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2015: Four years ago, the creation of this blog with text and a couple of pictures tested the limits of my multimedia skills. What follows is my journey through new media, multimedia and social media. We will journey through Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox and shooting network-acceptable tornado video with what's always in my pocket.
Hello Advanced Video Students. This is my first attempt at blogging, so please forgive the learning curve.
ReplyDeleteAssignment: analyze a Super Bowl commercial. See the instructions I sent in your RSU email. Copy and paste your one-page paper by clicking on POST COMMENT.
I personally loved the 2012 Volkswagen Passat commercial where there was a little kid in a Darth Vader costume, and he was going around trying to use “The Force” on household items. The commercial was filmed extremely well in my opinion. The great thing about the commercial was that it told story in a very unique way. The VW commercial was over the 2012 Volkswagen Passat. What made the commercial unlike any of the other Superbowl commercials was that it used no spoken words. Instead the VW commercial used the Starwars theme song. In the VW commercial there was around 20 shots. Around ten medium shots, four close ups, five wide shots, and one extreme close up. The very beginning of the commercial had one pan, it was from the ground to Darth Vader. The theme of the message was nothing Darth was trying to use “The Force” on would work, the only thing that worked was the VW. Maybe that could of been a underlying message. What it also did was display a few features of the new VW, including push to start and a redesign interior. This commercial was more “cute” than humorous, which I think would make more Americans want to buy this vehicle, not to mention it is obvious VW is trying to target Generation X, because Starwars was very popular while most Americans in their 30’s and early 40’s were growing up, and not as much today with younger kids. In my opinion, this commercial was extremely effective, both in a entertainment aspect, as well as in advertising. Maybe VW was trying to portray the Passat as family vehicle. Here’s a link to the commercial.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0
Doritos pug attack
ReplyDeleteAlthough I had many favorites, my super bowl commercial pick would be the Doritos Pug Attack. The commercial is based on Doritos. A young guy likes messing with his girlfriends pug about eating Doritos. The location would be in the house of his girlfriend; the guy closes the see through door because he thought that the dog wouldn’t be able to do anything. As the guy is having such a good time by taunting the dog, the dog runs and slams the door on his face and starts eating the Doritos. There were not so many lines spoken, just the guy saying “oh babe check this out”, “you want a little (to the dog), “are you hungry” and the girlfriend saying “babe don’t hurt my dog”. At the beginning they show a close up the guy smiling and waving a Doritos chip. As the scene progresses they show a wide shot of the pug, but the closer he starts running they have a closer shot. I think that they used a good variety of close ups-medium and wide shots. There wasn’t so much match action, but I can say they had a little by showing the dog running “slow motion” then quicker to hit the door, and as you see that happen you see the dogs face in the door before he takes it down. Most of the zooms on this commercial was on the pug itself or the Doritos bag. The shots are about 4 seconds. The reaction of the guy on this commercial is very hilarious. In my opinion the message if very affective-don’t mess with dog, ha-ha. But no it was affective. I think that the Doritos Pug attack commercial did achieve its goal of being funny and the dramatic part would be the dog actually taking down the door (which you would not expect to happen). I’ve always like Doritos even before this commercial, so it did not really play into affect of me buying the product. If you missed it, check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc
Volkswagon has long been a very clever company when it comes to marketing campaigns. After World War II Germany built a car which was a rather unstylish car but was very compact, reliable, and inexpensive. The German company went with very smart advertising ads with slogans like “Think Small” exemplifying the benefits of a small car. The company also ran ads that said, “Lemon” and expressed how picky inspectors were of cars and how because the car pictured in the ad could not be sold because of a scratch on the glove box. America had just been at war and U.S. consumers were not initially very keen on purchasing products from Germany. However, the advertising and the low cost affordability made the car very popular.
ReplyDeleteHalf a century later the 2011 superbowl commercials were no exception continuing the advertising brilliance. My favorite VW commercial was of a little boy that is dressed like Darth Vader and is very sad that every time he tries to use his super powers he has no luck until the very end of the commercial where the child is waving his hands in front of his father's VW Passat and the car revs its engine. The camera then cuts to see the boys father in the kitchen holding a key remote that starts the car. The little boy is quite proud of himself that he was capable of using his Darth Vader mind powers to start the car. However, viewers know the secret that not only can they lock the car or pop the trunk with a button they can start the car with a tiny remote control. The commercial is funny and dramatic and tells a short story that captures the viewer from the first scene of the child suited up in Darth Vader clothes walking down the hallway with Darth Vader music score in the background. Using medium shots the little boy enters the exercise room and then the living room and then stares down his sisters baby doll all to no avail trying to use the force (mind powers) to move objects. If commercials can make people feel an emotion or can relate to people then I think they have a much more likely ability to influence the audience. I think that since most of the audience is familiar with Star Wars and as children made belief pretended and used our imaginations during playtime we can relate to the child's longing. And since the commercial gets a chuckle then all the better.
http://www.youtube.com/vw
One of my favorite commercials from this year’s Super Bowl was the Doritos Commercial with the Pug dog. But maybe I’m a little biased because I have a Pug. The commercial was simple enough, with only a few lines of spoken dialogue: Guy alerts girl he’s about to do something awesome. Guy then acts like an idiot enticing the dog with a Doritos chip. Girl futilely tells guy not to be an idiot. Guy gets owned. Dog gets chip. The only thing that could have made this better would be the girl showing sympathy for the dog in the end while leaving her imbecile of a man on the floor. The medium shots of the guy inside the glass door being obnoxious combined with the slow motion progression from long shot to medium shot to close up of the Pug bounding toward the Doritos was pretty epic though. There was nothing fancy done with the camera—no pans, zooms, or match action shots. Yet, the simplicity worked. One of the cleverest moments of the whole commercial was the moment just before the dog broke the door down, when the camera was focused in on a medium shot of the guy from the outside of the glass door. Within that frame there is a reflection of the Pug on the glass door as it is intensely leaping into the air to pounce on the door, and the guy has a look of sheer terror on his face, as if he’s having an “Oh crap!” moment. Interestingly, the longest shot in the whole commercial was the opening shot, still only about 5 seconds long, and all subsequent shots progressively get shorter, seemingly speeding up the action and intensifying what is about to happen. Again, maybe I’m biased, but I felt this commercial did an excellent job at being funny and promoting its product to an audience. I wouldn’t say it necessarily makes me want to go out and buy Doritos, but I would, however, like to see what kinds of funny things I can get my Pug to do for the camera now.
ReplyDeleteOne commercial I really liked was the commercial for cars.com titled Go First. It shows 4 situations: a king eating, a science experiment, cowboys, and a guy buying a car. The whole concept of the commercial is to say we need to read reviews of others before we buy a car.
ReplyDeleteThrough out the entire commercial, there is a voice over saying "Sometimes it's better to let others go first so we can learn from their experiences. Like with car buying, learn from others' experiences at cars.com.
As I said, it goes through 4 different situations. The king is eating and calls for his poison checker. He takes a bite and dies. It starts with a wide shot, cuts to a close up of the king calling the poison checker, goes back to a wide shot of the guy walking up, moves into another close-up of the guy dying, and then a close-up of the king. In the science experiment one, it shows a medium shot of a dude in a giant tube. It then cuts to a two shot of the scientists. It then cuts to an extreme close-up of the scientists' hands as they turn on the machine. It then cuts back to a wide shot as the guy teleports from one tube to the other, but with screwed up body parts. Then it cuts to a two shot of cowboys hiding behind a rock. One says "See if it's clear". As the other stands, it moves to a wider two shot as the guy gets shot with arrows. Then it cuts to the same shot as the shot cowboy bends down and say "Nope, it ain't clear". It finally cuts to a medium shot of a guy at a car lot. As he pulls out his phone, it goes to an extreme close up of his phone with the cars.com app open. It then cuts back out to a medium shot as a salesman walks up. It ends with the cars.com logo.
The entire commercial is 33 seconds long, with about 20 shots. None of the shots are over 3 seconds. The main sound is the voice over, but each situation has natural sound as well. There is panning or zooming, but there is match action. I shows the guy at the car lot reach for his pocket, then cuts to a close up of his hands holding his phone. The main message is to review cars before you buy them, and they get that across is a funny, silly way. They use humorous situations to present their ideas, and they do a great job at it.
My favorite Superbowl commercial this year was the Bridgestone Tire spot. A quick synopsis finds two office workers that are presumably friends sending an email between each other. When notified that “Rod” hit the ‘reply all’ button as opposed to the ‘reply’ button (an email feature), that he likely included an inappropriate attachment or typed something he would not want everyone hearing. The rest of the ad is spent with him trying to keep everyone from seeing the email by accomplishing numerous heinous (albeit funny in the context of the commercial), destructive acts. I feel people might be able to relate to this as who hasn’t (in this modern age of the Internet) mistakenly sent information by mistake to the wrong people? In the least, who wouldn’t be mortified if something like that happened?
ReplyDeleteThis particular ad also featured an astonishing 20 to 25 cuts in a 30 second spot. Even more astonishing was the fact that it has very few lines to communicate anything about the product for which the commercial was written. The lines are as follows:
Man - “Oh no! Rod! You sent this email ‘reply all’. You hit ‘reply all’!”
Rod – “NOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”
Man – “You know I was wrong. You just sent this email to me. Could you imagine?”
Rod - *laughs* *sigh*
No zooms were used, nor pans or match-action. What are used prolifically were jump cuts. With this many shots in a short amount of time, they would prove inevitable, but they effectively build tension and might cause the viewer to feel a sense of urgency in the amount of attention they provide to the ad. Also effective was the constant yell of “No!” that evolved into an “Agh!” throughout the duration of most of the live action scenes. Not only was it funny to see this guy doing the things he was doing, but the only other sound that really sticks out aside from his screaming are the screech of his tires for every stop he makes. The people who created the ad seemed to have effectively shown that Bridgestone tires, even in the most extreme instances (like the one featured)will not fail you in what you need to accomplish. Does this make me want to buy Bridgestone tires? Not necessarily. What I think is great is that the commercial was funny enough to make me remember the Bridgestone name. In turn, if I’m ever indecisive about what brand of tire I would like to buy or if I can’t remember the brand name of a tire, I will remember, because of the funny commercial, the Bridgestone brand. As for the variety of shots, most of them include high-impact or fast pace action that would demand still shots of the medium persuasion. There are however close ups of the tires turning and stopping and maybe 2 or 3 long/wide shots to add depth (running down the hallway for example). All in all, not only my favorite, but also effective in being funny and promoting the brand name.
I chose the Volkswagen commercial because I loved it. It was simple and entertaining. There are absolutely no words spoken throughout the commercial. If I counted correctly there were 3 wide shots, 18 medium shots and 5 close ups. I noticed a couple of match action shots that added a nice change from the straight scene changes. What I found most interesting was the use of pans and zooms. Almost every shot has a very slow zoom in it. Yet, instead of distracting the zooming adds to the intensity of the action in the shot. The pan at the beginning was very nice as it used the floor to give the feel of the death star. This helped to solidify the idea that the kid was Darth Vader. Most shots in this commercial were around 2 to 3 seconds. This was long enough to get an idea across to the viewer without dwelling on any particular scene. The scene that made the commercial came at the very end. The kid was trying to move or start the car using the force when all of a sudden the car seems to start on its own. His reaction is priceless. Both shock and awe are apparent as the car jumps to life.
ReplyDeleteThough the commercial was funny and able to draw my interest I don’t think it was effective in selling the product itself. It had nothing to do with the actual car. It wasn’t until the third time I saw the commercial that I realized it was a Volkswagen. This could be because I didn’t care or because it doesn’t advertise the brand of car well enough. That being said, the commercial did a very good job of being funny and dramatic which let it be able to hold my attention the entire time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0
My favorite commercial is the Chevy Cruz Eco commercial that gets up 42 miles per gallon, entitled misunderstanding. The commercial takes place in a nursing home and grandmas and grandpas are gathered around the TV and they see the commercial for the Chevy Cruz Eco commercial, but they don’t understand it. I tallied about 15 lines, maybe about four were written and the other lines were really short and punchy. They were a few close ups. For example on the scene where the old lady is saying, “Eco, eco,eco.” That really cracked me up. Wide shots were seen at the beginning and end of the commercial but most were medium shots.
ReplyDeleteThere were no pans or zooms but all were cut shots because several people had short and punchy lines. Each shot was about two to three seconds long, four seconds at the most. It’s a 33 second long commercial and the match action came at about the 30 second mark. The ending match action shot helped to display a calmer sense of what the Chevy Cruz Eco is about.
I thought the commercial was hilarious and it achieved its goal of being funny. The grandpas and grandmas are saying everything from 42 wild Italians to a commercial about eagles. I think the commercial was effective in helping to identify what the Chevy Cruz Eco is and its gas mileage and by adding humor to a typical misunderstanding by the elderly adding a realistic sense. Individuals could relate to how their grandmother or grandfather would respond in similar situations.
The Chevy Cruz Eco commercial didn’t quite sell me on wanting to buy it but it assisted in wanting to know more about the car and find more information about it.
Here's the link to check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrtSVyXjKv4
The commercial I liked the best was the Doritos commercial with the pug breaking the door down. The commercial had only a few lines written, mostly repeating the same “come get a chip!” taunt to the dog, but it definitely got the message across. The close-ups really brought home the emphasis, especially seeing the pug run in slow-motion with his ears and lips bouncing as he ran. The one and only line that the girlfriend had in the spot was “babe, don’t hurt my dog.” This was ALL she needed to say to setup the ending, where we’d all expect to see the dog to run into the glass door and plant his face but instead breaks the door down and sandwiches the guy between the door and the floor, leaving the dog all the time in the world to eat the Doritos straight from the bag. Match-action of the dog running towards the screen at 3 different zoom levels emphasized the dog getting closer to the door and his reward. I especially liked the audio with the guy pressed under the door, you can tell the difference between his natural “taunt” voice and how he sounds when under a 50 pound glass door. The commercial achieved its goal of being funny; especially the first time you see it. But after watching it 7-8 more times for this analysis, I still managed to smirk each time the dog knocked the guy flat on his back. If in a grocery store and looking for chips, seeing the Doritos bag would bring this spot to mind and probably tempt me to buy a bag. They’ve always had great commercials.
ReplyDeleteThis link should get you there:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AdBlitz?&feature=pyv&ad=8138295181&kw=commercials%20superbowl