Wednesday 25 June 2014

Apple Advert Interview


Interview Questionnaire

1.     What message do you think that the advert was trying to get across?

How the iPhone is useful for many things.

2.     Was it clear that the advert was showing the Siri system, or did you think it could have just been a normal apple advert?

Yes it was clear because he asking questions.

3.     Was the use of clay animation a good way to show the intelligence of the product, and why?

Yes because it gave a form to the Siri character.

4.     Is the apple theme prominent enough in the advert or should it be stressed more?

It was subtle and very well executed.

5.     Did you enjoy the advert and what was your favourite part?

Yes and my favourite part was when Siri walked into the iPhone.

6.     Did all the individual parts of the advert i.e. music, lighting, frames per second, work well together and why?

Yes because it felt like an apple atmosphere and it was very smooth and fluent.

7.     Do you think that advert was the right length or was it too long, and why?

Perfect length because the apple adverts feel the same way.

8.     Do you think that our advert would have come out better if we had used Pixilation, paper cut out’s or small objects?

No because it wouldn’t fit in with the advert and also clay gave a body to Siri making it feel alive.

9.     Do you think that the advert would have been successful in selling the product, and how?

Yes because it gives a good impression of Siri and makes it feel like a superior product.

10. If you could what improvements would you make and why?

The examples of how Siri worked should have been shorter.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Apple Advert Evaluation

When we planned the feedback from my animation, we wanted to find out what our audience thought about the styles, techniques and overall perception of our advert.

For my first question, I asked if people enjoyed the overall advert. This is my results for the particular question: 



For my second question, I asked if the advert represented Apple well. All the results I received said yes along with comments like "the music made it clear it was for Apple, it complimented it well." and "the use of the different questions signifying that it's talking to Siri." When researching previous Apple adverts, I could see that the music used is very similar to the music that we included in our advert and so it was our aim to have a piano piece which sounded like a piece Apple would also use.


The third question asked if there was creativity shown in the advert and if so, how? For this question we received many different answers including "yes, the facial expressions were brilliant", "yes the use of different clay objects and voice overs." People also enjoyed when Siri opened up the umbrella stating "the most creative part was the weather, when Siri put up the umbrella."  All these responses tell us that using props and an aspect of iPhone technology made it interesting to watch. We took the concept of 'Siri' and made it into an actual object meaning it could represent Apple in a fun and exciting way, letting the audience enjoy while watching.


The fourth question was if people thought that the overall editing worked well. Everyone agreed yes although someone mentioned that "it was a bit jumpy". To improve this, we would made sure that the camera was in the same place each time we took the photo and make sure the lighting was the same. Due to the short amount of time we had to make the advert, I don't feel we had enough time to really make it the best we could, but if we had a second chance with more time then we would make sure all the settings were the same.


I had many different results for the fifth question which was 'What do you think of the stop-motion technique used?' The majority of respondents said it was "effective" and the "right technique used". They also said that they "liked the way of showing Siri because it was different and gives Siri a personality. A few people mentioned that "sometimes he moved a bit robotic-like because he didn't always move his arms" and that "the movement wasn't very realistic" Again, we could improve this by spending a lot of time working out what technique worked the best for Siri to move smoothly. We made common mistakes such as forgetting to move Siris arms meaning when he did, it was a sudden movement. 



For the sixth question, we asked if the style looked professional/realistic. 90% of people agreed yes although there was 10% that disagreed. Someone stated that "the music was a big difference and without it, it wouldn't have worked as well." I was thankful for this feedback as it shows that the music was a great part of the advert meaning that the research into previous Apple adverts had come to use, as we had spent a lot of time finding the right piece that worked well with the advert. 


We asked if Apple/Siri was shown in a positive way. The results we received were all yes with comments such as "the character looked happy" and "the questions asked to Siri were realistic and relatable making it seem useful and overall positive." This was very good feedback as we were trying to illustrate a positive advert, taking in mind that if this was a real advert that we would be trying to persuade people to buy Apple products. 

  

For the eighth question we asked 'How did the advert make you feel?' the majority of respondents answered happy along with interested and 'professional'. Someone responded that they were "happy to own an Apple product" which is a great success as we were trying to pursue that outcome. 


In the ninth question, every single person answered yes to 'Was the storyline clear?' This shows that we succeeded in making sure the advert was easy to follow. I was very happy with this feedback as if it wasn't clear then that means people wouldn't obviously understand what was happening, again meaning people wouldn't enjoy the advert and so less likely to buy a product from Apple. 


For the last question, we asked what respondents thought of the duration length of the advert. We gave four options which consisted of:
Too long, Too short, Good amount of time and Other. 
Again the majority of people responded with good amount of time although someone responded through the 'other' option and commenting "Good timing but some of the walking scenes dragged out when it could have been cut down." I feel personally that it was a good amount of time and so I don't feel I would have to improve that aspect.



Overall I feel the stop motion animation Advert worked well and was a success for what we could achieve in the amount of time we were given. The feedback I received from the advert showed not many negative results which I was also happy about. The responses seemed to be positive comments saying that the use of the objects worked well with the character and the animation itsself was good in the way that it moved and flowed well. When asked about the advert and what stands out the most common response was that the music suited with what was happening on screen and that it fitted the mood of the advert. If given more time to redo the task, I would have liked to speed up some of the frames as they are sometimes quite slow. I would have also like to re-take images of Siri and this time make sure everything of his was moving at the same time to make it look as realistic as possible.

We encountered a few problems when making the advert, the first one was getting the lighting the same every time so you wouldn't be able to tell that we shot it on different days however this problem was overcome by using the same lamp and making sure that the lights where turned off in the room that we were filming in. Another problem that we faced was that the Siri character kept on hardening when we used him the next day, this meant that we had to get most of the filming done over the space of two days so Siri was pliable enough to move. 

In conclusion I am happy with the final product and that way that the final advert looks.