Pre-Production

For our PSB adverts out group chose the topic of drugs in which the aim will be to make people aware of the effects of drugs and how they can get help. Within our group I was allocated the role of producer. Throughout my pre-production I carried out primary and secondary research of websites and adverts relevant to our topic choice. For my primary research I created a questionnaire, which I then handed out to 10 different people, five of an older age group and five of a teenage age group. In my questionnaire I asked questions that enabled me to find out people’s opinions of drugs campaigns and how they think they could be improved. On the other hand, for my secondary research I analysed the ‘Talk to Frank’ website, and analysed some drugs adverts. The conclusion I came to when analysing these adverts was that although there are quite a few drugs campaigns out there, they are not very effective. Within our group we all played a part in contributing to the pre-production booklet in which we were all given an individual task. My contribution towards the pre-production booklet was to complete the production schedule and the press kit release/treatment package. The reason I had to complete the press kit release was because my idea was one of the idea’s we had chosen to create an advert on. Finally, each of the group had an individual storyboard and poster to be completed by a set date. Both my poster and my storyboard included original images that I had taken myself, and edited using Picasa 3 using my home computer.

Individual Coursework Pieces

On Tuesday 18th January I created a draft storyboard for my idea because our group had chosen to pick my idea as one of our adverts therefore, I needed to have this draft storyboard ready for the rehearsals we carried out with our actors on Thursday 20th January.

On Thursday 20th January when all of our actors we together we began to run through how I would like my advert to go and at the same time took pictures of still images in which I then made into a final storyboard. I think this storyboard looks extremely professional, compared to drawing because all of the images are original and can be copied when filming our final advert.

On Friday 21st January I took pictures for my individual poster that has to be created for my coursework. I took many pictures so I had a variety of pictures to go through when choosing the final picture that I wanted to use for my poster. Once I had chosen the picture I wanted to use, I edited it in Picasa 3, changing the contrast, adding a blueish tint and also adding writing onto it.

Questionnaire Findings.

For my primary research I created a drugs questionnaire in which I gave out to ten different people of different age groups because I wanted to compare whether your age has anything to do with your knowledge of drugs. From my findings however, asking the different range of age groups did not show a comparison as I got many of the same answers for each of them.


From my findings I found:

• Everyone was aware of the effects of drugs, however, nobody was aware of the effects each different drug has.
• Only 2 out of 10 people asked believed there were enough drug awareness campaigns out there.
• However, for the drugs awareness campaigns that are out there, people only believed they targeted their intended audience to an extent. 
• For my final question i asked people how they think drugs awareness campaigns can be improved to target their intended audience and the answers I received were things such as: They could include more emotion triggering images or video clips, include opinions of children of whom parents take drugs and to show pictures or video clips of the effects. 

Primary Research for PSB Advert

As primary research for our PSB advert, I have decided to create a questionnaire which will enable me to find out how much people already know about drugs, and to then at the end of the creating and filming of our advert come to a conclusion on how far I think our PSB advert has improved this information for people. 


The questions I have asked in my questionnaire are:

1. Age?
2. Do you take drugs?
3. Are you aware of the effects of drugs?
4. Do you know the effects of each different drug?
5. Do you think there are enough drug awareness campaigns?
6. If so, to what extent do you agree they are effective?
7. How well do you think drugs campaigns target their intended audience?
8. If you do not think they do, please state your ideas on how you think they can improve to target their intended audience? 

I plan to ask 10 people this information, and then gather my results at the end to come to a conclusion for the results. 

Secondary Research for PSB Advert

For our coursework project, we have chosen to create a PSB advert on the effects of drugs and also to create awareness of drugs as we do not think there are many adverts out there that actually target this theme. However, I have been able to find a few adverts, websites and research about the drug support already out there and have analysed them. 


http://www.talktofrank.com/


Talk To Frank is a well known website that includes everything about the different types of drugs there are and the effects of them. It also offers support for those who need it most, whether they be a victim of drug abuse, or a watcher of other users. This site includes links such as: 'The A-Z of drugs', 'Join In', 'Talk to Frank', 'Worried about someone', 'Need Help', and 'Share'. Overall, I think this website is really effective, however, whether people actually use it and take it into account or not, is another question. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LnA-xCz5U8


As well as having a website, talk to frank also show many effective adverts. The advert I have chosen to research is the most recent which includes Pablo the mule. I agree that this advert is effective to the extent that it is using a cute animal throughout the advert and this may target people's emotions and make them question themselves as to why they do it. However, I also agree that it is not effective at all because, in my opinion, showing a funnier side to the use of drugs, and I do not believe this will make people question their drug abuse. 




Throughout my research I also found an interesting table which shows how many days it would take for people to test positive from certain drugs. 

The cut-off levels are set at a point that is high enough to rule out passive smoking and low enough to ensure that a patient must have abstained from the drug to test negative.

Alcohol (Breath / Saliva)	1 hour per unit consumed
Amphetamines	2 - 6 days
Barbiturates	3 - 8 days
Benzodiazepines	2 - 14 days
Cannabis (THC)	Typically 14 - 28 days, but a one-off use may be undetectable in 5 days.
Cocaine	2 - 5 days
Methadone	2 - 7 days
Methamphetamines	2 - 6 days
Opiates	2 - 5 days
PCP	2 - 6 days

Overall, throughout my research, i cannot find many drug awareness campaign adverts that target a specific audience, or that are even very effective. 

Analysis of PSB advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYogGlS_aw4&feature=related

The NSPCC child abuse advert is a very effective advert in many different ways. It is able to target the audience that is it aimed at, and is also used to trigger emotions which shows the advert is dominant in catching the attention of the audience. There are many techniques used in the advert to make it effective, for example: the use of the black and white in colour shows how dull these children’s lives must be and how the creator of the advert really wants to catch the attention of its target audience, as the advert is asking for donations to help these children. I believe the creator of this advert is targeting a wide audience because I believe that it is more aimed at adults because they are the people with the money and may have strong views about these things, however, I also believe that it could be targeting children because they may be in a similar situation and it may make them realise they are not the only ones, and make them speak out about their problems. Another technique I think is used well in this advert is the fact they show all the children in rooms alone, this gives the impression that they are lonely. The camera shots in this advert are also very effective because in one shot of a child it shows a wide shot, as if she is a small girl all alone in a big room and that she has to fend for herself, whereas, in another part of the advert it shows a close up of a girl with tears in her eyes, which proves how scared she is. Another effect used to add to the dull, dark lives these children are being put through is the music used over the advert and talking. The music adds to the emotions the advert is trying to make you feel and sadness is the exact emotion it has on the audience. As well as the music creating a big effect, I also believe that the tone of voice the man uses to explain these children’s lives would also create the same sad effect of the music used. A final effect to comment on that this advert would have on the audience is the fact that they have actually used the children in the advert, instead of just using ideas relevant to the aim of the advert. The effect of this would be that you can directly see how the children are being affected. Overall, I think this is a really effective advert and has lots of different points to show what is needed for a good PBS advert.

Coursework

Before we chose our final idea for what we wanted to complete our coursework on, we created a brainstorm of possible ideas. We came up with ideas such as: Drug awareness, Effects of smoking and bullying. Eventually, we chose the idea of drug awareness.


Campaign - Drug Awareness.

Our campaign will focus on raising awareness to the effects of drug use. We will focus on the risks drugs can have on your life and your body, and the dangers drug users are putting themselves in.


Target Audience
16-21 year olds.
Primary audience is the 16-21 year olds (it is being directed at them).
Secondary audience is the parents (it will have an impact on them).