Communicate A Narrative

Creation of advert

For my advert I couldn’t have just a bag floating in the air with no scene or narrative so I decided to place my bag within the streets of London and have a female character walk of with it. In order to do this I would have to find this scene so I went to central London and found this scene. Also I wanted the genre to be 'slice of life' so I would need to take a photo to match that genre

I wanted to place the icons from the bag onto this scene but this wouldn't look real or have the professional look I wanted from this advert so I decided to include natural colours in the background. The USP icons from the PlayStation controller are Green, Red, Blue and Pink, unfortunately I couldn't place all the colours onto the background but some were placed. Also the colours exaggerate the location and props in the scene; The yellow lines would let the audience know this is an external shot and the gray paving is iconic London stone paving.

The car was a bland and boring colour so I decided to change the colour of the car slightly. Doing this actuary helped the narrative; the car is a G-Wiz, this is an eco friendly ‘green’ car and one of the 1st ‘green’ cars to be sold worldwide but from this angle the car cannot be recognized so i decided to put their trademark logo on the car so the audience will know what car this is. The USP trademark looks like a aftermarket stencil placed onto the car; this does look authentic and a real life image so the audience wouldn't know that this was done and developed in Photoshop 

For my narrative I had to place a female subject within the scene holding my bag so using primary research I found out using a black subject would catch the audiences attention; even if they have the produce already or not they will be drawn to the advert because of the race of the subject. Seeing a female advertise gaming products is something I have rarely seen so I decided to make sure I incorporate a female subject within my advert but for my narrative the subject would be the main focal point as well as the bag. The race of the subject is also something rarely seen within the game advertising, it is not commonly seen so seeing a black subject advertising within the gaming industry will draw attention, also the camera angle only showing the subject legs will emotionally manipulate my audience depending on sexual preference.

Using small focus groups I had great feedback but also some suggestions, one of those suggestions was to reposition the subject and the car because from the way its positioned it looks as if the subject is going to be run over. So using this feedback I used the ‘magnetic tool’  to highlight the car, once this was done I changed the layer on top (subject layer) and deleted the car outline; this could make sure on the subject layer the car shape and figure would be erased; this would give the impression that she is not ‘over’ the car but behind the car and made the overall advert look very professional.

After I made sure the subject was behind the car I placed the PlayStations bag on a new layer but from a focus group the bag didn’t ‘fit’; it looked as if it is just floating and not attached to anything so using this feedback I cropped the subjects hand to place onto the bag. This got rid of the problem brought up in the focus group and made the advert more authentic; the audience looking at the advert will not query if the bag is being held or if its floating in the air.

Summary of the final advert

!   My 1st idea ‘without wires’ uses the PS control pad and the console to highlight

the new wireless technology. I created a draft version by hand and on Photoshop but without a main narrative the message behind the advert was poorly received; there was no clear narrative that the audience could understand but my 2nd idea was to place a female walking down an isolated street with the PlayStation handbag. The narrative behind this advert could be clearly understood and overall better than the 1st advert I created but the message stayed the same throughout the adverts I created.

!   I’m happy with the outcome, it exceeded expectations and I’m shocked at the positive responses my advert has created due to the narrative alone and how I’m challenging the norm within fashion.