Creative Critical Reflection Blog: Looking Back

    Hi again! As you may recall, I published our final product in my last blog, which means it is now time for some much need ruminative reflection. Regarding our finished product, I felt that we were able to challenge common conventions found across a variety of soft drink commercials, whilst also representing generally faced issues. 

    Beginning with the conventions themselves, we refrained from using high-angle shots because we did not want to create any kind of tension in our audience. We also strayed away from incorporating tilting because there was no need for any dramatization, nor did we need to showcase any sort of vertical scenery as our commercial was horizontally oriented. Furthermore, we also did not include over-the-shoulder shots, instead using medium shot framing as to not waste time switching between different subjects' viewpoints by focusing on both of their expressions simultaneously. Moreover, since we focused heavily on inter-subject dialogue to make our actresses' performances more dynamic and realistic, we avoided the inevitably awkward silence that we would have had if had we chosen to make a song the forefront of our sound compilation, using voiceover to emphasize certain points in our commercial. These all allowed for us to have a fresh and original take on our soft drink commercial. Shifting our focus to the issues our commercial represented, I would not necessarily say that we brought attention to any major social issues, but rather smaller-scale problems, perhaps what one may refer to as daily inconveniences. Seeing that our product was a beverage, its main purpose is to quench the thirst of consumers, which means that our target audience can be comprised of any and all kinds of people, ranging from children to older adults, athletes and executives, essentially anyone who wants a way to satisfy their sweet tooth (with about seventeen grams of sugar to be exact) and cool down. Hence why we are able to solve the problem and answer the question, "What should I drink(?)" for people who are in need of a refreshing boost of sweet, ice-cold, beverage. 

    Moving on to how our product engages with our audience, we ensured to subtly include colors that stimulated a sense of thirst or the feeling of heat in our viewers, which as mentioned in my earlier blogs, was achieved through the imposition of heat-like filters, giving our shots a reddish tint, as well as through the colors of the clothing that our actresses wore. We also had our actresses actively engage in dialogue to create a more relatable and conversational tone, which captivates the attention of our audience.

    As for how we would go about distributing it as a real media text, we would likely do so through a televised advertisement or YouTube commercial, thus allowing us to have a wider outreach. If we were to consider how our product would be dispersed from a real-world standpoint, there would be a number of different factors to take into account. First, one must assess the baseline pricing for a thirty-second advertisement like our own. Typically, advertisements of said length, when aired on national television cost $115,000, at least in 2020, according to Kelly Main, a staff writer whose main focus lies in marketing. Of course, this is not always the case being that a number of other variables also come into play. With that being said, one would also need to consider the location in which their commercial would air. For instance, our commercial relied heavily on the conveyance of the fact that it was extremely hot outside. Therefore, it would be more likely for someone from Florida to purchase the drink after watching our commercial, being that they can personally relate to the excruciating heat we ensured to highlight, as opposed to someone from Maine, where temperatures are not as extreme. Additionally, one would also need to evaluate the best time of year to air their commercial. Since our advertisement intends to emphasize the heat outside by using elements like the diegetic sound of cicadas to set a summerlike atmosphere, a time when there is an increased demand for cool and refreshing drinks, it would be quite counterproductive to have it released during the cold winter and fall months because sales would not be as high. Lower sales would make for a smaller profit, meaning that we would be making unnecessary expenses instead of maximizing returns by waiting for the right season. 

    Regarding the actual schematics of creating a real-world commercial, production costs can be upwards of $150,000 as claimed by Beverly Boy Productions, a video production company. However, when you factor in fluctuating CPMs, which are the cost-per-thousand impressions, one will find that the summer months are the optimal time for commercial production being that CPM costs are driven downwards due to the lack of competition between companies. Sortable, a website intended to help publishers simplify the strenuous process of publicizing their work, states that this comes as a result of the lowered advertisement budgets across the board as different brands begin planning and preparing for the packed upcoming third and fourth quarters, which contain a number of different widely celebrated holidays in the United States of America, including Independence Day, Labor Day (and its preceding weekend), Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. With that being said, money could be saved on production costs if simple and effective, convention challenging techniques like the ones we used, which I previously mentioned above, are applied. As with any endeavor, commercials are a gamble, being a sort of risk and reward situation, where sometimes the profits do not outweigh the investment, which is why it is important to take in the bigger picture when trying to determine when and where to air our commercial, lest it be lost in the immense stream of mass media that consumers intake on a daily basis. 

    Upon considering how I was able to mature and develop my production skills throughout the project, I would like to note that when I first began the project, I had a very vague idea of the official production process, being that I had never applied it myself in a hands-on manner. That then meant that I was very unfamiliar with editing programs outside of iMovie (which I had used for previous projects), so I needed to dedicate more time towards acquainting myself with said applications. Additionally, I had never had to make any difficult or particularly tedious shots before this project, like the one that was required for our initial panning from the sun because of the fact that we did not consider the Sun's positioning around noon into our production calculations. This then allowed me to learn how to be more creative and take more open-minded approaches to obtain the perfect shot, making me a better cinematographer on the whole. 

    Now, in order for this project to have been made into reality, I needed to use a variety of technological aids, which mainly included editing software and websites where I could obtain visual aids and enhancers in the form of GIFs (Graphics Interchange Formats), or audio samples from platforms like YouTube. Going into the specifics, I used Remove Bg to get rid of the white background behind our font, which we got off of the My Fonts website, and I was able to convert audio from YouTube videos by using the iPhone screen recording feature and then putting it through an MP3 converter I came across online. To put everything together, on top of iMovie, we also used ClipChamp, a free video editing website. As for adding in our final touches, which included the addition of filters, I used Prequel, a free-to-download application from the App Store. Regarding the hardware we used, our commercial was shot entirely on two iPhone 11 Pro Maxes. Now, considering our limited budget (we are high school students after all), I think we made the most of the resources available at our disposal, and have now become familiarized with the various programs we can easily access, which means that we are prepared and equally as excited for our upcoming project.

    All in all, I think this quote by Kiki Layne who played Tish Rivers in the 2018 movie, "If Beale Street Could Talk" sums up my attitude towards our next assignment: "I've never been more ready for anything in my whole life."

Commercial Blog: That's a Wrap!

     Hello again! I'm proud to announce that we finally completed our commercial after about a month of hard work and dedication. This project was one that I found to be quite the insightful experience, giving me the opportunity to dip my toes into the world of filmmaking by beginning with a form of media that is so common that it even goes as far as affecting us in our day to day lives, providing us with an escape from the mundane humdrum of the workweek. This endeavor allowed me to see just how much of an impact film and advertisements have on me and the type of life that I lead. The fact that advertisements have become so integrated into our daily lives to the point that we have begun to pay less attention to the artistry and psychological thinking that goes into creating something that we deem to be as trivial as a small ant lying on a leaf, makes for quite the saddening realization. And to think that people do not truly understand the intricacies behind producing such a short piece of work makes me ever the more grateful for having taken this class, as it not only allows me to delve deeper into my interest in film through an immersive teaching method, but also teaches me practical life skills, such as learning the importance of choosing your words carefully to concisely and clearly get a point across, and learning how to evaluate the motivations behind the way in which certain things may be phrased. With this project I was able to identify the various conventions used in the world of advertisements, being able to pick out the numerous similarities shared between commercials, and finally understanding the way in which advertisements are able to lure us into purchasing a particular product or service by using just the right sound or achieving the perfect lighting, all of which I found to be such compelling aspects to consider. It really makes you realize how much work goes into creating something as short as thirty seconds that holds such an influence over the lives and choices of people worldwide. Believe it or not (quite honestly I was shocked myself), after we had finished working on our commercial, I actually found myself paying more attention to advertisements as they appeared on television and in YouTube videos, trying to dissect the various shots and scenes they used with what I had learned through my own experience. Regarding our project and my final thoughts on it, I can acknowledge that our commercial may have had a few flaws, but those are all a part of the learning experience, giving us the chance to recognize our mistakes and make meaningful improvements to future film projects that we will one day undertake. I thought the experience was quite enjoyable and was not disappointed by the group members that I had chosen, which makes me look forward to our next enterprise even more! These blogs have been and will continue to provide us with an accessible platform where we can easily share our final products to whoever wishes to watch them, perhaps even allowing others to find some inspiration of their own and drive them to create something wonderful. With that being said, I have attached our commercial below and really do hope that you enjoy it! 

(Apologies in advance, after sending the video between devices to upload it onto my blog, it may have lost some of its original quality.) 

To close things off, I believe that this line delivered by Corey Feldman from the Goonies just about summarizes the feelings of triumph, pride, and gratification I have about our final product: "It's gold, guys. We did it(!)" (The Goonies 1985), especially considering how happy I already was since today is my birthday!

Editing Blog: And Now, the End is Near

    Zdrasti (that means hello in Bulgarian)! Today was officially our last day of editing, and it was literally crunch time for me (I ate some "healthy" snacks while I tied up some loose ends of the project at home). The first order of business was finalizing our song choice. To be entirely honest, I met with my friend right after our previous class and we got to discussing what some of our favorite songs were growing up. By complete coincidence, they managed to mention the name of the song I had stuck in my head (whose name, of course, escaped me at the time) that would be a perfect fit for the project because of its mix of western-like and surf rock undertones, its upbeat tune, and overall popularity- "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas. Now, I'm not sure if you've ever seen Monty Python but that was the holy grail moment for me. After I located an instrumental version of the song, my group and I came to the general consensus that we should have the audio play when the Arizona Iced Tea can is first introduced up, until when the camera pans to a very confused Actress 2, and when both subjects go in to take a sip of the iced tea. That way, we could add another layer to our dietetic sound composition. Since the song has such a catchy melody, it will be likely to stick with the audience for the rest of the day, meaning that every time they catch themselves humming its tune, their mind will inadvertently wander back to our commercial and, consequently, our product. In fact, to test that theory, my group and I actually showed the clip to one of our fellow peers, and later on, we caught her humming the song and saying how we had gotten it "stuck in her head." Therefore, through the pure exploitation of our audience's involuntary memory association, we were certain to produce a successful commercial.

    After we had finished working out our sound situation, we began to focus our efforts on trying to create the effect of heat, one that would induce a sense of thirst in our viewers from their mere perception of subtle cues. Of course, we had already taken one step towards achieving this goal by panning from the sun, which created a lens flare due to its utterly blinding brightness. I was then able to help my team take it one step further by turning up the saturation, brightness, contrast, highlights, and overall temperature of our footage, as well as lowering the shadows present in the frame by a few notches using the editing app, Prequel, to create our desired effect in post-production. 

    Upon doing so, we then wanted to find a way to leave a lasting impression on our audience with a final shot of the Arizona Iced Tea can, a memorable line, and the company's logo right at the end. To do this, I employed the aid of an online editing tool, Clip Champ, to blur a certain part of our commercial. We chose to blur the ending of our final shot, Scene 8, directly after our two actresses take a sip of their iced teas. Superimposed on this blurred portion of the commercial are a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) and the following phrase "The answer to all your problems (.)", which remain on screen until the eventual fade-out of our commercial. When it came to the GIF, I could not come to a reasonable conclusion other than that the fact that it must have been a mixture of sheer luck and coincidence, that its animation was in perfect sync with the diegetic, unedited noise of our two actresses' cans clinking together with the bleachers as they were set down, to create a euphonious sound. As for the catchline, my group and I thought it was appropriate because Arizona (Iced Tea) had been the answer to every question, or problem, that had "stumped" our two subjects throughout the commercial. When choosing to include this phrase, I drew inspiration from other commercials that often make a witty reference to a running gag found within them. Moreover, I felt as though it would be best to match the text color of said phrase to one of the colors from the original Arizona Iced Tea logo, as it would create a sense of uniformity. The only issue I had was deciding which of the three colors to use; however, this matter was quickly resolved once I saw that the pink color stood out the most against the blurred background. In fact in the upcoming image, I have pictured just that. 

    I've included an example of Clip Champ's interface below, which also doubles as a production still for the editing of one of our scenes. 

    We were not able to completely stick to the original plans that we outlined in our storyboard, but the changes we made we certainly for the better, allowing for easier and more effective execution. That is not to say that our commercial did not have its share of faults. There were of course things out of our control, namely the position of the clouds in the background, ambient sounds, natural lighting (although we did wait to reshoot scenes until after the sun was no longer obscured by clouds), and wind direction, especially when having to pause and redo shots to correct minor mistakes. That, in turn, made it difficult to align the clips perfectly without errors. Hence why the cut between Scenes 5 and 6 did not blend very well together. Then again I could argue that it was an intended jump cut to the show the passage of time between Actress 1 reaching her hand out to grab the Arizona Iced Tea can and returning it back to the frame, but I will own up to my mistakes and concede that argument. Despite this imperfection, I believe that we made the best of the situation because it was only one minor flaw that did not affect the message and advertisement of the product itself, so it was one we needed to accept and move on from. 

    All things considered, since we were able to consolidate our film into a total length of twenty-nine seconds, during which we never strayed to include irrelevant information that would waste valuable screen time, I believe that we created the best final product that we could, given our available tools and our relative unfamiliarity with this kind of project.

    I think that after all the hard work my group and I put into this film project the only thing I could even fathom doing to close off this blog is to give a feral hiss and growl the words "My precious" like Gollum did in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) to show just how possessive I am of our project!

Editing Blog: The Final Stretch

    Hey there! Today my group and I moved on to the editing phase of our filming project. Before we began, we decided that we would mainly be focusing on acquiring both our dietetic and non-diegetic sounds and adjusting our clips to ensure that they were consistent throughout each scene. We also dabbled a bit in smoothing out transitions; however, that was not our primary focus at the time. Regarding the diegetic sound, we remained in agreement that we should use the chirping of cicadas during the panning that takes place in Scene 1, but we are still unsure of how to tie all of our sound elements together. I suggested that we have the cicada sound play during the panning as planned, but then have it gradually fade out as the dialogue and background music commences. On the topic of music, we decided that it would be best to work with instrumental versions of songs that we felt were either popular during the summer months or reminiscent of the summertime, so that the lyrics did not divert attention away from our product. During this step of our editing process, I focused mainly on finding popular, but relevant songs, and settled on the following as my top three choices for the video:

- "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals: This would relate to the commercial because it emphasizes how hot it is outside. Moreover, because it is a recognizable summer hit, even with its vocals removed, the audience may subconsciously connect the song to their own pleasant memories; thus, making promotion easier through positive association. 

- "Gravity" by Brent Faiyaz and featuring Tyler, The Creator: The beat is slow and, as such, can represent a relaxing summer's day, one where the audience may feel at ease knowing they can drink a nice, cold Arizona Iced tea to cool down. On the other hand, it could also be used to underscore the length of a hot summer's day, being that the beat is long and drawn out. That, in turn, could potentially make the viewers crave an ice-cold beverage to quench their thirst.

- "Location" by Khalid: This song was quite popular a few years ago and I found it interesting that the title correlated so well with the ongoing skit playing out in our commercial, where a conversation concerning where our two subjects would like to go occurs. Moreover, the song has a simple melody, which means that it would be able to provide musical substance to our commercial without subtracting attention from the main product we wish to advertise. 

    After settling on a couple of songs each, I used two websites to begin working on converting YouTube video files to MP3 and then having them stripped clean of vocals. After that, I shifted my focus to combining our scenes in order and removing unnecessary parts that might cause us to go over our allotted film time. To do so, I essentially looked for areas where I believed that either the lack of action consumed too much time, or places where I found that the deduction of some seconds may eliminate choppiness within a scene. During that time, I also cropped the videos to all have similar dimensions and framed them according to what our storyboard laid out. Unfortunately, we were not able to stay true to the entire definition of a medium shot by filming our subjects from the waist up because we needed to guarantee that our main prop, our true subject rather, was still visible within the frame. However, all things considered, I still feel as though it met enough of the criteria in order to be considered a medium shot because it gave an equal presence to both the subjects and their surroundings. 

All of my editing work was conducted iMovie as pictured below:

    Overall, I would say that today we had a very productive session, sorting out a lot of the minor details so that we can focus on refining our commercial as a whole next class. Since I am having guests over for dinner, I feel like I should quote Anthony Hopkins and say the following, although I mean nothing of it as a double entendre as he intended: "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner...Bye" (The Silence of the Lambs 1991).

Filming Blog: Take 2- Out of the Frame

     I'm back at it again, and I'd like to start off by saying how grateful I am to have such cooperative and flexible teammates! Without them, we would have surely missed our filming deadline and fallen behind schedule. You may have noticed that my blog is titled "Out of the Frame," and you may be wondering why I'd need to point out this fact after already having established that I am my group's camerawoman in my last post. Well, that's because the phrase now applied both figuratively and literally as I was not present for any of the filming conducted by my group mates today. Earlier in the day, I was called out of class right before our filming period due to my suspected exposure to COVID-19 by a fellow student. However, after a quick trip to a testing site, I thankfully tested negative, so I will be able to return to class and help with editing as soon as tomorrow! However, the main takeaway from the entire situation is that neither I, nor my group members, allowed my physical absence to stop me from contributing to our film's production process. Due to the fact that we had previously accounted for what to do in such a scenario (as mentioned in my Planning Blog), and the fact that one of our members had already experienced the same situation that I was currently in, we were able to quickly resolve the issue with some good, old-fashion communication. 

    I kept in close contact with my teammates via text messaging, where they shared the shots they had taken and kept me updated on their progress. Originally, my team planned to conduct filming in the baseball field being that we thought it would be fitting to use the red dirt as a way to portray that our backdrop was set in the Copper State (called that because of its abundance of copper, sadly not because it is ridden with red sediments). Unfortunately, they were unable to find a way to enter the field other than jumping over the fence, which would not only risk them becoming injured, but would also increase the likelihood that our props may become damaged, or even be potentially destroyed. Hence, they decided it would be best to station themselves in the softball field because it was more accessible and they would still be able to incorporate the same, Arizona trademarked, red dirt, as in the baseball field. Thus, making for a fairly reasonable trade-off and a smart decision on their part. 

    Once they had set up and begun filming in the merciless Florida heat, they started to send me clips of the scene that they were actively recording. That, in turn, gave me the opportunity to offer up any advice regarding specific angles or methods that could be critiqued with the purpose of having our Arizona backdrop look more realistic; thereby allowing for the creation of the setting we were aiming to achieve. Moreover, I also helped my group decide which shots were best after a critical evaluation of two key aspects: the presence of certain shadows and the placement of the Arizona Iced Tea can in the frame. Regarding the shadows, we wanted to ensure that we excluded our actress's head's shadow from being in the shot, as their arm was the only thing that was meant to be in the frame. This was done in an effort to maintain the continuity of our shots between scenes. As for the placement of the Arizona Iced Tea can itself, since it is the main focus of our commercial, the subject if you will, we wanted to guarantee that it was front and center as opposed to being off to the side. That, in turn, may have then caused the audience to become distracted by the sounds, both diegetic and nondiegetic, and the set in which our prop is placed, instead of the product we are trying to sell. Furthermore, I was also able to begin trimming down some of the shots to ensure that our final film project would fit within the given time constraints of twenty-seven to thirty seconds, removing any awkward pauses to allow for the scenes to flow together more smoothly. 

Below I have attached two images, one of which is a production still that shows my group using creative thinking to work around camera angling and set issues, and the other of which is a screenshot of one of the conversations I had with my team members (The blue chat bubbles are mine) to make a decision concerning where our backdrop Arizona props would go (they are also pictured in the above image to the right of the Arizona Iced Tea can). 

(The grammar in the text messages is not perfect due to it being a mostly informal medium of communication, so corrections for clarification are as follows:

• "diff": Shorthand for the word "different"
• "cam": Shorthand for the word "camera"
• "gor": Accidental misspelling of the word "for" 
• "rn": Shorthand for the phrase "right now"
• "gotchuu": Teen slang for saying "Ok, understood"

Other things such as the capitalization of I and words at the start of the sentence, as well as the lack of hyphens between certain words, are also improper; however because they do not affect the meaning or readability of the messages, I did not feel the need to correct them.)

When it comes to life, nothing ever goes as planned, and often unforeseeable challenges, such as the one my group and I faced today, may arise; however, that does not mean that one should simply back down, but instead, they should learn to expect the unexpected and work with what they are given to overcome any problem. 

After having seen "Triple Frontier," a rated R film for which I did obtain parental permission to watch on a streaming platform (whose name I'm not sure I'm allowed to mention for copyright purposes) this weekend, one particular quote by Óscar Isaac that I believe can apply to life in general really stuck with me, so I would like to end off with it as some food for thought: "It’s always a little harder than you think it’s gonna be" (Triple Frontier 2019). 

(The clip above was taken from a trailer of the film.)