‘‘I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.’
Task.
I have been tasked to create a video that promotes Wales. My goal for this task is to create a compelling and interesting video that will entice people to come to Wales to view the many hidden wonders this country holds. I am also aiming my video at young people who enjoy the outdoors and shopping.
What is a promotional video?
A promotional video or promo for short is used to promote and create interest in a certain place or event. They do this by showcasing the things you can do and see during the video. A promotional video can help tourism by creating excitement and give an idea of what they expect before the viewer goes to a certain location.
Promotional videos.
This video was created to highlight the incredible Welsh landscape, as well as the largest zip line in the UK. The video is laid out like an adventure, with slow motion to acknowledge the views and slow music to hear the man speak.
There are many close-ups in the video to show that a big actor like Luke Evans is from Wales. They also use long shots to show how small the actor is in comparison to the scale of the mountains in Wales.
The b-roll used throughout the video depicts the landscape that the act is discussing; they do this to convey how beautiful and green Wales is, as well as the hidden gems that can be discovered if you look.
The actor does speak about the spectacle that is Wales, describing it by saying “Its hard to put it into words” to demonstrate how breathtaking Wales is. This voice over helps to enhance the fact that it is Wales with the welsh accent. With the majority of his voice at the start, he walks and drives through each location until he uses the zip-line at the end.
A slow and quiet piano playing throughout the video makes it very moving; it also enhances the man speaking by not being too loud and not overtaking him.
A lot of the editing is cut aways. They do this to shift the focus away from the man in the scene and more toward the scenery in the background, primarily using his voice to talk on each scene and not the actor himself. This is one of the smartest editing techniques to show off specific land or an area that would otherwise be out of frame or too blurry to see.
I believe the main audience for this promotional video would be teenagers and adults looking for the adventure that Wales has to offer, and the zip-line shown in the video would appeal more to the range I described than to the older audience because of the scary factor that it offers going over a huge valley.
The subject of the video demonstrates how Wales can be used for hard fitness by taking advantage of the amazing views and spectacles that Wales and Snowdonia have to offer. This video features adventurer Ash Dykes training in the mountains of Snowdon in preparation for a walk down China’s longest river. He says in the video that he trains in Wales because of the amazing views and difficult terrain the mountains provide.
I believe the video’s primary audience is fitness enthusiasts and adventurers who want to take on the task of climbing Wales’s highest mountains and experiencing the wildness of Snowdonia. It may also pique the interest of photographers, as each new location shown in the video opens up endless possibilities for wild animals and scenic views.
The structure of the video is very simple, it’s mainly drone shots while he’s training in the background speaking over the slow music. It’s also fast paced to mirror the activities in the video.
I believe they accomplish this through the use of B-roll that showcases the beautiful countryside and mountain terrains while training and moving through the variation of locations.
The most important part of the video is the establishing, panning, close-ups, and tracking shots; they use these shots to create a video that shows the background and beautiful valleys of Wales, as well as the performance of Ash Dykes while training to walk the longest river in China.
The video’s visuals depict the views that can be seen if you are willing to walk the mountains that Wales has to offer. The B-roll depicts more of the view and what to expect if you visit Wales.
Voice overs are used throughout the video to explain the point of the video and the small things that Wales has to offer, as well as the enjoyment of training with the views that can be seen.
Soft music is playing in the background to create a mysterious atmosphere, in keeping with the mysteries of Wales.
Throughout the film, cut-in and insert shots are used to alternate between wide shots of the landscape and close-ups of the man working out.
With all of the elements coming together, they create a large-scale video that evolves fitness, adventure, and scenic views; all of this helps promote Wales because it demonstrates the fitness and adventure opportunities available in Wales.
This video talks about the awards that Tenby has won and how it’s one of the best places to visit in wales according to the Sunday times and silver awards for best tourism, the video explains this well showing off the locations and places you will see in Tenby. I believe the video does try to involve all generations with adventure that the rivers and mountain climbing has and the older generation has the beaches and slow walks.
The video is laid out like an adventure mystery, by doing this they show off the locations that Tenby has while also not spending too much time on each location to let the viewer find out for themselves what this award winning beach has, there’s strong imagery to give context on the writing that appears on screen showing why Tenby won each award.
There are no wasted shots within this promotional video, there is a 1:16 displaying the beautiful sights with close-ups, drone shots, long shots, panning and tracking these shots are effective in creating a quest for the watcher.
The video uses text on the screen with a mix of Welsh and English, I think they could’ve used a voice over instead of text to make the video more gripping and catch the attention of the viewer and the younger generation who prefer to listen and not read but apart from this they use the landscape and different shots to grip the viewer instead.
The music used in this promotional video is very basic and could use a much faster beat from the start instead of speeding up as the video gets closer to the end.
The video editing is very basic, they cut and jump around to different locations with a little slow-motion at the beginning of the video, they use the standard cut because they want to show off the variations and many different locations Tenby has.
I believe all the elements of the video together work. They show off the locations and tell you the awards Tenby has but it could’ve been improved by adding better music and a voice over to really emphasise how great Tenby is and why it’s won each award.
Overall idea and summary.
After completing my context I now have a few ideas, these ideas have been accumulated from watching each of the videos. From these I am thinking of creating a video that shows off the beautiful scenery, mountains and pathways you find throughout Wales.
Using different techniques and styles like using a GO-PRO with my camera so I have two different variations while filming. I Also want to showcase the many other things that Wales has to offer for example shopping, history and welsh culture.
Owain farquhar blog 