Creative Critical Reflection
How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?
As a product, my commercial both uses and challenges conventions common to Maybelline commercials. In my commercial I made sure to say the name of the brand and product out loud near the beginning of the commercial. The song I used for background music is similar to the sensual music in the Maybelline commercials. When recording my voice over I did my best to make my voice sound as smooth as possible, and made sure to include any information that one might find in a real commercial. I also made sure to include the wide shots and close-ups common in Maybelline commercials. The biggest conventions my commercial challenged were the glamorous sets and models. I filmed this commercial in my house, and while I love it a lot, it certainly is not as glamorous as the sets common in Maybelline commercials. As the lone actress in this film I was not able to film multiple models as is common in Maybelline commercials. I also lacked some of the ethos that would come from being a model, as while I do think I am good at make-up, I lack real expertise nor have I been hailed as a leader in the field. Furthermore, as someone who is not a model, I do not believe that I would be able to persuade a customer to buy this product, just on the idea that they will look like me. However, I think my average looking appearance may be to the benefit of certain social issues. Many young women face feelings of insecurity or think that they are ugly. The extreme presence of models in print, social media, TV, and many other places adds fuel to this fire. GreatLash is a drugstore mascara, and despite it being the favorite of many model’s it’s average customer is going to be, as the name suggests, average. In this commercial I portrayed an average woman throughout the decades that GreatLash has been on the market. The clothes I wore were not high fashion and my hair was simple. The set just being an average looking house also contributes to the idea that this commercial is meant to relate to the average consumer rather than inspire envy or self loathing. Were this commercial to be seen by a large audience, it may not follow the standard convention of Maybelline using envy to persuade it’s customers to buy products. Instead, it will make the audience feel represented and depending on their age, may make them feel nostalgic for when they first started wearing makeup.
2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?
As a product my commercial engages with my audience in a few ways. The biggest way is that the commercial directly addresses the audience. In the commercial I used phrases such as "your lashes" and "your eyes". Using language like this I am able to persuade the audience to imagine themselves using and buying the product. The other main way my piece engages with audiences is through nostalgia. GreatLash is not a new product by any stretch of the imagination, and a lot of people who wear make-up have either heard of it or have used it in the past. My commercial plays on feelings of longing for the past with it's costumes and voiceover. These aspects of the commercial may cause audiences to remember using the product in the past. If those feelings are fond or if the person wants to check out the product to see why they loved it, it may encourage them to buy it. Were I to distribute this film I would want it to be able to reach its target demographic easily. One of the main places I would distribute this ad would be on youtube. Both as it's own independent video and as a pre-roll advertisement on videos. Assuming that I could choose what types of videos I could advertise before I would aim to play the ad before makeup tutorials. Specifically, I would want the videos it plays before to be aimed at women aged 30 and up. Since one of the main ways I connect with my audience is nostalgia, I would want the majority of the people who see my ad to be old enough to be nostalgic for this product. In terms of more traditional advertising I would also want this advertisement to play on TV. I would obviously like to show this Ad during prime time on major television networks. I would also want the Ad to play during morning and daytime talk shows, such as Good Morning America or The View. My main reasoning for this is that unlike prime time, when people will not be going to the drugstore, showing the commercial during the day will keep it's message clear within the heads; of the audience as they go throughout their day. If they are running errands or simply don't have much else to do, they may buy a tube of GreatLash.
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Over the course of this project my production skills developed in various ways. Before I began filming I made a storyboard, which is something I have never done before. Making a storyboard was surprisingly difficult, as I had trouble translating ideas for shots from my head on to paper. I also learned about costuming. While my costumes were not very elaborate, I think they fit the theme and ambiance of the commercial. I probably learned the most during the filming process. The first and biggest thing I learned how to do in the filming process was how to do all of the shots I needed to do for the commercial. This proved to be a beneficial endeavor, as I was able to include a variety of shots in my project, and I could use them again in future projects. Throughout the project I had to learn to solve problems in little ways so I could keep my vision. For instance, early on, during the second scene I created a makeshift tripod in order to film a long shot. Using problem solving early in the project helped me deal with some of the issues I would encounter later in filming. In future projects I'll know what to do right away should those problems pop up again. During the later parts of the filming production I learned how to direct other people and taught them how to film certain shots and angles. I think this would be a handy skill if I were to go into the film industry, because they are a team endeavor. My editing was a lot more in depth and smooth than my last project, partially thanks to some of the mistakes I made and learned from in my last project, like learning how to make cuts more smooth. One of the biggest things I learned during the editing process was how to apply transitions. The fade from the door to the logo proved trickier than expected because the would always break for a second and show the logo to early. The way I fixed this was by separating the clips a bit on the timeline so there was a little bit of black between the two shots, then I applied two fades to each shot, going in opposite directions. This resulted in a much smoother transition. In future projects I hope to use the skills I develop to help production move along smoother.
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
The first piece of technology I used was Blogger. All of my written blogs and photos were posted here. I don't have access to a camera so I filmed my project on my phone. I'm sure a camera would have resulted in better camera quality but using a phone had its benefits as well. It was easy to hide if it could be seen in a reflection and it was much easier to do close-ups because it was small and easy to hold to my face. I'm lucky enough to have a phone with a lot of storage now, so I did not have to rely on a secondary storage device to transfer my videos. I recorded my voice-over on the open source audio editing software Audacity using my compression microphone. I certainly could have spent some time fiddling around with audio effects and editing since audacity has a lot to offer, but I was much more focused on video editing. I uploaded my videos to Google Photos and then downloaded them onto my desktop. By using a cloud storage software I was able to transfer videos between devices easily. I used OpenShot to edit my video and insert my voice over and music. I am a lot more comfortable with OpenShot than I was before, and like it a lot as an editing software. In order to add the slogan to the Maybelline logo, which I found on Google Images, I used the browser based photo editor Canva. I did not want to download another software to my computer and Canva was easy to navigate and perfect for something as simple as adding text. One of the final pieces of technology I used was YouTube. I had used it earlier in my project to look for royalty-free music and I used it at the very end as a hosting site for my commercial.
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