Over the course of the given brief, I looked into various ideas that would best suit the tone of trailer for Channel 4’s propaganda season. I also looked at different techniques that would give certain qualities to the advertisement; these included 3D, hand drawn, a combination of text and animation, as well as filming, which ended up being the medium I experimented with and ended up using.

My ad entitled ‘T.V. Off’ came through the studies I conducted, and I felt that when viewed as an advertisement on television the best way to present the idea of propaganda was to exploit the TV itself. Showing that propaganda itself is found through the means of TV programs, by having the TV shut down to ‘see a true reality’ creates a brief moment of panic, and at the same time knowledge that while most things are becoming more and more user controlled, the straight forward TV (non-TiVo etc) isn’t always under your control. So with the TV shutting off the viewer is then thrown into a sense of insecurity while on screen the ad commences.

With the camera positioned within the TV set, ‘looking out’, the trailer itself shows the reflection of an individual whom upon seeing the TV turn off reaches for the remote and tries to regain the much too familiar control. The figure is then seen getting up, much to their dismay, and walking towards the television set in an inquisitive manor. While this detail is not obvious, the aim was to capture the expression of questioning the situation in whole, as one should do with any situation, even with given ideas so as not too become victim to propaganda. With no change in the TV’s reception the individual then uses force and physically hits the TV to no avail. The person is then seen from the within the TV, as they begin to shake the screen/TV set, and in doing so makes a sign fall from the top of the TV. This, ‘still in view of the camera inside the television’, is seen backwards and reads ‘adnagaporp’ (propaganda). The image then expands to cover the whole ’screen’, and a voice over is heard introducing the propaganda season on 4. While this is heard on screen the image ‘Propaganda’ enlarges to incorporate the series logo and vital information. With a brief static intermission, the advert then ends with the prior screen (with logo and information) to the static state, and the voice over announcing. “Now lets get back to the propaganda you were watching”
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Rationale:

1. Fundamental reasons; the basis.
2. An exposition of principles or reasons.

(cited from Dictionary.com’s search results)