Critical Reflection Questions: Smartwater Commercial

 Creative Critical Reflection

1.   How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

My commercial challenged conventions by not including a voiceover or dialogue within my commercial. One typical convention within Smartwater commercials is that there is dialogue or there is a voiceover. The dialogue or voiceovers are typically brief and consist of saying something along the lines of, "the refreshing taste of Smartwater" or "Smartwater, filled with minerals and electrolytes." However, in my commercial I let the attributes of the water be implied through the story and theme of the commercial. In terms of how my commercial represents social groups or issues, as an African-American male I  represented that demographic within my commercial. I was the director, producer, editor, and sole actor within the commercial which is a rarity among minority groups. If my commercial were to be distributed nationally, it may serve as an example to African-American/Black youths that they can be successful on television or in the media industry. 

2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

My product engages with the audience in the sense that the viewers are being told a story. The audience is watching a series of events pass and must make the judgment of what the product is being advertised as for themselves. There is no dialogue and the message is given only briefly at the very end of the commercial. Therefore, the audience is engaged because they must watch, infer, and attempt to identify the meaning of commercial for themselves without dialogue telling them what is what. If my commercial were to be distributed as a real media text, it would be televised primarily, due to its length. It could also be distributed as video media through social media and video streaming sites as pre-roll, mid-roll, or ending advertisements on videos. 

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Being that this was the first time that I recording something of this importance, I learned a lot during each portion of this project. During filming I became quite nitpicky and somewhat of a perfectionist when it came to each scene. I noticed my visualization improved throughout the filming day and it became easy to execute the ideas that I have. I attribute this to the planning that I had to do prior to filming. Storyboarding is truly an excellent way of planning things out that I will continue to use and allowed me to go from the paper to real life seamlessly. My general videography skills also improved and I became aware of which shots and camera movements were needed to make each scene look its best. As the director of the commercial, my ability to explain how each scene should be shot to my camerawoman improved as well. My acting skills most certainly improved because I had no prior experience with acting. After each take I noticed that I was performing expressions, actions, and behaviors more accurately. I would not say that my editing skills improved because the things that I implemented into my commercial were things that I was comfortable doing prior to this project. 

 4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

Software was integrated into this project in the form of a video editing app: YouCut. It is a very user friendly, and free, app that I downloaded from Google Play onto my android device. Hardware was utilized in the form of my cellphone's camera. While my phone may not have the greatest camera in the world, it certainly did its job and I am more than satisfied with the results. I was honestly expecting the footage to come out worse than it did. Online tools were used in the form of the internet where I searched for and found the music that would be used in my project. Not only was the music pleasant, but I got full rights from the creator to use the music non-commercially as well as commercially.