Reflecting

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

Before making the commercial, we did some research to look at other commercials and look at similarities as well as differences between them. A common theme was focusing entirely on the backpack and show that the backpack is durable, basically not having a storyline at all. The commercial that my group made had a storyline, but still the primarily focus is on the backpack. The story shows a faulty backpack that does not work and allows Jansport backpacks to look like a better backpack. The commercial takes place at a school, where a popular issue is bullying. In the commercial, two girls walk by making fun of the girl with the faulty backpack. In the end, the commercial has all three girls with Jansport backpacks walking away.

2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Our commercial was for a school project, so there was no need to advertise or distribute it. However, writing these blogs has been a way to engage with audiences. Detailing every step of the process for the commercial: storyboarding, filming, and editing has been a way to connect with the audience. If it were to be distributed, it would be shown as a commercial in between a television show/movie or as an advertisement on a YouTube video either before, during, or after.

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

The process of making this commercial allowed myself to understand the film making process and to really learn what the different camera angles and movements are. There are a lot of different steps that come as preparation to a commercial, something that I was not all aware about before. Since I was part of a group for this project, not every production still developed. For example, editing the project which can include adding audio to the video separately or adding transitions between different scenes. Using different filming techniques such as camera angles, camera movements, costumes, and props have developed. Knowing how long a shot should be and how many takes is also important and something that improved for me with making this commercial.

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

Majority of the technology used in this project was in the editing, the part in the commericial where I had little involvement in. Technology was also used in filming by the director, but I was an actor. The only other places in the process involving technology were research and blogging. For research, I was the one who found the videos for the group to look at, which were online at YouTube. For the blogs, I wrote the group blogs as long as my own individual blogs, using technology to type them up.

Our Final Commercial

Welcome back to my lovely readers, I know I said that previous blog was the last one about the commercial. However, I was wrong that was not the final blog. Throughout this process of this commercial, I have learned so many different things. When I first made my group, we started research and planning nearly immediately. Storyboarding was the next step, when we filmed I learned to make sure to plan your story board exactly as you want. It is best to stick to your storyboard and not change it during filming, the storyboard is created for you to know what will happen in the commercial. While filming, the lesson learned was to just go for it. The thought of filming made me nervous but just diving right in was the way to go. In the editing process, even though I wasn't the one to do most of the editing, I learned to have a plan of what you want to be edited. Even if it is a loose plan, it's still helpful to have. This commercial has helped me to be prepared for the future projects, it allowed me to understand the filming process and truly know how it works.

The Editing Process

Welcome back my lovely readers, today is the final blog about the commercial. Today is the final day of the commercial. However, my group has already finished but it still is the second day of editing. I wanted to talk more about the process of editing but also the process of the whole commercial. Although, Jade did nearly all of the editing, Ben, Addison, and I all did have some ideas. The idea of adding a voiceover was Jade's idea and we all decided Ben should be the person. I was the one who wrote the script for the voiceover, adding some comedy to the commercial. The point of the voiceover was to make our message more clear. Addison came up with the idea to add the Jansport logo at the end of the commercial. Ben thought of the slogan which was "Discover Freedom". Addison did the editing for the logo at the end of the commercial. The final scene had the Jansport logo come in at white and slowly fade, with the slogan fading in after. Jade added music in the background of the commercial. When the voiceover was added, the music was lowered so the focus is on the voiceover. In our commercial, there is a change in lighting. This was something that Jade came up with during editing. In the first part of the commercial, there is a dull overtone. In the second part of the commercial, there is a bright overtone. This contrast is used to highlight when Addison gets the Jansport backpack. Doing this commercial has been a great experience to learn about the film making process. Throughout the process, I have learned tips and tricks to help on the next project.

Jade's Joyous Editing

Hello to my lovely readers, today was the first official day of editing. Just as we started the filming process early, the editing process also started early. For editing, Jade did most of it. It was her designated part of the commercial. However, Addison, Ben, and I all suggested different things for editing. When we filmed our commercial, most shots were single takes. This meant that majority of the takes were used in the commercial. Jade had all the videos filmed on her phone, so she was able to pick which videos to use. Jade put the videos together and showed the first edit to all of us. The commercial was just under 30 seconds, so there was no need to do more filming. Jade also added music to the commercial and a change in light. There were a few different edits that Jade made, each adding something. Before the final edit, we asked other classmates to watch our commercial. We wanted to see if our message got across and to other classmates. Unfortunately, it did not. We knew there was something that needed to be added to our commercial to get the message across. Therefore, in our final edit we had the music at a low volume with a voiceover. The voiceover was of Ben advertising the product. The voiceover corresponded with the video and also added some comedy. Adding it to the commercial, allowed the message to get across much more clearly.

The Story of Filming

Welcome back my lovely readers. Today was the second scheduled day of filming. However, my group was able to film in one day. For the second scheduled day of filming, we started the editing process. I still want to talk to you about the original filming day. When we filmed we used Jade's iPhone as a camera. She had the best camera and since she was editing, it worked out better. For filming the first shot was of Addison's backpack falling apart. We used Ben's backpack since it was not a Jansport backpack and it was very light. To get a better shot, Ben filmed Addison just dropping the backpack from a high camera angle. From here, we filmed Jade and I walking past Addison and making fun of her bad backpack. The next shot was off Addison walking behind a wall and dropping the old backpack. The next shot was of her grabbing the better, Jansport backpack and walking away. Both of these shots did not show Addison behind the wall. After these shots, we filmed Addison showing Jade and I her better backpack. The final shot is the three of us walking away with our Jansport backpack. The last section of our storyboard is something that needs to be added while editing. The process of filming may seem complicated, but it was simple and quick. Filming early was not a planned thing, we finished our storyboard blog and just decided to film. Filming early was much better, we now have a head start on the final pieces of our commercial.

Filming...A Day Early

Welcome back my lovely readers. My group and I filmed our commercial early. We managed to finish our storyboard early. This allowed us to start filming early. Since our props were backpacks, we already had them at school. It was no issue to start filming early. We filmed in school, using one location. We used our storyboard as a guide and filmed one shot at a time. Our director, Ben, told us what was happening and then we were able to make the shot. It was a good structure and we managed to make the commercial. Addison, Jade, and I were able to do some of the shots in only one take. Others, took multiple takes but it was still relatively quick. After filming, we decided to look at another location to film. However, this secondary location was not as good. We did film a few shots but did not use any of those shots for the commercial. We all thought filming went very well. It was much more simple than I had originally thought. I was expected to use two days to film. We went a little off our storyboard, deciding to make a slight change. All in all, filming was a great experience and had a great result.