Introduction
The Zenith Project provides Freestyle Academy students the opportunity to explore essentially any artistic idea that they want to. Whether that be writing a series of screenplays, creating a pitch for a TV series, making a film score, or even animating, just to name a few. By definition, Zenith means: the time at which something is most powerful or successful. My interpretation of why this project is called Zenith is because it is in theory, the most powerful time for us as students at Freestyle. We have been learning and practicing for two years and now we get to have al of our skills come together for our final project.
For my Zenith Project I decided to make a series of car commercials with Vinh. We’re both passionate about this project because as much as we love solely making narrative films and those alike, we both have interest in the commercial side. Whether that be fashion commercials or in this case, even a car commercial. We’ve both always enjoyed making non-narrative edits but neither of us have made one of a car before. We both share a common interest in cars so we share our excitement towards this project. Essentially, we made three versions of a “scenic” car commercial. By scenic we mean a car commercial focused on the aesthetics of the shots and how they make the car look, rather than a comedic take on a car commercial. We will be making one 30 second, one 45 second, and one 60 second commercial. It is going to be a BMW-esque car commercial using my friends BMW M2.
This Zenith project is a new challenge for us first off because we’ve never done shoots with cars before. We’ve never really experimented with certain movements with the camera or how to properly film a moving car before so essentially everything we’re filming will be new. Vinh and I are both really into cinematography, as you know, so this is a chance for us to highlight our skills and end up with a sweet and final edited product. We are hoping to get the video to a semi-professional level. Additionally, neither of us have experience with marketing. And when it comes to making an advertisement, the most important thing is finding your target audience and what evokes their interest. So, that in itself is somewhat a risk, but it will be very useful to both of us as we leave for college and potentially start doing commercial jobs.
If we’re talking about risk-taking though, Vinh and I both hung outside the window of the car to get the shot because our gimbal broke. When in doubt, get the shot.
For my Production Class, Film, we will use our pre-production skills to plan out locations, what equipment is needed, shooting schedules, and potentially a shot-list as well. Moving into production, we now have decent knowledge when it comes to lighting which will be important to get the look of the advertisement correct. Then for post, Vinh and I have both been editing for years making travel-esque, experimental, narrative, and even school videos so our editing skills are up to par. We may end up using some effects though or more complicated key-framing in the advertisement which is one case in which we would have to learn some new skills.
Process & Reflection
