When a director chooses to use a particular cinematic technique, they are doing so because the use of that technique will have just the right effect on the audience. The correct camera angle might suggest a relationship or history between two characters, and a particular set of diegetic sounds may create a familiar, chaotic, or uncomfortable feeling in the audience. Every choice is intentional. Commercials for products are just as carefully produced, with one exception: each choice is supposed to make you more likely to buy a product. Your assignment is to find a current commercial (on TV or online) that is attempting to sell a product (jewelry, a car, clothes, food, prescription medicine, anything) and analyze its use of cinematic techniques. This must be current advertisement for a current product (so don’t just go to Youtube and search “best commercial LOL.” You must:

• Analyze the cinematic choices made to influence the audience's interest in the product
  • Identify at least 3 cinematic techniques.
  • Detail exactly what the techniques used are, describe their use to serve as textual evidence, and comment on exactly how their use has a particular effect on the audience.
• Use the proper structure of a well-developed response.
  • Include an introduction that identifies the source being discussed, the subject of the discussion (what is the particular effect on the audience), and the tools being used (which techniques).
    • Use the main-idea statement structure we’ve practiced in class.
  • Use body paragraphs that are developed around a particular effect or tool; make each paragraph about a different technique or effect. Textual evidence must be included and commentary (the analysis) must be the majority of the response.
  • Conclude by noting the main points and a final point that wraps things up (you might comment on how effective the commercial actually is, for example).

Goals are to demonstrate the ability to identify cinematic techniques and their effects while composing a well-organized piece of writing (introduces its topic, uses evidence, includes original analysis, closes with a conclusion, and is organized so that each paragraph develops a particular idea).

Exemplary Work is written with clear attention to grammatical accuracy and shows a command of academic writing. It includes well-selected details from the text, clearly describes these details to demonstrate understanding of each technique, and includes insightful analysis of cinematic techniques and their effects