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Think about TV ads. Analyze. Ask questions. |
Consider these ideas for your own compositions. |
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| WHAT
ARE THE TECHNICAL LIMITS?
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WHAT
ARE YOUR TECHNICAL LIMITS?
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Technical limits, as used here, mean the money, the machines, and the human abilities involved. Financial limits are important. Ads have to be cost-effective. Many clever ideas are simply too costly to produce in relation to the value they may have in increasing sales. Nobody has an unlimited budget. Cost affects production values (such as the quality of actors, sets, locations, costumes, and re-takes). You can often tell a cheaply-made local ad from an expensive national one. Many technological limits are flexible, not fixed. Consider the rapid changes in photography (from black & white to color), in video, in computer graphics, in audio (LPs, CDs, DVDs), in all the electronics (cell phones) of the new technology. Costs, too, are relative: what is expensive today may be cheap tomorrow. Audiences pay more attention when the common limits are stretched, or when something unusual or extraordinary occurs (e.g. a car atop a mountain peak, a trick camera shot, or new computer graphics). Inquiring minds ask, "How did they do that?" Although the people who write ads have their individual limitations, the industry, because it is so very competitive, tends to weed out the untalented. Clock-watchers and passive time-servers do not survive well in the advertising business. It is not a sheltered workshop for the idle. Ad writers often have great abilities (smart, clever, and verbally fluent) and get well rewarded.
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Technical limits, as used here, refer to your money, your machines, and your physical and mental abilities. Money buys useful time-saving aids. In your planning, include an estimate of the cost of supplies, machines, or even released time. Get used to working on a tight budget. Very few people or businesses have unlimited funds available. Although pencil and paper are all the tools you need to be a writer, most people today use some kind of machine -- computers, word processors, dictating machines, and photocopiers -- in their composing process. All machines have their limits and inherent problems.
Expect system breakdowns and power failures, delays and waiting
lines. Although we each have limits on our own physical and mental abilities, these limits may be the most flexible. Few people know their own limits because they haven't yet tested them. We're often too lazy to push ourselves, or too afraid that will fail. We stay within self-imposed limits because they are safe and comfortable. We often work far below our ability and our capacity. We need to encourage ourselves to stretch our limits. We can always learn, Improve, change, and acquire new skills. Be open to change. Experiment. Find out what works best for you. Not only do we need a realistic assessment of our own situation, so that we are not condemned to wasted efforts and frustration, but also we need to believe in the possibility of heroism, of overcoming odds, of aiming for achievements beyond what others think we are capable of doing.
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| | Welcome | Purpose | Audience | Limits | Structure | Attention | Confidence | Explicit | Implicit | Response| Omission | |
