Nandan Nair

Shark Tank was a competition in my school in which we had to create a company, and make a product. One condition was that the company should be in a different country than the USA. You can choose any country of your choice. You have to do some research on the country such as its GDP/capita and life expectancy. This research lets you know about the country’s strengths and weaknesses helping you plan ahead for your business. You would then have to make a poster, sales pitch, or commercial about your product. You would then have to present it to the whole class.

I chose to make a Soccer Cleat in Argentina. After some research, I named my company Ventaja Sporting Goods. In Spanish, one of Argentina’s main languages, Ventaja means advantage. Since this product is superior to all other cleats, it is advantageous to all customers and thus its name. I also made a commercial. Surprisingly, I was the only person in my class who did a commercial. Everyone else opted for poster or sales pitch.

Making a commercial is a lengthy process. You need to have a objective – showcase your product and also a detailed script to communicate your message. Then the technology – to make short videos, connect them and special effects. Fortunately, I had practices using the iMovie app on the iPad extensively with my brother. That gave me the confidence to make a commercial.

I made the commercial by first writing the actual script about my company and its product. This made it easier to do the commercial, as I only had to record that as opposed to thinking of it as I go. I created characters and used their images to show what they were saying. I used iMovie to create the videos, attach them, and add the sound effects. Guess who was the film maker – my younger brother – a 5 year old toddler…..

In the video, I used different accents to represent each character. Since I had 2 characters – Joe and Frank I had to remember 2 accents only. The hard part was getting all the accents and tones right all the time. Once these characters spoke about the problems with their current cleats, I presented myself as the owner of the company and spoke about Ventaja, Argentina and the soccer cleats with my brother this time handling the filming work. After I finished the filming, I connected each video in order, and added different sound effects. The presentation went well and everyone liked the commercial. Hope you enjoy viewing the same. Do write your comments on what you think about Ventaja.