Commercial Production Process

Before Creation Before a radio commercial can get into production, it must start pre-production. This is where the advertisement campaign must acknowledge the different factors that will make their commercial reach their target audience. They have to take in to account whether there advert is interesting, informative, involving of the audience, motivating and direct. Pre-production also includes: The target audience: who the advert is aimed towards. What is to be promoted. Racial and ethical issues with their advert. Buying the rights to music or using royalty free music.

Pre Production and Budget When creating a commercial, the company will look at their target audience to inspire their commercial layout and aspects in order to gain the most awareness. For example, Pizza hut will aim their adverts at families as families are the most likely to go to their restaurant. Budget may also be a huge part in the production process. A company may not have a lot of money to invest in order to create their advert and may have to play their advert on a smaller radio station such as a local radio station where it will be much cheaper for air time than a national radio station. Music used is also something to consider. Using music by a well known artist in would mean they would have to buy the rights to that music. However, this can be avoided by using royalty free music which do not have to be copyrighted.

Production Houses A production company or a production house is where production for radio, television and other forms of radio take place. Production houses are specifically made for the production phase of any media product such as the filming and editing of a Television advert. Production houses are usually only open when a product is being produced so often the majority of the staff will be freelance and not specific to that production house. Products made in a production house can rage from TV shows to radio adverts.

Production Facilities Firstly you will need a radio studio to record your radio commercial, its key in the entire process of radio commercials. The sound booth will generally consist of radio microphones and a desk. The control room consists of equipment used to edit the commercial such as mixers and recorders. Higher budget radio adverts will use a top quality equipment such as the studer vista 8 desk as well as rooms that are sound proof to achieve a much higher sound quality whereas lower budget adverts for local radio will use a normal radio desk and microphones which will mean they have a worse sound quality. The production studio facilities will also include digital audio editing software. This allows radio to combine the layers of sound together, such as: Music, Voice and jingles. Audio software such as soundtrack pro is used.

Music Many different considerations will go into the music used in a jingle, one of the main considerations is whether to play for copyrighted music or to use royalty free music. Usually the music used will be production music. Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed for use in film, television, and radio. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. The style of the music will also have to be considered as it can impact the whole advert, if heavy metal music was used in a pizza hut advert it would be confusing as they aren’t associated and it wouldn’t fit. In the majority of adverts music beds and stings will be used, a music bed is music used in the background of an advert to accompany speech whereas a sting is often a catchphrase accompanied by music the catchphrase can be spoken or sung.

Different Production Roles Sound Engineer: A sound engineer works with the technical aspects of sound during the the recording, mixing, and reproduction. Producer/Director: Directs the commercial, similar to a film director with similar responsibilities such as making sure everything is running smoothly and everyone knows their roles. Voice Actor: Reads the script and stars in the advert, has to make the commercial exciting. Copywriter: Copywriters are employed to create concepts for TV and radio. They mainly write the scripts for the adverts while working closely with the director to make sure there ideas are the same. Voice over artist: The narrator in a radio advert. Celebrities: Sometimes celebrities will be used as voice actors to make an advert seem more important or to entice people to buy a product. Session Vocalists: Session vocalists, are professional performers who can be hired to sing at live performances or in recording sessions.

Financial considerations The companies who produce radio adverts have to consider many things financially such as how much air time will cost and how much the production of the advert will cost. The production company will have to consider if they can afford the fees the air their advert on radio stations. They will have to consider if the money paid for air time is worth it, if the radio stations reaches enough people to warrant the advert on the station as although a national radio station will ask for more money to air your advert it will reach more people than a local radio station. They will have to consider whether they want to pay royalty fees for copyrighted music or use royalty free music.