Editing

      Today my partner and I got together to edit. However, we had to finish filming our Starbucks commercial. That took up majority of my class time but I made sure to use every single second productively. When I was finish filming, I went back upstairs and jumped right on the computer to begin editing. I got our SD card reader, placed the SD card into it, and hooked it up to the desktop. I then signed into the desktop and attempted to open Pinnacle Studios. When I went to open Pinnacle Studios, I received a message that it was not working. Therefore, my classmates and I reported it to our teacher. Our teacher then made a class-wide announcement that Pinnacle Studios is down. Though it is very unfortunate that our editing program is not working, my partner and I do not plan to give up.
      Next class, I will ensure to edit my commercial. For now, my team mate and I dumped our footage into our individual Google Drive. When attempting to dump our footage onto Google Drive, my team mate and I faced some troubles. Our camera displayed the wrong filming date, therefore we were confused of which films belonged to us. While the confusion delayed me, I did get a chance to upload my footage onto my Google Drive. By putting my footage onto my Google Drive, dumping onto Pinnacle Studio will be much easier next class. When I go home, I will make sure to look over my footage and delete the ones which are unnecessary to my commercial.
      The editing techniques I plan to use in my commercial include: insert, fade in, fade out, action match, and jump cut. The type of sounds which would be apart of my Starbucks commercial is dialogue, diegetic sound, and I will edit in a score over specific parts. For instance when the insert of the Starbucks logo is on screen, I will have an instrumental/score playing in the background. I can not wait until next class to begin editing and seeing my vision of this commercial come to life. My partner and I prepared for editing next class by writing down the listed editing techniques stated previously. Due to me not being able to edit today, I will go home and look at videos on how to operate Pinnacle Studios. The purpose of this is to familiarize myself with the software to a greater extent. I am ecstatic to edit next class. I really enjoy this class.

Filming

     Today I filmed my Starbucks commercial. When I got to the classroom, my teacher handed out SD cards, cameras, and tripods to our entire class. I checked out one of each items listed above for my partner and I to use. Afterwards, everyone went to their filming area which they planned in their mis-en-scene. My partner and I gathered our filming equipment and proceeded downstairs to our filming area. Since the cafeteria was not available and my media classroom was occupied, I had to change my original and backup storyboard. I adjusted my new storyboard to best fit an outdoor setting. I had an hour and twenty minutes to film my commercial. I used my time wisely, ensuring to film each scene multiple times to have a plethora of scenes to choose from.
      In the first scene I wanted to capture a student rushing to sit down and do their homework last minute. My team mate was the student and I was behind the camera. I filmed a long shot of “the student” rushing down the hallway with an anxious look on her face. I filmed this scene three times to be sure that I could later choose the best footage. In the second scene, “the student” scrambled through her books, looking for her assignment; This was projected through a medium shot. In the third scene a Good Samaritan (me) who sees the student under stress decides to ask what’s wrong. To film the previously stated, the camera was on a tripod, I pressed record, then my team mate and I went into action. Of course, I will edit where necessary. In the fourth scene, I walked back on camera and handed the student a Starbucks bottled drink.
      Overall, it was a successful day of filming. I admit: it was quite fun. However, we had a few difficulties in the beginning.

Storyboard

      My partner and I constructed the Starbucks commercial storyboard shown above. We wanted to go with an original approach. We looked at other Starbucks commercials to observe the conventions then  we made ours based on the specific conventions we recorded. In the storyboard, our location is our school cafeteria. We felt as though the school cafeteria was the closest setting to an actual Starbucks cafe. First, the Starbucks customer will be walking into the cafe and getting in line. Next, the employee will serve the customer. The customer will say their order and then the employee will put in the order. The customer will then pay and the employee asks for the customer’s name and starts to prepare the order. After the employee is done, they will call out the customer’s name and the customer will take their order and leave with a thank you. With that being said, this is the concept of the storyboard. We will play a score over the commercial as that is commonly seen in Starbucks commercials. Within this storyboard, each scene has camera angle and shot; We will use a long shot, over the-shoulder, medium shot, medium close-up, and point of view.

      Just incase we do not have access to the school cafeteria, my partner and I decided to construct a backup storyboard. Instead of filming in the cafeteria, we would film in our classroom. In this version of our Starbucks commercial, there will be two people involved: Person A and Person B. In the first scene Person A will be rapidly typing up their assignment, meanwhile Person B will have their head down. This will be seen through a long shot and contain diegetic sound of the keyboard tapping. In the second scene Person A will then take a sip of their Starbucks coffee and look over to Person B with a concerned expression. This action will be projected through a medium shot. Person A will then tap Person B on the shoulder and say “hey, is everything ok?” Person B will then turn to Person A and respond: “No, I am extremely tired. I stayed up all night studying. I can barely keep my eyes open.” This dialogue will be portrayed through an over the shoulder shot each time a subject speaks. Person A will go in their backpack, pull out a Starbucks bottled drink, then hand it over to Person B. Person B will drink the cappuccino and instantly begin to express how delicious it was. Person B will thank Person A for giving them the drink and demonstrate the effects by starting to type up their assignment. The last scene would be a picture of the Starbucks logo and a voiceover of a narrator saying “Starbucks DoubleShot. Bring on the day;” this is the Starbucks slogan.

Editing Lesson Blog

      Today, 10/14/2019 I learned a plethora of new techniques in my AICE Media Studies class. My teachers explained our equipment check out procedures for when due time comes to film. I learned that we will be using tripods to move our cameras around. The movements which we learned to do with the cameras are tilt and pan. Tilt is when one moves the camera up and down and pan is when the camera is moved from left to right. Of course there are many more camera movements to explore such as flash pan and tracking shot however we only went over tilt and pan for the day. My teacher familiarized us with different aspects of using the camera such as how to turn it on and off, how to charge it, and how to connect it to the class computers in order to edit our shots. Mainly, I learned how to edit, import, and export on our class editing software. The editing software which my classmates and I will be using for our projects is called Pinnacle Studios. When we are finish recording it is important for us to edit in order to get rid of unwanted footage and add effects such as a score. When it is time to film our music videos, for example, we would put a score over our shots and mute our initial audio.

      After showing the class how to operate the cameras in detail, my teacher then transitioned into showing us how to edit, import, and export on Pinnacle Studios. An important vocabulary word we learned was dumping. Dumping is when footage is placed from the desktop to Pinnacle Studios. To commence, let us go over how to import on Pinnacle Studios. The first step is to put the SD card into the SD reader then go to files to find the SD. Second, dump the footage into a folder and transfer all footage from the SD card to the file in order to save it on the computer. Thirdly, when dumping into Pinnacle Studios ensure that all of your footage is in the file from your SD card to avoid deletion. Next, click the Pinnacle Studios icon and log in. After you log in, click the "import" button (make sure that the selection is on "My computer") then click desktop. Lastly, find the file which you created earlier, check all the footage within the file and import them. Those were the steps on how to import into the Pinnacle Studios software. After importing, we are free to begin editing our videos. I am stoked to film and edit my Starbucks advertisement through Pinnacle Studios later this month.

      Overall, I feel confident with the editing software, Pinnacle Studios. After today's lesson I can not wait to experience this software first hand. I am super excited to continue my journey in AICE Media Studies. There is a lot more to learn down the path and I am glad that I decided to take this course. I can not wait to see what the future holds moving forward in this course. Today's lesson sparked my interest in this course 10 times more. I am looking forward to mastering editing on Pinnacle Studios. I hope to further my film making studies in the future.

Planning Blog for Starbucks Commerical

      Today 10/10/2019, my team mate and I got together to work on planning out our Starbucks commercial. We worked collaboratively to map out the props, costumes, schedule, location, and back-up plan (mis-en-scene) for our Starbucks commercial. For our props, we chose to bring three Starbucks cups, coffee that is already made, a plastic cup or container to pour the coffee into, whipped cream, black sharpie, printed out Starbucks logos and tape. We planned to bring printed out Starbucks logos to decorate the cafeteria as though it was an actual Starbucks cafe. We would need a Starbucks cup and a sharpie because we will write the "customer's" name on the cup as that is an action typically seen in Starbucks commercials. We would need a plastic cup or container to put the prepared coffee in so that we can pour it into the customer's plastic cup and use our whipped cream to decorate the drink. We plan to film in our school's cafeteria, however, if it does not go as planned then we will film our commercial in our classroom with a completely different storyboard. We plan to make two storyboards to correlate with our two possible locations.

Props: Starbucks Cup: the beverage will be poured into the Starbucks cup, then given to
           customer afterwards.
            Prepared coffee: the coffee will be used to resemble to beverage the customer ordered,
            and it will be poured into the Starbucks cup.
            Plastic cup: This cup will be used to pour the coffee.
            Black sharpie: the sharpie will be used to write the customer's name on the cup.
            Printed out Starbucks logo: used to symbolize the location of the place; Starbucks.
            Tape: used to tape the logo on the door.
            Whipped Cream: to add the finishing touches on the beverage.
Costumes: Regular clothing- my group mate and I believe that it would be best for us to dress casual because Starbucks is marketing to the average day-to-day person.
Schedule: Day 1- Codes and Conventions (due 10/7)
                 Day 2- Planning (due 10/10)
                 Day 3- Storyboard (due 10/14)
                 Day 4- Filming (due 10/21)
                 Day 5- Editing (due 10/24)
                 Day 6- Submitting Commercial (due 10/30)
                 Day 7- Reflection Questions on Commercial
Location: Cafeteria- we are going to film in the cafeteria because it is the ideal place on
                 campus which is similar to a Starbucks cafe. We will also film outside of the
                 cafeteria to get a scene of the customer walking into Starbucks.
Back-Up Plan: We plan to film in the cafeteria since most of the Starbucks commercials are filmed at a Starbucks Cafe. If the cafeteria is not opened to students, then we will film in the classroom. Our alternative is the classroom because we have seen Starbucks commercials filmed in an office, and a classroom would be our closest match to an office. Perhaps, we can make a student commercial instead of an employee commercial. Meaning, instead of pretending that we are at work in a office, we would be students in a classroom advertising Starbucks.

Research Blog: Commercial Conventions

Starbucks Commercial Research:

      

   

       Today 10/7/2019, in class my group mate and I got together to decide on a company which we would like to do a commercial on. We came to consensus that our commercial would be about Starbucks. We were directed by our teacher to research the conventions and codes of our chosen company. Once we chose to do Starbucks, we immediately proceeded into doing our research. First, we watched four different Starbucks commercials which are recent and took notes on their codes and conventions as we watched. For the codes of the advertisement we noted things such as lighting, sounds, movements, and angles. For the conventions aspect we observed what all of the advertisements had in common in terms of what actions are taking place within the advertisement. Below is our detailed findings.

Starbucks commercial codes:
      In a typical Starbucks commercial, the two main lighting used are natural and dim light. Those two types of lighting is effective because they capture the aesthetic behind the coffee making process. Sounds commonly used are diegetic sounds of the coffee being poured into the cup and also a score which sets a welcoming mood. Common movements are words shown on screen, coffee being poured into a cup, toppings being added to the coffee, the employee placing the customer's coffee on the order table, and customers reaching out to collect their coffee. Camera angles associated with Starbucks commercials are high angle, medium shot, medium close up, close up, and extreme close up. 

Starbucks conventions:
      Normally in a Starbucks commercial, the movements taking play are the day-to-day things a employee would do. One movement seen is the employee writing down the customers names on their cup. The employee making the coffee and to the customer’s liking is often seen. Lastly, typically shown is a scene where the customer receive their drink as the employee hands it over with a smile. The customer’s hand and the employee’s hold opposite ends of the cup which is displayed through an extreme close up.

Introductory

      Hi, my name is Britania. I am a 16 year old, Floridian, teenager. I am an 11th grader at Fort Lauderdale High, and I am in both the Cambridge and AP Capstone program. This is my last year in Cambridge, and my first year in AP Capstone. This school year I am taking AP Environmental Science, AP English Language, AICE Marine Science, AICE Media Studies, of course, AICE US History, and AP Seminar. Dealing with many upper level courses at once, I am glad to say that I have found a balance and I am doing great. This is my first time blogging, therefore I guess I would be considered an amateur. Being that I am quite an introvert, blogging is something I would've never thought I would get into. However, I do find pleasure in trying new things, especially new foods. My top two favorite desserts are grape nut ice cream and strawberry-vanilla cheesecake. My all time and forever favorite food in the entire universe has to be crabs. I have two siblings, a 10 year old brother and a 20 year old sister. My top hobbies are listening to music and singing, although I am not a very good singer. Some of my favorite artists are Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, James Arthur, and Sam Smith. I believe that these artists have some of the best voices because with every single word, they instill the emotions of their songs into listeners. Due to my music taste, one can sense that I am pretty emotional. According to my mom, I was always a quiet child who preferred being alone. Much has changed growing up, of course. I enjoy the company of others but not for an extended period of time or else I will start to feel agitated. If my closest friends were to describe me in a few words I am sure a majority of them would say that I am generous and brilliant. I find pleasure in small favors to others, however I will not allow anyone to take advantage. Due to being too nice and pushed around in the past by my peers I learned to stand my ground- a quality of mine which I am most proud of. Overall, I am a strong, open-minded, giving, mildly shy, intellectual girl with a personality that is like a box of dynamites but calm simultaneously.

      My biggest pet peeve is feeling inadequate. I believe that everyone is good enough, however we tend to feel inadequate when we compare ourselves to others or someone else compares us to others. We must all feel comfort within ourselves. I also loath people who are unnecessarily mean. I am a believer that no one is actually mean, they just want to be seen- if that makes sense. Lastly, I do not like loud environments unless it is a party; Even then, I get tired of being at the party.

      Something I enjoy and appreciate is watching YouTube videos. I love to see how teenagers like myself live their lives. I sometimes get inspiration from watching others through YouTube. I also enjoy the smallest things such as going to mall, watching a movie, getting my hair and nails done, and hanging out with family and friends here and there. I love to eat. The perks of getting to eat as much as I want is- I do not gain much unnecessary weight. I appreciate having a fast metabolism. I take interest in astrology. I believe that it is absolutely interesting how the position of the sun, moon, planets, and stars has an influence on one's behavior and how we may look to the universe as a guide. I do however keep in mind that not everything in astrology is accurate being that I am open-minded. I do understand that people are the way they are by nature and nurture and a zodiac sign does not completely define a person.

      Thank you all for tuning into my introductory blog. Have a spectacular morning, evening, or night. -xoxo Britania