Editing the Commercial

      Today in class we were planning on editing our commercial. However the computers didn’t have Pinnacle Studios on it so we couldn’t follow through. After taking a few minutes to realize that we couldn’t edit. So we took our footage and dumped it into the computer. After it was dumped on the computer we transferred the footage onto Kyle’s Google drive. After we had that done we begun to look at our takes. We would’ve taken more shots, but we couldn’t because we weren’t wearing the same thing as on Thursday. We decided to look over our takes instead. We started with the first ones and went down. So the first shot we looked at was the one of Sean approaching the starting line.

      Of our few takes we were really happy with the second version of this shot. The rest of the shots had issues. When we were filming it was difficult to see whether shadows were effecting our shots. Unfortunately this resulted is in a lot of our shots to have this issue. I thing we will be able to fix this with editing but it will definitely be difficult. We went through some more shots. The one where I handed Sean the Gatorade went well. We really liked one of our takes on that. We also really liked the  shot of Sean slamming down the Gatorade. Those are important shots so we were very happy. 

      We then looked at the racing scenes. There were some really bad takes as this was a hard those shots. Some shots has people in the background and some were bad because of the shadows. We were happy with a few of the racing scenes luckily. Ultimately I think we will be able to put together a good commercial with what we have. The acting isn’t that bad and is at least passable. Some of the shots look really good. I think I did pretty good with the camera for my first time doing it. For the rest of class we didn’t have much to do other than discuss ideas of how to edit. It was a pretty productive day for what we had to deal with.

Filming

      Today in class we started filming our commercial. Once we got our equipment we headed out to begin. Before we started recording incompletely, one of my group members, Tim, had to change into his costume. My team: Sean, Kyle, and Tim all wore athletic wear to simulate a real track meet. I was the coach, so i wore sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a jacket. When we went out to the track to record, the first spot we were thinking were already taken by other groups. There were also people for PE running the track so we had to time our takes accordingly. When we finally found a spot we started recording. For all the scenes where the coach wasn't involved, I was the camera man. The first scene we shot was the opening scene. 

      I got on my knees to record a low angle of Sean's legs, I slowly stood up to reveal the rest of the track. We also tried shooting the shot using zoom and placing the camera on the tripod. We haven't decided which take we like more at this point. The next shot we attempted to get was where the coach (me) hand Sean the Gatorade and his medal. We took a few takes of this with different angles. It was also around this time that the first group of people finished running the track. This allowed us to film more freely for a small amount of time. In this time we filmed the first part of the race scene, as well as Sean taking a gulp of the Gatorade. We approached each of these takes from different angles and with different movement. It took us a while to finish these scenes, it took around 25 minutes. 

      After we were happy with those takes me moved on. We filmed the final scene where the Gatorade is slammed on the ground. We took 2 takes of that and we were pretty confident. After that scene was over we had about 20 minutes until we had to go back in. We encountered a major issue however, our camera had very low battery and we had to film a very important scene. We needed to film that scene very quickly. We also had a long discussion about what angle we should record it at. Eventually we chose to pit the camera at the half way point of the race, and I would pan to track them. The difficult part was having it so Sean was able to be behind, and comeback last minute. It took a few tries to get a take we were happy with, but luckily we did. After that it was time for us to go in and dump our footage into a computer.

Storyboard

Today in AICE Mediastudies we did the storyboard for our upcoming commercial project. My group and I put together a commercial for popular sports drink, Gatorade. For the first frame, it will be a close up on our protagonist’s (Sean’s) legs as he walks on a track for a race. We will put a voice over for this short scene with an announcer type person talking about Sean’s struggles as of late in terms of preforming below his expectations. The camera will then tilt up so it is an over the shoulder shot of Sean looking at his competitors stretching at the starting line for the race, as shown in the second box. It will then cut to when the race is starting. It will be a wide angle, track show, that follows Sean as he begins to fall behind another runner. When the race is close to finishing, it we will show him focusing intensely to win the race. This determination allows Sean to fly passed everyone and win the race. Throughout the race scene there will be little sound besides the diegetic sound from the runners, and maybe the roar of a crowns at the end. We may also include an announcer for a little of the race, however it is unlikely, but we will have to see when we are editing it together. When the race is over, his coach he will come and congratulate him, and hand him a Gatorade. The coach will say something along the lines of “good work” as he hands him the drink. There will be a look of relief and joy in Sean’s face, and this will be a two shot as well as a medium close up. The final shot will be a long shot of Sean taking a large gulp of the Gatorade while wearing his medal. This will then cut to a close up of the Gatorade slamming being firmly placed on a surface with the Gatorade logo appearing very visibly.

Editing Lesson Blog

     Today in Mediastudies we learned about the process of filming and editing. When we get our cameras, the filming process should begin. We will get a camera, SD card, tripod, and a SD card reader. The SD card is meant to store all of our takes, and we will use the reader to upload them into the computer. We need to be careful with the materials, especially because it belongs to the school, and not us. The tripod is an essential part of our process as it allows us to do tilts, and pans perfectly, as well as keep the footage from having a tremor. To use the tripod we need to remove the price that attaches to the camera, and carefully slide it into place. After the camera is secured we will tighten the attachment, and put it onto the tripod. After that we are ready to film our takes.
     After our takes are filmed we will return our camera, and dump our footage onto a computer. We will make a folder to hold our footage for each project. Dumping is when we transfer the footage from our SD card into a computer. Dumping allows us to start editing. With the footage on our computer, we will open the editing software we will use (pinnacle studios). When Pinnacle Studios is open we will import our footage. Importing is when we transfer our footage from the computer into the editing software, this process may take a few minutes. When the footage is on the software, we will put in the portion called “AV track 2.” This is the part for all of the footage, track 1 is where we place our titles, and 3 is where we put audio like voice overs and music. We will now begin editing.
     The raw footage is now in a portion for editing. Raw footage is untouched footage, raw footage cannot be edited in any way or it doesn’t fit the classification. To cut the footage we will click the razor blade that is located above the editing box. We can also add transitions by going under effects and then transitions. We can change the speed of the footage by right clicking on it and pressing speed, under this you can also put it in reverse. You will add text for titles and credits by pressing the T above the editing box. We will need to save often because the program can easily crash. When we are finally done editing we will press export. This will render our movie and put it on our computer. Rendering is when it it closes all of the gaps left by editing and creates a smoother movie. You should always save the editing file however as you could’ve made a mistake.

Planning Blog

     Me and my group had already determined that we will be doing our commercial on the famous sports drink, Gatorade. We have already done research on common traits of these ads. Me and my group are planning to make a story based around a track meet that will be filmed at our school’s track. We are planning to have a race between the 3 other group members racing (while I film) and when the race begins, one lags behind but gets a sudden burst of speed and wins the race. His coach is celebrating and tosses him a Gatorade out of approval. The final shot is the Gatorade baking slammed down (about half empty) with a small amount splashing out.

Costumes: Track ware (gym shorts, tight shirt, running shoes, and headbands but the coach is wearing more professional clothes).

Props: Gatorade (lime) water (to simulate sweat) Medal

Schedule: October 19- We will to a story board of our commercial
October 21- we will film all of our takes for the commercial
October 23- We will choose our between the takes, determining the shots we use. We will also begin editing.
October 25- Our commercial will be finished

Backup plan-An actor buys a Gatorade from a vending machine, and uses structures to work out (running up stairs, pushups, etc.), it will jump cut to him drinking a sip of Gatorade in between each action shot. In the end it shows him sweating and he slams down the Gatorade.

Research blog commercial conventions

     Sports drinks attempt to prove their usage by setting their commercials in athletic atmospheres. These can include gyms, stadiums or fields. The characters are typically wearing athletic wear or sporting uniform. They attempt to show their usage by showing someone heavily sweating followed by then drinking the drink. There is obviously as little makeup as possible to portray a realistic athletic event. The lighting is usually dim to allow the cameras to focus more on the athletic activity being performed, and the results of that activity (for example, sweat dripping down their face). The drink usually has a small amount of condensation on its container to show that it is cold. Finally, these commercials typically have a famous athlete as the main focus of the ad, for example, a recent Gatorade commercial had J.J. Watt, a popular NFL player, narrating and performing a lot of actions within the ad.
     The scripts of these ads usually revolve around all the things athletes do to succeed, and this is usually ended by the athletes showing how the beverage allows them to do it. This dialogue is usually done by a voice-over, but will sometimes be in the form of a flashback. They also have a lot of diegetic sounds for where the scene takes place, for example, a swish of a basketball going through the net or the sound of a football player getting hit. Sometimes there will be a non-diegetic sound of a whistle of a referee off-screen for example. There is also sometimes intense music but it is not the focus. Finally, there is often some athletes chanting or doing rally cries to try to bring the increasing intensity.
   The commercials utilize close-ups very frequently. They try this to humanize the athletes as much as possible. This is done by focusing on specific parts of their bodies. Another common shot is of a person slamming down a bottle of the beverage and a small amount splashing out of it. This is to focus on the drink more than the effects of it. The main editing technique is jump cuts, the rest of it is pretty plain from an editing perspective. 

Introduction

        I am Jacob Norkin from and am from Fort Lauderdale Florida. I am currently enrolled in AICE Mediastudies and plan to learn a lot about film making. I have always enjoyed watching and analyzing movies. Some of my favorites are Inglorious Basterds and Silence of the Lambs. I really enjoy all of Quinten Tarintino’s films including his most recent one. I am also a huge sports fan. I root for the Miami teams for football, baseball, and basketball (the Dolphins, Marlins, and Heat). I also compete in a fantasy football league with my dad and members of his family. I always do really well as I am good at predicting which players will be good and which ones will preform poorly.

       I live at home with my mom, dad and sister. I also have 2 dogs, one named Timmy and the other, Daisy. Daisy is a puppy, only a year old while Timmy is older, we don’t know Timmy’s exact age because he was a rescue. In my free time I like to play video games and listen to music. The games I play the most are Madden, NBA2k, and Fortnite. I often play Fortnite with my friends Tim and Jahni. We are pretty good at the game, and frequently get victory royales. We also play against each other is practice matches, and I win a lot but Tim wins more. In school I usually do very well, almost all A’s with a few B’s as I have a 3.94 unweighted GPA. My best subjects are math and science, and I am a member of my school’s math club. When I was in elementary school I represented my school in county wide math competitions.

      I listen to a ton of music spanning over a wide variety of genres. Some of my favorite genres of music are inde folk, progressive rock, and conscious hip-hop. Some of my favorite artists are Kendrick Lamar, Pink Floyd, and King Crimson. Some of my favorite albums are The Wall, Ok Computer, and Taboo. But my favorite album ever is a inde rock album from an under ground group called Neutral Milk Hotel. The record is called “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.” It is a magical and transformative experience that is almost impossible to understand unless you listen to the album for yourself. I am also very active on a music forum site called rym (rate your music) and I get many great recommendations from that site. For me music is an escape from reality and I can really help me when I am stressed out. A great album or song can really change my mood, for better or for worse.