Filming Blog for Commercial

Filming our commercial was a long process. We first had to go through the process of checking out the cameras, SD cards, and tripods. Then, we had to make sure we brought all of our materials with us so we would not have to go back after every scene. The materials we brought with us were a coffee cup, donuts, the camera equipment, and our schoolwork. We decided that we were going to film on the track and the senior patio. We did not create a script because we wanted to tell a story without words. However, we did go over the actions before filming each scene. It was a little difficult to figure out how to set up the camera and film, but we managed to figure it out. Also, our camera died mid-filming, so we had to film the rest with our phones. This made dumping more difficult because we had to get our scenes from two different places.

For our first half of the commercial, we filmed on the senior patio. The idea of this was to have our actor do his homework. The issue presented in the commercial would be that he could not complete his homework because of how tired he was. We expressed this by having his hand slip as he fell asleep and he would stop writing when he did this. In the next scene, we placed the box of donuts strategically next to him and from off camera I handed him a coffee cup. He took the cup and drank from it. Then, he acted energized enough to finish his homework. An issue that we had while filming this was the wind. The papers and the cup kept blowing away so we had to weight them down. Overall, the scene only took about 5 minutes to film and we had to film each scene 3 times at most. This was the scene we filmed second, when our camera died, and we filmed it on the phone.

For our second half, we filmed on the track. I changed into my "running clothes" and we set up the tripod on the field across from the track. This part of the commercial was about a runner needing energy. My job was to run sluggishly past the camera to show I was tired. Then from out of frame, my partner threw me a donut. I caught and ate the donut. Then I was told to run past the camera again but fast this time. The only issue with this part was trying to get the camera to pan. We tried to loosen the handle on the tripod but it did not do too much to help. This one took us about 5 reshoots per scene.