First Local Commercial!

Angry Leprechaun

Angry Leprechaun

Well-known member
Well after years of contests, I finally got paid to do a commercial!

Ok, so here's the backstory. As my day job I work at a shoe store in the Merritt Island Mall. The owner of "The Pretzel Twister" was talking to me and he mentioned that he just got done with a commercial for his business. I was curious so I checked it out.

IT SUCKED ASS!!!!!!

He wasn't happy about it either, so I charged him the same amount he paid for the first commercial (only $300, but whatever) and gave him something a billion times better.

Here's what he originally paid for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAPTHZNQgwc

This is what I gave him: http://www.vimeo.com/11252778

Let me know what you think.
 
Hell yeah. Local spots, that's my bread & butter. You know I love this stuff....it's Americana!

You got a nice jib shot, some nice slo-mo. Rich, saturated colors.

The close up food shots could have been lit better and the camera moves could be improved on them as well.

But I like all your shots of the people & the sound was great as well.

Good job, quit your day job and make some more spots! And for God's sake, raise your rates!

On a bigger level.....I mean really, the cat is out of the bag here with the price of cameras and editing equipment so low. "Joe Video" is crapping in his pants when the guy from the shoe store (no offense) can deliver something like this. Really levels the playing field. You've created excellent "A & B" examples of what DSLRs can do.

EDIT: I'm assuming this was shot with a T2i or 7D? Any other specs you can share with us?
 
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Deepfocus88 said:
Hell yeah. Local spots, that's my bread & butter. You know I love this stuff....it's Americana!

You got a nice jib shot, some nice slo-mo. Rich, saturated colors.

The close up food shots could have been lit better and the camera moves could be improved on them as well.

But I like all your shots of the people & the sound was great as well.

Good job, quit your day job and make some more spots! And for God's sake, raise your rates!

On a bigger level.....I mean really, the cat is out of the bag here with the price of cameras and editing equipment so low. "Joe Video" is crapping in his pants when the guy from the shoe store (no offense) can deliver something like this. Really levels the playing field. You've created excellent "A & B" examples of what DSLRs can do.

EDIT: I'm assuming this was shot with a T2i or 7D? Any other specs you can share with us?
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Thanks man! Yeah I'll definitely charge more for later commercials. He's just a friend, and getting his pretzels for free was worth it. :D

It was shot entirely on the T2i with a Canon 24-70mm L series zoom lens. I also used the KC-Lite by Kessler Crane and a home made track dolly.
 
Great job man!!!!
But you're wrong, it's not a billion times better, it's more like a billion and a half. Whoever shot the original commercial should be... shot!
 
Angry Leprechaun said:
Well after years of contests, I finally got paid to do a commercial!

Ok, so here's the backstory. As my day job I work at a shoe store in the Merritt Island Mall. The owner of "The Pretzel Twister" was talking to me and he mentioned that he just got done with a commercial for his business. I was curious so I checked it out.

IT SUCKED ASS!!!!!!

He wasn't happy about it either, so I charged him the same amount he paid for the first commercial (only $300, but whatever) and gave him something a billion times better.

Here's what he originally paid for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAPTHZNQgwc

This is what I gave him: http://www.vimeo.com/11252778

Let me know what you think.
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A post and attitude like this, in this day-and-age, will ensure that you make enemies in your hometown.

I will say nice effort on your behalf and, while it's always good to get out there and work, what the other guy did for three-hundred and fifty dollars was pretty much what they paid for.

By doing MORE for LESS you may have just pigeon-holed yourself into a sector where you'll always be doing more for much-much less. Why would they pay you more when you did that job at such a low rate?

This industry is small, the real dollar stays with real professionals and part of BEING a real professional is tact when it comes to your competitors. Let your work speak for itself...

Take it with a grain of salt. Good Luck.
 
Kholi said:
A post and attitude like this, in this day-and-age, will ensure that you make enemies in your hometown.

By doing MORE for LESS you may have just pigeon-holed yourself into a sector where you'll always be doing more for much-much less. Why would they pay you more when you did that job at such a low rate?

This industry is small, the real dollar stays with real professionals and part of BEING a real professional is tact when it comes to your competitors. Let your work speak for itself...
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I think it's true that he should have perhaps been more careful with the way he phrased his post, to avoid making enemies.

But as for charging too little, this is this guy's first paid commercial, and come on, he works in a shoe store. He's got to start somewhere, and plus this pretzel guy was his friend.
 
Whoooo, the f**ker who made the original commercial needs to be double plus ***** slapped.

Good job..... Now I am jonesing for pretzels...
 
David G. Smith said:
Whoooo, the f**ker who made the original commercial needs to be double plus ***** slapped.
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ROTFLMAO
It's too early in the morning to be laughing this hard.
And I totaly get what Kholi is saying and he is 100% right but one of the biggest problem in the biz is the amount of untalented, uncreative and uncaring people flooding it and driving the rates through the floor! Of course that's completely subjective and I'm sure there's people that are gonna think that I suck... but still that original was a major POS, and people like that are f-ing up the game for those of us who care about it.
In the end all we can do is ***** about it, and sometimes it feels just soooo damn GOOD to let it out!
 
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Somewhat agree with Kholi, be careful where you air dirt laundry, you never know who's watching.

Yes, you did a better job than the first guy by a country mile. Should you have charged more than you did? Not so sure. Good job on your first effort.
 
Kholi said:
A post and attitude like this, in this day-and-age, will ensure that you make enemies in your hometown.
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I think the only time the creator of spot #1 is online is to pick up spare parts for his Sphereous editing system.

If he came across DVXuser and saw 2010 technology, his head might explode.

That said, it's not the best idea to sh*t talk online, but I think most of us are just having a little fun here. :beer:
 
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Rakesh Jacob said:
ROTFLMAO
It's too early in the morning to be laughing this hard.
And I totaly get what Kholi is saying and he is 100% right but one of the biggest problem in the biz is the amount of untalented, uncreative and uncaring people flooding it and driving the rates through the floor! Of course that's completely subjective and I'm sure there's people that are gonna think that I suck... but still that original was a major POS, and people like that are f-ing up the game for those of us who care about it.
In the end all we can do is ***** about it, and sometimes it feels just soooo damn GOOD to let it out!
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It's always subjective, there are very few things in life that are not.

I, personally, am not bitching. I'm okay with people charging less, generally the final product reflects the dollar amount. Doesn't really affect me at this stage, fortunately. People with real money are REALLY hesitant to pay lower numbers, they also realize that great work is worth a lot of money. It was, however, just advice for a new guy that obviously doesn't want to sell shoes the rest of his life.

Neither spot made me want to eat anything from that place. The first had no sale but showed much more product than people--which is what selling food is about--and the pretzels in the new one looked old and unhealthy, as well as being stood up on what looked like napkin racks.

You learn these things as you go, though. I know I still learn plenty every time I do something.

Get-r-done.

By the way, Rakesh, the remainder of this post was not speaking to you... just in general.
 
I completely understand your point Kholi, and I'm definitely not in a position to make enemies, but a little competitive banter never hurt. I mean look at RED. Whenever Jim isn't talking about the new cameras he's bashing other camera companies. But now the other camera companies are trying to make their own cameras better because of it.

Same goes with local advertising. I don't know about where you guys live, but where I'm from the bar definitely needs to be raised. And it just makes me sick that whoever made the original commercial has also made over 50 commercials in the past 5 months. All of equally shi*ty quality. AND GOT PAID FOR IT!

But I do understand what you mean about the rates. I don't really see me charging $3000 for a commercial any time soon, but a few hundred more wouldn't hurt. I was just helping out a friend who paid $300 for practically nothing.

I definitely appreciate the advice though. God knows I need a lot of it. And after working 12 hours straight today I'm definitely down with not selling shoes the rest of my life. lol.

And as for their pretzels, I will admit they aren't the prettiest pretzels, but DAMN they taste good. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

David G. Smith said:
Whoooo, the f**ker who made the original commercial needs to be double plus ***** slapped.
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I was at work when I read this and started busting out laughing. I'm going to use that term from now on.
 
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Haha check out the rest of his youtube channel! All these crappy local commercials with realllly bad voice overs!

You can kinda compare this guy's speaking role:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amkwHn-AFbE

with the song "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha... (After the voice recording take)... "Uhh I think I messed up."
Recorder-"It's ok, we don't need to re-do it"

But more in this case, the guy on camera would be like "Uhh I uhh think I uhh messed up.."
 
Angry Leprechaun said:
I completely understand your point Kholi, and I'm definitely not in a position to make enemies, but a little competitive banter never hurt. I mean look at RED. Whenever Jim isn't talking about the new cameras he's bashing other camera companies. But now the other camera companies are trying to make their own cameras better because of it.
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That's sort of a different story, though. Cameras are technology, discrediting someone's artistic effort and hailing one's own work as superior is much different. Especially when the person being discredited isn't around to defend themselves.

I'm probably wrong, but, if it were the other way around and one of the more experienced forum members produced a "better" PRetzel spot than you, and posted in the same fashion, it probably wouldn't just feel like a little competitive banter. See what I'm saying?

Same goes with local advertising. I don't know about where you guys live, but where I'm from the bar definitely needs to be raised. And it just makes me sick that whoever made the original commercial has also made over 50 commercials in the past 5 months. All of equally shi*ty quality. AND GOT PAID FOR IT!
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I'm in Los Angeles, and all of the local commercials look just like the other guys. There's a very good reason for that: anti-up if you want good stuff. The people with money stay with money for these very reasons.

Although, that's not to say I don't know where you're coming from.

But I do understand what you mean about the rates. I don't really see me charging $3000 for a commercial any time soon, but a few hundred more wouldn't hurt. I was just helping out a friend who paid $300 for practically nothing.
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That's cool, always nice to help out a friend. Be careful advertising your rates if they're low, and I would probably ask him if he could keep a hold on it. Consider what you did wasn't just shooting, but concept, shoot, edit, sound, and deliver.

Even the guy that only charged three-hundred and fifty dollars for his work could-have charged at least one-thousand or so. Then again, it is what it is. Not saying anything could change, either, in a world where you want to sustain a living on this stuff you'll quickly learn that you need to not only charge what you're worth but be worth what you charge.


I definitely appreciate the advice though. God knows I need a lot of it. And after working 12 hours straight today I'm definitely down with not selling shoes the rest of my life. lol.
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I worked in a Mall for six years of my life. I know how you feel. I'd also be excited, so I can't blame you.

And as for their pretzels, I will admit they aren't the prettiest pretzels, but DAMN they taste good. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
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You tried, though. I'm not detracting from that. Now that you've gone and done something, you can research what you could change. In this case, how to shoot food. There are specific DPs in this industry that ONLY shoot food. And, they get paid unfathomable numbers per day to do it.

Good go, though. And, as always, shoot-it-up.
 
Kholi said:
Neither spot made me want to eat anything from that place. The first had no sale but showed much more product than people--which is what selling food is about--
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Milage will vary from viewer to viewer. Based on Angry Leprecaun's spot, I might be inclined to give 'em a shot.

To me, advertising is more about "heart". AL really made the owner & crew personable. If for some random reason I was at the Merritt Island Mall and saw the pretzel shop, now I'd say, "dude, it's that place from the commercial. We gotta get a pretzel." (at that point it's up to Cristoff to prove his merit. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG))

So after saying all that, I will say that I sent AL a quick PM the other day with a tip on lighting food. Like you mentioned, Kholi, that can be a career in itself. The sub-par food shots were the worst thing about AL's spot, IMO. It's a never-ending learning process. For myself as well.
 
Yeah I will definitely admit that going into this I had no idea how to shoot food. I just kind of pointed some lights at it and went to town. I'll definitely experiment with it though and use some of the tips Scott told me about. Maybe it'll be a good excuse to get my girlfriend to cook more. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
While i tink the first one was kinda lame, i actually think its a decent deal for $300. Yours on the other hand was a steal (ie: you should have charged more)

Good news? Your commercial was great and it makes me want to eat a pretzel sandwich on a beach full of beautiful women. So good job on that count.

Oh and as far as offending anyone, if they are putting out work like that (that the customer was obviously not satisfied with), you probably dont have much to worry about anyway.
 
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