PSA Blog Post #7

My PSA project was a success. I learned a lot about how big of an issue sleep deprivation is. I learned about the effects, both in the short term and long term on the body. I learned about how to convey a message to the community through balancing factual information with entertainment. This project has also helped me understand the importance of recognizing a target audience and making the video appealing to them. I also learned about editing video and the importance of choosing and varying shots. I feel like I learned the most from the trial and error of making this project. The most challenging aspect of this unit has been finding time to get the group to work together. This unit could be improved by adding more training at the start of the course focusing on editing.

PSA blog post #6

I think my group's PSA is effective because it is fast paced and humorous. It also has serious information. I think the humor in this PSA will draw the audience in enough to get our information but not overwhelm the message about how serious sleep deprivation is. It is almost ready to be handed in and go on air. We will finish it on Sunday at MTN. We know what we need to change based on detailed notes I took during last Sunday's editing session and group discussions in class and in our Facebook group. Having a Facebook group has really helped us out a lot in improving our group's communication and I would strongly recommend that other groups in the future give it a shot as well. I am satisfied with what we have so far and satisfied with where this is going.

Blog Post #5

I am content with my group's P.S.A. so far although we are not yet done editing. We are booked for six hours of editing right now. We will hopefully get most of this done on Friday; whatever is left will need to be done on Sunday. We have been having some issues with finding time to work on this project as a complete group. Now we understand that we don't need everyone in the group to be working on the project all at once. We will still have everyone's input and everyone will still work on it at some point. We have also been communicating pretty well and we feel that we have a good idea of what the group wants as well as what each individual member wants. Our filming went well. We took a lot of footage and we were very efficient with our filming. We were able to shoot our scenes mostly in order and used our storyboard to plan our shots. We also shot most of our footage at multiple angles. Overall I am very happy with our P.S.A. project.

PSA Blog #4

My group is currently in the planning phase of our project. Our storyboard is done and should be easy to follow. This could potentially be shot in one night. We just need to figure out when and where we are filming as well as a few lines of dialog. We still need to check out equipment, film, and edit. We all agree on our idea and how it should be carried out. The obstacles we are facing include Finding out where to film and finding a time when we are all available to film. Based on the Sunday editing sessions we will definitely have some disagreements on the shots we choose to use. It wasn't that bad though and should be easier because we have a concrete plan.

PSA Blog #3

The biggest challenge my group has faced so far on this PSA project has been finding a way to convey our message showcasing the negative effects of sleep deprivation while keeping the audience entertained. We are going to use a character that punches people in the face for staying up too late to add some comedy to our message. We hope to do this without losing the seriousness of our message. Another smaller challenge has been with the story board. We do not have anyone in our group who is very talented in art. Fintan's drawings are the best we can do. We seem to be working well as a group so far. I think that has been crucial and will continue to be crucial in the success of our project.

PSA Blog #2

I thought my group's PSA went well.  We got some good feedback and now have some good new ideas to incorporate into our PSA. It should be easy to film when it's dark outside because of the time change. I thought my group did a nice job of laying out the plot and facts of sleep deprivation but we will need to learn more information about our topic in order to make a strong PSA.  Our topic is important because it negatively impacts a large group of people, especially high school students, who also happen to be our target audience.  We will appeal to our target audience through humor, but maintaining a strong connection to our message.

PSA Blog entry #1

The ideal role of public service announcements in our media culture is to inform citizens about issues that effect their community and offer ways to get involved. However, in today's media culture, these messages are often twisted. It is our job as members of the communities in which we live to understand the information presented to us by our media organizations, figure out the message they want to send, and decide if that is a worthy cause to work for.
Some of the topics that my group considered producing a public service announcement about include the following: head injuries in sports, the importance of stretching and warming up before sports, the value of a healthy diet, and the negative effects of sleep deprivation. We plan to do our P.S.A. on sleep deprivation and focus on how this problem effects teens. We will achieve this by showing teens staying up late doing things that most teens do like going on Facebook, watching television, and playing video games. While they are doing these activities, someone is run over to them and punch them in the face. This will symbolize the effects of sleep deprivation in a similar way to the "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" commercials. My role creating this plan was to help lay out possible activities to showcase and to get the group organized by creating a preliminary story board and discussing possible settings  as well as filming and lighting techniques and props.

Blog #2

One of the most effective advertising campaigns is the series of commercials produced by Dos Equis.  These commercials start out by introducing the audience to a man who is doing something that interests the audience such as climbing the side of a cliff to feed a nest full of food.  There is then a voice over that explains a few things about the man in a voice that demands attention.  After these events are explained the voice declares   " He is the most interesting man in the world!"  The audience is then sent to a bar with this man who says " I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."  This line is effective because it is believable.  In the past commercials have claimed that their character only used their product.  Dos Equis also changed the norm in advertising of using attractive spokespeople to using interesting spokespeople.  Today many other companies strive to achieve the same effect in their ads.  Advertising brings our attention to a product and makes us believe that we want or need that product.  It also tries to make us familiar to that product so when we are in the store we see that item and buy it.

Blog #1

At the last two MTN presentations I learned how a short video can be made up of so many different shots.  I learned the importance of using long shots, close ups, and different angles to emphasize a point.  This was especially apparent in the anti heroin PSA.  I also learned how different filming techniques can be used to simulate a situation such as the ambulance ride in the impaired driving PSA.  I plan on using a clip from Waterboy where Bobby Bouchet gets knocked unconscious during a football game and is revived by drinking some cold water from an Eskimo  medicine man. Media literacy is important so we can understand the purpose of each piece of media and figure out the true intention of the authors.