Editing the commercial

We use the pinnacle studios program for editing in this AICE media class. It is an older program, it’s last major update being in 2017, but it still holds up extremely well in place of other, more recent programs such as iMovie and others. We got a previous class in the basics of this program so must of us are close to proficient. It is pretty easy to use, allowing for quick editing at a rapid pace. It does have some trouble importing into the program from a flash drive, which was worrying because all of our footage was loacted on a flash drive. But alas, it ended up working perfectly and we were able to but all of the proper footage on the timeline. We did run into a problem though, we had too much footage.

The main three parts of pinnacle studios are the timeline, the preview and the raw footage. Mastering of these is critical to sucess in this program. It is very common, but intuitive. Many great movies have been made here, so we know it is possible to create something funny for 30 seconds. Thousands of commercial come out each year, how hard could it be to make one? Pretty hard, as it turns out. We had so much footage we had to remove some scenes. When that didnt work, we had to cut down to the bear minimum of each scene. The main message was still there, but it was a skeleton of it’s former self. It still had the plot and the comedic bits. It was exausting, but we finally got most of it done over two days, with the bulk of the work being done in the first day.

During the editing process, I helped sift through the raw footage and pick out all of the final shots. I also helped shorted the video down drastically through deleting a scene that was simply a spin around of the main character and added nothing. Sadly, that scene was my idea. I also helped speed up the footage so we did not have to get rid of anything. Our ideas were just too ambitious for 30 seconds. For that reason, we as a group are very exited for the final Cambridge project because of the much larger time limit. We believe we did our best and hope to get a good grade on this assignment.

Filming the commercial

Today we filmed the commercial. I had a great time with my friends, and it really was a great learning experience. We all learned how to do one useful skill, either filming or acting. Our commercial took a more comedic approach to advertising, which I think was a good move because the best way to capture the hearts of young people is to make them laugh. I went and bought props to make the person eating Wendy’s look cool in contrast to the people eating boring food. It worked perfectly. In contrast to the other two actors, I was probably the coolest looking person on the patio at that time.

We only had an hour to film and ten minutes to dump our footage onto the computers, so it did have an air of urgency while we filmed, but that did not stop us from having fun. The person who was filming started out poor at handiling a camera, but his skill increased drastically and he got much better as a whole through the filming time. The same was true for the actors, as our line delivery got less and less amateurish with every time we had to redo the shot. During the filming, our team employed different angles to spice up our commercial and subsequently our filming. Just some of the angles we used were Dutch tilt, handheld tracking shot and zoom in, among many others.

Our commercial tried to break many conventions of the classical Wendy’s commercial. We break the fourth wall many times to connect with a viewer on a more personal level. This approach may allow corporate to sell more chicken nuggets, much to our joy. All in all, it was a fantastic project that I will love doing again. It taught me a lot about the filming process, how the storyboard interacts with the filmers and how important camera placement is and angles. To spice up our commercial, ha ha, it took a lot of thought. But in the end, it was worth it because when we dumped our footage, we strung it together and it looked really good without editing so I can only imagine what it will look like with all the special effects and zooms. I am very excited to see the final product.

Storyboard

Today we storyboarded our commercial. It is so far my favorite part of the project we are doing. Our commercial is half comedic half informative. I predict that it would completely shake the Wendy’s chicken nugget community if we were to release it to the public. The commercial will use many different types of angles but the main ones will be medium shot and wide shot, as they are able to portray the most information in the least amount of time, and time is critical in a commercial because of the limitations put in place by being on television.

Story boarding is a critical part of any visual or in reality any creative endeavour. It allows everyone involved to have a rough idea of how the final product is going to look and at least gives a sekeleton do the design process. It allows for quick changes at a glance and is like a ball of paste to the writers. These aspects of a storyboard make it one of the most important parts of movie making.

We decided to go with a robbery plot with comedic undertones to sell our product. Our commercial will be engaging to connect with our main audience, millennials. The quick nature will allow information to be presented in an efficient and timely manner. Our storyboard allows for changes quickly. Story boarding is a funnway to see the future of the project.

Editing lesson blog

The main program for editing is pinnacle studios. We will only be editing after we film next week. Before we start editing, we need to get the camera from our aice media studies teacher by filling out a form with the number of the camera we are taking out. We use the sd card that it comes with and  plug it in to an sd card reader. We are going to dump the footage onto a folder our group will make for this specific project. After we dump our footages there are many things to do, such as adjusting the audio, cutting the footage and adding text to the movie. But the main focus is to string the raw footage together in a way that makes sense; I.e., making a movie.

To edit in pinnacle studios, you must first input the folder of footage. You have to find your footage in the folder browser and click. Make sure to wait between clicks, as pinnacle studios is slow and handles multiple clicks at the same time poorly. When you finally find your footage, you will be brought to the editing screen where you will see three things, the timeline, the pallet and the preview. The timeline is where you will do the bulk of your work, as it is where you cut, add text and drag footage, among other things. When you do these things, you will be able to view the changes In the preview. When you are finally finished, make sure to export at last. Always save if you cannot get your work done in one sitting.

Planning Blog

Our commercial is going to be on Wendy's new legendary spicy nuggets. Today we are making a blog about our planning stage in our commercial where we will list out the props, costumes, schedule and our backup plan, as well as explain why we chose to do those ideas. The props will bring life to the scene we are trying to set. The costumes will also help set the scene. Making sure our schedule is organized imperative to our project, so all of our group members know when we are brainstorming, filming, and editing. The background plan will be used as a last resort if any of our group members are absent.

Props - 

• chicken nugget container - to give to boring man
• hot sauce - to be used by boring man and still be bored
• gross food - to be eaten by boring man
• lunch plate - used by boring man
• chair - for the boring man to sit in
• table - to be eaten on

Costumes- 

• Regular school-wear- to portray a sense of blandness
• cool wear - when the cool dude with the spicy nuggets walks in
• other cool wear - when the bland guy bites into a nugget

Schedule 

• October 10th/day one - brainstorming
• October 14th/day two - film
• October 16th/day three - editing

Location

• inner cafeteria (if not available - use outside table)

back up plan

• we only have two main characters and one extra, so we can leave out the extra and just have one boring man.
• if the cafeteria is not open, we can just use the outside tables or any other table.

Commercial Conventions

Many commercials use the same tactics and styles to sell their product. We are going to write a Wendy's commercial. We have an idea to do an advertisement about the new Wendy's spicy chicken nuggets because it is the hottest and most hip chicken nugget on the market. We feel very strongly for this new nugget and it made us cry tears of joy when it came back into our lives. Collectively, our group loves Wendy’s chicken nuggets and are excited about the prospect of making a fake commercial.

We will advertise many things in our commercial, such as Wendy’s baconator and their fantastic 4 for 5 deal where you get a burger, fries, a drink and chicken nuggets for only five dollars. But the main focus of the commercial is the delicious spicy chicken nuggets. The commercial will have a hot theme to further prove that Wendy’s spicy chicken nuggets are not to be messed with. We will probably throw the spice onto them in slow motion with rock music on the background. It’s gonna be great.

Some will say that McDonald’s is better. But we will say something along the lines of “not like those other chicken nuggets” or “a kick you won’t get anywhere else!” To go against our main competitor in the spicy chicken buissness, Popeyes, we will show a box of their color (orange) getting smashed by our bigger, better red box of nuggets.

Introductory

Hello! It's very nice to meet you. I am going to be writing on this blog for the next few months. My name is Trent. I really, really like talking. it's basically all I do on a daily basis. But you know what's funny? I can't talk in front of a crowd! insane, right? I know! Its been my weakness ever since I could talk. I remember when I first had to give a presentation in 6th grade. It was about the president I

 was assigned, Eisenhower. I just froze up! I couldn't speak another word!

I am currently in 9th grade. I take lots of classes, and my favorite is chemistry. chemistry is my favorite because I just feel that it is fascinating that everything boils down into the periodic table. another one of my favorite classes in English. one of my most favorite things in the world is to look over a completely proofread essay. I do think school is fun, and putting in hard work is a good feeling.

In my free time, I prefer to either read or play videogames. one of my favorite books is Dr. Jekl and Mr. Hyde. I used to read a ton, but because of schoolwork I have been reading less and less. My favorite drink is Coke. I could drink coke for the rest of my life and be happy.