Unit 30 Advertising Production for TV: (Task 1)

We have chosen to make a John Lewis styled Christmas advert for the advertising assignment. Researching previous John Lewis adverts will help our group to understand the fundamentals of a successful Christmas advert and the trends we should follow to make an advert that fits the John Lewis style. I will be analysing John Lewis's 2011 Christmas Advert  titled 'For gifts you can't wait to give.'








Overview:

The advert is narrative and follows the 3 act structure, the advert tells the story of a boy who is fed up of  waiting for Christmas day and how he tries to pass the time during his count down to Christmas. The audience thinks he cannot wait to open his presents however when the little boy wakes up, he ignores the gifts meant for him as he was really waiting to give his parents their gift from him.

Structure

Act 1: The advert opens with an establishing shot of the family's home, its sunrise and it appears frosty outside setting the scene by using weather associated with the winter months, next we cut to a shot of our main character, the little boy, jumping out of bed to open the first door on his Christmas calendar, showing us that its the 1st of December, the camera then pans down the calendar ending with a shot of door 24.

Act 2: Act 2 begins the montage of the little boy and how he passes the time before Christmas, this is the middle of the narrative and as the days pass by the little boy becomes more and more inpatient for Christmas to arrive. The duration of act 2 is a montage sequence which follows the little boy over the course of the month building up to Christmas eve, we see the little boy trying desperately to pass the time, inter cut with shots of staring at a clock portraying his desire for time to pass quicker. The passage of time is portrayed by shots of the little boy going to bed and him staring out of a window during a time lapse of the days.

Act 3: The little boy rushes through his dinner on Christmas eve and races upstairs slamming the door behind him, his door has a Merry Christmas sign on it indicating to the audience that the count down is over. He wakes up Christmas morning and to the audiences shock ignores his presents, he rushes into his cupboard to grab the gift he has bought his parents and heads straight to their bedroom to hand it to them ending with a shot of him holding the gift with the tag line 'For gifts you can't wait to give.'

Techniques: The advert has a narrative story structure and is presented in a liner way, meaning that the order of events is chronological meaning time passes normally in the advert. In the advert we see the passage of time from the beginning of December until Christmas Day.Camera movement, shots and editing techniques are all used within the advert to help create the passage of time in the advert. The advert uses montage technique to show the passage of time and convey to the audience that the little boy is growing impatience of waiting for Christmas day. The montage is used in the advert to show how the little boy is killing time waiting for Christmas day to roll around, for example we see the boy swinging, playing ball and painting mixed with shots of him looking at the clock waiting for time to pass. This displays to the audience that the boy is fed up with waiting as we see his disheartened expression when he notices the clock has barley moved. The music also conveys the feeling that the boy is desperately waiting for Christmas day, we can see this from the lyrics for example the song says 'please please please let me get what I want' implying that the boy is hoping that he will get what he wants for Christmas this helps when the end comes and reveals that the boy is waiting for Christmas so he can give opposing to receive, the lyrics of the song along with the montage of the boy passing time mislead the audience giving them a heart warming twist when they find out what the boy is really waiting for.

Audience: The advert is designed to trigger emotion in the audience, making them feel happy. This helps the audience see John Lewis as a brand who bring joy, portraying the image that John Lewis's products can also bring the audience joy. As the advert doesn't market a specific product the job of the advert is to help John Lewis establish a good image for their brand. The message at the end of the advert implies that John Lewis's products are so good you can't wait to give them to people, the slogan 'For gifts you can't wait to give' implies this making the audience feel like a John Lewis gift would bring joy to someone they love.