Love Doll (spec spot)

[ArkhamFilms]

Hey everyone,

Here's a new spec spot that we shot last week.

http://www.arkhamfilms.com/lovedoll.html

And yes, it will never sell.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com

[XCheck]

LOL! Hookers.com! I love it!

[ChuckS]

That was great, very amusing. It had a good look to it and the music was perfect.

[HartStudio]

How did you score that gig?

Damn good commercial!

It made me want to check out the site!

[J.R. Hudson]

Ha ha

That's great; well done (as usual). Hookers.com. That's funny.

[ArkhamFilms]

Thanks everyone! Glad you liked it and I'm glad I'm not getting slaughtered here for doing off the wall humor like I would at other sites. We've got a bunch more of these types of spots coming.


How did you score that gig?

Okay, this is going to be a bit of a plug, but it's a really good one.
Music Beyond (http://www.musicbeyond.com) is where we got the music composed by Dewey Dellay. It's a company/website where you can listen to tons of different tracks that are mainly made for trailers & spots. It's a great site and the music is amazing. You can preview the music, or test it out by downloading high quality .wav files.

Also, they're really really reasonable with their licensing rates and are ultra-indie friendly. I highly recommend them, they were totally willing to help us out. The guy I spoke with is Jonathan Parks. He rocks and handled everything for me.

Seriously, everyone, check them out. The rates are much more affordable than you'd think.

Thanks again.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com

[BrandonC]

Awesome short film, looked amazing!

Give us some details on the shoot!

[MattC]

I think he meant how did you land the job?

[Don't worry stewardess, I'm fluent in jive....]

[ArkhamFilms]

Awesome short film, looked amazing!

Give us some details on the shoot!

Thanks Brandon. The spot was shot in one day, and pretty much cut that night. We lit it with an arri fresnel kit (2 650, 1 1k), Kino Flo 4 bank & double system and also a 1k par. We should have ND'd the windows, but we didn't have a whole lot of time.

We shot in in 24p Advanced mode. Cut with FCP 4.5. Used the DFT 55mm filter sets.

Umm, anything else?


I think he meant how did you land the job?

Well, we didn't land a job. It was just a funny idea that I came up with that could be applied to a Personals type website, or an escort type website. It was a little less funny when it was Yahoo! Personals. I'm sure it would never sell to any of those companies, since they are either too conservative (yahoo! Match.com) or don't spend money on advertising (escort sites).

The whole deal is more just to show that we can put together a funny and effective spot. Something to slap on the old demo reel. Something that sticks in ad people's minds, when they come across my reel.

Thanks again, guys. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com

[XCheck]

...or don't spend money on advertising (escort sites).
I believe they don't really need to :grin: This is one industry where word of mouth is still da king. :thumbsup:. Besides, demand is probably higher than supply. :evil:

[ArkhamFilms]

I believe they don't really need to :grin: This is one industry where word of mouth is still da king. :thumbsup:. Besides, demand is probably higher than supply. :evil:

Haha. You wouldn't believe the number of sites that came up when I was looking for a website name to put on this spot. Unbelievable.

-CJ

[Patryk_Rebisz]

Really funny. But... Since you are dealing with such explicit behavior/service it would be good if it was for real company. I tried to look for hookers.com and couldn't find anything.

Also,since i'm assuming you want to get into directing advertisemnts it looks like even though it's good to have on the reel it might be tough to convince an expert from a good ad house that you didn't go the easy way by showing plastic doll to advertise sex.

Either way, geat job.

[Gary_McClurg]

If I was an ad agency I'd hire you. Very well but together like most of your stuff.

[dvpixl]

you just inspired me. That looked really good. i mean it looked like Television.

[greeches]

great short. More more!! :)

[avatuar]

Like usual, awesome! Very very funny. How are you getting your actors man? Also was your camera set to auto, or what was you manual settings like?

[ArkhamFilms]

Like usual, awesome! Very very funny. How are you getting your actors man?

Thanks man. I've gathered quite a few headshots and resumes over the years for various films, but for this one I absolutely had to go with Tom Gander, who also played "The guy in the Trunk" in Roadside Attractions. He's got such a great goofy look, and as he puts it "has no shame". He's also been a producer on a lot of our stuff and I work with him all the time. He's a funny guy to be around.


Also was your camera set to auto, or what was you manual settings like?

There's an auto function on the DVX? (kidding) I don't think I've ever used auto on any camera in a really long time. It was shot with really low contrast, -/+ 7-8 (I forget which) on Master Pedestal. Shutter at 1/60, 24p advanced. Then just all the regular normal type settings. Oh, I turned off the cinegamma. For some reason it's been bothering me lately. Couldn't tell you why, exactly.

The reason I now like to shoot low contrast is so that I have more control over the shadows in post. I can adjust and leave the information I want. This helps when applying DFT's 55mm bleach bypass filter, which is my favorite.

Hope that helps.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com

[KOVAROVA]

lots of fun and that actor is great. really good movement and timing. what kind of response have you had with it in the 'commercial' world?

[Rich Lee]

good job man! looks great..funny idea..well done!





Also,since i'm assuming you want to get into directing advertisemnts it looks like even though it's good to have on the reel it might be tough to convince an expert from a good ad house that you didn't go the easy way by showing plastic doll to advertise sex.
Either way, geat job.


i dunno if thats totaly the case. a friend of mine made some spec commerials...one was a hallmark card commercial..in it he had 4 italian brothers from new jersey...who were taking a break from painting a house, dressed in white painters overalls...they were sitting on ladders and scaffolding. they were reading what each other had writen to their moms in a mothers day card. every other work was fuck..."to the best fuckin mom on the fuckin planet" "happy fuckin mudders day to the greatest fuckin mudda a fuckin guy like me can fuckin have"

stuff like that ...anyway, it was pretty funny...and they must have liked it cause he got a directing gig at anonymous content. doing pretty well now.

i think as long as you mix it up you should be ok..

anywho :thumbsup:

[BLUESPIDER]

The actor was great!

Damn it! When I logged on to the website out of curiosity of course, freakin 9 pop up banners popped up and locked my freakin computer! uh, thanks Arkhamfilms for that lock up!~

[KOVAROVA]

you guys are knocking this stuff out.. do you have day jobs? is there that much work in SF that you have the free time and resource to do all this? 4 shorts in post and 1 in pre. what is the magic formula for such a productive environment? time = $$$ so who pays for all this - if you don't mind me asking?

[avatuar]

Haha yeah now I know who he is! I was goin "man I've seen him somewhere" DUH! Very cool. I like the low contast Idea... Have to try now:)

[ArkhamFilms]

lots of fun and that actor is great. really good movement and timing. what kind of response have you had with it in the 'commercial' world?

Thanks Kovarova. I haven't had much response yet, in the ad world, because it has yet to be sent out. DVXuser was the premiere, so to speak. I'd like to get about 3 more of these knocked out, before I send off the reel.


i think as long as you mix it up you should be ok..


Thanks Rich. I completely agree. Some of these that we'll be shooting in the next several weeks will be this type of humor, some will be serious, some will be lighter, some will be rated G, etc. A mixed bag of stuff.


Damn it! When I logged on to the website out of curiosity of course, freakin 9 pop up banners popped up and locked my freakin computer! uh, thanks Arkhamfilms for that lock up!~

Ouch man. Sorry. =)


you guys are knocking this stuff out.. do you have day jobs? is there that much work in SF that you have the free time and resource to do all this? 4 shorts in post and 1 in pre. what is the magic formula for such a productive environment? time = $$$ so who pays for all this - if you don't mind me asking?

We've all got day jobs. Mine is a bit more sporadic than others, because I freelance as an editor and director, for industrials and in-house ad work. We have a bunch of equipment that we've been stockpiling for a number of years. And we're fortunate enough to have a lot of great friends and crew members who really want to build up their reels and be a part of something. They know we'll make something interesting and challenging, and we'll pull through and actually finish it. Which is important, because people here are sick of busting their ass on indies and student films and then never getting a copy of it, because it never got finished.

The SF area film industry has been pretty devastated and is just hanging by threads. unfortunately. There's signs of it starting to grow, but we figure fuck it. If the jobs aren't coming in, we'll just shoot what we want, ourselves. I think it's important to do so, so it keeps your skills sharp and you never know who'll see it and like it. So we pay for some of these ourselves, as an investment in ourselves. The music videos have been funded by the bands/labels. The shorts are us, as well.

Hope that answers some of your question. =)

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com

[KOVAROVA]

cool CJ. it is good to hear of a group of people pooling their efforts. the dedication shows in your work. all the best.

[HartStudio]

Hmm, I would approach hookers.com with that vid. You might just get paid for your playing around and get more business. Hell I would buy it if I were them.

Just change the URL to escorts.com and I think it would work and not be too offensive. Not offensive at all to them. Hell I might sign my wife up for that site! HA!

[vitaly]

The actor was great!

Damn it! When I logged on to the website out of curiosity of course, freakin 9 pop up banners popped up and locked my freakin computer! uh, thanks Arkhamfilms for that lock up!~
you must be using IE... get firefox at http://www.mozilla.org/

[ArkhamFilms]

Hmm, I would approach hookers.com with that vid. You might just get paid for your playing around and get more business. Hell I would buy it if I were them.
Just change the URL to escorts.com and I think it would work and not be too offensive. Not offensive at all to them. Hell I might sign my wife up for that site! HA!

Thanks Hart. I think you're right. It might be up someone's alley. I'll have to pursue it when I have time, as I just got booked for 3 weeks straight. Ka-ching.

Thanks again.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com