Scott Weavers
Media Production
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Unit 18
P1
Team Thor Campaign
Team Thor is a series of non-canon Marvel Cinematic Universe Mockumentary shorts released on YouTube.
Aims and objective: The aim of this campaign was to create a more humours, light-hearted version of Thor. This campaign is meant to give answers as to what Thor was up to during civil war and his own film, as we see him struggling to get to grips with ordinary life. The campaign acted as a side project while working on Thor new films and was used to advertise certain Marvel Movies such as Civil War and Doctor Strange. The mockumentary perfectly blends serious characters with playful humour creating a surprising video as most people know Thor as this tough guy where as the two shorts surprise the viewer by stripping away the tough guy image and§ giving us a fun and comical Thor. The promotional video's cleverly use the fourth wall to draw the audience in, making them interested in theses characters without realising it. Breaking the fourth wall also makes the audience feel part of Thor's life almost as if their living in the flat with him and Darryl. The posters all say "Team Thor" on them to emphasise the fact that this is all about Thor and portraying him as egotistical. The posters are meant to look cheap and tacky as it continues the theme of making fun of the superhero genre by showing it doesn't need a lot of effort to make a poster, as most superhero posters spend a lot of time filling the poster with colour and characters where as Team Thor's posters has a title with one image and some very bland colours.
Target audience: The target audience were obviously fans of the Marvel films but also because of the comedic elements they were trying to widen their target audience to possibly an older audience. The shorts include an ordinary person spending their days working which a lot of people will be able to relate to, therefore their target audience could have been 25-35 years olds living in a flat and struggling with things such as paying rent.
Representation: The representation of Darryl is your typical student figure, having to constantly work in order to pay for things such as rent and food. He lives a pretty ordinary life which could be a seen as a stereotypical representation of someone his age. The character of Thor is the complete opposite. He plays the role of the disrespectful prince who is a spoilt brat, insensitive to Darryl and acts like a bit a of jerk such as when he puts the hammer on the toilet. This idea of a rude prince is your stereotypical representation of a prince who comes from a rich background. The poster in the middle of Thor's hammer holding Thor is intentionally comical as it reverses the roles seen on screen (as Thor usually holds the hammer).
Campaign message: The message of this campaign was to promote the Marvel Universe and their movies while also creating a spoof in which they make fun of some of the tropes used in the films.
Relevant legal and ethical issues:
Legal: anything that is illegal Ethical: anything that may upset, offend or anger people.
Copyright law: The law gives the founders of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcast, films and typographical arrangements of published editions, rights to control the way in which their material may be used. Marvel, who are the production company behind these short videos own all the rights to the characters seen on screen and therefore have a right to control the way in which those characters are used on-screen. For example when Thor is telling the kids about the other Avengers, the company had all the rights to draw pictures of the other Avengers on the whiteboard.
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Libel Law: Libel is a method of defamation expressed by print, writing, pictures, signs, effigies, or any communication embodied in physical form that is injurious to persons reputation, exposes a person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or injures a person in his/hers business or profession. As this mockumentary takes the mick out of its previous films, the humour needed to be very careful and not damage the reputatin of the previous films.
Offensive material: Any published or broadcast content ( such as articles, photographs, films or websites) that is likely to upsetting, insulting or objectionable to some people. These promotional videos are very light-hearted and avoid any harsh or upsetting imagery that by showing no action scenes or any problematic symbols. None of the clothing is branded to avoid offensive material being shown on-screen.
Representation: Media representations are the ways in which media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.
Regulatory bodies: Advertising standards Authority (ASA) are an independent regulator for advertising across all media platforms. They act on any complaints made and proactively check the media to take down any misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.
Method: The main method for this campaign was comedy or more specifically mockumentary style comedy. This type of comedy brings a fresh new take on the MCU and enables the audience to see the character of Thor in a new light. These shorts were shown after civil war which allowed the audience to take a break from Civil War, by creating this comedy for people to enjoy and laugh to. These shorts were put on youtube which meant the videos could be easily shared around which made the campaign go viral.
P2
Flesh- By Rob Drummond
Idea 1
Rational: I found this play really interesting as explores cannibalism through the eyes of teenagers and asks questions such as whats wrong with cannibalism?. Combine that with the comedy elements and Forest setting, makes for a really intriguing premise. For the promotional video I imagined a a fire crackling surrounded by empty seats and with a piece of meat roasting on the fire. Towards the end of the video a mysterious figure will appear through the fire, relieving only the head. For the promotional video I imagined a a fire crackling surrounded by empty seats and with a piece of meat roasting on the fire. Towards the end of the video a mysterious figure will appear through the fire, relieving only the head.
Themes: This play is about human nature, the tribes we create and cannibalism.
Duration: 30 seconds- 1 minute
Genre: Dark comedy
Target audience: The play features teenagers and therefore the target audience will predominantly be teenagers or young adults who are interested in horror comedies dark comedies such as Get Out or Fargo.
Visual elements: The visual elements of the promo will include the Forrest, the fire, empty seats, meat roasting and a mysterious figure. The visuals will be put into a certain sequence in order to build up the tension to reveal the mysterious figure.
Audio elements: The audio elements will include the fire crackling, tension music and possibly some words from the play.
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Product: Along with the promotional video I will also release three print products as part of the campaign. The three print products will include an A3 poster, a digital banner and a flyer which will also have a blurb on the back to give a short description of the play.
Aims and objectives: The aim of the posters will be to entice the audience into coming along to watch the play. I want the posters to feel dark and ominous filled with strong and powerful imagery such as fire and creepy faces that will immediately draw the audiences attention.
Campaign message: The message will be to promote the play which will hopefully result in people coming along to watch the play. In this clip I will aim to get across some horror elements of the play which will make for a more curious and dark campaign.
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Campaign schedule: The location of the promo will be set in a dark and gloomy Forest, which will help tie the campaign to the play as the play is set in a Forest. To fit in with the dark tone of the play I will release the promotional material in February half term. During this time a lot of students will be off school and therefore it would be the perfect opportunity to capitalise on this by releasing the promotional material on social media in half term for them to then go see the play while they're not at school. Also during February there will be less competition, so naturally more people will be inclined to pay attention to the campaign.
Key Dates:
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Pitch the campaign to the client - 19/11/18
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Film the promo - 3-7/11/18
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Edit the promo - 10-14/11/18
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Take the pictures for the print productions 7-8/119
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Creative the print products: 14-16/1/19
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Advertise the play with promo and the print products - 4-8/2/19 - This will be released on various social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and youtube.
Idea 2
Rational: The promo will include a short conversion between two people, with one of them eating meat. The scene will play out with one person standing on his own eating meat, the later joined by another person who questions him about what meat he's eating. It will end will audience finding out the meat is a piece of human meat, ending with a final shot off the other person looking shocked and then cut to black. The clip will be this slightly awkward interaction between a cannibal and regular person both will be teenagers.
Duration: 30 seconds- 1 minute
Visual elements: The visual will include two people behind a backdrop of either a plain wall or a Forest which is where the play takes place.
Audio elements: There will be dialogue between the two people and possibly a laugh or a scream at the end of the clip.
Campaign message: In this campaign I will aim to highlight the comedy elements in the play creating an awkward and surreal encounter.
Relevant Legal and Ethical issues
Copyright act and intellectual property rights: Intellectual property refers to an intellectual creation such as images or inventions. The law is there to protect the owners or creators work and covers areas of copyright, trademark and patents. I will use non-copyright music or royalty free music when creating an intense soundscape for the promo. Anyone involved in the promotional video will sign a model release form which is a document that will grant me permission to have them in the video.
Misrepresentation act 1967: I will not include any false or careless statements in the promotional video which is known as fraudulent misrepresentation. To avoid this I will only include statements that are true and be able to back them up with facts. For example if I put on the promotional video "Five Stars" - Times, I would have to back that up with evidence and proof. The other different types of misrepresentation include negligent and innocent. Negligent is where you make a statement carelessly or without reasonable grounds for believing its true. Innocent misrepresentation is very similar except its a misrepresentation made by someone who had reasonable grounds for believing that his false statement was true.
Inappropriate for target audience: My promotional video will contain some scenes that younger viewers may find uneasy such as a dark Forrest. These types of images will be advertised before the promo so that younger viewers won't see the unsuitable images or the promo will be advertised as a 12 or 15. My promotional video will be suitable for my target audience because the age range from teenagers to young adults like dark, intense imagery that will keep them engaged and interested in the promotional video and the play.
Slander/ Libel Law: Libel is a method of defamation expressed by print, writing, pictures, signs, effigies or any other communications embodied in physical form that is injurious to persons reputation, exposes a person to public hatred or injures a person in his/hers business or profession. I will not contain anything on the promotional video that could be harmful to someone's reputation. To avoid this anyone involved in the promotional video will only spoken of in a positive way.
P3
Mood Board
Mind map
P4
P5
Setting up appropriate equipment: To film the promo I used a Canon 700D because it is a very good camera for shooting in low light and seeing as most of my shoots involved filming at dusk or in a dark room it seemed like the right camera to use. I attached the camera onto a tripod which would be placed on a flat surface enabling me to capture smooth and stable footage. For example when filming the faces, I placed the tripod on a table then lined the camera up with the persons eye-line. To ensure that all the moving shots were smooth I used a stabiliser which meant I could move the camera freely in any direction I wanted. To create the shadowy effect on the faces I used an LED light which was placed underneath the persons face. Only using one light meant I could get a really strong, intense effect while also making sure the facial expression was still clear.
Following pre-production materials: My pre production materials helped me to understand which shots and audio elements were needed to create such an intense and eerie promotional video. The storyboard gave me a very clear idea of how the promotional video would look with regards to the shot types and camera movements, which helped because it meant that when I went to shoot the promotional video I knew exactly what shots I needed to get. For example the storyboard featured close up shots of the fire, meaning I wouldn't waste my time trying to shoot other shot types and angles.
Following safe working practices: My Risk assessment and Recce refereed to various risks and considerations that I would have to take into account when filming in different locations. I stuck to these considerations rigidly as I wanted to make sure I was safe at all times and wouldn't harm myself or any pedestrians while filming the promotional video. While filming in the forest I was aware of my surrounding at all times to make sure I wouldn't walk into any trees or accidentally fall into the fire, I also took a torch with me which made it easier to see where I was going and therefore avoid any potential accidents or injuries.
Raw footage
Edits
This edit created a really cool effect, by combing the footage of the fire and the footage of the persons face which makes it look like the person is trapped inside the fire. I placed the footage of the face above the fire and went into the video effects and changed the opacity and blend mode. The opacity was turned down to 50% which meant you could see both the clips at the same time. In order to get the face inside the fire I had to change the blend mode to darker colour which meant that the face wouldn't show in the darker areas of the footage meaning the face would only show up in the fire, making it look like its inside the fire. The reason for this effect was to show that the teenagers are imprisoned in the forest and using the fire as a metaphor for the psychological pain that the teenagers would feel.
This edit took the footage of the persons face and made it looked more sinister. I created this effect by going into the colour correction and changing the blacks to -50 and the highlights and shadows to -100.
By doing this it meant the background would be a lot darker, intensifying the whole clip which is consistent with the theme of dark imagery.
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The text (as seen below) is in red to represent the flesh and blood that the teenagers will eat.
To transition between the fire and the forest I used a cross dissolve which helps to seamlessly blend the two clips together while also continuing the pace of the video.