As a Junior this semester, I have had the opportunity to participate in a video editing class at Lincoln Lutheran High School. As part of this class, we are able to film, edit, and complete a variety of different videography pieces. For this particular project, we were given the challenge of making a commercial for something that is school related. As a result, I decided to create a commercial for BIC pencils. I decided to take this project in the direction that I did for a couple of reasons. For one, I new that I would be able to gather a lot of really great angles by filming different types of pencils. Before even deciding on a topic, I had already brainstormed many unique shots for this commercial (Ex. The slow motion video of the pencils falling, close ups of the pencils themselves, etc.). Secondly, I decided to take this project in the direction that I did because I wanted to do something a little bit different. This style of video, and both the visual and auditorial aspects of this piece, are unique from many of my other projects. Lastly, I chose to do such a video because I wanted my dad to be part of it. I knew, before even going into this project, that my dad would bring greater entertainment to this piece (as well as just complete it)!
There are many parts of this project that I am proud of. For one, I am proud of the overall audio of this video. Within this piece, I included ambient sound, a voice over, and music playing in the background. Despite all of these complexities, I feel that they work very well together. Secondly, I am also proud of the beginning of my video. The black and white filter on the videos, the sad music, and the overall actions in the clips work in unison to truly persuade viewers. Within the first part of this video, the shot that I am the most proud of is the slow motion of the broken pencil falling. The angle of this shot, as well as the sound that it makes when it hits the floor truly adds to this overall piece.
While making this video, I also came across many challenges. Personally, the biggest challenge that I experienced was trying to keep my video at 30 seconds. For this project, I gathered a variety of great shots. Unfortunately, I had to cut many of these out. Choosing which clips to cut out and which ones to keep within the video was certainly challenging. By coming across this challenge, though, I learned that often times good clips may need to be cut out (so that there is room for the great clips). Secondly, working with the audio side of this video was also very difficult. As stated earlier, this piece included ambient sound, a voice over, and music. Trying to piece all of these together so that they were cohesive was challenging, but brought out a great lesson. I have learned that often times things such as complicated audio within a video can be difficult, but with great time and precision, the results can be very successful!
If I were to do this project again, there would probably only be a couple of thing that I would change. For one, I may not gather as much film. For a project with a 30 second time limit, I gathered just a little bit too much film (which made it difficult to decide which shots I wanted to include in the final piece). If I were to do this project again, I may even spend a little bit more time filming at Lincoln Lutheran itself. I could certainly ask a teacher for permission to film in their classroom after school one day, and even ask if my dad could come and be in the shots. Overall, though, I am very pleased with the outcome and truly would not change much!
