Creative Critical Reflection - Commercial

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

My commercial used many of the common elements within sports drink commercials. It uses bright lighting as well as other elements. In one scene, the Gatorade suddenly appears on a bench. By doing this scene, we were able to incorporate fantasy elements into our commercial. I also included an athlete in the commercial who is participating in various sports throughout the film. By doing this, the commercial is able to target a specific audience, which is athletes. The song that I found, "Jump Around" by House of Pain, fit well as it emphasizes all of the ongoing action in the commercial. The lighting and setting is also fit with conventions in place, as lighting is bright and the setting is outside, both relating to sports and activities. In addition, the props used were a Gatorade Bottle, an (American) Football, a glove, a tennis racket, a tennis ball, a basketball, and shoes. The sports drink commercial challenges conventions by using split-screen. Not many sports drink commercials use split-screen scenes, and by including that scene, I was able to show two things happening at once. The commercial represents social groups by including athletes. With myself as the actor, athletes are represented, allowing for athletes to relate and see themselves in this commercial.

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

My product engages with audiences by using engaging effects like split screen. By adding elements that emphasize and add to the action, viewers are destined to keep watching. If the commercial, had less action, viewers would not be interested and wouldn't want to buy the drink. This applies to athletes in general, because the action, emphasizes the sports being played which is what is being used to target athletes. The commercial would be distributed as real media text on sports channels such as FOX Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports, or NBC Sports from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM on weekends. The sun is usually out during these hours and a lot of exercise is done on weekends. By airing the commercial on these channels during the allotted time, more athletes would be able to see it and it would have a better chance of reaching it's targeted audience.

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

Throughout this project, my production skills have improved with the editing software I used and with the production of films. Before this project, I had a minimal amount of knowledge on how to adjust volume and apply visual effects. I was very unfamiliar with editing software and had no clue what I was doing. After clicking on several of the buttons and exploring the software, I now have expanded this knowledge and am able to perform each of these tasks without much confusion. In addition, I had not known that the software could apply the split-screen effect to the video. Before this project, I did not have any idea about how to edit sound onto a film. After asking a friend for help on the subject, I was then able to do it sufficiently and with ease. I also now understand how important the filming process and conditions for the setting are.  Overall, this project led to a greater awareness of the production of film, and gave me a whole new perspective on how films are made. I have learned many new things on filmmaking. It is no easy task.

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

The technologies we used in our project were Lucas' phone, the software iMovie, and a laptop used to edit. The editing software, iMovie, was used to trim video clips, apply visual effects, and put clips together to create the commercial. There are several buttons that allow for easy navigation. The other technologies were Lucas' phone which we used to film and record the scenes with high quality, and my laptop which we used to edit the films using iMovie. Lucas' phone produced a video that had high quality and filmed a clear video for the project. The laptop was overall fast and allowed for me to edit every clip into a high quality commercial that was effective and brief.