WATER AID AUDIO- Visual advert Flashcards
what is the products context
the charity ‘water aid’ was established in 1981 as a response to the UNs campaign for clean water, sanitation and water hygiene education.
created by atomic London in 2016. it stars 16 year old Zambian student Claudia and aims to communicate the benefit from clean water by depicting ever day chores like farming and laundry .
cultural context
1984’s do they know its christmas? Band aid live performance was the first global charity event aiding to raise funds for relief of the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. It raised 1bn for charitable causes across Africa. the contemporary audience would be familiar with the codes and conventions of both audio visual adverts and those for charitable organisations in particular.
Genre significance and the subversion of genre conventions.
inforces conventions by including key information about the concern, a personalised narrative which this information is relevant, and a direct appeal to the audience for money.
it is unconventional due to the lack of non-diegetic voiceover, melancholic audio codes and black and white visual codes.
media language influencing meaning
opening medium shot with a pull focus between digital radio and rain against window establishes the advert in modern Britain (audio code of person with British accent) it connotes that the future scenes are happening at the same time as this.
visual and audios work together to construct the narrative of ‘sunshine’ (in Africa) ‘on a rainy day’ (in Britain) with associated problems of drought and ‘lack of access to clean drinking water’ that the charity is aiming to relieve.
semiotics- Roland Barthes
suspense is created through the enigmatic use of the slow-motion, medium close-up, low-angle tracking shot of Claudias feet and the swinging bucket (Hermeneutic) and emphasised by the crescendo of the song in the scene with the water pump over which the informative on screen graphic appears (proairetic)
Barthes semantic code could be applied to the lines from the song used from 00.34 diegetically and then as a sound bridge over the medium shot of a group of women carrying water buckets on their heads ‘make me feel, make me feel like i belong… don’t leave me, wont leave me here’. the connotation here being the audience can help Claudia and make her feel like she belongs and we wont leave her in the situation if we donate.
Symbolic does of drought ridden Africa countries are reinforced both visually and through the adverts audio codes until about 00.47.
structuralism- claude levi-strauss
texts are constructed through binary oppositions -at 00.47 the songs title line’ sunshine on a rainy day’ is used over shots of children running, laughing and the more positive connotations of this section of the advert are emphasised by high key lighting used.
a further visual binary opposition is created between the washed out primarily beige and brown colour palette of the adverts first half and the more vibrant colours used at 1.02.
the onscreen graphic ‘650 million people still don’t have access to clean drinking water’ creates a conceptual binary opposition between Claudias positive story and that of other less fortunate people. this is why people are encouraged to be apart of the solution by giving ‘£3 today.’ audience who might otherwise have become immune to emotive representations conventionally deployed in this advertising sub-genre.
how representations are constructed through processed of selection and combination
the dress codes of the adverts main female character include a stereotypical knee length skirt and pink colour palette in both her top and shoes.
her age is similar to other young women who walk past 00.30 and those who join her at he water pump at 1.00. this connotes that she had to grow up too quickly. Because of the tough environment she lives in.
her independence is connoted by the wide angled shot at 00.18 in which she is denoted on her own on a long and empty dust road.
close up shots using handheld cameras 00.16 her open, confident gesture codes 00.51 and her smiling gesture code 01.09 represent her as the adverts protagonist and her character with whom the audience usually associate.
Stuart Halls theory of representation
the images of a dry, dusty African environment in which people may be struggling to survive form part of the ‘shared conceptual road map; that gives meaning to the world of the advert. the more positive audio codes then work to challenge these stereotypical representations, creating enigmas around why Claudia appears to be so positive. the solution to these enigmas is given to the audience at 1.00 when we first see the water pump
David Gauntletts theory of identity
Claudia acts as a role model for the type of lifestyle changes that the audience could be responsible for creating if they donate to water aid.
