Critical reflection questions

Our commercial was based in a high school setting with a modern-day issue. A student had a low-quality backpack that was very dysfunctional and needed a solution. She sees other students walk by with Jansport backpacks and judges her for not having one as well. She gets the idea that that is what she needs, a Jansport backpack. Once she gets her new backpack not only does it hold all of her books perfectly but she is able to make friends with the "cool kids". At the end of our commercial, we disclaim that Jansport does not support nor condone bullying in any way. It takes the idea of bullying in a school setting and uses it to promote the product highlighted. 

Our commercial targets anyone who may have a backpack but mainly school students. It takes the idea of bullying, an issue that is very common amongst students, and uses it to advertise a product also used amongst students. We used the comedic narrative to appeal to the youth. Our goal was that when you are watching you are not only being informed but entertained. A commercial like this would be very successful on air because it has a targeted audience, uses language that appeals to the specific audience, and is not only persuasive but amusing as well. It is a very creative way to successfully advertise a product.

My production skills have definitely improved immensely throughout this project. When we started I was familiar with different camera angles and movements but only had experience using a few. This was a good opportunity to increase my knowledge of the filmmaking process. We had to get creative with the message we wanted to send and come up with several ideas on how we wanted to film and edit this project. My favorite part was the editing. Collectively as a group we came up with several ideas on how we wanted our commercial to be edited. At first, I was a bit nervous since I had never edited a video before but once I got familiar with the editing software it was quite easy. I was able to get creative with the software and produce an amazing project.

I used iMovie to edit the commercial since it was the simplest but most effective. I was able to shorten each clip to the part we needed and combine them to make our 30-second commercial. I was also able to include lighting changes, sound effects, background music, and a voiceover to improve the quality of our commercial. The video started out with gloomy lighting that you couldn't really notice until it switch to bright lighting to demonstrate the change in mood. I incorporated sound effects and background music to have a more lively and interactive experience for viewers. I also decided to add a narrative voiceover to make it even more entertaining. Overall this project was quite enjoyable, and the best part was that we did it all from our phone and computer.