Critical Reflection Blog

My commercial project uses conventions, because I included the typical props, costumes, and style of Vans commercials, based on my research. While I was looking at different commercials of Vans, I noticed that most of them include skating, and the settings are either, skate parks, garages, or just the open road. I attempted to include most of these conventions into my own commercial. Such as, trying to do a skate trick and showing the many benefits of the shoes. The project includes the social group of skaters, and it represents the importance of a good shoe while skating.

My commercial engages with audiences, because I included certain styles and aspects to it that can correlate to having fun and being happy. For example, I included up-bet and fun music that many people can enjoy in my commercial. I also edited some bright filters and shot my commercial with the sunset in the background, because the audience can enjoy it more and find it visually pleasing to them. It would be distributed as a real media text, because I specifically appealed the commercial to people who enjoy collecting good shoes, and those who skate with Vans. The commercial could be distributed to those types of audiences to help with a better understanding of the purpose and the benefits of Vans.

My production skills have definitely progressed from this project. I have learned how different angles, shots, and camera movements look first-hand. My editing skills have also improved since my last project, for instance, transitions. My transitions in my commercial look a lot smoother and less choppy than before. My filming, editing, and production skills in the beginning were very limited, but with this project, I have much more knowledge on media and production.

I integrated certain software and technology into this project, such as my phone and my computer. For filming, I used my phone, since it had a camera with really good quality and I can easily export it to my computer. My phone is also very portable and lightweight, so it wouldn't cause any complications with taking it to different settings. For the editing part of the project, I used the program iMovie on my computer. The settings are much more advanced on the computer than the iMovie on my phone, so it definitely helped with trimming the clips more precisely, and also editing which part of the song I want to play in the background. For the filters and the text of the clips, however, I used an app on my phone called, Prequel, which has a huge variety of filters and editing software.