Promotional Videos- Codes and Conventions
Promotional videos usually have a set target audience so appropriate imagery text and audio would be used. A promotional video is suppose to be precise and very direct so it should range from about 5-15 minutes. The more precise the video is the longer you will keep the audiences attention.
The codes and conventions in media can be separated into 4 distinct groups: Technical (camera techniques & shots), Symbolic, Written and Audio.
Media create reality via the use of recognized codes and conventions, and the credibility or realism of a media text may be judged by the by how much the audience identifies with what is being portrayed. Categories of codes that may be used to convey meanings in media messages: technical codes, which include camera techniques, framing, depth of field, lighting and exposure and juxtaposition; symbolic codes, which refer to objects, setting, body language, clothing and colour; and written codes in the form of headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language style.
As we will be creating a video for the National Trust at Stourhead, I had to watch some of their past promotional videos to understand their codes and conventions. Most of their videos were aimed at older audiences, using nature and the building to promote to their audience on why they should visit the location. After watching a few of these videos, myself and a few others went about town and created a promotional video for Taunton. We tried to use nature and buildings alike to the promotional videos by the National Trust to put in practice for when we do create a video for them.
Video Review
The video above is about Fort Vancouver which is owned by the National Trust. In the video they speak about what is on their site and the history of the area. They get representatives from the location to speak about what the location has to offer and much more about the location. What I liked about this video is many of the camera techniques and shots used throughout which look professional and fitting for the video they were trying to create. What I can tell, it seems to be aimed for the older audience whom are interested in the location, its history and information. This video is aimed to give information to the audience, but one problem that occurs is that the videos are very long. For a normal promotional video, it should be about 2 minutes whereas this one is four minutes long. It also isn't good at gaining the audiences attention as the video can get boring to the audience and needs to capture their eyes in the first few seconds to keep them watching. This video gives me a good idea of what to create for the client.
