Creative Critical Reflection Blog

      My product included conventions to enhance it and allow it to stand out. In NIKE and athletic commercials conventions include a shoe box, captions boxes, being outside, graphics, and wearing athleisure wear. I included all of those. I also included vibrant colors and an environmental issue. I added the issue because the shoes are made from sustainable materials and zero carbon acting as a somewhat solution. My product represents the issue because I included a caption of a slogan supporting the environment and clothing that does so to, I was wearing a shirt that promoted taking care of the earth. This can help engage and represent with an audience that supports the environment, environmentalists. I made sure that this issue was conveyed because the product that I was advertising is making an effort to fix the problem. 
     My product uses captivating music and color scheme that is appealing to the audience capturing their attention. My music is upbeat and creates a lively mood sharing it with the audience. The music persuades the audience that it is a product that makes people feel good and inspired. As well my color scheme, it involves vibrant colors like neon shades of green, white, black, and different shades of blue. These colors tend to grab the attention of the eyes. Once again, the problem about our biosphere can help engage the audience and encourage them to cooperate with this brand to protect the environment. It would be distributed as a real media text online to be used to persuade audiences to invest in the product I’m advertising. 
     In the begging of the production, I had little to none experience making or planning a film. Over the course of this project through research and help my skills have improved. For research and planning now I know exactly what to look for in examples. Which includes conventions like mis-en-scence. I learned how to include these conventions in my project and how storyboard planning serious allowed me the execute them correctly. Little by little I understood how to plan like drawing out what each scene would look like. The music also, I researched and saw what type of music is typically used (electric) and so I when on to learning how to insert it into my product as non-diegetic sound. Throughout this project I learned how to properly film low and high angles to capture the product correctly after multiple takes, finding which one looking the best. My skills have improved over many tries and reviews. 
     In this project I used my mobile phone to film with its camera application. As well, I used it to organize all my takes for each shot to each their corresponding scene. I utilized a MacBook Air’s movie editing software and application to edit my film and download it to be able to share it with my phone so that I maybe able to insert sound, specific song. I also used graphic editing software to create the ending logo of the film to match the theme of the film. I based the graphic logo I created from watching a NIKE thirty second commercial that included the logo at the end. I learned that with the combination of different technology and their help many skills can be accomplished to achieve a final product.

Commercial Blog

 This project was a very entertaining and interactive project for me. It has changed my perspective on media. Whenever I view a film I think "that is a high angle with a eye-level shot" because I used those types of camera angles in my commercial. This film has allowed to understand the amount of handwork put behind a film. This athletic commercial, I believe correctly displays the product I chose and conveys the right persuasive message. I included most of the conventions of a NIKE Move To Zero commercial. These conventions elevated my commercial and granted me the ability to try new editing skills. Once I reviewed it, I can see and tell that I could have improve on some aspects. However, this is my first production and this can be used as a basis of comparison of my growth. This impulses me to improve my skills and learn more about filming and editing. 

Editing: Final Touches

Today, I spent most of the day and night before, editing and taking out extra seconds I did not need. I added a electric pop sound into my commercial, it’s non-diegetic. I adjusted the music volume so that my voice could be heard on top of it, I faded the music. The last shot which is just a logo shot, I made still however, I think I want it to zoom in. I adjusted a lot of the scenes because they had extra seconds that were unnecessary. For one of my scenes I looked at the NIKE commercials conventions and saw that they added a lot of split screens on one scene. This impulsed me to try something new and I did the same technique. I added a long-shot of me, my name, my environmental slogan and on the left side is a close-up on my shoes. I very much enjoyed how it came out by doing something new. I think it suits this type of commercial. To me some sections looked a little choppy but I had my sister take a look at it and she said it looked good as in it was not choppy, my mom agreed. They discussed with me that they understood the meaning and what I was advertising through my commercial. I applied graphic overlays on three of my scenes. In the beginning I arranged them the way that I originally had planned; however, it just did not seem to fit right. So instead I decreased the size of them and place them in a different manner. Once I did this it looked neater and more professional. I think the graphics really embrace the brand and line specifically Move to Zero by NIKE. Also, in the Nike commercials their camera is not stabilized for a lot of the scenes which adds a nice effect. For two of my scenes I did not stabilize the camera and for the rest I did. Later on tomorrow, I’m going to make sure it all seems well as a last final review with a fresh perspective. I believe all my hard work has come together to make a very well organized athletic shoe commercial.

Editing: Organizing

       To begin editing I organized all the shots in order. Then had to ensure that all the shots were the right length and included some filming speed changes. I then applied graphics overlay on top to give it the same feel as NIKE's commercials. I am also contemplating adding a grain overlay because a lot of the brands designs have that overlay and sticker clipart. All of this editing was done on a MacBook using the iMovie application. I had my sister help me with editing because I have a cast on. Having a cast prevents me from using the mouse because it is on my dominate hand. She gave me a fresh and new perspective. When all the shots were in it gave me to many seconds so, I had to cut it down. I also changed the default transition that is in between the shots from fade in to none. I had to cut some of the shots because they had some random things in the background that were not props. For example, I had a someone's shoes in the back and some shadows. I also zoomed in on some shots to get the right camera angles. Some of the time did not add up so I had to include a extra shot to make sure the time was correct. The good thing was that it was related with the scene before, it was a sort of continuation. I had to slow down the scene where it looks like a leaping of the camera. It gives a nice slow motion effect. The view it a numerous amount of time to make sure it does not look choppy. I still have to apply a music overlay and fix some shots still. Overall I made a good amount of progress and believe I can complete it with one more day of editing.

Filming Blog: All Complete

The weather was on my side today. It was nice and sunny with some breeze. The lighting for my commercial came out very well and added a nice natural touch from the sun. I shot all my scenes today and have enough content to make my commercial. I am going to review all of the shots I took and see how to order them to complete my commercial. I also need to apply a graphics overlay on top of some of my shots. I want the graphics to look clean and not to grainy. I am also going to take a look at the example commercial from NIKE to get some ideas if I do not accumulate enough time with the shots that I have taken. To complete this project I had a helper to help me shoot and set-up. She helped me grab a chair to be able to take a high angle shot of me fixing my shoes. As well as a medium-long shot of me sitting and reading my script. Her name is Taylor which is the other girl seen in the photo and behind us is our things. My script and storyboard papers are on the floor next to my things. Today I also brought my shoebox prop and my costume. My costume overall is athletic wear. I have started editing already just trimming down some that long shots that I have taken. Some shots that I took are continuous shots of scenes together so I have to trim them. I must figure out how to or which transition to use between the shots. For each seen my filmed at least three shots and reviewed them to make sure that they were okay. I only had to film three out of six scenes. To film my scenes it took me at least thirty-five minutes and everything was cooperating in my way.