You folks gave me lots of good advice about shooting with white infinity walls, so I thought I'd share the final product.

The Arizona Bridge to Independent Living (ABIL) PSA was shot with my VX-2000, 2 halogen cyc broads, 2 large Photoflex floods with softboxes, a small tungsten Arri kit, and a Scrim Jim for additional bounce. We rented a portable waveform and a large broadcast-grade monitor in order to make sure we were lighting evenly and not clipping. We first managed to light the entire back wall and floor to within about 5% of 85/90%. This is much more challenging than it might seem, and took a long time. In hindsight, I could have used about 2-4 more lights. Then, it was just a matter of lighting talent to read well at that exposure.

The footage was edited on FCP, then sent back to me for a poor-man's filmlook and motion graphics in After Effects. Even though you can see some gradation in the Quicktime, on NTSC the background reads as a nice, even white. I also used After Effects to keep everything nice and legal, so the whites never overmodulate or bleed into the audio channel.

Also take a look at the 2004 Phoenix Film Festival spot. I really enjoy letting loose with pure motion graphics, and the festival has always given me carte blanche to come up with whatever I wanted. I don't know if that's because I'm so damn good, or just because I work cheap. Hmm....

I think both these spots show the value of co-branding with an existing website and graphics package.

From my homepage, click on any of the links or buttons for "VIDEO". Feel free to browse my other examples as well. I know I really need to update the site, but I'm still a complete idiot when it comes to HTML.

members.cox.net/trott10/

Direct link to ABIL PSA (http://members.cox.net/trott10/ABIL.htm)
Direct link to 2004 Phoenix Film Festival (http://members.cox.net/trott10/PFF_04.htm)

It looked neat, good job. I thought the PSA was focused a bit
too much on the disability part and I would've expected the
last line to read something like "for people with abilities" instead
of disabilities again...

The film festival add was fine, although I'm wondering how it
would've looked if it focused more on the movies themselves
(use short passages from a view good ones).

LOL....I cant stop laughing...Im sorry because I know you wanted it to be serious. "A dreamer" HA!

Originally posted by John Gaspain
LOL....I cant stop laughing...Im sorry because I know you wanted it to be serious. "A dreamer" HA!
What's funny about that?

I thought it was very well done. Nice piece.

Well done. The lighting came out well.

Ed Hill

I wasn't going to post the :60 version, but then I thought it might be interesting to see an alternate cut.

members.cox.net/trott10/ABIL60.htm

I think the cut is a bit clunky, even though some of the original script's ideas come through more clearly. Most T.V. stations seem to want only :30 PSA's, so the :60 spot will probably never air.

But, a question to you all - if this was to be posted on ABIL's website, or used in marketing materials somehow, would you use the :30 or the :60? Which do you think is more effective?

Rob, the people in the community actually prefer the term "disability". What they don't like to be called is "handicapped". Or "gimpy", for that matter. They'll hit you in the knee with their cane or run over your toe with thier wheelchair if you call them "handicapped".

John, I understand perfectly. It's a fine line between heartfelt and parody when you are dealing with people who are (ahem) disabled...

/hobbles off with a gimpy knee and a sore toe

I would use the 30 it is by far more effective and the message comes across much better. The timing of the 60 is not so good and it is to long. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but the 30 is just so much better. I had some good laughs looking at your 'zorro' advertisement! a really funny interpretation of an american carsales add!!