The Ad-Makers by Tom von Logue Newth

Author:Tom von Logue Newth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ilex Press/ Ivy Press
Published: 2013-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Nike “Beach” (d. Bruce MacWilliams).

Meanwhile the agencies are doing their own scouting, particularly now that the Internet is so prevalent, or they just go back to the same guys they’ve used before. Either way they’ll usually end up with several directors who will bid for the job, each writing a treatment, adding visual references, and explaining how they would direct the spot. Plus, a producer from your company will come up with a budget for the commercial based on the boards, the particular agency’s requirements, and the director’s creative input. Most companies come very close to the same number after consulting with the agency when bidding, so usually the job goes to the director that the agency thinks will deliver the best finished commercial from their script.

When pitching for a job, I’ll have made a visual treatment using my own photographs and other references from magazines, books, and the Internet. I will also write a detailed five-page treatment where I tell the agency exactly what I want to do to take their script and turn it into a masterpiece. Call me a bullshitter if you want, but truthfully, I always shoot for the stars. Creating the treatment can be a very elaborate process. You can spend two or three days putting it together and then not get the job. But it’s good practice, it sharpens your visual skills, and sometimes it’s a piece of art in itself. There are artists all along the chain, mostly at the ad agency, in the process of making a commercial, who have to come up with good creative ideas that’ll many times never see the light of day.

Once the job has been awarded, the production team led by the producer will start working fast and hard on the logistics of putting together what basically is a little, one-to-three movie shoot, all in about ten days of pre-production. Pre-production for a commercial shoot is fast and furious, and it’s impressive how quickly a film crew is assembled, shooting locations are scouted, and actors are cast.

In order to prepare for the shoot I do my own storyboards. On a really big commercial, I’ll give them to a storyboard artist to make them look a bit sharper, but on smaller jobs I’ll just do them myself. It helps me plan the right look to make the spot really sing. Even if the shoot is handheld, shot on the fly, full of spontaneous movement and dialog, I still like having boards to keep me on track with the script. Then in the preproduction meeting I take the agency through the storyboards shot by shot, so we can discuss exactly how it’s going to look. It’s important for us to all be on the same page before we shoot. Of course there is hopefully some unexpected magic that happens when we actually roll camera, and we want to adapt to capture the magic, but it’s smart to have a plan to use as an initial starting point and to fall back on so you can stay on track.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.