CI 5472 Commercial Analysis

1. Lighting: not over- or under-exposed, not dramatic on one side of the face, but typically well-lit and simple, true to real-life office lighting.
Shots: mostly middle shots, many of which are 2shots and 3shots. For "talking heads" sections, the shot is close-up.
Sound: business sound effects, no music, mostly dialogue.

Purpose: in general, the production seeks to mimic a real office environment. The comedy comes from embedding an unlikely situation in a mundane work environment. The talking heads are the show's version of a Shakespearian aside, revealing something candid and often comical to the audience alone.


2. With respect to teaching films in the classroom, I feel the most important use of the vocabulary and film analysis provided in the readings is the categorization of shots and lighting effects. I think it would be most beneficial for analyzing important scenes in a given movie. For example, I'm probably teaching The Matrix in my English 12 class. In addition to a brief mention of the technological advances involved in the special effects, it would be of most benefit to the class to examine a specific scene or two with an analysis informed by film vocabulary.

A fruitful discussion for the film might involve lighting: the world as Neo originally knows it is often bland and grey, with some dark scenes. Neo's enlightening is a great example of intentional overexposure, and while the "real world" is darker and sometimes more grey than the first, it's often lit up more brilliantly than the first. Pausing the movie at certain scenes may be a helpful way to communicate film terms, but it might be better to watch the movie in its entirety and return to certain scenes for class discussion.




3. The commercial opens with an establishing shot to lay out the scene: "Nintendo Recovery Center: Research and Rehabilitation." The first scientist's voice begins during the opening shot and transitions into the next shot: inside the research facility. We see two extreme close-ups of scientists placing a hunk of cheese and a Game Boy Micro in two corners of a rat maze. The first scientist's voice continues over the close-ups, speaking about testing how addictive Nintendo products are. In a middle shot, the first scientist places a rat in the maze as the second scientist watches, clipboard in hand. The rat immediately heads towards the Game Boy, and in a close-up, the rat actually scales a wall instead of roaming around it to descend on the Game Boy. The rat then mounts the Game Boy and performs successive pelvic thrusts on top of it. In a middle shot, the second scientist covers up the rat and Game Boy with a clipboard, which obscures the sight but not the sound of the rat, which is causing the clipboard to rattle against the top of the maze. Apparently ashamed, the second scientist attempts to look scientific while the first turns and smiles, all in medium shot. Then the scene cuts to a Game Boy against a white background with a breathy female voice saying "The new Game Boy Micro. Extremely portable. Extremely stylish," as the Game Boy changes colors, demonstrating the available color pallets for the device. The scene cuts again to an extreme close-up of a dilating eye with the Mario power-up sound effect. Revealed within the eye, as the camera zooms, is the Nintendo logo with the caption "TOO MUCH FUN," against a black background. The scene cuts one final time back to the lab with a close-up of the second scientist looking down as the thumping noise resumes.