Introduction
The Zenith was our last major assignment in our elective classes. This project challenged us to utilize all the skills we have acquired over the past two years in film and create a production that explored a topic of our personal interest. The word Zenith means a high point, the time at which something is most powerful or successful. This project is the embodiment of our growth as students of film and was a celebration of how far we’ve come since our humble beginnings in the class.
For my Zenith project, I decided to create an Ad campaign for a speculative product that I designed. The reason why I chose this for my project is because of my passion for industrial/product design, which is a field I will be pursuing as a career over my next four years at college. I thought that this project would bring together the best of both worlds and allow me to integrate my love for design with my abilities in film.
This project introduced me to a whole new set of challenges that I had never considered. Using film as a medium for advertisement is a completely different ballpark than using it for traditional storytelling, so I had to approach this project from a new lens. I had to consider logical and practical details that made my productions much more challenging. Some of our major roadblocks included designing and printing the cans, as well as gathering the needed props to produce three different genres of advertisements.
In typical film nature, our Zenith project required attention to each of the three phases of production, as we brainstormed and storyboarded our concepts, filmed them in legitimate sets, and edited them using Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
Creative Process
The product I created was a kombucha drink brand called The Moods; I designed three unique flavors, each one representing a human emotion. These drinks were actually included as a part of my industrial design portfolio which I sent out to all the colleges I applied to.
Translating these cans into a physical object would prove to be difficult, as it was near impossible to find clean aluminum cans. I ended up purchasing and draining soda cans from a brand called Bing!, and gluing on my labels which I resized and printed onto ordinary paper. Although this was super untraditional, the sleek and minimalist design for the can looked super unique, and I was thrilled with the outcome.
Treasure Hunt
Once we had created the drinks, we began working on our first ad, the “Treasure Hunt”. This ad was inspired by the traditional Superbowl-style advertisements, which follow a short storyline and are often very humorous.
The production of our first advertisement went perfectly according to schedule, and our outcome was exactly what we envisioned. This gave us the much-needed motivation that helped us work through the rest of our Zenith.
Life’s a Beach
The second advertisement we produced was called “Life’s a Beach.” With this video, our goal was to create one of those feel-good, lighthearted, summertime advertisements that you would typically see from brands like Coca-Cola and Corona.
Out of all of our advertisements, I felt that this one fell a little short. We struggled with our production and a lot of our footage wasn’t usable, this meant that while editing, we had to get really creative to make up for it. Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of this advertisement, but I wish I had a little more time to refilm and refine it (we ran short on time with the Zenith deadline quickly approaching).
Studio Environment
The third and final ad we created was the “Studio Environment.” Taking inspiration from the work of Daniel Schiffer, we wanted to make a professional-looking studio ad that used motion graphics in adobe after effects. Wanted to use real-world footage rather than 3d software and capture all the footage ourselves instead of using stock.
The Studio Environment ad was easily the most time-consuming of the three. Our film days dragged on until 1 AM and finding equipment such as a lightbox and fish tank made it all the more complicated. Furthermore, I spent weeks editing this project and spent hours brainstorming the different effects I used as well as how I wanted to portray each can. However, despite taking the most effort, this ad was easily my favorite. The time invested into this ad made the payoff super rewarding, and I think that its quality is near the professional level (something you would actually see on screen and in the industry).
With the third ad being completed we had officially wrapped up the content for our Zenith. The next several days were spent creating our presentation, which was actually made in Photoshop rather than google slides (I wanted to make it look more like a product pitch). Once everything was completed, we presented The Moods to the entire class.
The Moods: Final Production
Overall, the Zenith was the most fun I had working on a project in film. Creating work that was fueled entirely by my passions and interests allowed me to push myself, and produce work that I was truly proud of. Out of all the films I have created, this one felt the most polished; as I continue to pursue industrial/product design as a career, this project will certainly be one that I look back on fondly.
To hear my detailed views on my Zenith project, I have included my recorded audio reflection below.