Counterintuitive Fall 2024

00:00 – 00:01: The opening shot is a woman sitting in her kitchen at a table. The kitchen seems to be small but is clean and tidy. Through the kitchen window to the left of the woman, you see a fire escape latter. It is assumed that based on the title of the video that this apartment is in New York City. The apartment is not on the first floor since we can see the roofs of other building through the window. The bright light from outside signals that it is sometime during the day. The woman seems engrossed in her laptop and has a cup of possibly coffee next to her. She has makeup, jewelry, and clothes on, this indicates she is ready for her day. The angle quickly changes to a bust shot. We can now see the woman up close. To the right of her, a NYC notification graphic appears.

00:01- 00:02: The graphic is still to the right of the woman. Under the NYC notification are different language options. A mouse icon on the screen chooses the English language setting. I think that the commercial includes this visual to show that these notifications can be translated to multiple different languages. The shot quickly changes to show the woman walking down a hallway. It looks as though she is leaving her apartment or has already left because she has a purse on her left shoulder. It appears that she hears or feels a notification on her phone. She reaches down for her phone that was previously out of frame.

00:02-00:03: The video now features a close up of the womans face. We can see the phone is in front of her face but are not able to see the whole phone. A Notify NYC graphic appears on the screen to the right of the woman. A weather warning icon appears in red flashing lights. The notification says “SERVERE WEATHER: Potential heavy rain impacting NYC.

00:03-00:05: The same shot is on the screen, but we can see that the woman is reading the notification that she got on her phone. We are assuming that the notification we are seeing is what the woman is see on her own phone. I think the director chose this angle because he wanted us to see the emotions that the woman was feeling as she read the notification.

00:05-00:07: The woman is seen grabbing an umbrella from an unseen closet. The red umbrella is put into her tote bag. The visual does a spilt screen between the woman putting the umbrella in her bag and a man lying down in bed. The weather notification is still on the screen but is now in the middle of the two people. The man is seen rolling over to pick up his phone, while the woman is reaching for the door of her apartment. The notification starts to fade away and the woman’s half of the screen is ushered out of view to the left. We now only see the man in bed holding his phone.

00:07-00:08: A ring clock symbol appears next to man on the right side of him. The camera moves slightly to the right, giving us more visual to his room. We can see that his nightstand, where his phone previously was, has a glass of water and outlet upon it. The camera starts to move in on the man’s face and he is seen looking at the clock alarm going off on his phone. A look of shock comes across his face. I think the author chose this up-close shot again to show the man’s emotions, like he did with the woman. The man rolls over quickly to get out of bed.

00:08-00:09: The frame moves downward towards the end of the man’s bed. We can see the man’s feet rushing towards the bench at the foot of his bed. The camera stops and focuses on his green backpack. Next to his backpack is papers and folders. It can be assumed that this man was working on something last night, possibly be the reason he is shocked at what time he wakes up. The man is seen quickly putting the papers and folders into his backpack.

00:09-00:10: The man is seen rushing down his front steps. It looks as though he lives in a townhouse or apartment building. A screen with the woman walking down a sidewalk transitions in towards the right.

00:10-00:11: The woman is seen rounding a corner outside. In the next clip, we see walking past a white wall. We see her profile as she walks.

00:11-00:13: The camera angle widens, and we see more of the white wall. On the white wall is a graphic. The graphic says, “EMERGENCY ALERTS”, “LOCAL MASS TRANSIT DISRUPTIONS”, “POLICE ADVISORIES”, and “WEATHER NOTIFICATIONS”. All the points have a check mark box next to them. As the scene continues, the emergency alerts, local mass transit disruptions and weather notification boxes get checked. It can be assumed that this is why the woman got the weather notification from Notify NYC earlier in the video.

00:13-00:14: The shot is angled so that we see her walking forward from behind her. She has headphones and is calmy walking to her destination. The director has the woman walking towards a subway station to reiterate the fact that she is in the big city of NYC.

00:14-00:15: In the same shot, a big exclamation mark appears to the left of a woman. The notification displays a bus transportation symbol along with the words, “MASS TRANSIT DISRUPTION R train service is delayed in both directions. It is clever that the director has the woman receive this news right before she was about to board the subway. It shows that with these notifications, you can be prepared within the city.

00:15-00:16: The camera swings around to the front of the woman so that we can see her face. The woman brings the phone up towards her face, so that she can read the message. It is implied that she read the message as she looks longingly at the subway entrance she had been walking towards.

00:16-00:18: The womans frame leaves our screen towards the left. We now see the man running down a subway entrances stairway. We can only see his back, but it is inferred that he is in a rush because of his running speed. His speed and backpack might mean that the man is late to school. Since he does not have Notify NYC, he is not aware of the subway delays. He is led to believe that the train station is working fine.

00:19-00:20: The womans frame comes back to the screen. The woman is seated at a table with a pen and paper. It is inferred that she is a student at college and is currently sitting in a classroom. To support this theory, we see a woman and man in the background who appear to be students as well. Also, on the wall is a big whiteboard. This scene shows that because of the notification, the woman was able to change her commute and able to make it to class on time. We assume she made it to class on time because of her calm temper compared the other main character.

00:20-00:21: We see the man running into a room. He has a sense of worry on his face.

00:21-00:22: We see the woman sitting at the desk/table again. The man rushes into the scene and sits next to the woman. Considering how many people were all reading sitting down in the room and writing, it can be assumed that the man was late for class. The woman looks up at the man and smiles. It is possible that the two are friends as well as classmates.

00:22-00:24: We now have a closer look at the man and woman sitting next to each other at the table. We can see that the man’s skin is wet. The man could be wet because of the lack of knowledge about the weather forecast. He could also be wet from the sweat of running to get to class. The woman sees this and leans over to show the man her phone. The man is looking at what the woman is showing him on her phone.

00:24-00:26: We now see a close up of the wet man. We can see that he is looking down at his phone even though his phone is not fully in frame. A Notify NYC graphic appears to the right of the man. The graphic shows possible notifications that can be switched on or off. When the certain category is switch on, Notify NYC will alert the notification on the person’s phone. Possible notifications that one could get are Emergency Alerts (Required), Emergency Parking Suspension, Ferry Disruptions, Local Mass Transit Disruptions, Major Traffic Disruptions, Police advisories, Basement Alerts, Planned Event, Public Health, Regional Mass Transit Disruptions, Significant Events, School Notifications, and Weather Notifications. We can see that the man switches on the Emergency Alerts (Required) and Local Mass Transit Disruptions notifications within Notify NYC.

00:26-00:30: A red and white graphic appears on the screen. In big red letters, Notify NYC is written. Under that in smaller black letters it reads, sign up for free at NYC.gov/Notify or call 311. The screen indicates that the app, Notify NYC, is available for download through the apple store and google play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k9uE4OqRYI

0.01– The ad starts off with Meghan Thee Stallion posing in front of a back wall. The wall could be a background or it could actually be a wall from a building. She’s looking away like she’s looking at something or just posing with the camera. You can tell that it’s a professional taking the picture because it has the right angles and it’s zoomed in just enough to get most of her body, She is wearing a black t-shirt, makeup, and a honey blonde-colored wig with highlights. On the screen, the title of the interview is in yellow with her name on top to introduce who’s talking.

0.05– Then the ad transitions to Meghan sitting in a black high actor’s chair that has brown knobbs sticking out. The interviewer asked her a question. While she’s answering the question white subtitles are coming up. She’s in a studio with beige walls, white see-through curtains, and a white line on the wall that could be a stand or some type of decoration. The cameraman or woman is making sure to only focus on Meghan and some of the background. The camera is not too zoomed in you can still see the setting.

0.12– Meghan is finishing her response to the question asked. While she’s answering the question the camera is zooming in and out her face like it’s on purpose or the camera is just trying to refocus itself. She is still answering the question but now the clip has transitioned to her posing for a cameraman and she is in a different chair a soft brown color. Meghan is posing with her back a little bit off the chair with her head held up high and her shoulders high to show good posture. The camera zooms in just a little bit more and seems like the walls are a grey marble. The person who’s taking Meghan’s picture is an African-American male with a black jacket and a red accessory on his wrist. That’s all shown because the cameraman is just showing his arms in action taking Meghan’s photos. Still while she’s talking white word captions are showing up.

0.14– Meghan is back in the same setting as before. She is talking but in one particular clip, she makes a hand gesture indicating that she feels passionate about what she said.

0.25– Meghan continues with her hand gesture it’s like an up-and-down motion emphasizing that she is passionate about what she is saying. Then the next clip shows Meghan posing for the photographer. The cameraman or woman focuses on the back of the photographer’s body. The photographer is wearing a black oversized leather jacket with words on the back. He has his dreads in a messy hairstyle.

0.31– Meghan is concluding her interview. She makes a hand gesture that emphasizes love. Then at the end, she does her signature saying AH with her tongue out and her head tilted to the side. THE END.

0:00-0:07: The video opens with the goal of illustrating the difference between two individuals one who stays updated through the app, being aware of everything around her, and another person who isn’t updated and is always rushing without knowing what’s happening. Firstly, it highlights the flexibility in choosing languages, making it easy for everyone to understand. Then, it depicts someone waking up to an alarm and heading out. The message conveyed here is that the person using the app is more adaptable to receiving alerts.

0:07-0:15: The app displays various situations and actions that can occur, along with its functionalities such as emergency alerts, local mass transit disruptions, police advisories, and weather notifications. The video shows a person in the middle of New York City receiving notifications about mass transit disruptions. The significance of such alerts is emphasized, as they can prevent unnecessary rushing when, for instance, a ride is running late.

0:15-0:26: The video provides proof of the scenario discussed in the previous scene. The person not using the app is rushing to the train station, unaware that the train will be late. This emphasizes the contrast between two individuals one with access to the app who stays informed, and the other who rushes without updates. Eventually, they meet, and the app user helps the other person by demonstrating the app’s screen options, showcasing the ability to turn on/off notifications for various alerts. The scene’s message is the importance of following and utilizing the app.

0:25-0:30: The video concludes with contact information and urges viewers to prepare for unforeseen events. It also provides information on signing up and includes a tip advising viewers to download the app.

0:01- 0:02-  An African American family of four, a mother, and a small boy and young girl, and a father are walking out of their front yard and down the front walkway from their brink suburban home. The father has a stroller on his right shoulder, bagel in his right hand, and jacket resting on his right arm. In his left shoulder is a one strap satchel that appears to be a diaper bag with two stuffed animals hanging off of it, in his left hand is his to go coffee thermos. Behind him is his young daughter hidden between the parents who is starting to grow out of the toddler stage. The mother of the family, to the fathers left is carrying a drink and a small plastic child toy in her right hand, with a crossbody bag resting itself on that side. On her left hip is a young toddler, who she is holding while holding a grip on another miscellaneous bag. 

0:02-0:04- They continue their brisk walk with their hands full, parents side by side and the older toddler coming waking up in between, they all hold content looking smiles on their face. The father began to look up fixating on the distance while the mother scans the neighborhood after closing their front door. They look confident and proud they all made it out of the house in time with two kids and all of the things they will need for their outing, the family displayed a look of pride as they strolled down the small path from the front door to driveway.

0:04- 0:07- The fathers grin quickly downturns as his eyes widen, as the toy dangling from the diaper bag resting on his side is pulled by his daughter who emerged from being pressed behind her parents and walked up between him and his wife. As he got pulled to the left, the stroller on his shoulder began to fall towards the right. This expression stems from his shock and scramble to regain balance. His arms and shoulder begin rotating up and down as he tried to flail himself to regain balance.

0:07-0:09- The mothers eyes begin to squint as she curls her lip trying to muster up strength to prop her son on her hip as the commotion caused him to start to slip from her shoulder, after one strong frustrated huff she gave him a bounce on her hip to stabilize the child. As she narrowly avoided her husbands flailing arms trying to control the commotion. The daughter is still in between them, smiling at the scene she had just caused.

0:09-0:011- The frame focuses on The father’s eyes stay wide as he flails his arms trying to keep the coat from falling off of one, and the diaper bag off of the other, he then bites his bagel in his mouth to free up a hand to mediate the situation. 

0:11-0:15- They move their bodies in a wiggle formation in a bid to uphold all the fallen items and then proceed to continue their walk to the car, struggling behind the daughter who walked ahead of the commotion with a satisfied smile on her face, they all made it to the car with only a few children toys falling onto the walkway. In approaching the door, you see both parents shoulders drop, knowing they are almost relieved. The parents’ eyes glared with determination and stress, wanting to get the rest of that dreaded walk to the car over with. They did not have the same smile as they did in the beginning, but in this point, their lips were tight as they were trying to furrow their brows to focus.

0:15- 0:18- The mother has a relieved sigh on her face as she opens the doe to remove the child from her hip and relaxes her body. The father lets out a sigh as he puts his cup on the car roof, freeing up some room allowing him to relax his body as well. The little girl runs under her dad’s arm and climbs into the back seat of the black SUV. In this she hurled herself in in one swift morion, scrambling into her seat once she was through the car door. The daughter looked at her dad and smiled, which he reciprocated as his appreciation of that moment where she cooperated.

0:18-0-22- The father buckles the daughter into her car seat, she lets out a smile as she energetically grabs the popcorn bag beside the seat. she smiles and bounces with pure energy, which resulted in her spilling popcorn all over herself and the car floor. the father to back away with his hands up, squeezing his eyes shut to not get popcorn in them all of the sudden, his smile shifted to a tight lipped seal, and his wide eyes were shut avoiding any popcorn getting in them. . 

0:22-0:24- The mother is looking at the son in the car seat as she is adjusting him, he sits back and looks at her in an admiring way, and then the frame zooms into the seat belt clicking, highlighting that step in the routine of getting your children into the car. This is when the video ends, with the last frame being the seatbelt, with the message in the end being displayed to buckle up. This was able to get the point of the video across, were you see them highlighting child safety feature in the car through the way the camera panned and zoomed into the safety features.

0:00

The scene opens up to an African American family of four, they seem to be from America based on their style of clothing, and are dressed rather casual, they are standing in front of what appears to be a house, both of the parents hands are full, they are carrying a lot of things including but not limited to: food, drinks, stroller, toys artifacts of clothing, bags filled with items, and more including a baby. They seem to be about middle class, the parents seem to be 30s to 40s with the 2 children seeming to be about 2-5. The son is the younger one and the daughter is the older one. There is a bush placed in the corner of the screen, and the front door surrounded by bricks and a light in the background. They all seem to be looking out to the top left of the screen. Dad seems adventurous, Mom seems confused kids are looking elsewhere. One child is being held (seems to be the son) by the mom and the other child (seems to be the daughter) is kind of hidden behind a bag the dad is carrying.

0:01

Scene remains the same but pans out slightly with the mothers body having rotated 90 degrees in our direction and is now looking in the to her left, opposite of before. The video is playing in slow motion, i believe this may have been done to increase dramatic effect for the viewers.

0:02

The video has cut to what seems to be second or two into the future. The family is now a few steps ahead of where they were in the last clip. They are still holding everything everything that they were before. The dad is now looking at the mom, the mom is whipping her hair out of her face with a head movement to the right (from her point of view). Both kids are looking to their right. And more of the house has come into view you can now see a little of the roof and the window to their left. There also appears to be a bush below the window and a flag to the left of the door.

0:03

The camera cuts to a close up of moms face, she looks confident. The house in the background has been blurred to focus the attention to moms face. The director wants us to notice she is confident about something. Her eyes point to her right.

0:04

The camera cut back out to the first angle but they have moved forwards in time by a second or two, and they have taken a few more steps forwards. The mom is now confident and looking forwards with her hair blowing in the wind, the dad is now looking at the daughter, he looks like he’s telling her something while she is smiling and grabbing on to a toy that is shaped like fun color full shapes in a chain formation.

0:05

The camera cuts to a close up of the daughter. She is holding on to the colorful chain link toy. The director has made sure that this chain toy is in frame for some unknown reason. The toy is connected to the bag that the dad is carrying. Her facial expression has changed as it looks like she may be talking to the dad.

0:06

The Camera angle has changed a bit to move to the right but is keeping the daughter mostly centered. She is now looking at the dad while pulling on the colorful chain.

0:07

The camera cuts to a further angle again and chaos begins. The dad begins to drop everything while he has a bagel in his mouth. The stroller falls first, and the dad begins to follow and try to catch it. In the same second the camera cuts to a closeup of the mom and she is know concerned.

0:08

The camera cuts back to the original angle but they have moved further forwards again, and the dad is trying to adjust the stroller in his arm, and the mom is trying to lift the son up a little bit in order to get a better grip. I believe the director may be trying to give us an example of how fast chaos can erupt out of nowhere.

0:09

It seems the mother may have been bumped or is just slowly dropping the son as the camera cuts to her. She is slowly dropping out of frame (The video is still in slow motion) while holding the son. Her facial expression seems like she made be in a bit of pain.

0:10

The camera cuts to a close up of the dad with the moms face in the bottom right corner. He seems to be dropping everything and looks slightly distressed as he tries to catch everything.

0:11

The camera cuts to their left, while keeping everyone centered in the frame. You can see much greenery with a house behind it. There is also a tricycle just behind the family. I believe this is an attempt to display an attempt to communicate a healthy child hood emotionally. The daughter is still pulling the chain but is faced away from the camera. She has a backpack on that is shaped like a cartoonish dog head this may also be a more emotional attempt to connect with viewers. The dad seems to try and be resisting the daughters grip on the bag thorough the chains which he is holding.

0:12

The camera cuts to the dad trying to stuff a bagel in his mouth and while adjusting the stroller on his shoulder.

0:13

The camera moves back to the original location but they have moved on more. They are most likely headed to a car at this point as they are walking along a slight curve to the right where I could imagine a vehicle could be. The daughter is not in front and is no longer holding the chain.

0:14 The camera cuts to the dads shoes (on his feet), he is wearing a nicer dark brown pair of shoes, but his stance indicates he is in a very unstable stance. It quickly cuts back and he is stumbling in the background while the daughter is now in front with a big smile.

0:15

The camera changes to fit a car in view which appears to be parked in their driveway. There is a lot of greenery in the background with a tree behind it. The car is darker gray, and takes on the minivan shape. From my experience it is a newer Chrysler Pacifica. They all seem to be a bit more stable and in control as they walk to the car. The car is facing away from the camera, this is given by the taillight being in view but no headlights in view.

0:16

The scene remains the same as they have gotten a little closer to the car but the daughter has dropped her stuffed animal toy and her backpack on purpose as she begins to walk behind the car. She is most likely walking to the other side of the car.

0:17

The camera cuts to the a closer up angle of the car and the mom. The director seems to have aimed it at her from her 7 o’clock position. She is placing what appears to be her Nutri-bullet (copyright) filled with a chocolate shake on top of the car.

0:18

The camera cuts to the other side of the car and now the daughter and father are waiting for the driver side back door to open so they can start getting in an loading the car. He is looking at her while she watches the door.

0:19

The camera cuts back to the mom and son as they begin to enter the car as their passenger side back door is now open on their side.

0:20

The director is showing the father carefully place the daughter in her car seat making sure she is secured and safe. It shows 2 angles of how he is doing so. One from her 3 o’clock position and a close up on the car seat seatbelt

0:22 The daughter is spilling what seems to be a bowl of dry cereal, maybe Rice Krispie’s? all over the place. This is an attempt for the director to connect with viewers through pathos as more of a comedic family like chaos scene.

0:23-24

This scene is the same as 0:20 but with the mother and son.

0:25 – end

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