Creating a TV Advert- Action Fraud

Team: Abigail, Laura, Lauren and Josh

As we began thinking of what product to base our advert on we came across many different possibilities. Our original idea was to create an ad for a stationary shop – such as Ryman or WHSmith – and create an anamorphic illusion of a picture of the pencils as this would give the audience the idea that the pencils are really good quality as it can create magnificent pieces of art as seen below.

We then realized this wasn’t going to work as the Art department wasn’t working cooperatively and we relied on them for a major part of our whole ad as it was based on the artwork. We then progressed on and began searching for more potential ad ideas and finally found the Action Fraud website. Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud and Internet crime reporting centre.  We thought that this would be a good brand as fraud and financially motivated Internet crime is an important topic, which we believe more people should be aware of. It would also be an interesting concept to incorporate into an advertisement. After researching the website we found two previously made adverts which are displayed here:

These adverts displayed specialized types of fraud using unique and entertaining techniques. For example they show a tramp/banker sitting next to/calling a woman and getting her bank details. The unrealism of the advert makes it entertaining but is also an effective way of shocking people as it demonstrates how easily fraudsters can fool people. It shows how you never know who you are talking you when you’re online or phoning someone. We decided to use the inspiration from these existing adverts to create our own.

As part of our research we explored Action Frauds official website.

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

We found a page with all the different types of fraud and decided to concentrate on just one main example of Internet crime, as this is similar to their previous adverts, which we thought were very effective. We chose Dating Fraud as we could imagine making this entertaining but also express the seriousness of the crime and how people can be caught by it.

We did more research on YouTube of normal dating adverts to get some inspiration to how to set out our advert

This is a mock dating website advert which we thought would be a good bases for our advert as it is quite humorous however that was due to the nature of the website they were advertising “PassiveAgressiveArguments.com ” but we thought that we could take the ideas of the people getting ready before the date and incorporate the build up to the date which we saw in this advert.

From this we thought of the idea of a dating quiz show- something similar to the TV show Take Me Out as there is a big reveal of what the man looks like which affects whether the women like him or not.

After discussing our research and how it could be incorporated into an advert about dating fraud we came up with a few script ideas which show two people getting ready to meet each other who have met on a online dating agency and then have a conversation on a online chat room where the woman asks the man for credit card details which he gives her. The woman’s identity is then revealed to actually being another man. We thought that this would demonstrate the seriousness of the crime and how it could happen to anyone. It would also have a humorous effect, which would make our advert more memorable. Here is our Treatment:

We are going to create an advert for the company Action Fraud to promote awareness of dating fraud. It will show a scenario where a male thinks he has met a girl online and is tricked into giving his bank details. The style of the advert is darkly comic as you realize at the end that the girl is in fact a man.

The plot goes as follows:

We see a shot of the man and woman getting ready in different locations. The man then describes his happiness about online dating with the woman and you see another shot of the woman- however only glimpses of her. There is then a conversation online where the woman tricks the man into giving his credit card information. The woman’s voice (which you hear over the online conversation) then transforms into a mans voice which reveals the true identity of the woman to the audience. The last shot is a wide shot of the man dressed as a woman and the Action Fraud logo.

The duration of the advert will be 30 seconds and the target audience is adults- people who would use dating websites.

Location: TV studio- for all Mrs shots- dark lighting. Sitting on a stool with laptop. LRC for all Mr shots. In corner next to TV and pictures

Props: 2 laptops, stool (for Mrs), wig, mascara, mirror, (in LRC) sofa, desk, pictures on wall.

Costumes: MR- jumper, black jeans. MRS- heels/girl shoes, dress, makeup, wig.

Shot list:

• Mr pulling up tie- medium shot
• Mrs from behind we see hair (use wig)- medium shot.
• Mr brushing hair using camera as mirror- medium shot

(Voice over the text, Mr-male voice. Mrs-female voice)

“I can’t wait for tonight”

• Mrs putting on mascara- close up

“I’ve been talking to this girl for months”

• Mr- medium close

“I think I’m in love with her”

• Mrs creepy smile- close up
• Mrs typing (with painted nails)- close up of hands
• Online screen

“OMG can you help me?”

• Mr standing next to computer- worried look then sits down at computer to reply- medium shot
• Online screen

“Of course, what’s wrong babe?”

” I can’t come out. I was robbed last night, they took my credit card. I’ve got no money”

• Mr looking worried at computer screen

“You can borrow mine if you want”

• Panning up Mrs body-see hairy legs etc. -medium long shot

(Voice starts as female, then gradually changes into a male voice)”Thanks darling, just e-mail me your details, love you”

• Action fraud page

RISK ASSESSMENT

LRC- Keep the floor clear of any obstructive objects and move any bags to one corner of the room to keep them out of the way. If this location is not available we can use the radio green room as a back up. When moving the sofas crew must be aware and have at least two people carrying a sofa in order to prevent and health and safety risks. Crew must be aware of cables from equipment and the filming area must be kept clear from passer-by’s.

We have held auditions for the part of MR to try and find an actor. We got the actors to perform the line: “I can’t wait for tonight, I’ve been talking to this girl for months. I think I’m in love with her.” We needed the actor to look older as we have Mr Mac playing MRS so we wanted the ages to seem slightly closer. Laura then asked Tom Berkeley- a year 13 acting student to play the role as he looks older and can perform well.

Shooting Schedule:

Filming for Thursday 4th December in TV studio- Mrs scenes with Mr Mac.

As Mr Mac is only free on Thursday afternoon, half of the team will be filming then and Lauren and me will be in our classes. Here is a list of shots needed to be filmed in the TV studio.

Mrs putting Mascara on-close up

Mrs creepy smile- close up

Mrs from behind see putting perfume on from Over Shoulder.

Mrs shoes with legs crossed- medium close up

Panning shot starting from feet to face with speech “Thanks darling, just e-mail me your details. Love you.”

We have added a few extra shots for this scene just incase we can edit them in later.

As I could not be there for filming as I had an English lesson I created a list of shots and images which I found on the internet so that Laura, Josh and Kerry (who will be helping them film) will know precisely what shots they will film and what they should look like. I also put times on it (however they are generous) so that they have a general idea to how long they have and to keep to a tight time schedule. With this extra shooting information Thursday should run much smoother compared to filming for Mr, which we found, was a bit unorganized.

shots for action fraud

When we came to filming it turned out that Lauren and me were available for filming as we changed the date from what it was originally going to be, the shot list was then a useful reference when seeing which shots we wanted to use.

Filming for Monday 2nd December in LRC- Mr scenes with Jake Wise. We had to alter the casting from Tom Berkley to Jake Wise, as he was unavailable at the last minute.

Sorting our jumper- medium close up

Brushing hair- close up

Mr talking straight to camera with speech “I can’t wait for tonight. I’ve been talking to this girl for months. I think I’m in love with her”

Standing next to laptop-worried look- sit down to reply to message

Looking worried on laptop

Shot of hands typing on laptop

Film speech to be edited over shots of laptop messages.

“Of course, wrong babe?”

“You can borrow mine if you want”

Post Production

13/12/13 today I began learning how to use premiere pro as I am editing the footage from the action fraud advert, which I am creating. This is my first go at offline editing. I learnt that organizing the footage was very important (for example making a good footage folder and a bad one) so that when you come to editing, the footage is easy to find. I learnt how to use the razor tool to split footage and how to crop it so that only certain sections of the video is seen.

17/12/13 I continued and finished editing Action fraud. The main thing I changed was the audio to try and lower the background noise. I also added video effects to make the footage more interesting for the audience to look at.

This is one of our first edits.

However after this we kept on finding ways to improve it. So after getting advice from Mr Pryce we kept on altering the footage, until we thought that it was to the highest standard possible.

The major things that we changed:

The way the messages were displayed on screen. (We used influences from BBC Sherlock Holmes TV series the way that when someone got a text, the words appear next to the person.) We thought that this would be more effective than having the message board and also more professional.

Making sure that the audience could only see Mrs near the very end of the advert, so that they won’t guess that she was a man until then as it ruined the surprise if it was obvious at the very beginning.

10/ 2/14

By re-editing it allowed me and Lauren to expand our knowledge on using Premiere Pro, as we experimented with Key frames, transitions, audio effects and many more.

After completing the advert I completed a focus group with 7 people in our class (age 16-17, 4 male and 3 female). This is to find out some qualitative research of what people would think of our advert. Here our results:

What was the message of the advert?	“Don’t believe in everything you see on the internet”“Be careful when online dating””Do not give personal details online.”
Did you find it entertaining?	7 out of 7 people said “yes”
Is it memorable?	4 out of 7 said “yes”1 out of 7 said “fairly”2 out of 7 said that the character Mrs was memorable.
Can you imagine this advert being on commercial TV?	6 out of 7 said they could imagine it as a youtube/ pop up online advert.1 out of 7 said “yes”
How can we improve it?	3 out of 7 said the voice over could sound more professional3 out of 7 said that the quality of the shots could be better.1 out of 7 said it could have included more contact information.

This qualitative data from our focus group gave us a good insight to how people perceive our advert. Generally, I think that our advert achieved it’s aims of making people aware of the dangers of dating fraud in a unique and entertaining way. However, the research suggests that we could improve on the quality of the filming, to make it look more professional. If the advert was more professional looking, this may then lead to people agreeing that it could be on television, not just a youtube pop up advert. This research has been very useful for us to be able to reflect on our work as it is good to see a different perspective on the project. The audiences view is very important as the advert is of course aimed at them.