TV commercial production help?
 

I want to make a simple 30 second commercial for my friends small retail business. I have an XL2 and a wireless lav mic which about all I need I think for simple 30 second slot. I noticed that the local cable company uses Beta cameras Sony (DXC-537). Do I need one?

I have never made a commercial before and don't know about post production "broadcast colors" and all that. How do I learn what I need to do to the video so that the local cable company will not have to do any editing with the footage? I have an XL2 and edit on Adobe Premier Pro. Anyone done this before?

I suppose I could call the local cable company and ask endless questions. Not sure how helpful they would be considering answering my questions would be taking dollars out of their pocket. It would not be in their best interest given part of their income comes from production.

The cable company is likely to have a production technical standards document that details the tape formats, timings, technical standard, etc, that they accept for broadcast. Definitely call them up and ask for it. While they may well produce ads themselves they're also used to getting materials from ad agencies etc and such a request is commonplace

FIRST-Yes you can use what you got but you MAY need to have the miniDV converted to BetaSp-many places will do that for a fee + tape.

I've done a number of commericals on miniDv edited on Vegas (they don't care what you edit on) so I would absolutely call the cable station and get the information.
Just make sure you watch your audio levels while shooting.

Good luck and have fun

Don

Thanks ya'll. I know some places I can get a conversion done if needed.

Hey Don,

For those commercial spots you shot on DV, did you add in the color bars, audio tone, countdown, or anything else prior to the beginning of the spot.

I recently inquired about the formats in which my local cable provider will accept advertising spots. The company is Time Warner, which took over Adelphia (at least here in NW Ohio). I was told they prefer Beta but will accept MiniDV. They will, at no charge, dub it over to Beta.

I did not think about asking if I had to add the bars, tone, or countdown. I use Vegas, so I don't see any problem adding them if I have to. I'm just curious as to what other are doing or have done.

Jeff

Hey Don,
Just so you know, there is a filter in Premiere Pro called "Brodcast colors" under "video", or something like that. You can setup the effect to automatically clip certain ranges on your footage.

Like everyone else said, it would be a great idea to get the specs for the cable company. A good inital setup is to have before your spot is:

10 sec black
30 sec color bar & tone (This is a good place to put your company name over the color bars)
10 sec slate
10 sec black

Then your spot. Be sure to put black at the end so they can roll out. Good luck!

What Brian said ;-)

I put my name in the slate along with the clients name, name of the spot, length of the spot, date and then my name at the end.

That way the station knows exactly what they're getting and from who (or is it whom?)

Don B

Phone # is a good idea, too.

Hi guys,

I would just like to ask if GL2 would be enough to shoot a tv commercial ad. and what format do you prefer, i mean 24p or standard 60i? (not sure if GL2 is capable of 24p) it will be a 30 sec shoot. One more thing, what light setup would be sufficient, it will be just an indoor shoot, but i've checked the place and it has poor lighting. Thanks again guys in advance.

Hi Adam,
Here in LA, Time Warner expects BetaSP with the following guidlines:
:10 Black
:30 Bars and Tone
:10 Black
:05 Slate
:05 Black
:30 Commercial
:05 Black for roll out
The dubbing house I use (Quad One in Burbank; great quality and prices) makes true component minidv or DVCAM to BetaSP dubs, for the best possible quality from your original master.
Hopefully, you can find one that does this, as a pristine BetaSP master is your best insurance for decent encoding for air. Also, since most spots fade up from black, I insert the 4 frames of "changeover marks" (those little white circles in the upper right hand corner at the end of a countdown leader) just before the first frame of fade up to help the compressionist identify the actual first frame of the spot.

Hope this helps.

Ken