VSH ADVERTISMENT

Victim Support Helpline Advertisment

I made this in 2007 as a college project - I was asked to produce a 30 second television advertisement for a fictitious drug support/awareness service. The project also had a corresponding billboard poster which I sadly cannot find to upload. This was one of my earlier efforts at video production and is not without faults:

 Firstly, there is a blatant crossing of the line in which the first character walks past the tunnel to his left, only for it to appear on his right in the following shot. During the editing process I cross-faded these two clips in a vain attempt to disguise this error - though it aided in distracting the viewer for a second - the mistake is still profoundly obvious. I am not happy with this at all.

Secondly, a number of the shots are underexposed, the transition from dark>light>dark shots disrupts the flow of the trailer. This fault is partly down to limitations of the Hi-8 camcorder, as well as my general inexperience. This also impeded on the impact of the final shot which featured heroin paraphenalia (a lighter and bent spoon) in the foreground. The darkness made this detail almost un-noticeable, removing all relevent connotations from this shot. Nonetheless I am pleased with the final shot as it is rather dramatic due to the water and debris drawn in from a recent flood. This was not present when we recce'd the tunnel the week before and was a pleasant suprise upon arriving to shoot.

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Working with black and white:

^La Haine (1995)

I have been a particular fan of black and white since I first watched Mathieu Kassowitz's La Haine - this film proved that b/w can be very effective in portraying drama, and inspired me to shoot the advert the way I did. This film has since had an influence on my photography, and is the technique I will employ in my next film...