Save the Children Advert

 Props 

The role of birthday cake. The first time we see the cake, theres a nice cake and three a few candles - the girl is smiling and she's happy. However, the last time that we see the cake at the end of the advert - it's a really small and simple thing with just one candle and the girl isn't happy. it represents how quick something can change and how much she had lost during the attack. - a recurring prop.

the role of the white teddy bear that she carried represented the only comfort she had as she kept hugging it and she had it with her a few times.

luxuries 

when the news come-on in the background, that's when you notice the situation darkens.

general convention

they ended with the campaign./ they didn't lead it and we wasn't aware of the charity ad until the end. the message was that it may not be happening here but it's happening elsewhere.

mode of address- indirect address but it has a direct mode of address when she looks straight at the camera at the end when she's asked to make a wish. most of the time in the video, she's not looking at the camera but because she's in the middle of the camera, it makes its seem direct.

Shot types/lighting

It doesn't do establishing shots and relies on one shot throughout - close-up shot.  it's used to show how her emotions change. half of the ad is warm lighting, but toward the end of the video, the lighting becomes cold. the lighting that's used with the candles at the start shows her looking healthy and her face is warmly lost, whereas with the one candle, she looks really pale and unhealthy. short snapping. 

Guilt trip and make the parents' empathise.

Sounds

high percentage sounds, military, news and a darkening tone towards the end. - terrifying. people disappear from the ad over time.

no music. 

90% SFX

Written language

at the start she starts with make a wish, giving it a narrative structure. A tradition everyone uses on the birthday but at the end this one question is used for a donation. All the tiny moments of spoken words like when she calls out "Daddy" it represents he's gone. 

the one final shot shows:

empathy, guilt & hope. 

if you start with a story and end with the campaign so that the viewers could think a bit more.

Task:

In the advert, written language is used to emphasise empathy throughout. At the start of the advert, the traditional lines "make a wish" is used in a happy and warm environment with the girl smiling and cheerful. This contrasts too toward the end of the advert where she is sitting in a hospital bed and when the recurring line is used, she looks at the camera to make the wish which is too made a donation to the charity. This gives off an empathetic feeling as you can see the drastic change in the girl's face during that one-year period Furthermore, even the tiny moments of spoken word is used to make the ready really empathise for the little girl as you can hear her calling out "Daddy" at one point, indicating he's gone. Here, the emotions that the viewers would tend to feel is pity and guilt because the little girl just lost her father to war. They would feel guilt because they may be the lucky ones and they have/had their parents' about during their childhood whereas she ended up losing him during her childhood.

Furthermore, another way that empathy is emphasised throughout this advert is by the use of lighting. Again, at the start of the advert, the use of the numerous candles are used to show a warmer light just under the girl's face which gives you a shot of her looking healthy and she's happy. However over the days, the lighting around her becomes duller and colder until finally reaches the one year mark, where that one candle that she has, it shows the girl looking really unhealthy, tired and pale. This use of lighting really moves the viewers to have deep empathy for this young girl because of the drastic change during the one year period from being so healthy, well and happy to being a girl that's unhealthy, tired, and living in fear. I think parent's are especially the most affected as they would hate for it to be their child that's living their life afraid. 

In this advertisement, the use of sound really has a huge impact on the emotions of the viewers because it went from happy laughter and day to day sounds and then over time, people from the ad happen to disappear and you're hearing more military sounds, the news in the background and a very darkening tone toward the end which just demonstrates to those that are watching that things like that can happen any day and it doesn't just affect adults, it young children such as the girl that's the main focus. The military and dark sounds aren't just normal dark sounds but they're terrifying to anybody and I think this was used to create a fearful and anxious atmosphere to almost push people to donate and stop people from living in such circumstances. 

I think it was really smart of the creators of this advert to lead with the story because that way, it's given the audience time to reflect on what this advert really means and focus on the deeper message.