Constructive CRITICS Please! Commercial

mediaplexx

mediaplexx

Active member
Please let me know what you think about the idea and the execution.

It´s in german with english subtitles - not much talk, so it´s easy to understand.

Thank you in advance!

 
I like the idea but I think you're blown the impact with the canned laughter and the sound effects. Surely the key is that initially he is not understood and then he is, the audience should react in the same way as the girl - puzzled. The audience should find it funny, not be told it's funny.

visually (apart from the slight camera wobble as the start) I think it's great

... you're from Germany - you should know about and use Mercalli - it's fantastic
 
Thank you for your comment,

the Problem is or was the Same as with sitcoms....the laughter should Animate or motivate the audience to laugh....without it the commercial had less effect (at least for me And the Clients Marketing Manager).

The Sounds were the "Plan B" -

What is mercalli for? Vfx or sfx?
 
mediaplexx said:
Thank you for your comment,

the Problem is or was the Same as with sitcoms....the laughter should Animate or motivate the audience to laugh....without it the commercial had less effect (at least for me And the Clients Marketing Manager).

The Sounds were the "Plan B" -

What is mercalli for? Vfx or sfx?
Click to expand...

Ich habe keine Lust auf dicken BMW.. aber BBW in Dirndl... das ist eine ganz andere Sache...

I just watched it without the sound track, but I think it was pretty good from the visuals...

In terms of the format and the 2.40:1 style, many of the clips here 'fail' because the actors fall out of the frame. On most of the shots, the actors were pretty good at maintaining their face in the frame. The only one that felt slightly clipped was the tilt up on the receptionist at the start of the clip. The tilt doesn't quite follow her up, keeping the approximate same head room (well forehead room...).

But otherwise the extreme close ups look pretty good.

I personally am not a fan of the 2.40:1 framing for most things...
 
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cinematographically, framing was mostly really awesome, you blew it a few times though (namely, in regards to subject size... too much going from wide to EXTREME CLOSE-UP back to wide) and it looks like you didn't do any lighting (even some bounce cards would have helped), but it still looked great, so good job.
 
Concept ( "the idea") gives me no reason why I would take an interest in buying or desiring this car.

The spot hardly even tells me what the brand is..(BMW)..and does not reflect a "brand image" I would associate with BMW.

I think it misses a target market. (Who buys this model and brand?)

Execution is o.k but let down by using "actors" supplied by the client. (ie the staff because they were cheap and available).

Some lighting and visual edge would have added somewhat.

Laugh track does not work for me at all and adds nothing that I cant already see or get. (Bad client driven "plan b")
 
The laugh track/applause is a real turnoff IMHO. The spot would improve a hundredfold just by deleting those sounds from the mix.

I find the combination of widescreen and the handheld camera distracting and sloppy. The 2.39 format lends a weight to the images that just seems to demand a rock-steady camera with smooth and fluid movement. Kubrick could occasionally pull off a handheld look in widescreen but it was very carefully done and better motivated by the subject matter than you have achieved here. Switching between tripod and handheld points of view in the same scene just looks like you were rushed to get some of the shots.

The concept, actually, is kind of clever, and a bit more creative than is usual for a local commercial.

- Greg
 
I agree about the laugh track. Cheapens it, and actually makes me think I'm watching a poor quality skit from MADtv or something.
 
Thank you for your comments,

when it comes to the first sentence you mentioned (in german) Quote "Ich habe keine Lust auf dicken BMW.. aber BBW in Dirndl... das ist eine ganz andere Sache..." Quote end: I don´t really know what you mean by that.

Your point, that in some shots you find the actors cut by the frame, is in my opinion valid but falls in the "category" of "different people/different taste"...as today it is hard to set something like a standart for the "right way of cinematography" (that´s at least what I think).

Neverless - I had different crop on my "to-do-list" - so thank you for your advise!
 
Hi Shooter,

thank you for participating.

First of, I think before declaring a pupose of the spot, it would be better to ask: "What is the purpose of the clip?"

I would answer: "The spot should not propagate a specific car or a brand, nor should it wake the desire to buy a car. The purpose of the spot was to impact on the image of the specific BMW-Dealer here in Germany - as in the 21st century the trends change, people want to set a signal: "We live and think today and see changes that we can handle flexibly".

You should know better than me, that there are enough commercials, that are simply based on "conveying a new image" or "a simple message" - in this case, you find a slogan at the end of the clip: "WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE" - conveying this message in a funny and "modern" way, was the the only purpose of that spot.

When it comes to the execution: The client wanted something to impact on the image and maybe effect sympathy or a little laughter - he didn´t care if it looks cheap or if it meets any standarts - he preferred to see people from the real stuff acting in that spot, so that the potential buyer recognizes them again....U know? - and I think that it is a valid point to be asked by a client even if it sacrafises quality or autthenticity.

When it comes to light, we had three arri lights there an some light plates but the blue foils were missing - so the lightning set-up simply didn´t surpass the look of natural light - the problem was that the color-temperature of the background and the lights didn´t really match due to missing (blue) filterpaper....my mistake or of a friend who didn´t check his equipment before the shoot.

I checked both versions : with and without laughter -but to be honest: I personally like the version with laughter more...
 
Hi Greg,

you´re right: it was really rushed to get the shots, because the Beatboxer and another "actor" were three hours too late.....

I actually used a 2.66 format - 2.39 maybe would have fit better....

There was no tripod used - everything handheld.....and to be honest, I usually don´t do much handheld stuff as I don´t trust my own handheld-stuff due to the lack of testing it out....some movies have incredible handheld camera-work that makes me wonder: "Why does think look so GREAT?!?"

Next time i´ll be testing before shooting - not the other way round...

Thank you for the comments.
 
Reflecting on this...

"WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE" - conveying this message in a funny and "modern" way, was the the only purpose of that spot.
Click to expand...

....and watching the spot again a couple of times... I decided it does actually work and I like it a lot more.

(Still not sure about the laugh track though! Did you try sound fx instead?)
 
mediaplexx said:
Hi Greg,

you´re right: it was really rushed to get the shots, because the Beatboxer and another "actor" were three hours too late.....

I actually used a 2.66 format - 2.39 maybe would have fit better....

There was no tripod used - everything handheld.....and to be honest, I usually don´t do much handheld stuff as I don´t trust my own handheld-stuff due to the lack of testing it out....some movies have incredible handheld camera-work that makes me wonder: "Why does think look so GREAT?!?"

Next time i´ll be testing before shooting - not the other way round...

Thank you for the comments.
Click to expand...

While I don't know what 'all movies' do, but I think most Hollywood movies that appear to have a 'handheld look' are mostly steadicam, glidecam, or at least shoulder mounted cameras, and they may 'avoid' problematic motions, and cut together shoulder mount + steadicam, to give the impression of being handheld.

If you really were 'in the hands' hand held... well, I would suggest getting at least the shoulder mount and a Glidecam and harness. Not as stable as a real(tm) steadicam, but a lot more smooth and stable than in the hand handheld...

Glidecam is shown here.

http://www.glidecam.com/
 
Shooter said:
Reflecting on this...

....and watching the spot again a couple of times... I decided it does actually work and I like it a lot more.

(Still not sure about the laugh track though! Did you try sound fx instead?)
Click to expand...


Hi Shooter - thank you for re-reviewing!

I really give your critics weight - so now the "broken heart is fixed!" ;-)

Sound FX didn´t work the way I wanted them to work - therefore we have the sitcom scenario.

Big THX!!!
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
While I don't know what 'all movies' do, but I think most Hollywood movies that appear to have a 'handheld look' are mostly steadicam, glidecam, or at least shoulder mounted cameras, and they may 'avoid' problematic motions, and cut together shoulder mount + steadicam, to give the impression of being handheld.

If you really were 'in the hands' hand held... well, I would suggest getting at least the shoulder mount and a Glidecam and harness. Not as stable as a real(tm) steadicam, but a lot more smooth and stable than in the hand handheld...

Glidecam is shown here.

http://www.glidecam.com/
Click to expand...

Hi Clark,

thank you for your suggestion. As I have the Glidecam HD2000, I know what effect it gives to the camera movement - but I believe, that in movies like "The Born Trilogie" etc there are MANY scenes, where no steadicam was used, BUT as you mentioned, a shoulder-rig or something like that.

I also see a lot of very nice handheld work on vimeo dor example.....

If you want, I´ll check and give you some examples to analyse.

Thank you all for your efforts!

With best regards from Germany!
 
That was pretty funny, I thought. Strangely I thought the canned laughter worked because it helped to set the surreal tone.

Why not post on youtube the version with no canned laughter so we can compare the two and lay that argument to rest?
 
Thank you for the feedback Simon -

simonpwood said:
That was pretty funny, I thought. Strangely I thought the canned laughter worked because it helped to set the surreal tone.

Why not post on youtube the version with no canned laughter so we can compare the two and lay that argument to rest?
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This is a good idea BUT I tried it and like the "Laughter-FX-Version" more....I don´t know if it is a bad attitude, but there a people on this planet, if they like something or have an opinion/standpoint/taste about something....even if the whole world would tell them otherwise, they wouldn´t change their mind - one of them writes now in broken english language...

Thank you for your suggestion - when I have a serious project, where such a comparision would help, it will be definately done in the way you told me.

THX
 
mediaplexx said:
Thank you for the feedback Simon -



This is a good idea BUT I tried it and like the "Laughter-FX-Version" more....I don´t know if it is a bad attitude, but there a people on this planet, if they like something or have an opinion/standpoint/taste about something....even if the whole world would tell them otherwise, they wouldn´t change their mind - one of them writes now in broken english language...

Thank you for your suggestion - when I have a serious project, where such a comparision would help, it will be definately done in the way you told me.

THX
Click to expand...

I was able to listen to the clip...

This is a pretty old example from an early 80's 'spoof' film, "Airplane"(1980). There's one level of humor, where the black men are speaking 'Jive'... the two men developed the dialog themselves, so it is totally idiosyncratic, and not really 'intelligible'... well unless one also speaks Jive... The white woman who 'speaks Jive', is a well known TV actress whose major role in the 50's and early 60's was a TV mother on the "Leave It To Beaver" show. She gives off an aura of 'wholesomness'... and her speaking a 'ghetto Jive' is part of the comic element.

Since it was a movie, there is no 'laugh track' and the scene had to carry itself on the comic distorted language, and the unlikeliness that a White Woman could speak a Black idiom.

In your case the manager can 'speak' bizzbop... whatever... where as the other workers are totally lost...

Jive Talk...


Here's a more recent example of using 'wild man' vs. 'Mr. Silent'... but I think this one shows how 'silence' can work as a comic element.

 
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