AICE Media Studies

  Name: Isabel Reyes   Creative Critical Reflection 1.       How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?  Our production uses conventions by addressing the concept of ageism. Ageism is the term for prejudice and discrimination that are based on age. Our commercial includes a toddler, who tries to apply the lipstick to herself but ultimately gets caught by her mother. We evoke a sense of innocence and immaturity that is frequently linked with toddlers and their tendency towards mischief, particularly when young girls attempt to act more maturely by experimenting with cosmetics. This can also be tied in with how young children/teenagers in general often try to behave older than they are. This social issue is what often leads to teenagers making bad decisions with bad consequences, like teen pregnancy.  2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a re...

Through this project, I improved my production abilities in a number of areas. I had no prior knowledge of film or the media at first. The only time I've had a connection to media was when I watched movies without knowing anything about the production. I've learned so much through this project and I am now familiar with the filmmaking process. Our team put all of our efforts into this and we are excited to share it with the public. 

The L'Oreal lipstick commercial is finally done! From planning to filming to editing, this whole process has not only been a learning experience, but also a fun one. As I have mentioned in my previous blogs, I do not particularly enjoy working in groups. I prefer being independent and being responsible for my own work, and not having the worry that someone is not pulling their weight. However, in this case, the members of my group were hard workers and had the same work ethic as me. I didn't have any problems and we all worked cooperatively and put together an amazing commercial. The filming process was successful, even when we had the occasional issues. Most of us had busy schedules, so we only settled one day for filming. We thought we were not going to have enough time, however we used the time we had efficiently and ended up finishing all we needed in one day. Another issue was when the 4 year old actress was not cooperating with us, we were all calm and collective and did ...

Since our group could only get together once throughout the week, we decided to shoot the most crucial sequences on Wednesday since it was a holiday. We could not take more of our actresses' time off from work and school, so we only had one opportunity to shoot them. That left us with just one shot to add, a shot of the actual product to highlight it. Initially, we had intended to photograph it from various angles, effectively spinning the lipstick. After editing, there was, however, insufficient time in the commercial for another scene. But because it would bind the entire commercial together, we couldn't go without the real product advertisement. As a result, after adding an image of the lipstick, we switched to numerous slides that included the L'Oreal Paris logo, their motto, and the "message" the advertisement is trying to get over (made to last). We had to utilize Canva to change these presentations in order to get the desired result. This would be the final...

 We decided to film at Hailey's aunt's house on Wednesday, which we had no school. We also chose this location as we wanted to use her 4 year old cousin to give the commercial a bit of youth. We wanted to show how the lipstick is wanted by people of all ages, so we used the little girl and Hailey's middle aged aunt. We all decided to meet up at Hailey's house first to test out the camera and its abilities. We made a few test shots, using random items to test out camera angles. After a few test runs, we left Hailey's house and drove over to her aunts. We began to film, which proved a little difficult with working with the 4 year old. We began filming the scene where she walks into her mom's room. It took us a bit of time to figure out what angle we wanted to film at. Without context, we probably seemed a bit ridiculous, as we were in all kinds of positions trying out different angles. We shot this about 5 times before we were content with the results. The scenes ...

As shown in the storyboard above, we plan to film our commercial in Hailey's aunt's house. For now, the plan is to meet in 2 days, when we have school off, to complete filming. We anticipate using her younger cousin, who will be one of the main actresses in the film. Additionally, we will be using her aunt as the second actress. We plan on using the child to show how the lipstick is wanted by adolescents as well as adults. The opening will feature the little girl, going through her mom's (Hailey's aunt's) makeup, and finding the lipstick. She will then try to give herself a makeover with the lipstick, which will come out messy as she is a child and we want to portray her adolescence. Afterward, her mom, or Hailey's aunt, will walk in and use it herself. This will show how the product is longed for by people of all ages. The commercial will end with L'Oreal's slogan and typical ending. We will shift the main focus on the product itself, with the brand and...