Creative Critical Reflection for Powerade Commercial

 How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

Powerade is a brand, in which their drinks are made to give people energy during exercising. They advertise their drink and throw in their slogan, "Power Through". I incorporated the common conventions used in commercials by the product I used such as the workout theme or the outdoor setting. The costumes represent as an athletic fit used to exercise in. As for the lighting, natural lighting from the sun was used. The mis-en-scene represents the social groups such as athletes and body builders, in which they work up a sweat. For example, the scenes where the actor was doing jumping jacks, squats etc. represented the brand's target audience. It let viewers know the commercial was meant for people who workout to stay fit. 

How does your product engage with the audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My commercial would be distributed as an ad on social platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. My commercial would be seen while watching a YouTube video or as they scroll through Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter etc. It may also be seen on TV on numerous channels, especially sports channels due to the brand used in my commercial. For example, whenever a sports fan is watching a game and it cuts to commercial, my film would be seen to reel them in. As for promoting, it would be the easiest to use Instagram or Facebook. When one person likes an ad, it would be seen on the timeline or explore page of their followers. Another social platform that can be used to promote is Tik Tok. When people like and share the ad, it will be shown on others explore page and spread. People who enjoy watching sports and/or exercises to stay fit would watch my commercial and spread it to others through Snapchat, Instagram, etc. They may also buy the product being used in the commercial.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Originally, I did not have that much experience in recording and editing. I have seen people make edits based off of music artists and actors and I wanted to attempt working on a project like that, however the apps and software they used would cost money. One time, I tried making an edit off a free editing app and was very confused as to how to do certain cuts and effects. I ended up giving up and later on tried again. My second attempt to learning how to record and edit went better than my first. I got comfortable with the iMovie editing app by the Apple company. It made editing much easier. When I began working on this project, I was still a little clueless on how to record shots and angles. I watched YouTube videos and practiced. I then began recording and it went better than I thought, event though I still need to work on the skill. I also learned new features and tricks in editing videos. I believe my production skills developed to the point where I can figure out how to find and use features on any editing software.

How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online- in this project?

I used my iPhone to record all of my scenes. I used the features off of the camera to adjust the lighting that I needed for each scene. The iPhone also has a microphone that captures the audio in the scenes. As for editing, I used iMovie and Picsart which are two applications that were downloaded to my phone. I used iMovie to adjust and clip the scenes. I also used the filter features on the app to change the hue of the commercial. I used Picsart to edit the product's logo by using the text feature off of the app and inserted it to iMovie. I also screen recorded my background audio and used iMovie to add it to the film. After putting the commercial together, I then had to use Google photos to transfer and download to my computer to begin the process of turning it into a Youtube video. I uploaded the commercial to the studio on my channel and used the same logo photo I edited on Picsart as the thumbnail.