Reese's Puffs Civil War Commercial
(AKA Courtney never turns off BEAST MODE)
Product
For our first assignment of my junior year, we were assigned to choose a product to create a commercial for. Our group was composed of two seniors and three juniors, and right off the bat one of the juniors, Courtney, suggested we do Reese's Puffs. She pitched the idea of it taking place during the civil war, drawing inspiration from Jane Austin novels. Instantly we agreed.
Pre-Production
The same junior wrote the out the script, with input from the rest of the group, and I wrote the pitch of our idea to turn in. A husband leaving for the war, whose wife drags him back to spend one last moment together.
We settled on a gazebo for the location, as the seniors knew of a nice park nearby, and I bought the hat and bowls on Amazon.
Courtney also offered herself up to play the wife, and we had no reason to disagree. Our first choice for the husband was not available, however, so we contacted our friend Mason instead. He agreed to take part in this undertaking, and we were set to film on the upcoming Sunday evening, after figuring out the costumes and such.
Production
The day of filming we met at the park around 7 o'clock, and quickly got to work once Mason arrived. I was assigned to be script supervisor, so I went over the lines with our actors.
Our first scene went very well, shooting it about four times from different angles so that I would have many shots to switch between when editing. We continued that for all scenes for the next two hours or so, wrapping up that same night, thanks to our stellar actors, Courtney and Mason; director, Courtney; camerawoman, Lauryn; and audio guys, Ryan and Jack.
Post-Production
After we wrapped everything up, it was time for me to start editing. I looked over all the clips and audio files and got straight to work making a rough cut, syncing the audio as I went.
Courtney came over halfway through the process and blessed it with a perfect warm yellow color grade. It really made my cut look very professional, and it invigorated me to make this the best I could. I found the perfect music, Strauss's El Murcielago. The Vampire. I remembered a very slow part in the middle of the song, so I utilized it. It fit perfectly, basically.
Takeaways
After working for three class times, I finished. I am very proud of this, and I consider it to be my finest work so far. The color grading really made all the difference, though, so thank you Courtney.
A big thanks to my teammates as well, this was obviously a group project and we couldn't have done this if we hadn't gotten along so well. Hopefully I get to work with them again.
