Comp 1 Water Aid

Question 1

Where was WA filmed? and when was WA released?

Answer 1

In Zambia
In 2016

Question 2

When was the WA company set up?

Answer 2

1981

Question 3

When did WA become mainstream? What did they do to make this happen?

Answer 3

1984
Do they know its Christmas time? single
Live Aid concert

Question 4

Who created the WA advert?

Answer 4

Atomic London

Question 5

What charity conventions does it meet? which ones does it challenge?
remember theorists.

Answer 5

Meets with the initial desaturated footage and close up shots for emotion (Amy Coplen)
Challenges with the switch to saturated footage with a major key song.

Question 6

What is the target audience for the WA advert?

Answer 6

British employed audience
Disposable income
Tech savvy people

Question 7

How does the advert appeal to/target a tech savvy audience?

Answer 7

The us of the #sharesunshine and how it was only distributed online through social media and youtube.

Question 8

How does it appeal to and target employed adults?

Answer 8

These adults will be between 30n to 45 with an established career. They are targeted through nostalgia, the song was released in 1991.

Question 9

What is the title of Amy Coplen’s theory?

Answer 9

Emotional Contagion
Where camera shots are designed to evoke a certain emotion.
Wide angle shots signify isolation.
Close up shots personal connection.

Question 10

Name 3 theorists you can relate to gender in WA.

Answer 10

Butler - Gender Performativity
Van Zoonen - Behaviour
Gauntlett - Pick’N’Mix
Hall - Stereotypes
bell hooks - Intersectionality

Question 11

Name 3 race theories that you can apply to WA.

Answer 11

bell hooks - Intersectionality
Hall - Grammar of Race
Alvarado - The Tropes
Gilroy - Post Colonialism
Hall - The shared conceptual Roadmap

Question 12

What fact is shown at the end of the advert?

Answer 12

650 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water

Question 13

Why might Atomic London of wanted to create a positive advert?

Answer 13

To challenge stereotypical charity adverts and revert back to the positive unity originally created at WA. E.g. Live Aid, Do They Know Its Christmas?

Question 14

How does Hall’s Shared Conceptual Roadmap apply to WA?

Answer 14

The stereotype (Hall) we have in the western world that Africa is dry, underdeveloped and unsanitary is immediately established when we see Claudia walking down a dirt track in thin shoes. This allows the focus to be put on the message of the video rather than having to establish a back story first.

Question 15

What are 3 things to remember when comparing WA to an unseen text?

Answer 15

Differences - online vs print or tv
conventional vs unconventional
one race vs multiple
using theorists
Similarities - just women?
pitied trope?

Question 16

How can Bulter’s theory of Gender Performativity applied to WA?

Answer 16

Towards the end we see an older women washing and drying clothes, next to her is a little girl cleaning bowls copying along, developing the ‘ritual’ of her gender. The woman is following traditional gender stereotypes meaning the little girl watching is most likely to also hold that ideology as she has seen it first hand. This links into Gerbner and Gross’ cultivation theory, whereby the more you are exposed to something the more likely you are to believe it.
Secondly, towards the end when we see all the people surrounding the water pump, they are all women, the absence of males is likely down to the fact that domesticity is not a part of the male performance.

Question 17

How can Van Zoonon’s theory of Behaviour apply to WA?

Answer 17

We see a wide angle shot of two men working in a field to cut down a harvest. This conforms to men belonging in the work.
We see a woman and daughter cleaning and washing this conforms to women belonging to the home and domestic.

Question 18

How can we apply Alarado’s Pitied Trope?

Answer 18

We are conditioned to feel sympathy for the genre of charity adverts. Paired with the emotional contagion (Amy Coplan) and desaturated footage it all generates a feel of sadness.

Question 19

Name 2 ways editing is used to create meaning.

Answer 19

1. Desaturated footage - sadness to saturated happiness when closer to the water
2. Slow motion - emphasis on meaning
3. Titling - Imperative language

Question 20

What are the three aspects you can talk about when asked about technical odes? theorist?

Answer 20

Editing
Sound
Camera
Neale

Question 21

Name 2 ways sound is used to create meaning.

Answer 21

1. Foley - gravel all anchor a dry landscape, adds to our shared conceptual roadmap of Africa (Hall)
2. Acapella - isolation and realism
3. Sound bridge - signifies time relevance happening at the same time