Commercial for Clothing Store

T

tucker07205

Active member
My friend owns a clothing store. He wants me to shoot his commercial that will be televised on Espn, Bet and MTV through our local cable provider. He told me to run with it. I'm stumped, because I don't know how to approach it. If anyone have any suggestions I would gladly appreciate it. I'm open to anything......Thanks!
 
Re: Commercial for Clothing Store

Sometimes simple is best, especially if all he's trying to do is let people know that he is there.

If you have a little lead time, spend a few hours watching TV for local spots to get a feel for how they work. Independent retail places usually shoot the inventory, customers, and and/or the int and ext of the store. You can have on-screen talent delivering the message, or do a voice over. The sky is the limit as far as the visual aspect of it, but as I said, if you lack experience, simple might be best. A few dolly shots of the clothes racks, or "customers" trying on some items would be simple to do. But remember that shooting a spot is not the same as writing a spot.

As far as the writing goes, you are again limited only by your imagination and budget. Talk with the owner and find out a few things:

1) What is his demographic? Every store has a certain group that they should be shooting for. You need to know what that is.

2) What message does he want to send? Is it a grand opening? A specific sale or promotion? Does he just want people to know he exists?

3) Why should people shop there? He needs to know what the advantages of his store are. Does he have a unique line? Is it a great location? Does he offer special services like in-house tailoring?

Knowing things like that will help you create a specific message that you can work to get across to the viewer. I recommend that you stay specific. You can always shoot another spot to cover different territory, but if you try and jam too much in to one spot, you lose focus and it probably won't work.

From a technical aspect, you need to be very conscious of your lighting, sound and chroma levels. Most cable companies won't air a spot that looks amateurish, sounds muddy, or has illegal chroma and luma levels.

You should also find out what format it needs to be on for broadcast. Here in Colorado, Comcast will actually take a DV tape, and copy it at no charge to you. In Minnesota, some places charge 300 bucks to put it on a broadcast tape.

Let us know how it goes.

Oh, and check the forum on screen grabs and clips. A few people have posted some good spots.
 
Re: Commercial for Clothing Store

There are many local and regional spots for cable, advertising retail that are an insult to advertising, filmmaking and humanity.

Please make us proud.

You probably have hardly a budget at all. Keep it simple and smart.
 
Re: Commercial for Clothing Store

[quote author=natob2 link=board=Directing;num=1100882356;start=0#2 date=11/19/04 at 09:53:54]
You probably have hardly a budget at all.  Keep it simple and smart.
 [/quote]

Nah. Have it full of naked people. A store-full, walking around, looking at what to buy.

"Buy it at Moe's or don't bother wearing any..."

Damn. Did I just finish another bottle of NyQuil?

Dan
 
Re: Commercial for Clothing Store

A take off for the naked people shopping...have mannequins coming in from "other" clothing stores upset with how they're being dressed. Then show them happy being dressed with clothing from your friends store. I think this would truly seperate your store from the others.
 
Re: Commercial for Clothing Store

Sure, the ONE TIME I am serious, somebody actually takes me SERIOUSLY ;)

BTW, I like the mannequin idea...
 
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