Introduction
The Zenith Project At Freestyle is the final Project that all seniors have to create in order to show off their previous skills that they learned so far In the year. Zenith, also means peak, or mountain, which also means that this project shows off the peak skills of students around Freestyle.
For My Senior Zenith, I decided to do a commercial, specifically a car commercial. During my years at freestyle as a film student, I was exposed to a lot of film techniques and styles that I was able to implement into my own films. The fat and furious franchise has always been my favorite set of movies since I was 7 years old. I enjoyed the fast pace cutting and action sequences that were involved with cars. I also enjoyed the way car commercials were filmed. From the aesthetic smooth b-roll, to the fast pace cutting to the driver, I really wanted to implement these techniques into my zenith commercial.
Throughout the process of filming the commercial, we had to do some daring tasks that may or may not have involved us sticking our Body outside of speeding car to get the shot. But like Mr T has always said ” Get the shot” ( but don’t do something majorly stupid of course ). another risks involved the techniques we used, some techniques worked and some didn’t, and Reed and I went into filming the commercial with a experimental approach. But in the end, it was definitely worth it.
Process
My Zenith Experience
The Fast Furious Franchise has always been my favorite set of movies ever since I was little. I enjoyed the fast pace cutting between the person and the car, especially during the race scenes. From my love of car movies, I also enjoyed car commercials and the way different car commercials implement b-roll with the combination of fast pace car shots. For the research, Reed and I had to watch multiple car commercials to get a sense of the type of commercial that we wanted to film. Some of these commercials were either skits, short films, or even just B-roll shots that are highlighting the car. We also had to research the equipment used in these shots, as well as the techniques used to create these shots. The equipment that is widely used to film cars in commercials and or movies would be something called a gimbal. This allows the user to get steady shots of the car while moving, or to get steady shots for smooth b-roll. Afterward, Reed and I also researched the type of editing used to create these scenes. These edits included fast pace cutting, masking, and speed ramping. For my influence, I enjoyed the way Sam Kolder does his transitions with masking and speed ramping, so I decided to implement that into our car commercial. This car commercial was a 2 man’s job. Reed and I had to collaborate both our ideas together into one to get cohesive commercials that worked well with each other. Since it is a group project, we were asked to create several different commercials, all with distinct lengths to highlight our skills. Some of the 21st centuries that Reed and I used were Self-direction and Risk-taking. For Self Direction, Reed and I approached our project with an experimental approach. Coming into this project, Reed and I didn’t map out the techniques we wanted to use, but we did have a general idea of what the project will look like in the end. This in return led to many, many shots. Some that were good, and of course some that were bad. This also ties into some of the Risk-taking aspects of our project. As stated, Reed and I took many risks during the production of the project. This included Reed hanging his body out of a car to get a shot- using masks in transitions when I have never edited with masks before. Although there were risks, these risks ended up paying off and I was able to learn a lot during the production of the project. I feel pretty accomplished that I was able to show off the skills I learned at freestyle and was able to figure out the techniques that didn’t work in the end as well. If I can do this project all over again, I’d want to do more planning and have a better idea of the overall structure of the shots, rather than going in gorilla style. Overall, Zenith was a learning experience with the implementation of multiple techniques together and It was a great way for kids at freestyle to show off everything that they learned.