Advertisement Production Ideas

Idea Generation & Initial Plans and Proposals:

The initial idea for my advertisement production was to assemble the contents of the book cover by stop motion. The idea was that various drawings or cutouts of items which are found on the book cover, move towards each other to finally create the image of the book. I wasn't too convinced about this idea so then I got to think about the Unique Selling Point of the book [The Encyclopedia of Hollywood; An A-Z Guide to the stars, stories, and secrets of Hollywood]. What can one read about in the book? What would make people interested in buying and reading the book? The book gives concise information about Hollywood artists, films, jobs, equipment and also technical terms; all having to do with the film industry. I continued to think about this concept and finally came up with a story which I was happy and satisfied with.

I wanted to bring out the message that the book has a lot of text and that every piece of information is brief so the initial idea was to have a person impersonating Marilyn Monroe for a few seconds, then a person with a clapperboard, someone writing a script, and so on; various people impersonating Hollywood stars or doing jobs related to the film industry. Throughout all this, there would be text on screen displaying various terms which have to do with the particular scene at that time. In the end, these graphics would all fade into a shot of someone reading the book.

I continued to develop this story after speaking with my lecturer and I finally decided on the final proposal. There will be 9 actors all impersonating different Hollywood stars and who, at the same time, are doing jobs related to film. For example, someone impersonating the Godfather whilst writing a script,  someone impersonating Charlie Chaplin whilst playing with a clapperboard, etc. I still kept the idea of the text passing by as graphics as I wanted to bring out the idea that the book has a lot of text.

Identification of message:

I think that the message is clearly depicted in this advertisement proposal. Since each scene will be very brief (6 seconds or less) it will send the message that each bit of information in the book is also brief and that it contains a lot of different information. Furthermore, the graphics on screen tell the audience that the book has a lot of text in it.

Content & Style:

Scene 1: "The Godfather" writing a script
Scene 2: "Mary Poppins" getting makeup out of her bag and gives it to a makeup artist
Scene 3: "Charlie Chaplin" experimenting with a clapperboard
Scene 4: "Elvis Presley" using different microphones, including a boom mic
Scene 5: "Walt Disney" drawing Mickey Mouse which is then transformed into an animation of Mickey Mouse
Scene 6: "Audrey Hepburn" holding an Oscar statue in her hand
Scene 7: "Laurel & Hardy" cutting film reels and joining them to give the idea of editing
Scene 8: "Marilyn Monroe" standing on a Hollywood Boulevard star
Scene 9: Person reading the book

The style is as entertaining as possible since we see various Hollywood personalities. Furthermore, it will be humorous at some points especially in scenes 3 and 7.

Relevance to audience:

I think that this advert will appeal to its target audience. It is short, fun and entertaining so that one wouldn't be bored watching it. Furthermore, it depicts the message clearly and hopefully the audience can understand it.