Monday, April 25, 2016

Communication Artifact: SWIG



Swig is our campaign and I was involved in directing the commercial. I had the idea of making it more comical and that sometimes you can’t be boring, you have to live a little. The motto for our campaign is “Mix It Up” meaning that a customer can combine a number of flavors to create a lifetime of enjoyment with your taste buds being happy. My acting is not up to par and I do apologize for that but overall, I think the commercial turned out to be great plus it is funny which is what I wanted because it emphasizes the laid back and fun culture that the company produces. Matt (Hansen) helped me edited the video because I’m not that experienced working with Adobe Premiere so I sat down with him and we went through the whole thing together and cut out all of the extra takes.

We recorded the video and audio off two separate phones and matched them up when we sat down to edit it. I was worried about the environmental noise going on around like the bell ringing, the wind, students walking by, etc. To eliminate this problem completely, we decided to put some video game theme music behind it. I think the music adds to the fun humor and attracts a younger audience and yet has references for someone a little older to understand as well.

The psychological contrast that the commercial presents is that you should drink “Swig” because it is unique and you should feel ashamed if you’re drinking anything else (not really, your body needs water). With Darius being so aggressive while shocked that I am drinking water, it shows that drinking “Swig” makes you cool and it really does help because of its popularity here in Utah, especially St. George. The cultural context of the place “Swig” is heavily influenced because it is a place specifically stationed in Utah and nowhere else. I’m from Las Vegas, NV and never heard of “Swig” before I came here but people raved about how great the drinks were and I had to try it out and was not disappointed. Our commercial is great for local publicity because when people here in Utah see that name, they know what it is and generally where it is located.

The figure to ground relationship is our commercial spot is that someone is out enjoying the nice summer weather. When Darius spits out his juice and lowers his glasses and the camera focuses on his eyes, the viewer can really feel the tension in his face and how distraught he seems to be. Also, the close-up of me when I am fishing around looking for something to drink. The camera is right in my face and the background is sandy, which is supposed to give off a desert feel and am needing something to quench my thirst and I see something in the distance. The worry in my face shows that I am dying for something to drink and giving the impression that I am somewhere in the desert shows the exhaustion that can have on someone. The final scene when the logo appears next to the cup shows a figure to ground relationship. The cup is sweating a little bit which is supposed to draw the viewer in and show how hot the temperature is and make them really thirsty as well. Having the volleyball court in the background enhances the impression that it is summer time because volleyball is a popular sport that is played during the summer time. The combination of that with the sweating of the cup is enough to attract some thirsty mouths.

The Gestalt Principles that are used are the law of proximity because there are some tight angles throughout the commercial that make the viewer feel like they are experiencing what the actor is. There are several shots when the camera gets pulled in very tight to emphasize something important. When the camera zooms in on Darius, it is showing that he is in disbelief about what is happening and doesn’t understand why the student (me) isn’t drinking “Swig”. Another zoomed in angle happens when I’m looking for something to drink which shows that I am dying of thirst and need something quickly. The zoom helps to highlight that I am in dire need of some liquid but Darius denies me the water. Law of Continuity is another principle that present throughout the commercial because a lot of the angles follow some sort of line pattern. When the water bottle gets knocked out and flies towards Spencer, the viewer’s eye follows the bottle heading towards him and then Spencer panicking and leaving in an instant. Also when Darius is spitting out his drink, all the camera angles that show him doing it are following a direction as well because the juice is going away from the camera (because we didn’t have a plexiglass shield for the phone) and the juice creates a line of direction which the eye follows, especially when it gets slowed down. Lastly, when I’m stumbling for the water, the camera was going from a side direction and so the viewer could see where I was headed and what my eye was desired on getting and when Darius comes in and kicks the bottle away, the direction is hindered because the momentum of my motion is interrupted.

Overall, it was a blast creating an advertisement spot for “Swig” and experimenting with a different logo and slogan. All of us in our groups put our creative minds together to create something special and other than my horrible acting, I like the commercial that we produced.




Below is our style guide for the color schemes that we used.



Here is a better link to our commercial because because the one above is blurry!



Objective

We hope to appeal to a younger and more daily-oriented crowd ranging from families, high school and college students and athletes. We wanted our design to incorporate a fun and cool (literally and figuratively) style that appeals majority to a younger generation. Our goal was to make our logo inviting for people but yet have 7 different color schemes emphasizing our motto, "Mix It Up:. We chose primary colors for our tones because it creates a positive vibe and adds a fun summer theme appropriate for all ages.

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