A 30sec Commercial
 

I don't know if this link will work or not, but here's a go at it. I did a commercial for a radio contest back in July, shot it with my XL2. It was a little too big to upload it here, about a little over 5megs. We only used two tota lights on the shoot, while utilizing general lighting from the room. I've never gotten around to sharing anything video wise so far on these boards, so i figure it's about time.
http://home.comcast.net/~lynxrecords...KISS106FM4.wmv

If the link does work, would love to hear some over all feedback.

Thanks ahead of time.

Joe

Very professional looking. I can’t tell but did you shoot 60i or 30p? It looks like it could have been 60i but might just be the compression. Overall looks great for what it is. Good lighting good camera work good editing. Nothing jumps out as being really great (but I’m talking Star Wars back in 1977 great) it is just overall a really well made, well shot commercial. Thanx for sharing.

It made me laugh, good job.

Commercial Feedback
 

Hi Joseph,

Overall, I really liked the commercial - an interesting message that clearly makes its point (sadly forgotten by many these days). Be sure your customers understand you're selling a "redemption story" - listen to KISS and you'll feel younger and be hip. Excellent job on the composition and your sound quality was great. And the timing of the talent was absolutely phenomenal - you've got some awesome director skills!

Regarding critical feedback:

Try not to overdo jump cuts - your first 7 scenes are one second each. That's way too fast and doesn't match the pace and content of the story. The second medium shot doesn't add anything and should go, while the close up laughter of the two men should defenitely stay (adds to the story). On the second half of the video, moving to the fast pace 1 second jump cuts were perfect, in complete harmony with the storyline. The zooms were also way too fast in the first segment.

Lighting on dark-skinned talent can be a problem; your forth scene was fine (where he hears the unexpected music) but the others had lighting problems. When he asks, "What is going on up here?" the lighting is several F-stops darker than the next scene where he shakes his hands in disguist. I'd guess your Totas are too far away from the talent (I also see shadows on the above shot and see strong reflections on the coffee pot); I would have moved up closer with 800 watts and used an umbrella for the wide shot and softbox for the tight shots. If necessary, use a Prolight as a kicker with a charcol difussion gel. Please tell us about your setup...

Thanks for sharing - these forums allow us to get a fresh perspective on our work when we get so close to our work.

Warm Regards, Michael

Micheal I don’t know if it’s just that you don’t know what a jump cut is or what but there are no jump cuts in this video. I thought that the pacing of the cuts were perfect. The medium close up was just fine and doesn’t have to go or stay.

I can agree with you on lighting but I think being that cuts are so fast no one notices. And a lot of times on these fast shoots with only a few lights you can’t make it perfect every time. I personally like all my videos to be about 1 stop under lit. I am one of the people that like the “Fight Club” look where you can’t see people’s eyes clearly. Again very well made for what it is.

Keep posting videos I love to see other people’s work.

Thanks all for the kind and extremely helpful feedback; and most important honest feedback. My internet was down, we had some extreme wind storms over here in WA. Knocked a million people out of power and such, so I'm now just managing to read all your great responses.
As far as how it was shot, it was actually shot in 24p normal at 1/48. The two Lowell Tota lights we used was 750 watts each. Used the umbrellas that I purchased with the kits, which we used to diffuse or bounce the lights.
We only had two hours in which to get everything, so I guess you can say it was somewhat of a rush job. Aside from those two lights, the XL2, a seinheiser wireless lavelier, and the talent (all non actors, the elderly people were members of the club we shot at, and the kids family members of the Director) it was a no budget stab at a contest, which did well, but didn't win, but did get crosschanneled for awhile on Cable.
I can agree on all the technical points made, especially about the f-stop differance between the two shots of the care worker character. As far as the pacing of the cuts throughout, it was a real challenge for me as the editor as well to fit what we wanted into the 30 seconds. We played with different draft cuts until we were able to trim it down to fit within that constriction of time. I and the Director were wincing in pain everytime we had to cut anothe rframe off of a shot in order to fit everything into that timeframe. Would have loved to have had 60seconds to work within. Would have definetly had a different pacing for the first half as Michael brought up. And Michael, I'll share your compliment about the excellent directing job with the Director and friend. Even though I do seem to co-direct some of the action within the shots, he certainly was greatly responsible for bring the best out in the on camera talent. And with the fact that they were all non-actors, I think that says a lot about his ability as a Director. Plus the whole concept was his.

Joe

Thanks Alan for your comment. It's always interesting to hear different perspectives to the same thing. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder so to speak.

Jump Cuts
 

Hi Joseph and Alan,

Thanks Alan for the correction - I should have said that for me the commercial was jarring *like* a jump cut:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_cut

So a better way to express myself would have been to say a few of the sub-one second cuts didn't seem to follow the continuity of the script (elderly seniors). And as you said Alan - overall, I loved it, too.

Joseph, you certainly deverved the job with the great work - especially considering the time constraint. It makes me curious; what was different with the winning video?

Warm Regards, Michael

thank you very much Michael. I don;t remember the winner's video, but remember it certainly was good.