D2 - Technical Aesthetic Properties

D2 - Technical Aesthetic Properties

Firstly it is clear that my advertisement company has met the requirements of the brief as we have put together a broad advertisement campaign spanning across several different types of medium. All components of this advertisement campaign have also been heavily planned to ensure that we can raise awareness of our series and attract viewers upon the release of the series in the most effective possible way. For example I have put together a trailer that has been scripted and storyboarded. I have also produced print advertisement material such as a billboard. It could be argued that alone, each of these individual types of advertisement would not be enough to raise awareness for the release of the series however, due to the cross-media nature of my advertisement campaign the campaign message and elements of the series will be reinforced into the audiences minds.

The Trailer

In terms of using aesthetic elements to attract the desired target audience I think the DUPLICITY trailer was a success. The trailer begins with the easily identifiable BBC3 logo as well as text reading 'A BBC3 Original series’.  This will immediately encourage fans of BBC3 content to continue watching as well as young people who associate BBC3 and their logo with transgressive, trendy and current material. As the trailer begins the first setting is in front of a brick wall, setting a grungy and raw mood with one of the twins standing, looking angrily and tensely into the distance. This is likely to gain the attention of viewers who enjoy mysteries and action packed series who are watching. They will therefore know the series is something that may be of their interest. 

As the trailer unravels it is clear that the character has committed a crime and feels guilty. Despite the example trailer using an actor which doesn’t represent the racial topics that will be covered in the series, if the trailer were to be made for real for the BBC, an actor of race will be cast, allowing audience members of this minority demographic to identify.  This identification mixed with the struggles he faces may encourage them to view the series upon its release.

In terms of fully utilising technical properties to ensure we gain a large target audience there was many different important factors to bear in mind to ensure maximum amount of audience pleasure.

The trailer was exported in 16:9 aspect ratio at 1920x1080 high definition in 25 FPS. These are a set criterion established by the BBC. These technical characteristics are vital in maximising the aesthetic properties we have spoken about to make the drama look as real and authentic as possible (a convention of many BBC dramas). This high quality and professional looking trailer is therefore more likely to attract drama lovers due to the real life look. The file size is 56.1 MB as a QuickTime Movie.

The sound in my trailer is equally important in attracting a target audience. The audio of my trailer is not louder than 18LUFS or quieter than -23LUFS at any point so it meets the established standard set my the BBC. A pleasant level of sound and no clash in words increases the chances that people won't ignore my trailer and continue watching until the end, increasing the chance they will give the series a try and that tension will be built. The music is also not too loud so that dialogue is loud and clear, benefiting the watchers especially those with hearing problems.

Billboard

For aesthetics I wanted to create a billboard that resembled that of other successful BBC3 dramas but in a way that would attract my intended target audiences. There are many different ways that this photo can attract a large viewership made up of the intended target audiences. For example, i have used two images of the same character to give the impression that they are twins and allow the viewers to understand the main theme of the shop from the offset.

The fact that Cason’s arms are crossed, facing backwards suggests he’s hiding something. This dramatic look will gain the attention of drama lovers in general, creating a sense of mystery about this character, encouraging the audience to want to find out more.

The title of the series in bold to the poster, with a city image in it, to make it clear and obvious and to set the setting for the series up in a city to suggest its urban nature. BBC dramas often make their posters’ titles stand out in order to gain attraction in a similar way. Finally, the BBC3 logo will be placed in the bottom right corner.

Representation is a huge topic in the series and this filters into the advertising campaign too. As the advertising campaign we have done everything we can to avoid stereotyping the minorities within the series. There are some violent images in the trailer', however as the age demographic is 15-33, the viewers are likely to be less offended and less susceptible to it as they are primarily to demonstrate a deep message on the impact of trauma and its devastating effects. Due to the target audience, if BBC felt uneasy publishing these violent clips, another option is to post the advert after watershed in order to display the trailer without censorship and still reach the audience.

Similarly, my campaign has met the brief by delivering a strong and consistent message through the consistent images of twins, portraying the ‘nature vs nurture’ theme. Along with this, the black and white nature of the billboard, social media posts, and the trailer creates a dark, tense tone to portray the themes of deception, drama and crime. Through having actors of race in the real BBC adverts, the message of minority and transgressive content is made apparent due to the characters’ struggles with being stereotyped as violent. The mysterious and sinister tone through the campaign keeps in line with the message of the impact of trauma and its consequences of the human mind and behaviour. 

The Billboard will be a 48 sheet one which is 3028mm x 6096. Due to this, the image i have created is 300x600 cm but due could be scaled up to create this larger size if BBC3 were to create the advertising campaign. The resolution is 28.346 pixels/centimetres.

Social Media

I created the social media advert image with a square layout in order to the advert to fit onto the theme of the page without having to cut off any part of the image or information, allowing the Instagram feed to look more aesthetically pleasing for a viewer. All other images posted onto this site would be similarly dark in order to create a theme which matches that of the drama series; mysterious. The campaign meets the brief through these consistent images and dark themes in order to successfully engage viewers who would gravitate towards this genre.

The use of the large logo in which the twins are photoshopped into helps to establish where the viewers can find the series in order for successful promoting of both DUPLICITY and BBC3. This meets the brief as a 15-33 year old is likely to be engaged by this logo, knowing the channel broadcasts many other tv series that they enjoy so making this catch their attention more.

The image size is 2.62G as it doesn't need to be too large to be on a platform such as Instagram. It is a square 1060x1060 image to fit onto the Instagram feed without having to crop out any part of it. I saved the images as JPEGs as there is no need for the size of image to be large due to the small scale it needs to be on smart phones without compromising its quality.