CCR Blog

 Name: _Michael Smith_____________________

 

Creative Critical Reflection

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

Our product and commercial challenges conventions because it takes how masks are usually represented in media, especially commercials, and flips it on its head. Other mask commercials often use a heavy-bearing and sullen way of advertising masks. They often take the situations of those less fortunate, for example, those more susceptible to contracting and suffering health damages from illnesses, and using it as a means of ethos against the viewer. Our commercial represent the current coronavirus issue and makes wearing a mask more fun, lighthearted, and fashionable. Portraying wearing masks this way gives people two reasons to wear a mask during this pandemic; it saves lives, and it can be a new fashion accessory.
2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My product engages the audience with a fun and modern vibe and portrayal that everyone can get behind. Many are turned away from masks commercials because they are so emotionally intense and draining. In addition, masks are rarely advertised as a fashion accessory but rather as something that everyone should wear to prevent the spread of disease. While that is true, having another reason to wear masks would only bolster the number of people who would wear them. This new reason is why my commercial is engaging to the audience. In terms of media text distribution, magazines would be the most fitting medium. This is because magazines, more specifically fashion ones, are known for spreading the news about the most recent trends, our product could be one of them.

 

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

                             Beforehand, I had never tried my hand at production before,

so, my production skills got their first real test throughout this project. A valuable production skill I picked up on was to plan everything that you need to do throughout the day; this was the only reason why my commercial got done on time. Having a plan will result in less room for error, and rushing, so the overall product will come out better. I also gained confidence as I knew everything that I needed to do that day. In addition, I was able to get used to the editing process. Communication was also an essential skill throughout this production. Planning everything out is one thing, but communicating those details is what’s vital. This applies to plans, storyboarding, setting, the type of shot, and what is occurring in the shot.

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

First, I started with a simple laptop and search engine. I used this search engine to research mask commercials and their common themes and trends. After that, I looked into different types of camera angles, movements, and the mis en scenes that could be used throughout our commercial. When it came to filming the commercial, an iPhone 11 was used for every scene. When filming was said and done, I decided that I would use iMovie to edit the commercial, iMovie has several functions and features that were used throughout the commercial, most notably transitions and the slow/speed feature. Transitions, such as fade in and jump cut, were used between every clip, and on the clips that were too slow or fast, the slow/speed feature was used to get it to the right timing.

 

The Commercial Finale

 The commercial is finally finished; I must say it was a pleasure to work on. I believe we've been working on this project for about two months; it certainly doesn't feel like that. They do say time flies fast when you are having fun. The best part about this project was interacting with the other groups and my partner; It was something we all had in common. I can't count how many times I've had conversations with strangers about the commercial they had been working on; it made me a lot of new friends. I also think this commercial is a great check of progress for the future. Later on in this class, I'll have plenty more projects to do, but it will be nice to see where I came from. This is a great source to look back on to see how much progress and strides I made in this class. For the future, I'll make sure to work with more intricate shots and transitions. With that said, here is the final product from these last two months of planning!

Wrapping Up The Editing Process

      As the last provision, my partner and I decided to skin through the commercial we produced last time and fish out any mistakes. I paid more attention to the second half of the commercial as I was in charge of that. At this time, the commercial was not one homogenous file but skewed together. This means it would be easy to make any edits that I wanted to a specific. I noticed some clips went a little too fast so slowing clips down is something I looked for. On top of that, I looked at any transitions I wanted to change for the sake of speed. Finally, I thought it would be a good idea to play with the volume of the music in some parts of my half.

     I first looked at the transitions I wanted to change; it was the easiest. I changed the transition on the action match just to see if it had any repercussions; it did. Changing the fade-in transition to the jump count would increase the time that clip took up. This is important because, at this time, our commercial took up about 27 seconds, so I couldn't go crazy with changing much. So all I did with any clip that had a fade-in was decrease the amount of time it took to fade into the next clip. This was important considering my next step was to play with slowing/ speeding up clips

     In terms of speed; I automatically knew that the scenes I needed to slow down would be the ones that went by too quick/were too short. It became apparent to me that this was the forward over-the-shoulder shot and the action match. Using Imovie, you can slow down any clips with a simple slide of a finger using the slow/speed bar in the time section. I only slowed them down by milliseconds, but it now gave the viewer plenty of time to understand what was going on in the scene.

     I decided that it would be entertaining to add some volume dynamics with the music; so I did. Deciding where I would add volume dynamics would be the difficult part, but I eventually figured it out. I would severely lower the music in the scenes where my partner stops me to put on the mask; it exemplifies the awkwardness of the situation. Finally, on the forward tracking shot of myself, I added the slogan "MASKS FOR ALL" and the commercial was finally complete.

Starting Off With The Editing Basics

   Before doing anything, I asked Mia to send me all of the clips from the first and second day of filming as they were all recorded with her phone. I suggested we use Imovie as both of our phones have it by default; Mia agreed. iMovie also has many features that make editing easier; being able to split clips, audios, and change transitions between clips.

  With all of the clips we got in both of our hands, it was time to decide which ones we were going to use. I immediately wanted the action match shot to be used; it was easily one of the best ones we got. It had such an interesting low shot on the floor and really complemented the shot before it. I also vouched for the forward track shot of me walking away as it would be easy to put the slogan on it. I then agreed to use the rest of the clips we filmed on the first shot; then we put them in the editing app chronologically. 

    Next, it was time to decide the transitions between the clips we chose to put in the commercial. Luckily changing the transitions between the clips on the editing software used was as easy as clicking a button. I took the second half of the clips; on the action match clip, I chose a fade-in so it was easy for the viewer to realize that it was a continuation of the scene before it. This then faded into the forward over-the-shoulder shot to continue the flow/chronological events. I chose was a jump cut to the two-shot to exemplify the suddenness of being stopped, which flowed into the mask closeup for flow. Finally, fading into the forward tracking shot to show that it immediately occurred after the last shot.

      Finally, it was time to decide what type of music we wanted to add to the commercial. I suggested that I wanted something punk rock or something edgy at least. This would fit with the edgy/rebellious main character in the commercial; it's important to have that message relayed. The first song I decided to lay on the table was 'Brutal" by Olivia Rodrigo, which I quickly retracted because it came on too strong.  After some recommendations from my partner, I finally proposed the instrumental of "Devil Town' by Cavetown. It wasn't too loud, too out there, and was the perfect median for the commercial. To put the music onto the video, I screen recorded the song and entered it in the video as audio-only.

     

 

 

We Needed A little Extra Help; No Problem!

     Today was the second and last day filming, at least in terms of class time. Prior to filming, Mia and I both came to school in costume; her a teacher, and I, a rebellious student. I was once again wearing fishnet gloves, but luckily no eyeliner this time because it had little to no effect on day one of filming. Just in case we needed to reshoot any shots, we brought the same props; a mask required flyer and masks. However, we both forgot to bring tape again, luckily we were able to get some from the teachers.

     Before heading outside to film, we both sat down for a bit to decide what we needed to do; having a plan was important. We looked through the footage we had gotten from last class and ultimately decided to reshoot two shots out of the bunch. These shots being the ones where I rip off the "MASKS REQUIRED" flyer plastered to the pole, and the first shot where I Walk into the school. The reason for the flyer scene being reshoot is that Mia and I weren't satisfied with how non-aggressively I ripped it off the first time. As for the beginning shot, we both noticed that I was wearing a mask, which would be unfitting for the character.

     Finally, we decided that we would need some extra help filming the scene with the both of us; so we asked help from our friend Aja, who worked for another group. We first began by shooting the shots we didn't have, if worst came to worst we would at least have a complete commercial at the end of the day. We first shot the scene where Mia and I are facing each other in a two-shot, in which she is handing me a mask. After that was filmed, we did a swift close-up of the mask being handed to me and waited a bit before I grabbed it. The final scene we needed was a forward tracking shot of me walking away, putting the newly acquired mask on while Mia walks off in the back; finally, we had recorded all of the scenes.

     Filming our last scenes unexpectedly took a fairly short time, so we luckily had plenty of time to refilm the shots that we wanted. Chronologically, we re-shot the first scene; this time I would have my mask off and be less stiff, a rebellious figure wouldn't be so stiff when it came to school. We made easy work of it and moved onto the flyer shot; we quickly taped it onto a pole facing away from the wind. As the camera started to record and pan upwards to the flyer, I gave it a mighty tug, and the shot came out great. After looking through the camera role to make sure we had all of the scenes needed, we headed back to class, thanked Ava for the help and taking a picture of us, and began deliberating editing.

The Beginning of Filming... At School!

      Today was the first day of filming for our commercial project; here's how it went. After attendance, we were basically free to go out and film our commercial, however, we needed to make sure we had everything we needed. We first made sure we had the props we needed; the 'mask required' flyers and the mask. The main issue is that we had forgotten to bring tape, which means we wouldn't be able to hang the flyers up for the shot we needed; luckily we were able to ask around and get the tape from other classmates. With that said and done, it appeared we had all of our props in check, but before heading out we needed one more thing...

     Costumes and makeup were next; before school, I had already dressed up as my part. I would be playing a rebellious student ready to break any mask policy that came my way... but how do I convey that with clothing? The answer wasn't difficult; black vans, black pants, and a black hoodie were more than enough to sell the character I was playing. Mia and I wouldn't stop there; she brought black fishnet gloves and eyeliner to really hit it home with the costume; the fishnet gloves were easy, but the eyeliner took way more than one try as it was hard to apply. We eventually settled with the worn-out, eye-liner residue remaining from the several times we applied, wiped off, and re-applied the eyeliner. As for Mia, she came dressed up as a preppy teacher who would enforce the mask mandate onto me.

     Finally, we were ready to begin filming; we both decided that the entrance to our school would be the best choice as it fits our first slide on the storyboard the best. There were many poles around the entrance that we could hang the fliers to for later shots as well; it was truly the best setting available to us. The first tracking shot of me walking into the school was done quickly and swiftly, however, for the next two slides we struggled a bit with finding the perfect angles. Eventually, we did find them, the first was an extremely high angle coming from below my body, the second was a low angle pointing down on me from above. The best part of today's filming session was easily the action match we filmed near the end; we were both really happy with how it came out. Here's a picture from the filming process today of me trying to figure out where to hang the 'masks required' flyer.

Storyboard Blog

Scene 1: Commercial starts off black with a sound effect of a gate closing, (music starts playing) which then cuts to a medium-long tracking shot of the main actor walking into school; it continues to follow the actor deeper into the outside school hall, 

Slide 2: This scene will be a POV shot of the main actor ripping off three "MASKS REQUIRED" papers off of their respective poles from the outside school hallway, using the diegetic sound of the paper being ripped off from the poles. Each of the three shots will be slightly jumped cut to increase the speed of action and therefore tension.

Scene 3:Then, the commercial will cut jump to a slightly high shot of the main actor putting chewed gum in the middle of the three papers, and then crumbling it up and throwing it on the ground, which will use the diegetic sound of the paper being crumpled. An action match show will show the paper hitting the ground after the actor throws it.

Scene 4: The actor starts to walk into the school with no mask. (music stops) This is until the actress walks over and grabs the actor's shoulder, the camera pans to the actresses face. This scene is shown as an over the shoulder shot to show the scene in the best way possible

Scene 5: Using a two shot, The camera shows the actress taking out another mask, one that suits the aesthetics of the actor and although with a little resistance the actor ends up putting on the mask and realizing it is not as bad as he thought. This is shown by his facial expressions when he goes from annoyed to nodding his head in agreement

Scene 6: (music restarts)A forward track shot follows the actor walking into school, with confidence and his new and improved mask. The logo appears saying "Mask for All."