Commercial pitches: something to go up the hill, meat black market, invisible earphones, camouflage earphones, 

Final Commercial Idea: BBA Secret Helper - earbud that connects to a cup on a string to help during tests

      Henry was director for this commercial film. Carter was director of photography. Jarret controlled the lighting. I was going to be in charge of sound during shooting, but we decided not to use on-set sound. Therefore, I was an extra in two of our shots. Emily and Laura were our actors.

     We had a few good ideas for the commercial, and then we became more focused on earbuds or something to feed answers during class. Henry told us about the commercial that he did last year; it was for an ear bud that students could use to get the answers during tests. He said that it didn't turn out very well and was blurry. We decided to use the same idea and make a better film. Emily is the student who is struggling during her test then gets the earbud and easily passes her test. Laura is the person below the window saying the answers to Emily through the earbud.

     We decided to use Mr. Hunter's room because we knew he didn't have a class and his room would work well since the window was right next to the courtyard and on the first floor. Henry made the storyboard. We had Laura dress in all black and Emily dress in her normal school clothes. We filmed Emily taking the test with her back to the corner between the whiteboard and the windows in Mr. Hunter's room. The next day we filmed Laura talking into the cups outside by the window.

     Overall, our shooting of the footage was very successful. Henry said that Carter did a much better job than what his video last year had. I think our angles of shots and the lighting angles were solid.

     For the audio, Henry wanted a few different people to do the narration that Henry and Jarrett and I wrote so that he could decide which one would work best. In the end, we used mine. I worked hard to make a good voice-over and tried to remember the effective commercial voice-overs from past films. I used a Tas cam recorder for both my recording and ours actors' ones. It was easy to get it on the sd card and for Henry to get it onto his computer to put on Final Cut Pro.

    Henry did most of the editing of the footage. Jarrett mostly did the graphics, primarily the end page advertising the BBA Secret Helper. I helped Jarret a little bit, giving input on orientations and funny lines to add in. Even though the video is quick and likely no one would read it, I thought it was important to make the end screen really good.

      Once Henry uploaded our final video to vimeo, I thought it was not finished because it seemed bland without sound. But I realized halfway through that he had just started it once Emily put the earbud in her ear and the mood of the film because happy. I think that decision was solid. We made a solid film and have a good chance to get nominated for the Gawliks.

Canon T3I / T5I - we used these cameras for the commercials

Cinematic - describing motion picture

Continuity -  unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over time.

Director - person takes control and plans out how the film looks and how to shoot it

Director of Photography - person who sets up camera and figuring out what shot looks best

Dissolve or fade - to go away slowly and naturally; not choppy or sudden

Editing - the process of cutting film 

Editor - the person in charge of editing shots and film

Establishing shot - the first shot of a new scene

Eyeline / Eyeline Matching - the area where the eyes are in the shot

Green Screen -screen that you can portray any picture on

Pre-production - work done on a product, especially a film or broadcast program, before full-scale production begins.

Post-production - production done after shooting films

Shot List - List of shots planned before actually shooting

Shotgun Mic - Tubular microphone which records sound directly given at mic

Storyboard - Frames/ shots of story that is being told in film

Transition - frame/frames that make going between scenes seamless

Voice-over - Dialogue to go over scenes for part pf the audio

Daily Notes:

• the commercials should be almost stupid and impractical so that it is funny to watch, especially for BBA students and teachers
• each shot is important, even though they're very quick in a commercial
• we need to ask the teacher if we can use their room ahead of time
• don't use Mr. Hunter's room on a cold day with an open window shot
• figure out what will be in the shot so you only need to spend time worrying about the important stuff in the scene
• don't break the 180 rule
• remember what the actors' hair and clothes looked like on the last shot so that it can be the same every time
•  a film can be killed if a ponytail is on a different side of an actor's head
• music helps a commercial and can make it funnier

     I chose to watch the Godfather because I have heard about it a lot, not only because it is on the Top 100 films list. I got the feeling that it was a very influential film, even to the casual watcher who only saw it once. My dad called it a classic, and I knew I would watch it anyway and decided to do the write up on it for this review. The movie was definitely amazing and very attention-capturing throughout the whole three hours. I am going to watch the next two movies for sure, sometime in the future. I would recommend this film to any high school student or adult who wants to experience great film making or understand the hidden culture of 19th century New York. 

     The cameras were obviously not close to as advanced as we have today, but it did affect my viewing of it much at all. The great angles and orientations of the actors in every scene made them easy for the eye to watch and stressed the emotions in each scene. Like in the opening scene, above in the video, the camera got close to Vito Corleone or his son Michael when they grew full of emotion or were about to say something very important. I think that alone added to the suspense of the entire movie. 

     Another subtle but important aspect is the audio, mainly the music. The sound effects were pretty good, although not greatly realistic. But they made the violence scenes more dramatic and added to the fear in both me and the characters. I think the music aspect was interesting, in that the only song I remember with lyrics was the ones at the wedding when the actual characters were singing in real time. It's common for movies to not have lyrics, but I think it was interesting how subtle the music was and how it quietly helped transition between scenes and increase the emotions just slightly. The film did not give much focus to the music but was added to just enough by it.

       It interested me how when the actors' characters were shot, they generally shook and jump back and forth like they were being tasered. I guess this was to stress that they were being shot when special effects and make up and fake blood were not as advanced. But I feel like that caught my attention too much, even though I am watching it 40 years after it was made. The actors did make it believable though, and I think the shot angles, especially the last one of Luca Patzi getting choked with the camera in the far doorway, really helped the drama and suspense. While they only had limited special effects, I think the death scenes helped put the film onto a higher level of film making, since there were so many death scenes throughout. And although it was disturbing and unfortunate, the horse head in the bed was so shocking and significant that it set the mood for the rest of the movie.