Editing Our Commercial

Today, we returned back to the filming process for about 30 minutes to finish some extra scenes. We first filmed a trunk shot of us opening our Happy Meal boxes. We also filmed a tracking shot where we walked out of the McDonalds doors to the outdoor seating. We did run into a few problems with props including leaving them in the classroom, but we managed to finish in a good amount of time to be able to come back, dump, and begin writing our blogs. On that note, we made our way back to the class and dumped all of the footage from today into our folder. To do this, we started by using a SD card reader to connect our SD card to the computer. I opened the folder that we had used the previous class to store our footage on so we could keep all of the footage together. Then, I opened the DCIM folder and scrolled until I found our footage from today. Next, I highlighted all of the files and dragged them into our folder. This took a few seconds to fully transfer.  Since we were done with filming, we wanted to begin editing so we wouldn't fall behind.

Although we were completely ready and dumped all of our footage, Pinnacle Studio wouldn’t work for the computers in our classroom. Instead of editing we decided to go over and organize our footage in chronological order. We started by pulling out our storyboard to ensure what we were doing was correct. Then, we took the footage today of us walking out of McDonalds and added that as first. Next, we took the footage of us walking to the table and reviewed the audio. We put these shots as second on the list. Then, we put the footage of the waitress taking our order and placed that after us sitting down. Next, we took the scene from today where we look into our Happy Meal boxes and are surprised at what we find. Then, we put the footage of us realizing that the Barbies had the same careers we wanted to be. Lastly we put the scene of us playing with the Barbies.

We also recorded our voice overs today. There is a voice over at the very end of the McDonalds commercial where we sing the "I'm lovin' it" jingle. Also, since the computers are no longer working with Pinnacle Studio we needed to find a new way to store our footage. We put our footage on two different computers by accident so the whole class there was a student working on it. However, we managed to get our footage from today on my Google Drive. We did this simply by opening a new folder in the drive and then highlighting, dragging, and dropping the files. We then waited for the student to finish. When the class period ended, I stayed back to move the files onto my drive. I made sure to add it to the same folder as the other files. I also placed it back in chronological order. Overall, there was plenty of transferring and organizing that went into today's class.

Filming Blog for McDonald's Commercial

The process of filming our Happy Meal commercial did take a lot of time and effort but we were able to complete the majority of it. In the commercial, I played one if the children that received a Happy Meal. However, I did help with camera angles before the scenes were shot. For example, before the scene where the children walk to the table with their mom, i was able to set the camera to a position where the camera girl would create a tilt shot. We were able to film more than half of our commercial in the time we had between lunches to film on the senior patio. My group member Jahrvia played the other child and was in charge of props and costumes. My group member Anishka was in charge of directing and shooting the majority’s of the commercial. She also played the McDonalds waitress. Lastly, my  group member Aaliyah played the mom. She was responsible for props also and the overall scripts and parts of each scene to add more excitement.

We started the process by gathering our materials to start with. This included our camera, tripod, SD card, and pass to be outside. Next, we headed straight to the senior patio area in the school. We had to be aware of the people eating lunch in an hour so we filmed fairly quick. We then put in our SD card and connected the camera to the tripod. We set the tripod up at a wide angle so the audience could see the table we were using for the commercial. We began filming the scene on our storyboard where we finish talking about what we wanna be when we grow up and then sit down at the table. We had to do a couple of these become we were worried about the sound on the videos being too low. Then, we filmed the scene where the waiter comes and asks what we would like to order. We were able to include a close up of the mom character ordering Happy Meals.

The next scene filmed was of the children showing each other their toys. Then they ask the mom to go play and begin a conversation on how their Barbies match the future career they want to have. We managed to incorporate over the shoulder shots to sho the girls talking to each other. The children then turn to the camera, which is now at a wide angle, and say “Barbie, You Can Be Anything” right before it fades to the McDonalds sign and jingle. Once we we’re finished with these scenes, we decided to head back to the classroom and dump our footage. Since we had it written down in our notes, this process only took a couple of minutes. Since we were complete so quick, we went back to review some of the shots taken. As stated before, we were very worried about the audio. However, the audio maintains sound that is perfect for the commercial and for us to put sounds on top of it. The overall filming process was definitely fun, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Storyboard Blog: Our Commercial

For this portion of our commercial project, my group members and I story boarded and completely finalized everything from shots to sound. Our commercial includes sounds like a voiceover and music. The commercial will include a beginning establishing shot of McDonald’s and then cut to a medium close up of the children walking out of McDonald’s to the outdoor seating area. That shot will consist of dialogue between the girls on what they want to be when they grow up.  The girls will then be filmed from eye level, getting their orders taken but the waiter. Next, there is going to be a cutaway to the mother, who will be filmed at a close up, who tells the waiter what they want and, featuring an over the shoulder shot, the waiter will respond back. After that, the commercial will transition to a spilt screen and begin fairly playing the Barbie “You Can Be Anything” jingle. While the screen is still split and the music is still playing, the left side will have a point of view shot of one of the girls while the right side is a trunk shot from inside of the Happy Meal box. During this scene, the girls are also talking to each other and saying that they received the matching toy to their future careers stated at the beginning of the commercial. Finally, the camera will zoom out on the family and fade into the McDonald sign along with the “I’m lovin it” jingle and the words “You Can Be Anything”. Overall, our commercial will feature the traditional conventions that a Happy Meal commercial is made up of. The toys, the box, and the theme will be include all through the commercial. The storyboard process for this project was a good way to summarize what my blogs have been explaining. The story boarding process lays out a whole outline on the schedule/process for ur project. The one thing I wish I could include is indoor. However, this commercial will probably give a new perspective on how Happy Meal commercials are shot and edited.

Editing Lesson Blog

The editing process for media is the process of cutting and putting video clips together along with adding special effects such as music, words, and transitions. Editing takes place in the post-production stage of the film making process and is probably one of the most important parts because without editing there would just be a bunch of raw footage. Today, I've learned the entire process of editing from audio to transitions. To start, you must dump your footage taken from the camera to the computer. Then, you're supposed to open a folder on your computer by right clicking. Take the SD card out of your camera and insert it into a SD card reader that attaches to the computer. When the window pops up, there will be a folder titled DCIM and that's where you would find the footage. If the footage doesn't show, go to private then click the AVICHD folder and all of the footage could be found. When you find your footage click stream and you should be able to recover the videos. After all of this, you have to move all of the files to the folder you created. You do this by highlighting and dragging all of the clips together to the folder on the desktop screen.

The next step in the editing process is to import from the computer to the actual program, Pinnacle Studio. When you open the program, you have to switch to edit mode by clicking on the word edit and wait for it to be highlighted. A huge tip is to not try and rush Pinnacle Studio because it can crash easily which can cause progress to be erased. Next, you're going to click import, go to desktop and click the plus sign. If you just click desktop, it's not going to work. When the screen with all of the clips pops up, all of the clips on the desktop will be highlighted so you must uncheck all of them and only select the footage you will be editing. Click the 'Start Import' button and wait until all of the clips show up. The video will be built on the AV2 track not on the AV1 OR AV3. The AV1 track will have titles while the AV3 track will have music/audio.

To start creating your video, drag your first clip to the AV2 track and wait for the yellow bar to disappear. Continue to add your clips and begin cutting. To cut, put the player right over where you want to separate the clips and then erase the part that needs to be cut. For others options like transitions and effects, right click open editor and add as needed. You can also detach audio by right clicking over it and deleting it. For titles hit T and create the title you want. Lastly,  next to import, click export and make sure it is saved in mp3.

Planning Blog For Happy Meal Commercial

As stated in my previous blog, McDonalds has developed new ways to advertise their famous Happy Meals. Our Happy Meal commercial is going to be similar to the new ones in the way it is formatted and features a theme based on the toy given out. The theme this time of year through October 14, 2019 is Barbie and Hot Wheels which are both branches of the company Mattel. In this commercial, we will focus on the "You Can be Anything" aspect of Barbie. Three out of the four of us working on this project will be playing the parts of the children at McDonalds talking and receiving Happy Meals. The other person is going to act like the cashier/worker at McDonalds.

In order to create this commercial at school, we will need to use various Mis en Scene subjects so the audience knows what's going on. As props, we will include the famous red Happy Meal box with the golden smile and arches. Inside of the box, there will be the food boxes, the sides, the drink, and of course the toy. For costuming, the worker will wear all black and the other three of us will be dressed as young children who just came from school, included in our costume will be our school backpacks. As for the schedule, we will first set up around the front of the school to show that the kids are leaving and heading to McDonalds. Then the cameras will follow us for a few seconds and then cut to McDonalds which will be filmed on senior patio to show an outdoor seating area. Next the camera will become a trunk shot and show the faces of the kids when they open their boxes as they take out their toys and reveal what barbie toy they recieved.

In my introductory blog I stated that I do go to Fort Lauderdale High School in South Florida. With South Florida, weather can be unpredictable. If there is a case where it starts to rain, we would move the McDonalds scene to either the media center or the cafeteria if we are allowed. If not we will do the same that we would do with the introduction scene; move it under shelter. Also, If one of our members decides they can't be there, we will learn each others parts and switch roles.

Research Blog: Conventions and Codes

My classmates and I have decided to create a commercial for McDonalds' Happy Meals. Over the years, McDonalds has become more and more creative in they way they include the theme of the toys found in the box into the overall commercial along with creating and including their own app for children to play on. Starting with a Happy Meal commercial from 1979, the Happy Meal franchise has used different families and characters to advocate for the fun size meal for children. Families of different backgrounds and characters of different species and/or occupations have all been included in the 30 seconds of laughing, dancing, and eating. In a Happy meal commercial, you would usually find that there's the signature box that is either all red with the golden arches are it's decorated in the McDonalds characters and/or the theme for that month's toy. The commercials also include a family coming in for lunch and being surprised at what toy they found at the bottom of their box. In more recent years, McDonalds has animated the Happy Meal box itself instead of using the old characters (Ronald McDonald, Hamburglar). Animators have also allowed for McDonalds to us their characters as a way to promote the toys (ex. Shrek).


Another thing that is always in a McDonalds commercial whether it's for Happy Meals or not, they always use the signature jingle and slogan. The slogan states, "I'm lovin it" and usually ends the commercial. "Buh da buh buh buhhhh", is usually what the narrator or characters say right before the ending of the commercial. Some other sounds in Happy Meal commercials usually deal with the toy that is being given out. For example, a recent 2019 McDonalds commercial features the song Hakuna Matata from the 2019 version of Disney's the Lion King. The family in the commercial were also dressed up like characters from the Lion King and recreated the scene in the song where Simba, Timon, and Pumba walk and sing in a straight line. McDonalds Happy Meal commercials also give promotions every once in a while. Whenever there's a new movie or TV show, McDonalds gets the toys for it and then makes sure to tell its viewers to go see the movie. Even if it's for a new toy, McDonalds promotes a different version. Lastly, a personal example would be from the early 2000s when the company Kidz Bop started to become popular. McDonalds used to give out the CDs for kids to listen to at home. I probably have all of them somewhere in my house!

In conclusion, McDonalds has used a lot of the same techniques to get the attention of their audience while still receiving brand deals and lots of success. Even though they have used the same jingle and the same concepts, McDonalds has found a way to give the audience the most interesting commercials. From 1979 to now, McDonalds has created an extremely family- friendly environment to ensure that their restaurants could be a place to spend time with the ones you love while still having fun! As an ode to the old McDonalds, I personally believe it would be fun to bring back the old characters that kids would love but also maybe be a little bit terrified of. However, for this specific project, a techniques like the one used to promote the Lion King may be the smartest way to go because it is relevant to today's generation. With each Happy Meal commercial on Disney channel or Nickelodeon, kids beg their parents to go and McDonalds gains more revenue as a whole. The way these commercials evolve with the time is just a great reason why they're still so popular today. This project is definitely going to be a good way to start off the process towards the final project.

Introductory

Hello, my name is Lauren and I am a sophomore at Fort Lauderdale High School. I was born February 26, 2004, which makes me a pisces, in South Florida. My mother's side of the family is from Germany and my father was born in Haiti. I happen to be a varsity soccer player, a majorette in the band, and a choreographer for the dance team at my school. My favorite color is purple, my favorite show is Stranger Things, and my favorite food/snack are French fries. In the future, I would like to pursue a career in performing arts, whether it's acting or dancing or maybe even both! This AICE Media Studies class  could definitely lead me on the path in that industry. I choose to take this course for that reason and because I am very curious on the process of making movies, television, commercials, etc.

I have lived in South Florida my entire life. As a child, I took up baton twirling, ballet. tap, and lyrical dancing with ribbon work. I continued this until I was around 5 which, which is when I began kindergarten. About two years later, I was introduced to the sport of soccer which I immediately took a liking to and became good quick. During my early soccer career, I also took a liking to competitive cheerleading and returned to ballet. I competed for cheer for about three years before I decided to focus on soccer and ballet. When I got to middle school, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a well rounded dancer and began taking jazz and lyrical. Now, I play soccer, take technique classes, baton twirl and choreograph for the dance team at my school.

As I stated before, I am very fond of the arts and want to be apart of the overall process when I am older. AICE Media is a great way for me to apply what I have learned in previous AICE courses about writing and analyzing to a subject that I'm actually interested in. I haven't gone into much depth researching for college yet, however, I see NYU as a possible option because of the success among students in the industry. Not only will AICE Media give me an opportunity at an AICE Diploma, but it will also give me intel on what I may need to know for my future. I was an active member of the National Junior Honor Society at my middle school, and maintained a very high GPA. I happen to be a Great Explorations in Math student which means I am taking Pre calculus as a sophomore instead of a senior. Overall, I feel that my grades and programs that I have been apart of lay a strong foundation for my college career. AICE media studies is one of these programs that will help me get far in my preferred job industry.