After my experience with making my movie last year, I at first thought I wanted to make another video about "O Brother Where Art Thou"- it was a great movie to work with, and there was so much there. But upon thinking further, I realized I didn't want to overlap what I had done before. I am now toying with the idea of focusing my film on product placement in movies. My dad works in advertising for AT&T and it's always interesting to hear his opinions of ads- as much as the rest of my family tries to fast forward them or escape them during our favorite TV shows, for example, he spends his day figuring out ways to reach consumers that we can't avoid. Some movies and shows are really obvious about the way they integrate products (like the Coca-Cola cups American Idol judges drink from), while others (think nationally televised football games...ever notice the logos on the coaches' headsets?) are a little more subtle and insidious, and the laws and contracts surrounding them can get really intricate. For example, here at UNC, AT&T sponsors many of UNC's sports teams- like football- yet Verizon, one of their competitors, has the in-stadium rights to advertise. So if you're in Kenan Stadium, you'll see Verizon ads on the big screen and a few signs- but if you're watching a game on TV you'll see AT&T commercials. I find all this really interesting, but I'm just not sure how to make the idea fit the media page/video format- should I focus on a single product for the video, or maybe a single movie as an example, with my media page as a whole describing it more broadly?

I find this resource has some good, if a bit pretentious, information about film basics. If you discover additional sites, pass them on.

http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/