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.