My conclusion...

The advert looks like a winner!! I'm really pleased with it, every scene works well, the message is clear, simple and I might get a few laughs if I'm lucky!

This could definitely be a campaign that could run for a long time, the advert has the potential to become a series which could make Brut popular again, and it is fresh and new but doesn't alienate it's current consumers.

To pitch this, I put together a speech which I still need to practise to make sure I run on schedule, and to unify the group's presentation I made a background from nicking the home page, and getting rid of parts in photoshop.

The Animatic

Frames for the animatic!

Frame One: Average bloke in his late 20's early 30's, looking dishevelled and sweaty playing video games, with food and drink debris lying around.

Frame Two: The blokes girlfriend, clearly glammed up for a night out shouts for him that their taxi has arrived.

Frame Three: Bloke has obviously forgotten about night out! He gets up and takes a whiff of himself.... he stinks. And there is no time to get washed.

Frame Four: Bloke goes upstairs looking for a quick solution, and spots his bottle of Brut on the dresser amongst lot's of other products.

Frame Five: With the idea of using Brut to solve his problem, he quickly slips on a shirt, and douses himself with the cologne.

Frame Six: The girlfriend walks into the room to find out if he is ready, bloke stands nervously waiting for her reaction........ she doesn't notice and thinks he looks and smells great!

Frame Seven: As the girlfriend walks out of the room, the bloke gives the air a punch in success, then gives the bottle of Brut a thankful kiss.

Frame Eight: Bottle of Brut standing alone, looking almighty and powerful, slogan and give away appear in a stamp form, hard in place.

Final Choice.

This has been pretty difficult to choose one out of three ideas..... but, after a tutorial with Andy and some feedback from a few men I asked I've finally come to a conclusion. The two options were the guy who sprays on Brut to cover up his stink as he's got no time to shower for an evening out with his girlfriend/wife, or the guy who wants to go out, so hypnotises his girlfriend/wife with his cologne and convince her she said it was OK for him to have a night out at the pub. They were received with a few giggles and smiles (YES!!) but I was struggling to get a straight yes or no - men seemed to like them both! So in the end, I've decided to go ahead with stinky guy, my reasons being is that gaming is a hugely popular thing nowadays, it's not just for kids (I am a sporadic gamer myself!) so we have the narrative that can correspond with a lot of men watching the advert in the first frame, we have the bossy girl dopey boy relationship which is classic in adverts now, but the twist is that this advert gives men a bit of the power back.... he is cunning and cheeky and the woman is, in her mind still in control or her 'hapless' boyfriend/husband. With hypnotic guy, that advert can be used further down the line during the new campaign. This could in theory set the ball rolling for future men and their Brut escapades in the adverts! It could have the potential for a long running successful campaign for the company.

I've re-drawn the storyboard for the advert, taking a couple of elements from the other ideas that I quite liked (for example the guy kissing the bottle of Brut... I love that!) to come up with the final mock-up. I'm going to stick with a time average for the advert of about 30 seconds -1 minute, I've also decided on the idea of free sample bottles of the product. When looking back at my survey results, what pulls people in first is the advert, what makes them buy it is the smell... and what better way to do that than with a free sample of the liquid that will get you out of sticky situations! To include that within the advert it will be the last frame, saying "Get your free sample at brutworld.com", people who are interested will go to the website and all they will have to do is sign up with their mailing address and a bottle will be sent to them! I used some inspiration from the Make-up brand, Max Factor.... a few years ago they were giving away free samples of a foundation through signing up to their website, I signed up and got my lovely free little compact in the post! Was a good product too!

Peer Assessment.

I've had pretty good feedback from my group, which was great, I'm really relieved actually! You're your own worst critic, so it's good to know that so far I'm on the right track. I think going forward from here, I'd like to finalise the storyboard for the TV advert, I'm thinking to possibly have more than one, as they all fall under the same slogan. I also want to finalise my idea for a promotional product. I relayed to the group that I'm moving towards giving away free samples of Brut from the retailers of the product, so that will need an advertising poster. It will be pretty simple, straight to the point kind of advertisement.... maybe even a link to the new advert that's also on YouTube or Facebook? It's just a supporting product piece, but still important I think.

Video Recording Session.

For this task of 'A Chance Encounter' short film, my group and I decided on a modern version of Cinderella. The concept being she gets invited to a party, and things keep going wrong.. her phone gets broken, she can't get transport because of her lack of phone, and her outfit gets ruined from an accident! Out pops the Fairy Godmother, who give her a new phone, a new outfit, and a car to get her to the party! I was really apprehensive about this task, mainly because I didn't want to star in it! But also I don't have any experience in short film making. The group of 6 that I was part of was only 4 on the first day of pre production, so that was a great start! I happily volunteered to direct, and also volunteered to star in it if the others didn't turn up for the following session either... luckily for me, they did turn up! We all discussed roles each person could take so there were no 'passengers', and also allocated roles for the absentees, and told them the following week. I think the planning went well, it was well prepared and thought out, so the shooting day was a breeze, considering some complicated scenes, such as making something 'appear', went OK. A few mistakes were made, such as people forgetting we weren't doing a practise run and were now filming, so we would have to roll back the tape and get it in the right position to start filming again. But other than that it went relatively well. If we were to do it again, I think we would shorten the length of time, and definitely simplify the scenes for smoother running. I didn't see all the scenes run after everything was shot, so I'll be watching it for the first time with everyone else in the class! Here's hoping that it's not a complete car crash and it actually shows a strong narrative to the audience.

Storyboards.

I've finalised three conceptual scripts into a storyboard, and decided I won't be using story 4 in the end. It's mainly because it's the odd one out in the group, and I think the other three would resonate more with the general public in terms of real life situations but with a 'parodied' twist to it.

Story three I have adjusted to be simpler; rather than the guy talking about renting a movie etc etc, I've gone with the guy splashes on some Brut after girl says no to him going out, goes back down the girl who becomes hypnotised from the scent, and he convinces her that she said it's OK for him to go out for a drink. He leaves, next scene celebratory 'chink' of the pint glasses, then the Brut smash!