The PSA/Commercial Project
2. Get into groups of 2-4. I encourage you to work with new people. If you do NOT have a partner, please see me to be assigned a partnership. Please make sure your partner(s) have some ability using Moviemaker or Adobe Premiere. A group that doesn't have anyone who is tech savvy can be very frustrating! Avoid this now by working with skilled peers, as opposed to your best friend with whom you always work! Our goal is collaborative learning, not perfection. Don't sweat the grade. Work with someone new!
3. Together use the Persuasion Map Handout to design your message using a strong thesis and reasons with facts and examples to support your argument.
4. Then work on your PSA outline handouts (see packet & instructions). Work together on an idea and flesh it out on the graphic organizers. Make sure you communicate effectively. Don't just assume the loudest or most talkative student has the only answer.
I would suggest you separate tasks. Someone could conduct research (get the facts!), someone could write the script (what words appear in the PSA, or write a brief voice over (VO) script), someone could find photos or graphics to illustrate your topic's points, someone should keep track of the time, someone could manage the editing, someone could research sound files to use as background music for your PSA, someone should direct the project to make sure all members of the group are being productive, etc.
Divide up the responsibilities fairly. Use your partner's strengths! Help each other where needed. Set tasks and meet goals.
5. Begin working to create your PSA.
NOTE: Instead of a PSA, you may opt to make a commercial. This is similar to a PSA, but instead of selling an IDEA, you will be selling a specific PRODUCT. Come up with a product (real or fictional) to sell.
PSAs (Public Service Announcements) were originally used by the War Advertising Council (...can you make connections here to propaganda?...) created in 1941, to encourage American to join the war effort in Europe. The War Council (and later Ad Council, after the war) began a large campaign to influence American society on many fronts. Perhaps inspired by propaganda films such as Reefer Madness (1936), the campaigns focus on education (social messages and needs of a country or political system).
A PSA is generally short (about :30 sec. or up to a minute or two) and instead of selling a PRODUCT, the writer is attempting to sell an IDEA. PSAs are a type of propaganda.
The PSA Project
Please complete the following steps (in order) to prepare for your project!
1. Please check out these links:
A PSA is generally short (about :30 sec. or up to a minute or two) and instead of selling a PRODUCT, the writer is attempting to sell an IDEA. PSAs are a type of propaganda.
The PSA Project
Please complete the following steps (in order) to prepare for your project!
1. Please check out these links:
- Go to Ad Council website to look over sample PSAs.
- Here are some links to AWARD-WINNING PSAs and to a sample SOTA student model of a PSA.
2. Get into groups of 2-4. I encourage you to work with new people. If you do NOT have a partner, please see me to be assigned a partnership. Please make sure your partner(s) have some ability using Moviemaker or Adobe Premiere. A group that doesn't have anyone who is tech savvy can be very frustrating! Avoid this now by working with skilled peers, as opposed to your best friend with whom you always work! Our goal is collaborative learning, not perfection. Don't sweat the grade. Work with someone new!
3. Together use the Persuasion Map Handout to design your message using a strong thesis and reasons with facts and examples to support your argument.
4. Then work on your PSA outline handouts (see packet & instructions). Work together on an idea and flesh it out on the graphic organizers. Make sure you communicate effectively. Don't just assume the loudest or most talkative student has the only answer.
I would suggest you separate tasks. Someone could conduct research (get the facts!), someone could write the script (what words appear in the PSA, or write a brief voice over (VO) script), someone could find photos or graphics to illustrate your topic's points, someone should keep track of the time, someone could manage the editing, someone could research sound files to use as background music for your PSA, someone should direct the project to make sure all members of the group are being productive, etc.
Divide up the responsibilities fairly. Use your partner's strengths! Help each other where needed. Set tasks and meet goals.
5. Begin working to create your PSA.
Commercial Samples:
How to Create an Effective TV Advertisement
What you put in your business's TV advertisement depends on your resources, your target audience, how you want to present your business or product, and your own comfort level. Consider these advertising possibilities:
- Appear in your own commercial. You’ve probably seen a store owner step in front of the camera and do his or her own commercial. If you're a natural, then by all means, go for it. No one else could possibly bring the enthusiasm and expertise that you can to this endeavor.
- Promote with a professional. Although you do have to fork out some extra cash, a professional actor may be just what your business needs. Before you decide on an actor, be sure to ask yourself what type of person will advertise your business in a way that attracts your target audience.
- Highlight your place of business. Hiring a remote crew to come to your place of business and shoot the spot puts your business front-and-center. Plus, shooting footage inside your store, showroom, studio, or office may be a lot easier than hauling a bunch of your products somewhere else.
- Focus the camera on your product. Go ahead and cut to the chase — immediately show the products you want to sell. You may be best served by getting right down to business and featuring the items that are going to make you some money.
- Decide on a big idea or campaign theme to use in your advertisement.If you don’t have a theme, you’ll just develop a series of unrelated ads — which won’t help build name recognition for your company or attract customers to your business. [For our project, you will want to identify your goal and/or product.]
- Choose the audio that you want to use in the commercial.The audio can be a voiceover or an on-camera actor. The audio track may also include any music or sound effects that you select.
- Come up with video that complements the audio you plan to use.The video can be anything from you doing an on-camera sales pitch, to product footage, to video you shoot in your store, to anything else you can think of.
- Add computer graphics, if they fit your advertisement.Use computer graphics (CG for short) to flash words and prices on the screen. You can also use computer-generated effects, like making entire scenes fly into the frame, spin, explode, appear out nowhere, or perform other interesting tricks. [Be careful not to over do these effects--you are not selling effects, you are selling an idea or product!]
Don’t get too carried away with elaborate visual elements; they can drive up the cost of your TV ads. You can create visuals that are effective but cheap with just takes a bit of creativity.
For example, instead of having a herd of wild horses gallop through a scene, you can use the sound effects of a herd of wild horses galloping by off-camera.
[This idea also goes with playwriting...!]
HOMEWORK: None.
For example, instead of having a herd of wild horses gallop through a scene, you can use the sound effects of a herd of wild horses galloping by off-camera.
[This idea also goes with playwriting...!]
HOMEWORK: None.
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