"It's Probably Time"
My friends and I have been working on commercials for the CareerBuilder.com contest, and they're finally ready for the public!
First, from my friend Tom Finnegan (I edited this one):
And then, here's the one that I directed:
Watch, enjoy, show to your friends, spread the word, and let me know what you think!
We stumbled upon this contest a few months ago, and immediately, this was designated as our first big project of the new year. We tossed around ideas for a few weeks, and one that stuck out was Tom's. My bigest issue with what eventually became our first commercial was its resemblance to MacGyver's Breakfast, the short I'd written and directed for our group back in September. However, Tom did a great job differentiating the two videos, and by the time we were ready to shoot it, it looked to be a solid idea.
The production process itself wasn't that tough, although we did have some issues with the audio in the latter shots. I believe that our Mic/AV jack was switched to AV at some point, giving off some kind of feedback that sounded horrible on camera. It was a huge problem for the shot of the car driving off - so much that we had to reshoot that audio. Fun fact - the first time we shot the car driving away, it was lightly snowing, and the second time, it was about 70 degrees!
John did a great job in acting, and Tom had a definite idea of what he wanted to see out of the commercial. Our biggest issue was time - when I sat down to make the rough cut (since Tom was out of town with his family), it ended up being almost two minutes long. That was a huge problem, since the video could only be 45 seconds in length. But we had a process - first I cut, then John and I cut, then Tom and I cut, and eventually we made it down to just over 44 seconds.
What really ties Tom's commercial together, I think, is the music. We debated this for a short time, but when we settled on a decision, it worked perfectly. Once he left, I was faced with making a few precise edits, and then it was time for exporting the video and posting it to YouTube. I don't think this is the best quality that we could have used, and in fact, we're planning to work with Compressor for a better product in the future, but it worked for this purpose. All in all, we're excited with the final product.
I've spent all this time talking about Tom's, but I really haven't hit on mine yet. That's because mine was much more low-key and easy to produce. I had the idea a few days before I pitched it to Tom and John, but we immediately loved it. Single shot, pull out and pan down, and M&E, music, and facial expressions tell the story. I know that CareerBuilder will probably disqualify me for the "explicit material," but I don't really care - I wanted to make something that stuck in peoples' heads. As that goes, I think I did a pretty good job - I've already received several compliments that it was hilarious.
See, this is what I'm trying to tell people - it's not about winning the contest; it's about creating a good product, generating buzz, and building a fanbase. The boys scoff when I speak in those terms, but if there's anything I learned from my years in the webcomic business, it's this: everything takes gorundwork. You work and you work, and success doesn't come overnight. But you keep working, keep pushing boundaries, and don't be afraid to fail every once in a while. I know these commercials aren't the best things ever made, but they're solid and they're SOMETHING. They're part of the foundation that we're building.
First, from my friend Tom Finnegan (I edited this one):
Click to viewAnd then, here's the one that I directed:
Watch, enjoy, show to your friends, spread the word, and let me know what you think!
We stumbled upon this contest a few months ago, and immediately, this was designated as our first big project of the new year. We tossed around ideas for a few weeks, and one that stuck out was Tom's. My bigest issue with what eventually became our first commercial was its resemblance to MacGyver's Breakfast, the short I'd written and directed for our group back in September. However, Tom did a great job differentiating the two videos, and by the time we were ready to shoot it, it looked to be a solid idea.
The production process itself wasn't that tough, although we did have some issues with the audio in the latter shots. I believe that our Mic/AV jack was switched to AV at some point, giving off some kind of feedback that sounded horrible on camera. It was a huge problem for the shot of the car driving off - so much that we had to reshoot that audio. Fun fact - the first time we shot the car driving away, it was lightly snowing, and the second time, it was about 70 degrees!
John did a great job in acting, and Tom had a definite idea of what he wanted to see out of the commercial. Our biggest issue was time - when I sat down to make the rough cut (since Tom was out of town with his family), it ended up being almost two minutes long. That was a huge problem, since the video could only be 45 seconds in length. But we had a process - first I cut, then John and I cut, then Tom and I cut, and eventually we made it down to just over 44 seconds.
What really ties Tom's commercial together, I think, is the music. We debated this for a short time, but when we settled on a decision, it worked perfectly. Once he left, I was faced with making a few precise edits, and then it was time for exporting the video and posting it to YouTube. I don't think this is the best quality that we could have used, and in fact, we're planning to work with Compressor for a better product in the future, but it worked for this purpose. All in all, we're excited with the final product.
I've spent all this time talking about Tom's, but I really haven't hit on mine yet. That's because mine was much more low-key and easy to produce. I had the idea a few days before I pitched it to Tom and John, but we immediately loved it. Single shot, pull out and pan down, and M&E, music, and facial expressions tell the story. I know that CareerBuilder will probably disqualify me for the "explicit material," but I don't really care - I wanted to make something that stuck in peoples' heads. As that goes, I think I did a pretty good job - I've already received several compliments that it was hilarious.
See, this is what I'm trying to tell people - it's not about winning the contest; it's about creating a good product, generating buzz, and building a fanbase. The boys scoff when I speak in those terms, but if there's anything I learned from my years in the webcomic business, it's this: everything takes gorundwork. You work and you work, and success doesn't come overnight. But you keep working, keep pushing boundaries, and don't be afraid to fail every once in a while. I know these commercials aren't the best things ever made, but they're solid and they're SOMETHING. They're part of the foundation that we're building.