Doritos Commercial

Doritos “Live the Flavor” Super Bowl Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUFvJNQ0bnM

Shot 1: Close-up of Doritos 

Close-up shot

This shot symbolizes the importance of Doritos in this “story”

Shot 2: Shot of guy opening Doritos bag with his mouth while driving

Medium shot of guy

The shot of the guy shows that he is one of the main characters in the story

Shot 3: Girl walking holding a bag of Doritos

Zoom shot of girl walking/ point of view shot

This shot moves our attention to the other main character, and we are looking at her from the guy’s point of view

Shot 4: Still Frame of girl holding bag of Doritos and the word “spicy”

Still Frame

This shot shows us that the girl (and Doritos) symbolize “spicy”

Shot 5: Guy looks at girl and turns to still frame of him with the bag of Doritos and the word “cheesy” 

Medium shot of guy

This shot shows us that the guy (and Doritos) and considered “cheesy”

Shot 6: car hits something and guy’s face smashes into Doritos bag and steering wheel and it turns to still frame with the word “crunchy”

Tracking shot 

This shot changes the direction of the commercial, the music stops, and comic relief is added with physical humor

Shot 7: Girl sees accident and runs in front of car, worried, and turns to still frame with the word “bold”

Long shot of girl

This shot shows us that the girl (and Doritos) also embody boldness

Shot 8: Girl runs to window of car and turns to still frame with the word “smooth?”

Medium shot of girl

This is a build-up shot, we know something is about to happen because of the “?”,

Shot 9: Girl falls down outside of car window

Medium shot

This is the climax of the commercial, more comic relief

Shot 10: Guy looks out and sees girl on the ground and the slogan comes on screen “Live the Flavor”

Long shot of car and girl

The final scene where we are reminded by Doritos that if we eat them, our lives will encompass the previously mentioned adjectives.

Thinking about movies!

In the movie clip from Garden State, Sam and Andrew are in a waiting room at the hospital; Andrew is waiting for an appointment and Sam is supposedly waiting for a friend, but we find out later this is a lie. They start talking and Sam offers Andrew her headphones and asks him to listen to this song, it will “change his life”. He listens to the song for a few seconds, while staring at her, and gives the headphones back and tells her thanks. Then, they talk for a few minutes about why they are at the hospital. He is then called for his appointment, finally introduces himself, finds out her name, and leaves.


The clip uses many close-ups of the two characters and medium shots. The close-ups show the characters’ emotions and establishes their characters, since the story is about the main character Andrew finding out more about himself, through learning about Sam. The close-ups also are point-of-view shots. During the series where Andrew is listening to the song, we look at Sam through Andrew’s point-of-view, and vice versa, and it gives us a very intimate feeling, despite the fact that they are in a waiting room of a hospital.

There is a long shot when Sam is trying to get Andrew to listen to the song, and she is curled up on one of the chairs. It shows their body language and gives you the feeling that the situation is awkward because they are both tilted slightly away from each other.

When they are introducing themselves there is a low-angle and high-angle shot. The low-angle shot is used when Andrew is introducing himself and we are looking at Sam. It is used in this way because it is showing that Andrew is the dominant character and holds the power in their “relationship”. Sam has already put herself out there by initiating conversation, sustaining it with little help from Andrew, and now she is waiting for him to make the next move. The high-angle shot is used when Sam introduces herself to Andrew, showing the power dichotomy.

The music is used is a very powerful way in this clip. She is asking him to listen to it. She is sharing something of herself with this music. It gives us an opportunity to see more about her character. If she had given him hardcore punk music, or classical music, we would have assumed something different about her character. She also tells him that it will “change your life” so this song must mean something to her.


In my classroom I am planning on teaching film and editing techniques by having students contribute to a classroom paper that reviews TV programs and movies. In this classroom or online newspaper students would be involved in critiquing a TV show or movie based not only on the storyline and sequence of events, but also on the techniques that they used to convey messages. This would make students think about films and programs in a different light, but also work on their writing skills.

Since I am not a Language Arts teacher, but a licensed Social Studies teacher, I think that it would be powerful to have students connect a movie to the event on which the movie was based. The paper or project would be more meaningful when students think about the way in which certain techniques involving lighting, music, and angles are used to convey a message, and exactly which message the director wanted us to receive. Instead of just watching the movie for the historic relevance or interpretation, the students could write about what the director wanted us to think about this event, and what their interpretation is. This is a way to make movies more meaningful in social studies education.

Rational For Teaching Media Studies

Here in the Minneapolis Public School District, we are very focused on the “basics”, partly because of our commitment to closing the achievement gap and partly because we are looking to raise student achievement and prepare them to be college-ready. Here at Folwell Middle School we do not currently have a media studies class. Presently, we are focused on traditional Language Arts classes as well as Read 180, which is a class that focuses on the basics for students who have fallen behind. For next year I have proposed a Media Studies class that focuses on learning critical and creative reading and writing skills through analyzing different medias. Parents have been supportive and would like their children to be challenged in this way.

Though teaching Media Studies is often thought of as “outside” traditional language arts curriculum, it is also a subject that teaches the basics; it just happens to do so through different mediums. The following is not an exhaustive list of reasons that media studies is a valuable course, but some examples that illustrate it’s importance.

Youth are Engaging in Media Use in Higher Amounts Than Previously: The youth of today are already heavily using and interacting with many different types of media. A study done by the Kaiser Network shows that youth ages 8 to 18 have increased their overall exposure to media content per day, this is to say that the study found “the total amount of media content young people are exposed to each day has increased by more than an hour over the past five years” (Key Findings from New Research on Children's Media Use, March 9, 2005, The Kaiser Family Foundation). Because of this, it is our responsibility to teach media literacy so that our students are learning through and about activities that they already engage in outside of the classroom. We need to build upon students’ active use of media.

Moving Media from Passive to Active Participation: A big part of education is drawing on students’ experiences to lead them to new discoveries and enhance their knowledge. Since students are engaging with media at such high amounts, we need to draw on these experiences and build upon them to enhance their knowledge and use of media. Many students sit in their homes and watch TV, surf the Internet, and flip through magazines. We need to foster a move from this passive interaction to an active interaction where they are reading information on the internet and critically analyzing the validity of it, creating blogs instead of just reading them, and watching TV and movies and interpreting and analyzing the messages that they are sending. In addition, the skills learned in this class related to using blogs, wikis and websites can be applicable to courses or jobs in the future.

It is not the medium, it is the content: Through such mediums as blogs and wikis, students are working on their reading and writing skills. Students can learn creative and technical writing skills, as well as reading skills through other mediums that can be interactive and familiar to students. Teachers can create lessons that incorporate higher order thinking skills through the use of any medium. The use of new medias can make the content appear more interesting and manageable to our media-savvy youth of today. Youth are interested in “new media”, shown by the increase in use. It makes sense to teach “basic” skills to students in an interactive and interesting way that they are familiar with and that they appreciate.

These are a few reasons why creating a Media Studies class would be beneficial to our students. Again, students need to be engaged and interested in what they are studying. Students in this class will learn to analyze texts, create texts of their own through blogs and wikis, as well as analyze images through comics and movies. This class will focus on the basics, using interactive and engaging medias.

All That I Can Be

In Chapter One of TEACHINGMEDIALITERACY.COM, Beach reminds us that teaching media literacy helps “students communicate in multimodal ways” (page 8). He writes that when engaging with media or technology, students must use many of the same skills that they use when evaluating or producing print texts such as “comprehending messages, interpreting social purposes, defining connections or links, critiquing assumptions, formulating ideas, and so forth” (page 3). Not only are students using the above-mentioned skills when they use technology, but they are using a form of learning that also coincides with their lifestyle. Through media studies, students can learn about a variety of different subjects and topics through an interesting and engaging media. In our high-paced and multi-tasking culture, students, now more than ever, absorb information through different technologies. It is through media studies that students can learn how to interpret these messages, as well as create messages of their own.

Watching youth-created videos is an attention-grabbing way in which students can learn about a subject. The video “All That I Can Be” from the Media that Matters website, forced me to rethink my ideas of military recruitment. In the video, William spoke about joining the armed forces because it was a chance for him to better his life. He commented that many people live at the same economic level as he does and they are okay with it, but he wasn’t and wanted to improve his life. One way in which he could do this was through schooling; by joining the armed forces, education became more affordable. During this video, I also thought about a friend who had done the very same thing that William had done, and who is currently finishing his undergraduate degree at age 25. Military service had given him the opportunity to receive a college degree, a chance he may not have had if he had chosen a different path.

Before watching the video and knowing my friend’s story, I had held a negative view of the armed forces and especially their recruitment strategies, such as recruiting in lower socio-economic neighborhoods. I had always thought that it was unfair for the military to go into poorer neighborhoods to lure youth, often minorities, into the military while speaking of the benefits, trying to mask the fact that it is a life-risking profession. I had not thought about the opportunities that it affords those who feel stuck, without a way out. However, these two stories have changed my perceptions and made me think of the subject in a new light. I realized that for many people it truly is a way out of their current surroundings and they look at the armed forces as a beacon of hope and a path to a different life. While I may not totally agree with their methods, the military does offer some chances and opportunities that they may have not found otherwise. I came to these conclusions while watching the video, and reflecting on it afterwards.

Further, creating videos is also a way in which students’ perceptions can be changed. Creating and developing this product uses higher order thinking skills that challenge students. It is a creative process that so many of our technology savvy students enjoy and to which they can relate. For many students, watching and creating videos can make a topic much more interesting than a reading assignment, and excites them in ways that a lecture could not. While I was watching “All That I Can Be,” I could envision William, where he lived and worked, and I was able to put myself in his shoes. It made the situation much more real for me. I think that students learn more when they can put themselves in somebody else’s situation, and through the use of videos in the classroom, they can do just that. It enables them to think about a situation in a different way, challenging their ideas, such as mine were challenged and changed.