The first Unit was a 'storyboard' - we had a selection of briefs to chose from, listing different 'products' and a description of how the companies involved wanted them represented in an advert.
I chose the 'KitKat brief'.
KitKat - remains the best selling chocolate snack. To extend their domination of the market, Nestle have brought out a series of different flavours and wish to bring this to the attention of customers. The main thrust of the campaign will be based on the tie line "What colour are you" . They are interested in a campaign in which the wrapper acts as a signal to potential partners by showing each other that you have much in common. They want attributes attached to each of the flavours, and your choice indicates your personality. They hope they can develop a fun spark, a surreptitious language, a new language of love spoken tongue in cheek. This commercial needs to explore this aspect .
Storyboards are not my favourite type of project. I'm not confident enough of my drawing skills to be completely comfortable with them, but they are really effective for conveying an idea to a potential customer, and I've been surprised how using them pushes me to give far more consideration to several things - film language, how one shot moves into another, the flow of the narrative and how, once I have it completed, it gives me a really clear idea of how the 'finished product' is supposed to look.
I've also learnt that when given a brief like this , the research aspect is vitally important - I started off looking at adverts that have produced a 'tie line' that has captured the public's imagination - when I started to think about it, so many 'tie lines' become part of peoples everyday conversation and interaction. For example,
L'Oreal - 'because your worth it', and one that I felt had already captured the sort of 'fun spark' that the brief required, Tictacs - 'Shake your Tictacs' .
Looking at different parts of the brief, I extended the research into other area's. Firstly I looked at what other flavours KitKat had used, worlwide, and was amazed at the variety out there . . .
Then in looking at the 'tie line', "What Colour are You' , I researched on line what , if any, characteristics were associated with different colours.
There was a lot of information out there . . .
I also listed the different flavours that could be associated with the different colours, and then, combined them with the characteristics, e.g - Red - strawberry, cherry - passionate, fiery, sexy; Blue - blueberry - calm, mysterious.
From this I moved onto considering locations where these colours would dominate, and which would also be a suitable environment for the characteristics associated - for example, Green, apple, nature lover, dreamy, tree's, fields,etc.
Then I started to consider the 'fun spark' and the 'language of love' - how to convey this? Could it be by the actions of the 'couple' featured - instead of 'shaking tictacs', maybe they could 'flash a kitkat'? However, the 'tictacs' advert, to me, was just too 'cheeky' and lacking in the 'romance' feel that I felt was suggested by the 'language of love' comment in the brief. So, could the fun spark be in larger than life personalities that reflect the characteristics of the colour? I began to consider that instead of using people, what about using animals, cartoon animals? Different animal couples for each colour/flavour? For example, you could associate a lion, king of the jungle, with the colour purple - purple for royalty, but also for passion and pride. And cartoons are fun - they can also be portrayed to emphasise the characteristics associated with the colours, and they can be sexy, flirty, attractive, romantic, cute . . .
I jotted down a few basic 'story lines', using the research, different colours/flavours and different animals for a series of adverts - Orange is associated with activity, energy and that could be typical of a sporty, outgoing character - so how about the animals being Tigers? Tigers are sleek, sexy and strong, athletic even. Or Yellow - monkeys with yellow tinted fur, meeting on a yellow beach, tropical, fun & sun loving setting. In each ad, it could be a case of they see each other, but only make a move when one or the other produces the 'kitkat' and that would be the final signal to indicate that they belong together? The fact that you can manipulate and tamper with 'reality' with cartoons, to a certain extent, means that there are less limits to the scenes you can use and the actions of the characters - you can exaggerate, in a way that wouldn't necessarily work with 'humans', to emphasise the message in the advert.
After looking at several different types of cartoon animals, I decided to use squirrels for the ad I would storyboard out . . .
I especially liked this last one, which I thought was fun and flirty, and demonstrated clearly how a cartoon could work .
I decided on using a peanut flavoured kitkat in a yellow wrapper would work with cartoon squirrels - Yellow for sunny, warm, outdoor type personalities, with an association with summer days and romance . And peanuts - nuts and squirrels - gave it an added association.
Before I started drawing and plotting out the story, I also looked at photographs of actual squirrels -although, as I said, I felt the cartoon idea would allow manipulation and exaggeration, I knew for it to work, the characters would have to have a basis in reality.
I also created a mood and a colour board . . .
I also thought about using music, and felt an appropriate piece for this ad, as there was to be no dialogue, would be the song 'True Colours' - but I felt the arrangement of the song could be changed to go with the colour/characteristic of each individual advert.
And then onto the drawings!
The storyboard has to plot out the narrative of the project, and each frame contains written information on the type of shot and camera angle used
I deliberately used a yellow tone to virtually every component of the drawing, to emphasis the link to the colour - even the squirrels have a yellow tone to their fur - one of the 'manipulations' you can use with cartoons.
I also decided to use printed pictures of a peanut Kitkat, inserted into the frames - if this aspect was incorporated into a finished animation, I felt it would emphasise what the advert was about to the viewer, so that the concept of using the product as a 'new language of love', i.e that the product was a 'visual' indication of characteristics that match, would be more firmly linked in their minds.
The Finished storyboard . . .
With no dialogue, I made the final frame to be a shot of the peanut KitKat, with the sun and flowers to emphasise the characteristics, and the Tie Line prominently displayed, and for added emphasis, I decided to introduce a voice at this stage that would simply say 'KitKat - What Colour are You?'.
In this unit, I was able to bring together several of the concepts/tools that I have been introduced to over the last year - the different types of angles and shots that can be used, and when to use them; The use of film language and frames to clearly set out the concept; How using colour/mood boards can really help you to create the 'feel' you want for an idea; The use of music and sound to enhance, and to aid, the visual aspects you have used to convey a narrative/atmosphere/feel. It again brought home to me how storyboards are a really good way to present an idea in a clear way - my lack of drawing skills may make the actual production of the finished item seem like hard work, but I enjoyed the research aspect of it and actually coming up with the ideas for how the brief could be fulfilled in an advertising campaign.
Next Unit - Stock Photography.
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