Our day at the ‘office’ started with a mission: to make an ad. With the energy at an ultimate high, we all sat around the glass table to brainstorm. The process resulted in three phases.
The first was the idea phase. No idea went unheard, and no idea was forgotten. Joey wrote it all down in his fancy book, which we later used as a prop. After throwing some thoughts around, we came up with the idea of showing the connection between students, the journey of the coupon booklet from student to student, until it reached the final destination: Papaya King.
With that idea in mind, we entered the actualization phase. Now that we knew what we wanted, we needed to strategize how we would bring it alive on camera and who would play what part. Miles grabbed a piece of paper, being the cameraman, and drew a series of boxes. That’s when we knew we were getting down to business. He outlined the scenes as we came up with the order and the scenery behind the coupon. We had about eight frames on paper when we were ready to hit the road.
The last phase was bringing it to life. We picked a corner on Saint Marks street where Ing gave out the Campus Clipper Coupon booklets. We acted as the people passing by, and a woman who wasn’t even asked to participate grabbed one! Then, the camera followed Anna as she ripped a coupon and passed it onto the writer on the bench, James. Then, with the scenery changing, James passed on the coupon book to the guy playing a guitar on the street, Joey. With his guitar all packed and the spare change in his pocket, he then traveled to the artist on the staircase drawing a tree. Saying “Hey Sofia,” he passed it onto me. The last transition was when I passed the coupon book to Christy and Jackie as they typed away on their laptops. Although the coupon book exchanged several hands in different backgrounds, we all ended up in the same place for the same great deal: Papaya King. The rest of the interns who opted out of the transition roles were included as extras eating the hot dogs in the last scene.
The process was fun and enlightening. Here is what I learned from this journey of the Campus Clipper Booklet:
1. Plan before you film; spending two hours planning beforehand actually saves time
2. Pick a leader to take charge when directing the filming process (to avoid giving too many directions)
3. Ask people for their ideas, and brainstorm together
4. Write everything down, even if you do not think it will work (ideas work off of each other and each idea helps inspire the next)
5. Be open to playing different roles
6. Try to include everyone as best as possible
7. To make a thirty second ad, it takes much more than thirty seconds!
8. Have fun!
Sofia Khiskiadze, Baruch College.
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