Corporate videos can be used as a promotional tool for brands/products, training purposes, raise awareness, reporting events, product launch and to entertain and educate an audience. A corporate video is produced to promote, inform or entertain which usually is comes across in a way which pulls at your heart strings or inspires you depending on the topic to grab your attention. Corporate films are a good promotional tool for existing companies or new companies as a way of getting their services out there so they become more popular. When analysing a corporate video and promotional programming the key features that you need to look for are purpose, target audience, codes & conventions, representation, narrative, ideologies and audience Positioning. You have to know the purpose of making a corporate video for example if it’s for promotional advertising purposes or a training video for a certain job. When it comes to the target audience you have different factors to consider. In terms of demographics, you have to consider gender, age, family size, occupation, income, education, religion, race, and nationality. In terms of geographical, you have to consider continent, country, city, density, climate, population, and region. In terms of psychographic, you have to consider lifestyle etc. There are three categories of codes and conventions, which are technical, symbolic and linguistic.
You have to look at how things are being represented, you do this by looking at how a presenter or actor if standing and look at what body language they are using. In terms of ideologies, you have to look at the ideas within corporate and promotional videos and how they are conveyed. In terms of audience positioning, you have to look at the messages/signs within the video, they are normally there for the audience to work out. They are always fully aware of their audiences, whether they are active or passive has an effect on this. Codes and conventions of a corporate video are facts and statistics, contact details, voice over/narration, reconstructions, interviews, vox-pop, achieve footage, cutaways, presenter (for a training video), graphics, music, logos and Primary/Secondary information. We normally see corporate videos on YouTube, websites, social media, smaller TV channels, waiting rooms, for example, a surgery and electronic billboards. I will be discussing three different corporate videos one being a promotional video for BMW, another being a charity video for Red2Green and the last one being a training video for ALDI in Australia. Text 1: BMW Promotional Corporate Video The purpose of this promotional corporate video is to promote the BMW car brand with futuristic ideas. In terms of target audience, it’s aimed at young people from about 20-30 years old because it's flashy and modern, it contains features such as the automatic steering that they would be interested in. You would have to come from a wealthy socio-economic background because it’s a high-end, top of the range car so it’s very expensive so you have to be on a high income to afford it. It’s aimed at both genders, as there are both men and women. The men are on motorbikes and the women used as scientists and car mechanics, this is to show diversity as they are involved in the future of BMW and society is becoming more and more diverse and excepting to change. The audience would have to be interested in cars and technology and futuristic designs because that is what the advert consists of. The voiceover is a man with a German accent seen as the company was founded in Munich. The background musical is classical; it’s mainly a piano and violin, which starts off slow but then speeds up. This is to show time changing, the faster the music gets further in time the cars get. The tone of the man in the voice over changes into a happier, more enthusiastic one. He sounds very confident as he talks about BMW’s progress, showing it off in a way. As the advert progresses further on into the future the music changes to more modern electronic beats rather than instruments and the rhythm gets fast to symbolise the movement into the future as the car drives towards it changing. When the video shows the car that they will bring out in the future the music is at its fastest, this represents how we have travelled in time and how fast the car is compared to cars today. At the beginning, there are graphics of lines connecting the buildings together to symbolise that we are all connected. This shows that it’s more modern as technology keeps as all connected as a society, the more it progresses the more connected we will become. There are also graphics of triangles floating in the air containing the history of cars. There are graphics of future cars and buildings on a board with text that come to life with the touch of a finger. This is to show the capability of technology in the future to show the evolution of it, giving us an idea of how far we have come in the past 100 years since BMW has been running. Graphics are used to make the electric car charging cable turn into a road and then planet earth that zooms out and turns into an arrow as a metaphor for BMW looking ahead into the future. BMW cars are being represented throughout this corporate film; they do this by showing off CGI versions of future models that they are currently working on ideas that they will work on. This is so it inspires people and makes people want one. The ideology of this is that BMW will still be here in say another 100 years’ time and their cars will continue to get better and better the video shows that they have lots of new ideas. As time goes on their vehicles will continue to improve and advance. In terms of a narrative structure, the narrator is talking in the first person. The events are being shown in chronological order as the narrator talks about the development within the company in an inspirational way. They do this to show us the changes within BMW’s vehicles what they have produced in the last 100 years so we can see the progression. Towards the end of the video you see three existing modern cars and a motorbike and then one of their cars which they want to make in the future speeds (a CGI version) past them to show the audience the speed compared to the others. As this happens the narrator says “It’s time to forge new paths, not just from a to b but from today to tomorrow.” This represents a corporation by saying that they look ahead because they want to make your future better. The lighting is very bright during this scene as the sun is high in the sky and there are no clouds around. This symbolises a bright future for the company and therefore is associated with positivity. In fact, this bright, sunny weather is continuous throughout the corporate video apart from one-night time scene to show off the lights on the car. The reason they have one night time scene is to show the audience how the car copes with those conditions, it does this by showing off its powerful lights. The theme of this video is BMW vehicles, in particular cars and how they are changing as their technology gets more advanced over time. The message is that they have lots of new ideas to change the way cars look and how we think about them. They had to prevent using other brands in this advert so that there are no copyright issues to prevent being sued. A mini is seen during this but I did some research and it turns out that BMW owns them. The workers who are in an industrial environment are wearing protective eyewear as a legal requirement within the workplace for health and safety reasons. BMW are aware that there audience love luxury cars so they show off how good their cars can perform. To do this they have to make sure they are clean and shiny before shooting the video to make them look appealing. They are famous going above and beyond their duty when it comes to making good quality cars, which is why their prices are expensive. Text 2: Red2Green Charity Corporate Video The purpose of this charity corporate video is to promote a company called Aspirations run by a registered charity called Red2Green. This is a life skills learning programme that provides services for people with autism, learning disabilities and mental health problems. This is based in Cambridgeshire and their aim is to get people of their requirements (autism, learning disabilities, and mental health problems) is to get the skills and confidence to get a job afterwards whether it is paid or voluntary, assuming they can sustain it with their mentality. On this course, they have opportunities for work experience. The target audience would be people with autism, learning disabilities or mental health problems, or a member of their family to see it so they can recommend it to them. The video tells you this because not only does the narrator mention it but it also shows it in the footage of the staff is in the centre where they run it with their clients. It is aimed at adults since they mention that they give you the confidence for employment, also in the footage, you only see adults (mainly middle-aged) on this programme. It is of any gender and ethnicity as you see males and females and an Asian woman amongst the white people (making her a minority). I know this from the footage that I have seen in the video; it would have specified in the narration that it is a specific type of person. Besides they aren’t allowed to discriminate like that stated by the equality act. It is aimed at people from all backgrounds because they mention that if you can’t afford to pay for this yourself then external funding will pay it for. This suggests that this service is meant for working class people, as they can’t always afford it. There is a mixture of different activities taking place within this video so that it appeals to lots of individuals to fit their interests. It is also aimed at adults who want to volunteer as by they give you the website address at the end of the video and states so in the narration. I know this because the narrator says “For more information about Red2Green and to learn how you can volunteer please visit www.Red2Green.org” This means they must be short on staff since they are seeing if anyone would like to work for them. This isn’t a surprise due to it not being a paid job and its quite hard work, therefore, people aren’t going to be as motivated to do it. In terms of codes and conventions used they include a few interviews with the volunteers and a couple of some people on the programme. Most of the scenes are filmed indoors since all these most of the activities take place inside a centre. It comes across as a warm, friendly environment where everyone is being kind towards each other and helping them. I know this because everyone is calm and using their manners, this is to more their centre look appealing and inviting. The voiceover is a woman with a southern/posh British accent, probably local, so from somewhere in Cambridgeshire. This tells us that the narrator is well spoken and therefore well educated. This tells us that due to the audience the narrator has to speak clearly because half the audience that it's aimed at will have disabilities so they can easily misinterpret information. She has a relaxed tone and talks clearly at a steady pace, which compliments the relaxing yet upbeat background music. The staff and people of the programme are being represented during this video by them showing you their natural environment. They do this to advertise their services so they can help more people and stay open. As well as to persuade local people to volunteer for them as it is for a good cause as they would be helping people that need it. The narrative structure during this is explaining how helpful Aspirations are through what activities they do with people to help build their confidence. The narrator goes through how they handle the fees, where their centre is located, the skills that people learn on this programme and some of the activities that they do. This is representing them in a positive way because volunteers are helping people to get the most out of life by building their confidence. The theme in this video is Aspirations/Red2Green is helping those people with autism, learning disabilities and mental health problems to get through life as best as they can by getting the most out of it. The message is what they offer their clients. Everyone is treated equally by the staff with a kind, friendly attitude. It would be concerning if they were being mistreated, meaning people wouldn’t be interested in their services because it would put people off. Text 3: Australian ALDI Training Corporate Video The purpose of this training corporate video is to educate it’s newly hired staff how to do your job efficiently such as handling produce. The target audience video is adults (since children can’t work) of any gender and ethnicity seen as they are allowed to discriminate. I know this because I see both female and male workers in this video for diversity. This is aimed at people from a working class background seen, as the job requires very little qualifications and people who live in Australia as this training video is only shown in ALDI shops in that country. As far as codes and conventions are concerned this includes a few interviews customers give opinions on scenarios in a supermarket. They gather different peoples views to show that the video isn’t biased. This makes it seem truer to life and therefore fair and believable. The presenter also narrates scenes where they are just showing graphics/images, for example, the scene of how fruits and vegetables should be stored. He also narrates a scene of him stacking onions so you can see how its correctly done and it gives you an inside to how supermarkets work. The video starts off with calm background music but then as more information is be told to the audience the background music changes just under 2 minutes into the video into a faster upbeat piece of music. This is to represent the pace and level of information within the video. There are lots of helpful facts and figures throughout the video in order to help the new workers to understand the level of importance of doing certain task etc, there is also some use of rhetorical questions to help convey this. ALDI staff in Australia is being represented because they are training people up to do jobs like them. The narrative structure is going through important information that every member of staff needs to know in order to maintain the store and its produce. This is representing the corporation by showing us its high standards and where their priorities lie. They have to maintain hygiene and have a good working attitude throughout this video to set a good example. The presenter states this in the video and the audience is correctly shown how to maintain good hygiene in the workplace just like them. If they don’t the not only would it put people off shopping at ALDI but you might make people ill if you are handling food with dirty hands for example. When conducting the interviews they chose from a wide variety of different shoppers so that there is no discrimination. This represents ALDI in a positive way as it's fair for everyone. They would have had to ask their permission before filming and made sure that they get asked fair and relevant questions making sure that they were general and not biased. There are three different stages when it comes to making a video such as a corporate film. The first stage is pre-production, this is the planning and paperwork that always has to take place. The second stage is the actual filming itself known as the production, during this you must keep on referring back to the pre-production stage to ensure you know what you are doing. The last stage is post-production; this is when the footage that has been filmed gets edited. This means all the footage gets trimmed accordingly and put in the right order to make a video. There are also different types of formats when it comes to media, there’s the category type, which links to the genre for example documentaries and animation. The format can also mean the way we see videos such as in HD or not. The first and third corporate video that I analysed was in full HD but the other second one wasn’t which was probably due to the camera quality. Big companies like BMW and ALDI can afford the best equipment however because the second video was a charity they obviously didn’t have the funds/resources to produce their charity video in an HD format. After looking at those three videos I can see a huge difference between them due to them being different types of corporate videos. The purpose of promotional programming is to inform, educate, promote or persuade in an entertaining video. It needs to stand out and grab your attention for example when a vehicle company advertises their products, instead of just doing an advert then can make a corporate video and make it inspirational and therefore making people want to buy a vehicle from them such as the BMW video that I looked at. There is many codes and conventions involved in a corporate video such as a voice over, presenter, music, the shots, titles, logos, language used (linguistic, technical and symbolic) lighting and overall appearance. Bibliography: Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iExzRqcvhsE Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRessEK-4Hs Video 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2NCZrp2HBw
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