For this post I need to evaluate a radio advert. This is to gain an understanding of what a professionally made one is like. To do this I've decided that I shall analyse two adverts in the hope that the difference will inspire me when it comes to making my radio advert as I want to create something new. I hope this will be useful to me as I should be able to apply what I learn from researching these two adverts by listening to them and breaking them down.
The first radio advert is for the 2013 film "Gravity". I choose Gravity as it was a recently released film and I wanted to hear what a modern radio advert sounds like. I feel as if this storyline.
Using IMDb, I'm able to learn Gravity is a film with the following plot: "Two astronauts work together to survive after an accident which leaves them alone in space". I feel like this radio advert markets the film well as it gives the listener a clear insight of what type of movie it is by using the line "Houston, we have a problem". This use of dialogue directly from the film being used in the advert allows listeners to get a sense of what the movie is like but it doesn't give much away leading to us imaging what the problem is and whether they stop it. This active engagement of the voice helps create interest in the movie as people will want to go out and see it. Another use of dialogue that is effective is the narrator reading out positive reviews the film have received from critics and listing off the cast and director of the film. This is a good method of promotion as it allows the film to boast it's star studded cast and the high quality film the director, Alfonso Cuarón has managed to create. Similarly, the fact the cast of George Clooney and Julia Roberts being read out allow the audience to quickly decide whether they're interested in seeing the film or not so the listener is about to establish their feelings for the film early on. Besides dialogue this advert also utilises sounds and music. By this I mean the advert features an assortment of sound bites taken from the film. These are played to match characters dialogue in order to give us a rough understanding of what is going on. This is effective as the sounds harsh nature make us feel uncomfortable. This feeling of being somewhere we aren't comfortable allows us to sympathise with the characters as we know they're in space struggling to get home helping us understand the characters isolation. The use of the score has allowed the film to promote it's fantastical side too as the music allows us to picture the beauty of space just be accompanying this music. Due to this advert I now believe for an advert to be an effective use of promotion it needs to include dialogue from the film, music that fits the tone and informative information that helps the audience learn what the film is about. One final thing I noticed about the ending of the radio advert is how it leaves us wanting more by their being a crescendo in the second half of the advert, implying some important/big is going to happen. After producing this analysis I was then unable to find the radio advert again so I'm unable to embed the clip into my blog. However, I've learnt from this mistake and this is an embedded clip of Star Wars "The Empire Strikes Back" radio advert as this is the second advert I will analyse.
I've chosen to analyse this movie's advert as the franchise, Star Wars started as an independent movie. Because of this I wanted to see the difference in quality when a company begins advertising for a film when the first has already been successful. This will allow me to see how sequels get advertised differently than original films.
Initially I was surprised at this advert as it heavily relies on the narrator but, after much thought I realised that as this is a film from 1980 and the way in which films are marketed has changed so I didn't want to let this discourage me from analysing the advert. This advert does something different in the promotion of the movie in that it doesn't rely on audio from the film but instead the listener is able to receive all the information they need to about the film from the narrator. This is interesting to me as it allows the audience to obtain all the information they need to about the film such as, how, when and where to see it without giving anything from the movie away besides a brief synopsis. This stuck with me as it showed me that to market a film you don't need to give much information away to interest the audience. Something else I picked up on was the adverts heavy reliance on the score for the film being played throughout the background of the narrators speech. The score is called "The Imperial March" as was created by John Williams. Having John Williams music featured in the advert allows the audience to see the quality of film making that has been produced as they've managed to secure arguably the most famous scorer in film history. This is also alluded to when the narrator mentions the fact that score is "magnificent". The loud and harsh start of the score instantly acts as a hook that grabs the listeners attention and makes them listen to the advert. This is an effective method of promotion as the simple score is repetitive so audiences can remember it easily and this allows them to think about the film more on a subconscious level. This means eventually the audience member will grow so curious they want to run to the cinemas in order to see the second movie in the franchise that features all their beloved favourites such as Luke Skywalker. These are the main reasons I believe this Empire Strikes Back advert is successful at doing it's job or promoting the movie.
To summarise, I believe both the Gravity & Empire Strikes Back radio adverts are fully effective at their job of needing to promote the film and interest listeners. I think both the music playing in the background and informative dialogue to help tell the listener what the film is about/when it's available are the two things that have stuck with me most. Due to this I believe I'm going to create a script that does primarily these two things as I've seen how influential and important they've been when applied to other radio adverts through the breakdown of the Gravity and Empire Strikes Back adverts. Overall, I found this post to be helpful and informative as it has allowed me to create a clear goal for what I want my radio advert to sound like and include in the final product.
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