AICE Media Studies

  Today my group did the first part of our filming for the commercial project. The filming was done outside, on our school's track. I was the primary actor in our project, since there are only two of us. When we began filming, we first had to work out the minutiae of how we wanted to handle everything procedurally- if we were to take shots in order or do all of the running shots first, then the drinking shots, then the Gatorade. We also worked out where our cameraman would be standing for each shot and how he would be panning or zooming. After these details were settled, we began filming. We'd decided on doing the running first, so we did a few different takes for each section. There are 3 main shots of running in the first half, so we took these shots first. I started from a similar point of the track each time and jogged to an orange mark further down the track each time, which served as our "finish line." We had to do several retakes of this, and eventually modifie

          Scene 1:  Scene 1 will be a tracking shot, following an actor running on a track outdoors.  The shot will be primarily wide, and not focused on the actor themselves, and will last for four to five seconds.  The runner will be dressed in lightly-colored athletic clothes and running shoes.     Scene 2: Scene 2 will consist of the wide tracking shot from the first scene continuing, partially switching to a behind-the-back shot as the runner passes the camera. It will then cut to an extreme close-up of an iPhone, which will be running a stopwatch showing a time, likely in the thirty second range.      Scene 3: Scene 3 will cut back to the runner, this time as a medium long shot from behind the runner and will show them running for several seconds, before they pass a marker on the ground which will indicate the end of the run. They will then stop running and exit the track. There will be another cut back to the iPhone stopwatch, displaying a stopped time.     Scene 4: Scene 4 will

 Props: Due to the fact that our commercial is for Gatorade, the main focus will be a Gatorade bottle. The rest falls under costumes or purely background material. Costumes: Our group members are both going to be actors, with a main focus on one of them. Both will be wearing athletic-style clothes, lighter in color (either light gray or actually colored). They will be wearing shoes which would be considered typical for running, but not specifically running shoes due to their cost. Schedule: 9/22/21: Our group researched commercials of the same form with similar products to develop an idea of what the conventions for this type of film are, and did basic planning for our commercial, such as costume ideas and the continuity of events. 9/24/21 and 9/28/21: Our group will be coordinating and planning for our commercial further, and possibly making minor tweaks to the plot, visuals, or other features. We will also be storyboarding our commercial on these dates. 9/30/21 and 10/4/21: Our group

  My group did research regarding our commercial project today. We are going to be doing a commercial for Gatorade, so we researched popular Gatorade commercials which have run recently.  Props: We found that they often utilize very similar props and costumes, such as the actors wearing recognizably athletic clothes, Gatorade bottles and the Gatorade logo being very prominent, and sports equipment such as weights or tennis rackets. Sound: Gatorade commercials always select fast-paced, emotive music such as EDM or R&B, occasionally with a stop followed by the music starting again. Conventions: There is generally very little dialogue in Gatorade commercials, and if there is, it is almost always a VoiceOver. There is also manipulation of the color palette so that it is very muted before Gatorade is shown or consumed and very vibrant after Gatorade is shown or consumed. This is reflected in both the actors' clothing and in the background tones. Gatorade also generally features a sl

 For the commercial project, I'm considering two possible options. The first of these is to simply work alone. I prefer working alone for any number of reasons. I often find my classmates to be unreliable in their timing, and sometimes I'll be waiting for them to complete their part for hours or days, which is always unnerving. I also double-check the actual quality of the work itself, since I want to make sure that it is sufficiently thorough and informative compared to the work I know I can vouch for. I suppose my dislike of group projects comes from a natural distrust, or perhaps a feeling of my classmates being unreliable. However, generally my classmates are actually very diligent about their work and I believe my disbelief in them is largely misplaced. However, working alone brings up numerous practical problems- I would have to conceptualize, research, film, edit, and reshoot the entire project myself, which would be extremely tedious. I am also considering working with,

 My name is Jacob Vanzile, but I prefer to go by Jake. I'm in 11th grade and this is my first year in AICE Media. Truth be told, this course wasn't exactly what I thought it was- I was under the impression that it was more focused on studying how forms of media affect our lives and the various opinions within them, rather than a class solely regarding filming and film terms. However, I decided to stick with it rather than transferring out, as I thought it could still be interesting. I like to read, write, and draw and have played tennis for about eight years. I do play on the school team when it is in season, and I also play recreationally and practice outside of the school. In my house, we watch movies very frequently, so that was definitely an easy way this class could be applied to my everyday life. My mom was also interested and still is in what I'm learning in this class, because she minored in film in college. I only need one more AICE credit in order to complete the