Having complete creative freedom

For the second brief we had complete free reign over what we could do, the brief itself was to be designed and set by yourself. Having so much freedom was great but also daunting at the same time, typically I've always worked to set briefs so for the whole thing to be set for myself, by myself was a task in itself.

Something that's always intrigued me psychology, why people do what they do. Especially in todays society where people always feel the need to be socially accepted by others around them. A big contributor to this is social media, it has a huge impacts on people's everyday lives from trying to snap a picture perfect photo of their outfit to having the most followers on Twitter, Instagram etc. All of this leads to a hugely anti-social society because as much as we seem to think that we're connected in more ways than one with there being plenty of social networking sites out there, when in actual fact scenes of people sitting round at a bar and each person being on their phones is all too common. Are we really as connected as we think?

What influence does social media have on our behaviour, both as individuals and as a society as a whole?

My whole project was based around social media and the effects it has on us individually and as society as a whole. As much good as social media can do, connecting people, sharing work etc. it can do damage as well to relationships, personal wellbeing (anxieties, depression) and even something as simple as ruining your productivity. 

So something I did myself as an experiment was to cut out several forms social media that being Snapchat and Twitter to see if I really needed it as much as I used it and to see if I would miss having it. Surprise surprise I didn't, not one bit. In fact using social media more in moderation made my productivity increase and my wellbeing also improve. It made me care less about having to be 'always on' in terms of having to reply to every notification as soon as it comes through and allowed me to get on with my work without being distracted every 5/10 minutes.

The result of this brief was a physical piece that kind of mocked society (and me included) in a couple of ways. The idea behind it was a physical representation of how we are always sucked into our phones and have a disregard for the real world and instead focus our attention too much into this virtual world in our phones. But also to take a dig at how us as consumers are pretty stupid in some ways, we give in too easily to phoney products that are advertised on the TV that claim they will improve our lives in some way or another.

The product allowed the user to view their phone through what is essentially a cardboard box. The idea was to brand this as if it was an actual product by creating a commercial similar to those in America in the 80's. The branding and tone of voice used back then was very energetic and over excited, making it out as though the toy is the best thing since sliced bread. This worked perfectly for what I wanted as it contrasted (sarcastically) with the fact that this is a very boring product that, in reality, no one would want.

This whole project was possibly the hardest yet most satisfying work I've completed to date, taking on the task on filming, directing and editing a video is something I've never touched on before. Luckily I had friends within the class and from other classes to help me out as actors and I think they did a pretty good job of acting like kids, reminiscent of the 80s.

Final Commercial