By: Victoria, Firaas, and Yifan
Victrola Record Player Advertisement
For this assignment, we wanted to create a 20 second advertisement of a Victrola record player. The robot arm is very capable of taking smooth and professional looking shots, and we wanted to utilize this as much as we could. For this advertisement, we really wanted to show off the capabilities of the record player itself, while also making it look visually appealing, with strategic shots carried out by the robot arm. When looking through various examples of Victrola advertisements, one thing we kept seeing is how the shots used showed the record player in a very aesthetically pleasing format. Here are two examples:
However, we wanted to take a different approach and put a little vintage aesthetic onto our video with the sound, a filter, and music. The vinyl crackle was used in the beginning of the video before the music started playing to help fit the vintage aesthetic and it is a pleasing sound to the ears. The song chosen to play was “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses, specifically the guitar solo around the 7 minute mark. Lastly, to give this video an advertisement feel, we wanted the video to end with a fade to the Victrola logo.
The Setup
Storyboard:
Background/Set:
The dark crimson velvet really complemented our desire to go with a vintage aesthetic while we were choosing the background. We used the table lamp to replicate the spotlight on the red carpet in order to make the record player stand out more. Due to the light we added, it took us a long time to modify the program because we didn’t want the robot’s arm’s shadow to obscure the main focus—the record player. In addition to serving as a spotlight, the table lamp should also be in a position where it cannot be knocked over by the robot arm as it is moving down the line that we have established.
After five trials, we eventually anchored the lamp to the left-hand corner of the table, with the robot arm in the right-hand corner. The light was coming from the left to the right, completely avoiding casting a shadow on the record player from the arm. Furthermore, we staggered the robot arm and the table lamp because of this placement.
Development Process
During our first attempt operating the arm, we struggled for a bit. Initially, the video was going to have several pans from right to left, and from bottom to up, as seen in the paper storyboard. However, when attempting the right to left pan, the arm would arc upwards when played fully, despite the setup being completely straight. Likewise, the controls for the arm got flipped around, making it difficult to control the arm overall. Ultimately, we played around these unexpected constraints, and focused more on the arm orbiting around the record player, as seen I’m the final video.
