It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Part 2

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Part 2

John Lewis – Monty the Penguin (2014)

Written by Aaron Bootland

Monty the penguin is not my favourite John Lewis ad out there, I personally think it’s a bit on the nose for what it’s trying to portray. Appearing after John Lewis had become the Christmas ads instead of a department store, it follows suit with the previous ads by being about an idea rather than about selling products. It tries to sell the idea of being in love over Christmas, of being with someone rather than having to spend Christmas alone.

The major focus point of the ad is, of course, Monty the Penguin, a lonely little penguin who is clearly a mutant as no penguin should be able to survive in the warm climates around where the child lives. Anyway, Monty is a lonely penguin without a girlfriend, seeking love from someone other than the child he lives with. The advert follows Monty and his child owner around their day to day life in the run up to Christmas, with Monty becoming more and more distracted with things like; seeing a couple kissing, or seeing a romantic film on TV. This is showing that Monty is becoming distracted by being alone, and is in need of someone to share his love with. The ad goes on to show that the child notices Monty acting strange and decides to get Monty a girlfriend penguin for Christmas. On Christmas morning the child wakes Monty up and leads him downstairs to the living room, where there is another penguin waiting in a box for him. Monty rushes over and embraces his new girlfriend, at which point the child’s mother comes in and it turns out that Monty was just a toy penguin, now all dirty from being played with so much, and the same goes for the new penguin. It is clear that this advert is similar to many other John Lewis ads in that it wasn’t made to sell products, rather to sell John Lewis as a brand name. the tagline ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’, is clearly in reference to the fact that the child in the ad was simply dreaming that Monty was alive, but could also be construed to imply that only at John Lewis can you find the gift someone really wants. This enforces the idea that it isn’t trying to sell individual products, but rather the John Lewis name.

The advert's tagline

The advert employs a somewhat realist narrative, in that many children see things like teddies and toys as being real and alive at a young age. It could also be an anti-realist narrative in that, like I stated earlier, a penguin wouldn’t be able to survive in the climates the child can, and also toys aren’t real. It is a standalone ad in that it is the only advert I’ve seen John Lewis make about Monty the penguin. The music has very clearly been chosen specifically for the advert, talking about love and being with someone, while the penguin wants love and hasn’t got anyone to share it with. Once again there isn’t really much sound design, as the music somewhat blocks it out.  The use of computer generated effects is obvious in the penguin. As the ad was made in 2014, it doesn’t look like real life just yet, it’s clear that Monty is CGI.

The obviously CGI penguin

The advert doesn’t really employ any hidden messages, as it gives away the meaning of the advert at the end of the video, ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’. It does, however, employ the use of emotional association. It tries to target people who don’t have someone to share their love with at Christmas, like Monty, and tries to make the audience feel compassion for him, and implies that you can find something for people like this by shopping at John Lewis. It implies that the solution to this problem can be found at John Lewis stores. The advert also seems to imply that the main advantage of shopping at John Lewis is that you can find literally anything you need for literally anyone, and give them the Christmas they’re dreaming of.

In terms of techniques used by the advert, there once again isn’t much going on in terms of camera work. The camera is panning around a little then stopping. There isn’t much going on in terms of editing either. The cuts don’t seem to happen in sync with anything in particular, and they don’t seem to pick up in speed at any point to increase the speed of the advert. It is all round a fairly long, slow advert.

The target audience for this advert is actually probably people of a young age, as the penguin is made to look quite cute so as to appeal to a younger audience. This might have been done to try and bring more people into the John Lewis stores through their children, or it could have been done to try and make people want to buy the Monty plush dolls that went on sale as part of this ad. However, the target audience could also be older people who would see the tagline and read between the lines more so than a younger audience, and see what the advert is trying to imply rather than show.

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Part 1

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Part 1

John Lewis – Shadows (2007)

Written by Aaron Bootland

Shadows is not one of john Lewis’ most well-known Christmas adverts out there, primarily because it came out well before the ‘hype train’ that shows up before an ad was a thing. It is still just as amazing and inspiring as the other ads that have come around since then, but it is far less well-known. It can be seen as being far more advertiser friendly than the more modern ads they are putting out, focusing on finding products rather than some deep inner thing they have people looking for now.

The major focus point, as stated above, is products, which is an uncommon thing now for John Lewis, who focus more on the people and the personalities that show up around Christmas, however this advert was released before that was there thing. The advert is quite simple in its essence, not much going on in the background or foreground, focusing more on the shadows that appear as more and more objects are placed in the path of a bright light. As the objects are placed they cast a shadow on the wall behind the set, eventually forming the appearance of a woman walking a do, complete with Christmas star and confetti snow. In this way, I think it is a simple yet effective way of selling more than just a brand, as they are want to do now. It sells the products instead of the people. There is even a moment when the camera zooms in on a young girl placing a pink box, but catches the front of a mac pro, which is obviously done as product placement.



Zooming in on the Mac Pro

The advert is a standalone in the sense that it is the only advert I’ve ever seen John Lewis make that doesn’t have some deep inner meaning. It simply says that whatever you wanna buy, you can find at John Lewis. It also embodies an anti-realist narrative, in that it is highly unlikely that a bunch of products will just come together to form a human shape. It can also be seen as having a somewhat humorous side to it, at one point an elderly lady comes on to pose with a champagne flute, gets a nod from another woman, and places the flute down on the pile of products. It isn’t exactly comedy gold, but in terms of the advert, it certainly seems to have had some thought put into it. The music design also seems to be somewhat well thought out, as the music seems to have been made specifically for the advert, instead of just taking a famous song and covering it like they do now. There is no real discernible sound design as there is very little sound, apart from the music in the background. The lighting is fantastic, and it needs to be so the shadows will look their best on the wall. It’d be a bit daft if an advert about shadows had crappy looking lighting, y’know?

The shadows create a background image

In terms of techniques used in the ad, there isn’t much going on for the cinematography. The camera moves around on a crane for the most part, occasionally zooming in on specific things, logos for instance, and finally stopping while being fully zoomed in on the shadow creation at the end of the ad. With the advert only being just over a minute long, there isn’t much room for creativity with the camera, which is unfortunate, as it would have been cool to see what they could do if they incorporated it into the shadows, ah well. There aren’t really any hidden messages in the ad either, as they give you the point of the ad at the very end, ‘whoever you’re looking for this Christmas’. The advert is obviously trying to give the viewer the solution to a problem that everyone has at Christmas, what to get someone. It does this by showing certain objects throughout the ad that might appeal to a large audience, jewellery boxes, new computers, that kind of thing. I believe the advert succeeds in trying to make the audience desire these new products, through using the creative medium of shadow puppetry to portray that only at John Lewis can you find what you’re looking for, I think it is a very fun and creative choice.

The final shot of the advert

The target audience for this advert is very clearly people who are looking for something to buy for someone at Christmas time, which is pretty much, everyone on earth. Quite a large audience then, eh? Well I think that the target audience can be broken down even further. I would say that just from looking at the advert once you can see it is aimed at middle aged adults, people who would probably have children and jobs, people who can afford to go to John Lewis and splash out on their friends and family. But it is most importantly aimed at people who can’t decide what to buy someone, and this is from the tagline at the end of the ad, ‘Whoever you’re looking for this Christmas’. It wouldn’t be aimed at younger people because, not only will they not find it a very entertaining ad; they also more than likely won’t be able to get the full spectacle of the shadow puppetry. If an adult was to watch this ad, then at the end they might say something like, ‘Oh hey, that was pretty interesting’, which would cause it to stick in their minds for a while, or at least until they do their Christmas shopping.

Editing Assignment Pictures

This post will show the evidence I have accrued to show that I have sorted the footage for, and edited, the Christmas advert 'A Gift That Matters'.

After shooting the footage and taking it off the SD card and deleting it from the SD card, I created a good and bad bin to store the footage after it had been sorted and checked. This will make editing easier as I will massively cut down how much footage I will need to look through to edit it.



After creating the bins I went through each video and renamed them so that it would be easier to identify them when it came time to edit them. The names chosen for each of the videos was made simple to, once again, make finding them during the editing easier. I named them who was in the shot and what they were doing to make editing easier, as I will find the right shot even quicker if I know what I'm looking for specifically.

After the footage was renamed I went and made a rushes log to track all the shots I had for the video, from both the good bin and the bad bin. I tracked how long each video was as well as whether I was going to use it or not. If I decided not to use a particular video, I would give a valid reason as to why. This also acts as evidence that I have been through each individual shot and analysed it closely, looking for faults.

After this was done I made an edit decision list to keep track of all the shots that I was going to use. I tracked how long each shot was before and after the edit was done. I also kept track of what kind of technique was used in the shot. This would make it easier to reference the different shots in the future.

And now comes the fun part, editing. I imported the footage from the good bin to Premiere Pro ready for editing. After importing all the footage and leaving the bad bin behind, I proceeded to cut the footage down to a manageable size and fitted it into the editing software on the timeline, with the video going on top and the audio on the bottom. I sorted all of the shots I was using onto the timeline and moved them to the right place. I added some transitions to the footage and exported it to my hard drive.

Finally, an image of the folder after the video has been fully edited, showing the song used, the pictures in this post and the bins I used to store my footage. I kept all of this in one place to make finding the necessary things easier. The preparations I made before editing made it incredibly easy to find and edit the footage I had chosen to use. 

Documenting My Work Experience

Work Experience

 

Peter Pan – 4 hours
On the 15th of December CCTV Productions set off to film a theatre production of the Peter Pan story at the Arc in Stockton (01642 525199), under the supervision of Sara Durkin. Located on Dovecot Street, the Arc is an independent theatre and cinema. The filming of the production will allow those who went to see it to buy a DVD copy and see it again at their leisure. All members of CCTV Productions had the same job, man the cameras and film the production from start to finish. The production started at 1 in the afternoon and we stayed there to film till 5, so we were there for 4 hours. At the end of the panto we were asked to film a short 'mannequin challenge' video for the actors so they could post it on their social media.
 
EDGE Bar Ad – 11 hours
On the 9th of January, CCTV Productions had a meeting with Mark from EDGE bar in Stockton, (01642 604471) about filming a short ad for a new drag queen night they were doing on Thursdays. Located at Castle Gate Mill, Quayside, it is a new business open to the public that does functions and late night events. The creation of this ad would allow for people to gain more insight into the different kinds of events the bar does and gain information about the drag queens antics. While we were filming I was given the task of operating the camera that would film the public and get their reactions to the strange phenomenon. Filming went on from 11 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, so another 5 hours of filming. After this was done we went back to college to extract the footage and put the gear away, which took another hour.
 
Music Lead the Way – 10 hours
On the 1^st of April I was asked by my mother to film a show that she was a part of. The show would be an on stage production at the Hartlepool Town Hall (01429 890000). The show was being put on by Kate Sirs and her music school (01429 232952). I went down to watch rehearsals for an hour the week before to see where I could place the cameras for the best angles. The next week I went to the town hall at 5:30 and began setting up for the show to begin at 7:30. The show finished at 10:30, so I was there for a total of 5 hours. Since I was the only person working on the film I had to direct, control the camera and do all the editing. I began the editing of the film the next Monday, and it took about 3 hours to fully edit together all the clips, but it took almost a week, on and off, to export properly. Once it was finished I had it burned on CD’s and put on memory sticks to be given out to the people who wanted it.

 

Jack the Musical – 12 hours

As the second years began to make their PMP’s, some of them were huge productions that needed extra help, so Danniella went to us first years for assistance. I was asked to help on two days, a Monday starting at 8am, ending at 4pm and a Wednesday, starting at 4pm and ending 8pm. On the first day I was asked to be a runner, running between groups and helping out in any way I could or was asked to. An example of this would be when Danniella’s group had an issue with their sound not being recorded. She asked me if I knew how to fix it and I did, so I went out of my way to help out and fixed it. On the second day I was a boom operator for the second group. This was a shorter day so there wasn’t as much work to be done but tried to be as possible. All in all it was fun working with the second years.

Third Day Of Filming For The Music Videos

2nd December 2016

I’m not normally in on Friday, so I getting up early didn’t exactly put me in the best of moods, but I had to put that to one side for the day, I wasn’t going to let it get in the way of filming. Once I arrived at the college at about 10 in the morning, I went to get the green room open so we could get the gear out and ready to film for the day. Since none of the tutors were in for the day we had to rely on the maintenance guys opening the doors and rooms for us, which started to get a little grating on them after a while, but oh well. Once we got all the equipment ready the acting students we needed, Ben and Dylan arrived and we set out to film there scenes. Before we could leave the green room we had to lock it as no one was going to be there for a while, but we couldn’t because we didn’t have any keys for it. Amy came up with the idea to leave Andrew behind to look after it until the maintenance people could lock it, as we were already behind schedule. The rest of us set off for the little path that Logan had picked out for his video, and once we arrived we set up the camera and got right down to it. We filmed the scenes that had both Dylan and Ben in them at the little pathway until Andrew arrived. Once he had arrived we finished filming in this location and set off for the infinity bridge. We filmed a fair bit of footage there too, and finally set off for a small path down by the riverside. We only got a few shots there, but it was all we needed for the video. After we finished this we sent Ben home as he was no longer needed for the days shoots. After this we sent Dylan off to do his own thing and told him he would be needed at a later point in the day for the rest of the filming. At this point we had almost 2 hours to burn in between shoots, so we sat in the classroom and discussed future filming. Amy and myself decided to go to Sainsbury’s to get some food to pass the time, and Amy learned about the ‘meal deal’ you could get. Once we returned to the class we had a little bit of time left before we were needed to film. Once we had to get ready to film the next scene, we departed from the class and set off for the green room to get the equipment back out to be used again. We opened up the classroom we would be filming in and quickly realised that the acting students we were using had been told to go to the green room instead of this class, so I decided to go and wait at the green room for their arrival. Once all but one had arrived, we headed for the class to start filming. It turns out, however, that we needed one extra person to be in the video than was there, so it was up to me to, reluctantly, fill in the blank space. After a few shots had been shot, the final actor arrived, a little late, and we could get the rest of the wide shots that had more people in them. After we had filmed these we sent Johnny away to get his makeup done while we filmed the rest of the close ups on each of the ‘students’. After that was done we let them go, as they were no longer needed. Some chose to stay behind, however, just to keep us company, which was nice. Once Johnny got back from makeup with his clown face on, we finished filming the rest of the shots that had him in them and called it a day. We set the tables back the way they were supposed to be and put the equipment back in the green room just in time for the maintenance guys to lock it up for the night. We pulled the rest of the recorded footage off the SD card and put that away too, and that was the end of the day of filming for us. I think that this day went the best out of them all do far, so its only downhill from here.

Second Day Of Filming For The Music Videos

 29th November 2016

Now, for the general premise of the second day, things went pretty well. We started the day out a little bit later than the first day, getting in at about 8 in the morning to get the cameras ready for the filming, getting the tri-pods and the like ready to be used for the day. During this time the rest of the team arrived along with some of the acting students so we sent them off to the room we would be filming in. We decided to take the table from the small room at the end of the corridor and use it in the video, so we began to bring it down to the classroom we were using. Once we arrived at the room, however, Kelly spotted us attempting to get it in the room and told us we couldn’t use it, so we went all the way back and put it back in the small room. We figured we could just use the tables that were already there and just shift them into the shape of a larger table in the centre of the room. We followed Andrew’s instructions and got the acting students into their positions around the table and began filming. After an hour or 2 we were almost done filming the main parts of the scene, along with some other shots that weren’t on the list but we got them just in case, so we sent 4 of the acting students off to get makeup done for later that day, thanking them for their help. We finished the rest of the shots with Josh in them and sent him off too. We put the tables back in the right places and left to go wait in the classroom for the next part of the day’s shoots to begin. After the lesson with Kelly, our group departed to get the cameras and gear to get ready for the shoot at the Edge Bar. Once we had everything ready to go, we set off for the makeup department to gather the last of the acting students. We had to wait around for a bit so the makeup girl, Becky, could get the last of the makeup done for each of the acting students. Once that was done we set of

f on the cold journey to the Edge Bar. We crossed over the bridge and arrived at the bars main entrance only to find we were locked out. Andrew called the owner of the bar and he came and let us in. once we got in the owner, Mark, showed us around and showed us each different room we could use. He gave us practically full control of the entire bar for the night, or at least until 9, when the bar actually opened. We decided to use the bottom room for the shoot as it had the best lighting available. We set the gear down and figured out the lighting and the sound tech, before we could even start shooting. Once we figured everything out we started to shoot the main bulk of the shots for the scene. We had the music booming and the lights going, it was quite the spectacle. We then started to shoot the shots that had Josh in them. One by one, the acting students went home after we had finished filming their parts, as we didn’t want to keep them there when they weren’t needed. Once we had finished filming all the shots that we needed we put the equipment away and started to head out, but when we went to thank the owner, the topic of filming a promo video for the bar came up in conversation. We agreed to film a short ad for the bar when we had the time, and head off home. Amy and Logan took it upon themselves to take the equipment home with them, as they were the only ones who didn’t need to get the bus or walk home, they were getting a lift. I set off for the bus stand and called it a day.

First Day Of Filming For The Music Videos

28th November 2016

The first day of filming for our music videos began with what should have been a warning sign from the start. I got up at 6 in the morning to get the half 6 bus to arrive at college for around about half 7ish, but instead got to college at around quarter past 7, which was mildly annoying. I started waiting for everyone else in the group to get in, but decided the best course of action would be getting breakfast, so I trudged off to Sainsbury’s to pick up a meal deal. When I got back Andrew was there waiting for everyone else to show up, so we sat and waited. After a while Logan arrived and we set off to get the maintenance guys to open the green room for us so we could get the gear we would need for the days shoot. We got in only to find that the cameras where all gone, turns out the second years still had them from shooting over the weekend. So we couldn’t start preparing until they got in, because we had nothing to prepare. So we sat and waited for them to show. By this point Amy was also here with us, she got stuck in traffic and was held back a little. We started to set up what we could in the conference room and waited eagerly for the guys to get back with the cameras. Amy and I were waiting in the green room to see if they would come there first, while Andrew and Logan were in the classroom printing paperwork needed for the shoot. After a little while the second years arrived for their lesson, cameras in tow. After they got there recorded footage off the SD cards we stole them back to the green room where we began proper preparations for the days shoot. During this time a few of the acting students had showed up and were now sat around waiting for us to finish preparing the room for them to use. We were finally ready to begin filming for Andrews’s music video! But the hard times had only just begun….

One of the acting students didn’t show up until it was too late to be in the video, and didn’t bring the correct clothing required for the scene. Andrew sent him off and we were immediately down an actor, not a good thing. We started filming and got a few shots done before disaster struck once again. And they say lightning never strikes twice. One of the higher ups in the college turned up and started to knock on the door to get our attention, only we were in the middle of filming a shot. As his knocking turned to banging we thought it might be a good thing to see what he wanted. We opened the door and found that the room was already booked out for the principal, not gonna argue with that. So, once again, our plans were scuppered. Andrew decided, as the director, that we should call it a day and try and re-record the footage in a different room, on another day. We sent the acting students off with a smile and decided to begin preparations for the shooting of some scenes from Logan’s music video. We brought Dylan to the little interview room were we had planned to record Logan’s scenes and began re-organizing it to look right for the shoot. We had also brought some of the red-heads from the green room to help with the lighting of the room, and it got incredibly hot in there very quickly. We finished filming the scenes that only had Dylan in them, during which time Beatrice turned up and was ready for her scenes. We rearranged the room to suit our needs and got recording the next scenes. After this we sent Beatrice off to get her clown makeup done and sat around waiting for her to get back. After a rather long time waiting Amy messaged her to find she hadn’t even gone to makeup, so Amy and Andrew went off to ‘escort’ her to makeup to make sure she made it there. Eventually she got back with her clown makeup fully done and we began work on the next scenes that had her in. once we finished these scenes we were finished with the acting students so we sent them home, thanking them for their time as they left.

Once we had finished tidying up the green room and all other rooms used, we took the SD card out of the camera and headed for our classroom to retrieve the footage. And this is where the lightning strikes a third time. Since Logan had the SD card he was the first of us to begin taking the footage off the camera. Andrew decide that it was a good idea to just scrap the footage we took from the morning shoot in the conference room, as we were going to need to do it all again anyway. Logan began to delete the footage from the SD card when Kelly told the whole class that all members of a group needed all recorded footage, regardless of whose video it was for. Fortunately Logan had only deleted it from the SD card and not from his hard drive so we were in the clear, only when he went to go to his hard drive to get the footage and transfer it to us, it was gone. It was gone from the SD card and his hard drive; this day couldn’t go any worse. After a brief talk with someone from the IT department of the college we deduced that it would be best if we gave the SD card to a technician to see if they could drag the deleted footage back from the aether or wherever it was. The next morning Logan and Andrew where already in before I got in. They were in the LRC trying desperately to get the footage on the SD card to work. But it was too little too late, it was corrupt, and there’s no saving that. It was a terrible shame that this footage was lost, as it was some really good stuff. But its ok, every failure or mistake is a learning experience. It might have been a wasted day, but we will learn from this day and use this knowledge in the future.