Deliver Hope - Halo Reach
This was the advert shown on TV for Microsoft's latest Xbox game, Halo reach back in 2010. The idea behind this was to take the game's iconic figures such as the alien covenant and human marine soldiers, extract them out of the game and put them into live action. The ad is designed to still show features and characters of the game but to have it filmed in live action allowing for better special effects, a wider target market with a bigger and more impressive scope.
The ad opens with the game's age rating (17+) logo for a couple of seconds, from here it then cuts into the live action video. The ad shows a lone soldier with a bomb running through a battlefield while aircraft fly through the sky and aliens are fighting with the humans. The soldier then arms the bomb with in a POV (Point of view) shot and looks up at the large alien craft hovering overhead, indicating this is the target. Some more shots of the battlefield appear along with a POV shot and some slow motion. The soldier is shot down and we move to a close up on the bomb, reminding us the mission still needs completing. Another soldier arrives dressed in similar armour and flies the bomb to the alien ship. While inside the ship we have a long shot showing us everything that will be destroyed in the explosion, the bomb is thrown in and the soldier runs. This then cuts to a bird's eye view of the ship and zooms out as the ship explodes until you can see the whole planet, the game's tag lines appear "Remember where it all began. Remember Reach". The video cuts completely and the game's title, release date and company information is displayed. After this you see the Xbox 360 indent and a special offer for the game and console.
The advert is quite fast paced but does have it's slower moments giving the director the chance to use multiple different camera angles. To start with the first 4 shots you see are long angle shots, this allows you to establish what's going on and where the advert is taking place, the other advantage of a long shot is that the viewer or audience can see most if not all of what's going on. The POV shots show the main character's perspective, showing us her mission to destroy the overhead ship. In my opinion these were good opening shots as they quickly establish the surrounding area and you get a good sense of what is happening all done within the first 15 seconds. Another good effect used in the ad is the use of slow motion, this can be seen when our main character (Kat) is jumping, running and even falling as she is shot down by an aircraft. This could possibly be to add some grace amongst the chaos and death amidst the open battlefield around here.
For the music as far as I could tell it's only name is "Deliver Hope" and was created specifically for the TV ad. The music is quite and calm with a piano, drums and voices (no lyrics) which has been put up against the busy, fast and chaotic scenes the battlefield. The two have been juxtaposed as the vocals work well making the slow motion look graceful, and create a haunting effect when seen on the battlefield as many soldiers are dying. When the drums are played with the vocals it creates a heroic feel instead of a haunting one, this is used when the main characters (Kat and Thom) are on screen as they are the heroes of this short story.
The story is linear so it doesn't jump around in it's own timeline and follows two characters (Kat and Thom). There is no direct notion telling the audience, this is the start, middle and end of a significant event but I think this is supposed to be a small scene from a much larger event as indicated by the last shot of the planet showing multiple diffident battles making the victory and sacrifice seen in the advert small and insignificant.
In the ad there are many special effects used, these include Lasers, explosions, scenery, Aliens, aircraft HUD's (Heads up display), other digital displays and nozzle flashes on guns. Although these are all CGI there is still a large part that is live action. All the soldiers, weapons and locations are all real. From what I've seen in other adverts (Sony - Bouncy balls ad) things are better when they are done in live action, which lets the special effects enhance the video. All of the costumes, weapons and armour are taken the the designs in the game making it very accurate.
The adverts success is mainly on the internet as the game has a large fan-base and has made over two million view on Youtube. The ad gives an incite into what types of events the player/audience may experience in the game, this is further expressed with the use of POV shots. Overall I think this is a good advert because it shows a large scale scene made up of good CGI and a very big a big cast, the story is simple and includes two protagonists, heroism and sacrifice.
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Friday 23 September 2011
Advert Analysis (Part 2 of 3)
Bouncy balls advert - Song Bravia
The Sony Bravia "Balls" advert is a very simple concept but it takes in the shape of a lage scale event. Sony went to San Francisco and blocked of multiple streets to clear pedestrians and cars from the filing area. They then took 1000's of multicoloured bouncy balls and used a cannon to shoot them into the air and down the street. The balls bounced around the street crashing into others and rolled down into roads. This simple idea of taking bouncy balls and throwing them down the street is good, but when you scale it up it becomes an iconic advert.
The ad starts with some introductory shots of the streets of San Francisco, then cuts to some bouncy balls in slow motion and then back to the empty streets. I think the quick shot of the bouncy balls is to give the audience an idea of that is going on, rather then just watching empty streets an wondering what's going on. The next shot is of 1000's of the coloured balls all being seeming launched into the air and down the street. Throughout the rest of the advert the video cuts to multiple different shots of the coloured balls bouncing around the streets of San Francisco. At the end the tagline "Colour, like no other" appears and then the whole video fades to black only showing only the text "Sony Bravia" and the TV itself.
The aim of the advertisement is to convince the audience that the Sony Bravia is the best colour TV available. As with all advertisements you want to convince your audience that your product is the best. The tag line "Colour, like no other" directly relates to the ad itself, all the bouncy balls are different colours making the advert very colourful with 1000's of different colours flying around. What makes this advertisement good is that Sony really did preform this event, and in my opinion it wouldn't look as good if the balls were animated in either 3D or 2D.
Another thing that makes this ad good is that it's very original, it's never been done before, and even if it has been done before it wasn't on such a great scale as sony's. event. A good piece of editing is the use of slow motion. When the film is sped up or played at normal speed the bouncy balls shoot across the screen and look like deadly projectiles. But with the use of slow motion the balls float through the street looking elegant and weightless. Although the camera seems to be moving at normal speed so it creates the effect that this isn't slow motion, but the balls are gliding through the air.
Like the dancing robot the advert is very simple but thanks to clever camera techniques such as a sped up camera and slow motion the ad creates a very effect piece of film. In my opinion the advert's success is again, originality, creativity and with the addition of being that this was a large event and really preformed it, rather then just easily animating it with CGI.
The Sony Bravia "Balls" advert is a very simple concept but it takes in the shape of a lage scale event. Sony went to San Francisco and blocked of multiple streets to clear pedestrians and cars from the filing area. They then took 1000's of multicoloured bouncy balls and used a cannon to shoot them into the air and down the street. The balls bounced around the street crashing into others and rolled down into roads. This simple idea of taking bouncy balls and throwing them down the street is good, but when you scale it up it becomes an iconic advert.
The ad starts with some introductory shots of the streets of San Francisco, then cuts to some bouncy balls in slow motion and then back to the empty streets. I think the quick shot of the bouncy balls is to give the audience an idea of that is going on, rather then just watching empty streets an wondering what's going on. The next shot is of 1000's of the coloured balls all being seeming launched into the air and down the street. Throughout the rest of the advert the video cuts to multiple different shots of the coloured balls bouncing around the streets of San Francisco. At the end the tagline "Colour, like no other" appears and then the whole video fades to black only showing only the text "Sony Bravia" and the TV itself.
The aim of the advertisement is to convince the audience that the Sony Bravia is the best colour TV available. As with all advertisements you want to convince your audience that your product is the best. The tag line "Colour, like no other" directly relates to the ad itself, all the bouncy balls are different colours making the advert very colourful with 1000's of different colours flying around. What makes this advertisement good is that Sony really did preform this event, and in my opinion it wouldn't look as good if the balls were animated in either 3D or 2D.
Another thing that makes this ad good is that it's very original, it's never been done before, and even if it has been done before it wasn't on such a great scale as sony's. event. A good piece of editing is the use of slow motion. When the film is sped up or played at normal speed the bouncy balls shoot across the screen and look like deadly projectiles. But with the use of slow motion the balls float through the street looking elegant and weightless. Although the camera seems to be moving at normal speed so it creates the effect that this isn't slow motion, but the balls are gliding through the air.
Like the dancing robot the advert is very simple but thanks to clever camera techniques such as a sped up camera and slow motion the ad creates a very effect piece of film. In my opinion the advert's success is again, originality, creativity and with the addition of being that this was a large event and really preformed it, rather then just easily animating it with CGI.
Advert Analysis (Part 1 of 3)
Dancing car - Citroen C4 (2005)
Citroen's C4 ad is a short, simple and solider advertisement. The ad lasts only 32 seconds with no narrative and only a single character. It opens up to the Citroen C4 in an empty car park on the roof of a building in the centre of a city. The song Jacques your body starts to play and the car transforms into a robot and dances to the Music for the duration of the advert. It comes to a close by the robot turing back into a car and some graphics show the company's logo and the cars's tagline "Alive with technology". This is read by a voiceover (Man's voice).
Obviously this is not a realistic narrative and is done by CGI. The 3D animation is very effective in the ad as it is well done a relativity new to advertisements. This use of new 3D CGI effects re-enforces the tagline "Alive with technology" as Citroen are using cutting edge technology in both their adverts and cars. Other effects used are simply text and an image overlaid on the video. Other editing would include the voiceover and music. The song "Jacques your body"has a good dance beat and includes little if any singing which makes it perfect for a dance song.
The camera editing uses a combination of close ups, mid shots and low angel shots. The shots change rapidly so they keep up with the music. The close ups are used to show the detail of the robot modle, the mid shots are so the audience can clearly see the dance moves the robot is preforming. The low angel shots are used to make the robot look more powerful as looking upwards on a object bigger and more powerful. Obviously you're going to want to make your car look better and powerful then the others on the market.
Citroen wanted to show their car was the most technologically advanced car available, that it's packed with gadgets. The robot represents how brilliant the car is on a technological level and the dancing shows the performance of the car. This is needed as the ad dosen't show any of the car's features or it's driving ability, the robot analogy promises high performance.
The advert did very well creating a whole series of robot-car advertisements for Citroen, it racked up 1000's of view on Youtube and the song "Jacques your body" is now recognised as the dancing car song. With this now iconic ad, Citroen continued to create robot-car ads until it lost it's originality. In my opinion the overall success of the advert was dude to it's creativity, use of technology, simplicity and the backing of the public.
Citroen's C4 ad is a short, simple and solider advertisement. The ad lasts only 32 seconds with no narrative and only a single character. It opens up to the Citroen C4 in an empty car park on the roof of a building in the centre of a city. The song Jacques your body starts to play and the car transforms into a robot and dances to the Music for the duration of the advert. It comes to a close by the robot turing back into a car and some graphics show the company's logo and the cars's tagline "Alive with technology". This is read by a voiceover (Man's voice).
Obviously this is not a realistic narrative and is done by CGI. The 3D animation is very effective in the ad as it is well done a relativity new to advertisements. This use of new 3D CGI effects re-enforces the tagline "Alive with technology" as Citroen are using cutting edge technology in both their adverts and cars. Other effects used are simply text and an image overlaid on the video. Other editing would include the voiceover and music. The song "Jacques your body"has a good dance beat and includes little if any singing which makes it perfect for a dance song.
The camera editing uses a combination of close ups, mid shots and low angel shots. The shots change rapidly so they keep up with the music. The close ups are used to show the detail of the robot modle, the mid shots are so the audience can clearly see the dance moves the robot is preforming. The low angel shots are used to make the robot look more powerful as looking upwards on a object bigger and more powerful. Obviously you're going to want to make your car look better and powerful then the others on the market.
Citroen wanted to show their car was the most technologically advanced car available, that it's packed with gadgets. The robot represents how brilliant the car is on a technological level and the dancing shows the performance of the car. This is needed as the ad dosen't show any of the car's features or it's driving ability, the robot analogy promises high performance.
The advert did very well creating a whole series of robot-car advertisements for Citroen, it racked up 1000's of view on Youtube and the song "Jacques your body" is now recognised as the dancing car song. With this now iconic ad, Citroen continued to create robot-car ads until it lost it's originality. In my opinion the overall success of the advert was dude to it's creativity, use of technology, simplicity and the backing of the public.
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