GiffGaff 20 Second Advert

With all the photos that we'd taken, these needed to be cut out and stylised uniformly. This took a very long time to do and was very monotonous work, however the photos look a lot better for it. For each photo, the camera settings had to be adjusted (exposure, texture, black and white etc.). They then had to be cut around by hand and a white border put around it. Some photos then needed further colour added to it, which again took a long time to achieve. I cut out all the coin stacking sequences, the pasta rolling machine and handle, the cushion and some of the people shots. 

These sequences will be the elements making up the advert, the web banners and the instagram stories. By reusing them across all three of the types of advertisement were making, this will create a uniform style that we're after. The same approach will be taken with the backgrounds and doodles where they will be reused across all the adverts. 

In post-production, I added the doodles to the advert in the same way that I had used them on the web banners. I matched the colour of the doodle to the colour of the object that it was interacting with, so as to attract the eye towards the objects in the foreground without making it overly confusing. The video above is the layer with just the doodles on.

With the doodles complete, it was just the sound left to do. Me and Harry agreed it would be best to use sound effects and some synth sounds. In order to make the voice over as clear as possible, it will be best that we don't overload the advert with sounds however. We have old cassette tape sounds and the clinking of coins, which will complement the objects that are on display in the advert. We even have some thunder claps that may add to the advert's quirky, light-humoured nature. 

I also did some research into the type of music GiffGaff already use in their adverts as a basis of the kind of royalty-free music we could put in ours. Once we'd put the sound effects and voice over in place however, that already seemed to be enough - by adding music, this would overcrowd the advert with audio. This research was still useful for seeing how GiffGaff play around with audio.

What Went Well

• The bordered black and white photos match the style GiffGaff uses
• The doodles complement the action and keep the viewer's attention to the foreground
• The sound effects compliment the objects and the voice over is still clear over the top

Criticism

• Cutting out the objects and giving them borders was monotonous and time-consuming
• Harry produced the advert on Premiere Pro, while I made the doodles on After Effects, which caused issues with merging the two together