Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

Types of advertisements that the advertising standards authority (ASA) regulate on various platforms, include; radio, TV, magazine, newspaper and banner and display adverts. The ASA regulates adverts so that they are not offensive or misleading in any way to the viewing public. For example if an advert is racist, sexist, includes false claims, is untruthful or if an advert influences children in a bad way. The ASA also ensure that all aired advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

Three things that food and drink adverts cannot include, is if the advert encourages unhealthy eating in children. They also can't include the encouragement of excessive eating of the adverts specific food or drink item. The last example that they cannot do is include misleading information of the nutritional aspects of their product, as this would be seen as being dishonest to the public and this is something the ASA regulates to make sure that advertisements are honest and truthful.

Three examples that children featuring adverts cannot include, is encouraging children to do activities that are considered unsafe or dangerous for children to perform. Another example would be to not include children in adverts in a sexual way, as this is inappropriate. Finally adverts should not include the idea of encouraging children to be a nuisance to their parents or others, as this can influence children to act in a certain way which is wrong and could lead to children being misled.

The case study that I have chose to describe is the American Apparel advertisement that was banned in 2012. It was banned because people complained that fact that the model on the image looked quite young and this was an issue as it was seen as sexualising a child, which is offensive and irresponsible. The advert showed a young looking girl led on an armchair, wearing only a baggy jumper, knickers and knee length socks. Here is the advertisement:

Comparison on Directorial Styles

I have picked three directors that have directed different types/genres of films that I have watched. Here I have compared the styles at which they create and identifies the similarities and differences between each one.

The first director I have chosen is Steven Spielberg who is a very well known director and has directed many popular films. A few examples are Jurassic Par, Jaws, ET and Indiana Jones. Although he has directed a fair variety of film genres, his most famous films are quite adventurous and intense.

His directing techniques include a lot of dramatic over the shoulder shots and another example would be when the character approaches the camera to be framed in a close up. This increases the powerfulness of the scene and is very gripping and intriguing for the target audience.

The second director I have chosen is James Cameron and although again, he has directed a variety of film genres, his best are also very well known. Some of his films include; Titanic, Avatar, Aliens and The Terminator.

The most famous probably being Titanic, is a romantic film and a lot of his other films are in the science fiction genre. His first known technique is the use of music, this really sets the mood of the scene and can really make the audience emotions flow. For example in Titanic the song 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion throughout the whole film, this is represented as very meaningful and deep and is often associated with this romantic genre.

This in comparison to Steven Spielberg is quite different because Cameron is quite subtle and pulls on the audiences heart strings, whereas Spielberg approach is much more intense but still as effective.

Finally, the last director I have decided to compare is Harold Ramis. His most popular films include; Ghost Busters, Groundhog Day and some more older films as well.

Ramis' style is often used in humorous films in the comedy genre, but also included action within his selection of films he directed. The difference between the previous two directors I have analysed and Ramis' style, is the fact that he uses effective flash backs which is quite an unusual technique, yet still manages to keep the audience engaged and excited to watch on. He is also quite subtle in his comedy techniques, similar to Cameron, but also sometimes includes dramatic scenes to increase the intensity just like Spielberg.

Primary and Secondary Research for Short Film

Primary research:

The primary research that I have done is my location recce on the (lab) I am going to use for my short film. Here is the link to my blog post including my recce.

When is my short film set?

My film is set in the present as I want it to be very realistic and relatable to today's times. Although because my story is based around science, there are going to be very modern technologies that might come across quite futuristic, however this is the case even now in the present day. Also I think the formula discovery would come across more incredible, as this could happen in real life with the advanced equipment and technologies that we now how. Whereas in the future it might not be that fantastic, as they may already have alternative to fossil fuels.

Secondary research:

Within the scenario for my short film, a scientist discovers a formula that could change the world. This could be the answer to making renewable energy and would no longer need the use of fossil fuels. However, this could cause a lot of problems for other countries who depend on selling their fossil fuels to other countries like England and would cause them to miss out on a lot of money. This could then result in their country losing their main source of income and could severely effect the countries way of living and could even make their government go bankrupt.

I have done some research into cold fusion to help me understand the topic further. I have watched a few videos on Youtube explaining what cold fusion is, and a short definition is a nuclear fusion usually occurring at room temperature. Here is a link to the clip I watched on cold fusion.

Filming Location- (Lab) Recce

Here is my location that I think is suitable for my short film. This is in the college and is used as an art room, although I think this would work well because it has high tables, science stools and a large sink, all of which you would find in a real science lab. Here are the pictures I took of this room:

For my short film there is only one location, all my scenes and shots are all in one room, here are the advantages and disadvantages of this space.

The advantages of this space is that there is a lot of room to set up the camera equipment and will not be short of space. It also fits in with the plot of my short film because there are a few desks and stools that can be used, it is also quite messy on the walls which looks like a messy science lab as lots of experiments would have taken place here.

The disadvantages of this area is that it does still look like an art room at the moment, however I would put up some science goggles and warning posters that I can print online, to make the space more suitable for my short film.

The possible dangers that I might come across working in this area, could be potential trips over the equipment and I would need to make sure to move the easels to ensure that they are not damaged during the film making process.

This recce is part of my primary research for my short film. This is because I have gathered this information first hand and have not used websites or books, as this would be secondary research.

Christmas Clip Notes

Sainsbury's Clip

Mum was dreaming of an affair.
Everything keeps going wrong for the cat.
House is ruined and the family are sad.
Everyone comes together, all the neighbours go round to help celebrate christmas with them.
The cat is declared a hero.

This advert could suggest that women are represented to be the cheaters in the relationship and is shown as a dream of what she wanted to be happy, whereas the dad just wants to win a sports game to be happy. The difference is supposed to be comical, however some audiences could find this offensive. This clip's moral is that at christmas everyone comes together to enjoy the company of friends and family and how generous we all should be during christmas time.

Walt Disney Santa's Workshop

Christmas elves getting ready for christmas day.
Making all the christmas gifts to deliver.
There were a few racial stereotypes within this clip, including the chinamen and the marching band who were all black.

This clip included some racial stereotypes which probably wouldn't have been considered as offensive back in the olden days, however in today's modern society, companies can not get away with publishing clips like this, as many would consider this to be racist. A lot of the toys were different and used offensive stereotypes, for example the chinamen wore kimono type clothing and the black marching band were shown as loud and mischievous.

Student Film Clip Santa Claus is Coming

Small girl trying to catch Santa giving presents.
She sees a giant bug, who gave the presents from his bottom.
The young girl is shocked at who Santa actually is.
She is now very frightened.

This was a very abstract and almost dark take on the idea of Santa Claus. It was also quite humorous as the presents came out of the giant bug's bottom. I think that the whole idea was very random and extremely unexpected, the girl then became scared of Santa and the last image shown, was her shaking in her bed out of fright.

Christmas Comes But Once A Year

Children all gets presents from their stocking.
All the gifts break and the children cry.
Santa saves the day by making all the children new presents from the household objects.
Makes a christmas tree from umbrellas.

This video clip in my opinion was very creative as the all the new presents was made out of the already owned household objects. During the middle of the clip, there was a lot of crying and sadness from the children after all their presents broke, however this was to create a more dramatic effect for when Father Christmas appears to save the day. The next clips shown was the creation of all the christmas gifts and the christmas tree made out of umbrella's, this made all the children happy again and

Paddy Power Advert

This advert involves a game of blind football being played and also shows a man accidentally kicking a cat instead of a football. Here is a screenshot of this TV advertisement:

I think this advert can be seen as offensive, because some people might be shocked by the concept of this advert. Also I think the fact that children can see this, can be quite off putting for parents. This is because it can be seen as influencing children and could come across as setting a bad example or could cause young children into being misled into thinking it;s ok or funny to do this, however this is not the case. The cat being kicked id used as a comical element of the advert, although this does not link into the advert in anyway and therefore is quite unnecessary.

Flash Popcorn Button

In today's lesson I learnt how kernels popped into popcorn, how to make a simple button on Flash and how to create a button of a kernel popping into popcorn when it is pressed, I did this on Adobe Flash.

First I had to create a new Flash file and the type was called AIR for Android, shown in the screenshot below.

Next I clicked on 'Insert' and pressed 'new symbol'. A box came up which gave me the chance to name the new symbol, I made sure to click the drop down menu and click 'button' to ensure that I would be making the button in the correct format. Here are the screenshots to demonstrate this.

From this point, I actually started creating my button, I started off really simple and chose a circle that would squash when it was pressed. The buttons I created was made in four stges, however the middle two can stay the same.

This is what the three stages looked like on my first ever button:

However for something a bit more challenging, I made a second button and here are the screenshots of the three stages of my new, more complex idea.

I added a sound effect to my button, I chose to put this on the last stage when the popcorn actually popped. I did this by simply finding the effect I wanted and dragged it onto the Flash Symbol that I had created.

After that I learnt how to add motion to the button, which is where there are more stages the symbol, which makes it look more interesting and exciting.