What If?

Three different what-if scenarios – possibilities for video. We were given the task to visualize three completely different concepts. My first two concepts were quite similar and therefore I wanted to eliminate the dog element for my final idea.

#1 What if – 

1. *Balloon dog tries to itch itself*
2. *Squeaking noise like a balloon*
3. *Looks alarmed at the camera, then pops*

Brand to sponsor – ITCH

I recently saw an ad on the London underground for ‘itch’, and it really caught my attention. I really love the colours, and the dog puns really resonate with my sense of humour. Therefore once I got home I immediately did some research into ‘itch’, and after receiving this brief, I thought they would be the perfect brand to promote through my video. 

Itch is a new brand that just launched this July. It was created by a group of very successful entrepreneurs, including the founder of Simba Sleep, and the marketer for Zoopla and match.com. They came together to take off the flea prevention market. In order to launch the brand, they have invested £750,000 into the marketing campaign. The campaign includes a TV advert, PR and a fully integrated digital and social marketing campaign. This was all done by NOW Agency. This agency is incredibly successful itself, it has 41 employees and has just managed to take on the Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi to becoming their new CEO. 

Both Itch and NOW would be people that I would approach with the ad afterwards, or who I could create the campaign for. 

#2 What if – 

1. *Dogs sitting on a sofa at a party*
2. *Inhale balloon gas*
3. “Meow”

Brand to sponsor -?

This was a very comical idea, however, would not really link to any brand that I could think of. In addition, it is very simple and would probably need to be built upon a lot if I moved forward with it.

#3 What if – 

1. Cut between different Wes Anderson style shots of powerful-looking women
2. All women are eating fast food, while dramatic music plays
3. “Bitches eat burgers” –  something along those lines ??

Brand to sponsor – Fast Food company

Natalie Portman in Hotel Chevalier by Wes Anderson

Shot by Tony Kelly

 

My final idea was the most out there, this was linked to using Wes Anderson’s cinematography style, and filming different powerful women eating fast food. I am most unsure about this idea as I feel it is a bit too random and does not link with the storytelling concept. 

After discussing the ideas with the class, I just couldn’t decide, as we were told that by the end of the day we would need to have our final ideas. I am aware that with every project I do the same thing, I can never decide which concept to move forward with. I think this is because I just have too many ideas, as in almost all of the previous modules I have managed to combine a few ideas and have one giant one, yet this feels impossible with this module and is avoiding overcoming this constant habit.

I spent the day avoiding the problem and struggling to come up with an idea. At the end of the day I spoke with Xavier and Harriet, and I presented an idea which I could move forward with. This would be to focus on the idea of first dates, and what you should and shouldn’t do on a date. The story would be that a girl wouldn’t eat on a date and would say she was going to the nail bar afterwards, which was actually a code word for a secret place girls go to be disgusting.

I broke it down to see how it would fit with the brief.

• Storytelling Element: What you do & don’t do on a date e.g. girls don’t eat a lot
• Video: Series of first dates
• Interactive Element: Virtual menu – nail bar, which then becomes a fast food menu
• Focus on UX: How people interact with a website, how people interact with video
• Art Direction: Wes Anderson

 

We concluded that I could move forward with this if it was more thought through. I researched different camera angles and art direction styles of Wes Anderson. I found out he likes to structure his videos around having certain frames all fit the same colour palettes, and using the same camera angles.

I created these visual concepts to get a feel of what it could look like. I deduced that I really disliked it and was not inspired. I could not feel motivated with it, and felt that it did not fulfill the brief as it was not cohesive.

I decided to put my foot down and move forward with the balloon dog idea. I wanted to break the bad habit of constantly struggling to choose one final idea.

I initially avoided choosing the balloon dog concept, however that was due to it being too hard to create. This is something I would have to overcome and figure out, but not kill the idea at the beginning.