Chris Johnson presents "Waiting" - A Kinetica Campaign

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm traveling today and just grabbing some wi-fi real quick. I'll post a more detailed response to everyone plus some behind the scenes stuff as soon as I can.

Thanks for watching and for the compliments towards my daughter. I'm going to be in a lot of trouble when she gets older:)

Thanks again to Leo for the fantastic score. It really brought everything together.
 
I actually would like to see a greater diversity in the shots you chose as some are such slight changes that I wonder why a cut.

Overall the sound needs work because the payoff line could barely be heard but this connects on an emotional level with your audience which is exactly what makes it work.

I can look past all the technical shortcomings and say that this ad accomplishes its goal... it makes Dads buy this product to get that reaction from their kids.

For pure effectiveness I put this in my top rankings.
 
Thanks for the compliments and critiques, Jeremy

All of you have given me comments that I can really chew on and take to make the next project better. I cannot express how much I appreciate that.
 
Alright. Let's talk about some behind the scenes information.

The idea for Waiting really began a while ago. I work for a company that has zero brand recognition. It's a national company, and I could say the name and 98% of you would say "Who?" This company also has a very, very small production department (me ... yes, that's right. National company, one video guy). So I devised a series of ads that were designed only for brand recognition. The basic idea of a little girl sitting on a park bench was one of those idea. All of the ads were shot down by the company and never produced, but I thought that the little girl on a bench had something that would work as a spot. So when I saw Adfest I dusted the idea off, scripted it (making Kinetica a new ice cream), and got my daughter to sit on a bench for a while.

Speaking of my daughter, I shot "Waiting" in about 20 minutes. My wife was running after our son (he's two) in the background and would sometimes enter camera because the boy thought it was really cool. The times when my wife and son weren't in front of the camera, my daughter would run off the bench and come give me a hug. Which was bitter sweet because I like affection from my children, but I also had a spot to shoot. :) We eventually made a deal. Everytime she did what I asked and we got it on camera she would get a hug.

I have to pause for a second here because trading my daughter affection for work sounds a lot worse now than it did at the time.

Anyway, when we got a take, Myra got a hug. This worked well for a little while, but she started to get tired, or bored, or both, and the hugs weren't good enough. Luckily that's when the butterflies showed up.

Three or four butterflies started fluttering around the park bench. I let the camera roll, stood off to the side and told Myra to look at the butterflies. "They're on your right." I'd shout, and she'd turn her head to the right. "Now they're on your left. They're behind you." This is where we got the footage of her flipping her head around. I had to remove several butterflies in post.

Then the ice cream came. I'd hand her the cone and sometimes she'd just hold it. Sometimes she's lick it. Sometimes she'd giggle. The sad thing is I kept taking the ice cream away from her so we could do another take. After about the sixth time she caught on and wouldn't give the ice cream back to me. That was the end of the shoot. Luckily I got the reverse angle for the logo shot before giving her the ice cream in the first place.

Working with a three year old is certainly an experience. :)

Nothing really eventful happened in post. I thought I'd post a picture of the footage from the camera and the footage after the color grade.

adfest-grade.jpg


Nothing too special. Just added some red and made it look more summer-like. This is the first project that I round-tripped through Apple's Color. That was a lot of fun and allowed me to finish in about a half hour.

Anyway, that's my behind the scenes story. Thanks to everyone for watching and commenting.

Chris
 
Chris, I like this spot a lot. I'm a father too, (five boys, oldest is 10, youngest are 18-month-old twins). Unashamedly, I am a real softy for spots like this. The photography looked nice, the scenery/setting was perfect. Very subtle shots, I agree a little bit more coverage/angles would have worked a little better.

But here's the thing that made me a little uneasy about the spot. Now, maybe I'm overprotective, maybe it's the sign of the times, maybe it's just too much damn television, but I wouldn't leave my 3-yo alone on a park bench while I went off to get her some ice cream. She'd be getting the ice cream with me.

Now, of course I'm not goofing on you/your parenting/etc. This ain't a home movie. For this spot, what I might have done is put an ice cream cart right next to/in the vacinity of the bench and revealed it and the father early in the spot and often after that. As it stands, it looks like the little girl is all alone on a park bench for an awful long time and then some stranger comes up to her and offers her ice cream. If she didn't say "I love you daddy", I'd be REAL scared.

Anyway, I liked the concept and the craft. Good job. Thanks for sharing.
 
You know, those exact concerns crossed my mind while I was hammering out the details of the spot. I thought long and hard about the "reality" of the situation. What I finally decided, right or wrong, is that I was going for more of a nostalgic spot. I hate that we live in a world where it's not even safe for kids to play in their own front yard. So for thirty seconds in my self-made reality, danger is not a concern.

In real life would I leave my three year old on a park bench while I got ice cream? Never.
 
You know... I liked your spot. It was interesting, and well done. My only problems were that I just can't see Kinetica as an ice cream, heh :)

But, hey... that's not your fault, right. Kinetica hired you to do a commercial about their ice cream...

Audio, as was already stated, was the problem for me. But, your definitely not the only one who had that problem.

Otherwise, it was effective. Good job...

Jason
 
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