Thursday, 13 March 2014

Public Information Research. -UNIT 2-

Advice and information campaigns. 
NHS:
For my advice and campaigns research, I chose to use the NHS. The NHS are good with short films, adverts and posters to raise awareness and give out information. They are typically quite emotional videos, hard-hitting posters and can often be perceived as sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lryyTgNlR1w
This link is to the video I am going to be examining. It is called 'Smile'.
The video begins with two women in what I assume is a cafe. They are sitting next to a big window and it is raining, this could be pathetic fallacy (using the weather to create the mood). It looks around afternoon time of day. The atmosphere is quite tense and abrupt; you can tell that something serious and quite effective is happening. 
The camera begins to zoom, slowly and effectively, as voices begin speaking. Not either of the women's voices, but doctors, ambulances, nurses, surgeons voices. The voices begin with paramedics saying 'I've got to get her out of here..' and text appears saying '3 paramedics'. The woman still doesn't speak. 
The camera continues zooming throughout the video and various voices and texts appear. You hear from the surgeons, nurses, doctors. All dramatically expressed voices and all giving an emotional outcome to the viewer. The voices are all different nationalities. 
We then find out that the girl's name is Jenny. Finding out her name makes it more personal and because we are given more detailed information it means we can empathise with her.  
After a while you hear the most concerning voice of all. It was the voice of someone who knew her, who'd come to visit her after the accident. It doesn't state if this is her family, friend or lover. The voice is rushed and frantic and expresses deeply that the woman is worried. 
"How is she? Is she here? Can I see her?" The voice of a woman concerned and deeply upset.

At the end of the video, the voices stop and it zooms in on Jenny's face even more slowly. After a piece of text appears saying she had '3 speech therapists', this piece of text appears.
'It took 74 people to put a smile back on my face', the text states. This has come from Jenny but she still doesn't say a word. It leads the audience to wonder whether perhaps she cannot talk anymore. Maybe her accident has taken her speech from her. But nevertheless, she is smiling.
This visually impacts the audience as they can begin to sympathise and relate to Jenny. The advert stands out because it is playing with your emotions.
The use of voices from people taking care of her show how important and horrific the accident was, and the fact Jenny doesn't speak makes it more dramatic. It's as if her voice has been taken from her. She is replaying everything she heard in her mind.
At the end of the video when Jenny explains how many people were looking after her, the background voices and noises go completely silent. This emphasises the seriousness of the situation and at the point could potentially cause the audience to be quite upset.
The colours in the video are very dull. This suggests that reality has hit her hard. The dull colours tell me that she has had her life taken from her and the accident has made her change into someone else perhaps.
The very end of the video gives information on how to get a career in the NHS. This then links to the entire video. All the texts used with the different jobs show that you can save someones life. The video emphasised the importance of these jobs and are trying to convince people to join the NHS and help save someones life. The information at the end gives the phone number and website incase the video has made you interested in a career. 
'Join the team and make a difference'. Jenny's life was saved by 74 people with over 30 different jobs. The message of this video is more to convince people to help save lives by joining the NHS rather than raise awareness of the actual accident. It's almost like a propaganda to get people to join. 
This video is good at promoting jobs and careers for people that the video has made an impact on. The first part of the video isn't too tense like many others, and doesn't show anything you wouldn't wish to see.  The ethical impact is low, it doesn't project things that are wrong, gory or too hard-hitting but it still attracts attention from an audience. The voices used in the video are all different nationalities. This promotes a sense of cultural differences from within the NHS community- which is good as it means the advert will reach all types of people. This advert overall is effective and appropriate for the cause.



Direct messaging awareness campaigns. 
The European Community Humanitarian Office:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqNhMpL_emo
This link is to the video I am assessing. It is a powerful, emotional video that has the potential to effect millions.
At the beginning of the video, there are two families. One man, sitting in his kitchen and eating. The other a full family having dinner together. It seems fairly average and common for the UK..until you notice the women. There is a girl, presumably from the Haiti disaster, standing in the corner of the kitchen, watching the man eat is dinner. She is screaming, shaking, wet, crying, but he still cannot hear her. It's almost as if she's been muted. Suffering in silence, she watches him eat, crying and soaking wet she cannot understand why he is not helping her. She is constantly having flashbacks of the disaster she went through, of water sinking her belongings and drowning her.

The next family are sitting down eating their dinner, and in the corner an African woman appears holding her baby. The baby is screaming, probably wanting food and shelter. The family cannot see or hear the woman. She is by herself, starved and lonely- seeking comfort. 

She goes unnoticed, her eyes are filled with tears as she remises the past. Watching her baby cry and knowing she cannot feed or comfort it hurts her. 

No comments:

Post a Comment