Making Commercials in the Archives?

Making Commercials in the Archives?

A guest post by Archives Student Worker, Ben

           A few weeks ago, my fellow student workers and I were given the task to put together a commercial for an upcoming conference my supervisors are presenting at.  The commercial was supposed to explain and show off the plethora of existing digital storage options. I was excited because I love any excuse in the Archives to be creative. I kind of took the reigns as writer and director for our little skit. Mainly because my fellow student workers were working on their own film careers and needed to get into their characters so they couldn’t be bothered to take other work and respectfully declined the roles. Shania kindly volunteered to be our videographer. It seems like it was time to put my acting chops to work and star in our 1-man skit.

            I think putting together the main prop for the video, the digital storage trench coat, was the most fun part of the whole production. With the help of Anne Stenzel and Adam Smith, we compiled a myriad of digital storage options including, CDs, flash drives, floppy disks, and cassettes. We attached these onto the coast with binder clips, so we didn’t ruin the beautiful khaki trench coat that Anne Stenzel so graciously donated to the cause. However, I’m sure we will see Anne rocking that same trench coat this coming spring, so have no fear, no trench coats were harmed in the making of this commercial.

            Overall the prompt, script, and filming were all very simple. So, I decided to spice up the video with some fun editing, sound effects, music … etc. This was a very fun day in the Archives and I’m thankful I get to work in a place where I get to express myself creatively, learn about interesting artifacts and history, and work with kind people.
           Check out my commercial!