Mancino's Pizza commercial 2010

"Mancino's 2010 ad" is an advertisement for Mancino's Pizza and Grinders of Big Rapids, aimed for release on the Ferris Access Channel on January 29th of 2010. It was produced by both the Dozerfleet founder and TVPR 499 partner Tabby Young. Ads for Mancino's are broadcast during commercial breaks for Ferris in Focus. The ad was approved in mid-January of 2010 by Marianne Evans-Christianson, manager of the Big Rapids store. The project earned its team a B+ grade.

Content
The ad opens with a shot of Kaileen enjoying a sandwich, while Volkonir and Josh narrate that the dining area's new look and family-friendly environment (i.e., new lighting and improved paint job using a different color scheme) are "just the beginning" (of reasons viewers would want to eat there.)

An employee holds up a pizza box, smiling, while the camera pans down on her. Just in case viewers didn't already know they had the option to order a delivery, that point is driven home. That same employee is then shown sprinkling ingredients in specialized lighting on a pizza that is ready to be made, emphasizing the freshness and appeal of ingredients, while camera footage slowly dissolves from her sprinkling cheese on to the resultant pepperoni pizza ready to be baked.

As a still of one wall takes over the background, a foreground lists off Mancino's of Big Rapids' weekday and weekend specials. A special alert at the end reminds Ferris students that if they dine-in, they get a 10% discount. Finally, the building's exterior is shown, along with text and a graphic that give the Big Rapids location and phone number.

Production
Initial meetings over a script began on the 15th of January, with a follow-up on the 19th wherein which a script was approved. After audio recording wrapped up on the 24th, the film crew drove to Mancino's around 9:00 AM on Tuesday the 26th. A Sony Z7U camera was used for production, along with two studio lights. Footage was captured to both a digital card and a miniDV tape, although nothing from the tape was ever captured due to absence of a tape deck in the editing room.

One major complication occurred when footage from the card became corrupted whenever it was asked to record high-motion shots in standard definition. According to TVPR 499 instructor Glen Okonoski, tape decks should be made more available and all standard-definition footage should be captured off of tapes rather than cards. Ultimately, only a panorama shot of the store's dining area proved truly unusable. It was replaced with a still shot of a clock in the dining area, a shot taken with a Nikon P60 camera and then edited in Photoshop to match the commercial's color scheme.

Editing
Editing of the commercial resulted in a bluish look and feel, intended to emphasize the store's dining area's new look and feel as a more family-oriented and less institutional place to eat. Most scenes dissolve to and from one another, as a way to cooperate with the music in creating a relaxed-yet-enthusiastic feeling. The piece was edited together inside of a lab in the IRC building.

Music
Due to the need for Ferris students to use royalty-free music for ads, Kevin MacLeod's song "Soporific" was used, as-was made available for download off of Incompetech's website. From there, it was mixed in with the Dozerfleet founder's voice, modulated to sound like Volkonir. This mixture became the "Mmmmm...." part of the script that serves as an ad opener.

Since other bits of Volkonir intonation did not mix well, the remainder of the ad's narration was mixed to volunteer narrator Josh Byers' voice. The Dozerfleet founder's North Bond Hall floormate Alicia Lockwood was originally scheduled to perform this narration, but ultimately declined due to prior-incurred spinal injuries. Audio recording was completed on Sunday, January 24th, and served as a timecode basis for video editing.

Reception
The initial draft for the ad was going to use Kevin MacLeod's "Darkness is Coming." Glen quickly dismissed this song from use as a music bed, due to it "sounding too much like a slasher fic soundtrack." "Soporific" was then used as a substitute, as that track produces a much calmer feel for the overall commercial.

Marianne's remarks to the finished product were: "Thank you so much, Glen! Your students did an excellent job!"

Broadcast
This ad was set to run on the Ferris Access Channel until its replacement became available in the fall of 2010. It was crucial to providing ad content for Ferris in Focus, but optionally ran on Ferris State Live on some occasions as well.