I'm packing you an extra pair of shoes, and your *angry* eyes, just in case.

Well, I have completed my commercial, but I can't yet post it here because YouTube has refused to let me upload it at this point in time. I'm very happy with it, although I'd like to get someone else to do the announcer voice, because right now it's me. I edited it in Adobe Premier, which is pretty nice in letting you do things with the video aspect, but anytime I wanted to do something with the audio portion, I had to go over to Adobe Audition and fix it there, which got slightly annoying. That gives me more practice in Audition though, so that's a good thing.

Also this week I ran camera one for the interview segment of "The County Line." I love running camera, what with wearing the headset and doing on-air zooms. It's probably my favorite technical job, although I also like doing sound and being in charge of the microphones. Anything where I get to press buttons and move sliders and check levels is okay with me.

Other than that, I just hope to get my commercial posted later this week.

And you thought it was only in movies...

Well, I have much more respect for commercial makers now. It is not an easy job. I was handed an idea for a commercial, and I still had a crazy time putting everything together. Once I got a script written, I had to revise it after being advised against two person shots with dialogue. Then I had to cast actors, and find a time schedule that everyone was free during (including the camera). Luckily it was nice and sunny out during that time, because it mostly takes place outside. Another problem I ran into was having a car to use as a prop, because I don't own one. Luckily, a friend of one of the actresses had one that he was willing to let us use, so that worked out nicely. I'm also grateful to one of the members of my capstone class, because she was my tech person, and she was great at it. It's nice to have people you can turn to for help, because it's impossible to do everything on your own. So now I am relieved to have everything shot, but the next goal will be editing this weekend.

I also made a resume this week, and went to the career center today to help me perfect it. Hopefully I'll be able to get it down to one page and make it look professional. More goals!

Through the Web of the Spider

Picture 081, originally uploaded by B. Weaver.

Last week, for our capstone, our whole class had to do Titan Traverse out in the woods to bond us together as a class. We had to do a number of activities, but they all involved working together as a team. For example, we played a game where one person was blindfolded, and their partner had to use words to tell them where to go and what to do. It's very difficult to be totally dependent on someone else. Another game we played was the spiderweb game, and that consisted of getting all 12 people in our class through some rope that had people sized holes tied into it, only we couldn't touch the rope, and many holes were high off the ground. So we had to discuss our strategy and trust each other in order to successfully complete this task. This is going to be an important part in our actual capstones as well, because as a broadcasting major, it is very hard to do everything by yourself. You have to ask other people for help, work out time schedules, trust that everyone will show up when they promised, and be willing to help others yourself. Many lessons were illustrated during Titan Traverse, and it made me feel much closer to the others in my class, so I am glad we were able to do such a valuable activity.

Ducats

One of my favorite examples of convergence in advertising is a Coca-Cola commercial that used a well known video game to sell Coke, but they twisted the video game so it was the exact opposite mood that you expected. Grand Theft Auto is a highly popular game that is all about doing missions in a car, and it usually involves car crashes and killings and other forms of misfortune. So when the commercial starts it is immediately recognizable as GTA, and the audience assumes bad things are soon to be coming. But the commercial totally switches it up with an upbeat song and good deeds - all, of course, which were supposedly brought on because the protagonist drinks Coke. I don't like the video game, but I loved how Cocoa-Cola turned it around. If there were a video game like that, I'd be all in favor of it.