major part of any media company’s work. They use questionnaires, focus groups, and comparisons to existing media texts, and spend a great deal of time and money finding out if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea.
It’s a serious business; media producers basically want to know the
of their potential audience, a method of categorising known as demographics. Once they know this they can begin to shape their text to appeal to a group with known reading/viewing/listening habits.
One common way of describing audiences is to use a letter code to show their income bracket:
| A | Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly salaried professionals |
| B | Middle management, teachers, many ‘creatives’ eg graphic designers etc |
| C1 | Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc |
| C2 | Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar) |
| D | Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar) |
| E | Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers |
They also consider very carefully how that audience might react to, or engage with, their text. The following are all factors in analysing or predicting this reaction.
| AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT | This describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text. |
| AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS | These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don’t forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations. |
| AUDIENCE FOREKNOWLEDGE | This is the definite information (rather than the vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product. |
| AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION | This is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle. |
| AUDIENCE PLACEMENT | This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is specially ‘for them’. |
| AUDIENCE RESEARCH | Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production of a media text, and, once produced, audience will be continually monitored. |
Audience reaction to even early versions of a media text is closely watched. Hollywood studios routinely show a pre-release version of every movie they make to a test audience, and will often make changes to the movie that are requested by that audience. (Via mediaknowall.com)
Analysis of technical codes for Derek The Cuckoo
As you watch the Irn Bru advert, note the following:
Frame 1
Setting: Interior library 4.10pm
Action: Student sits motionless at desk
Distance: Extreme long shot (ELS) student
Angle: Slight high angle
Movement: Track forward
Audio: Sound of ticking clock
Continuity: Ticking clock across first 3 shots
Frame 2
Action: Librarian stamps book beside photo of her giving a “shush” gesture
Distance: Medium close up (MCU) librarian with head obscured by framing
Angle: Slight high angle
Movement: Static
Audio: Ticking clock and sound of library book being stamped
Frame 3
Action: Bored student at desk gazes vacantly into empty space
Distance: Medium close up (MCU) student
Angle: Low angle
Movement: Static
Audio: Ticking clock
Frame 4
Action: Student sits motionless at desk
Distance: Extreme long shot (ELS) student
Angle: Slight high angle
Movement: Static
Audio: Creak … crash!
Continue this analysis yourself and for each frame you look at, state what meaning is conveyed to the viewer.
