John LaBonney presents "SHOULD'A" Adfest Entry

Sweet! I'm excited to see both this one and the last minute one. Do your best to finish it! It'll be so worth it when they're both uploaded and you can relax and live a normal life again.
 
Finishing two would be very impressive! I'm having trouble with just one. I don't mean to belittle all the work that you've already done, though! Congratulations and good luck!
 
Now uploading and awaiting approval.

In the end, we decided to create a new storyline that embraced our original concept and product using the little footage that we did manage to capture on that hot, hot day. I went back and got a little additional footage on my own, and I'm now proud to submit my first entry to a dvxuser fest.

All-in-all, we had our share of problems, but managed to finish. So that's good. There was a little too much to learn in a very short amount of time. I hadn't used Avid or After Effects before this, or the HVX for that matter, and they all have a pretty steep learning curve. I learned a lot and had fun working on it in post. I'm kind of finding out that I enjoy pre and post more than production, which I consider a necessary evil in the middle.

As far as the last-minute second entry goes, I don't know. I'll be cracking away at it all today, but finishing in time is a crapshoot. We'll see.

Thanks for all the support, I hope you enjoy it!
 
I too changed my idea at the last minute and had to pull an all nighter storyboarding and coming up with concepts. I'm bad for that... Good luck!
 
Humerous concept. Visually, some CC needed to be done (i.e. crush the blacks, play with gamma settings, etc.), as it just looked flat on the screen, unless that was your artistic intent.

As far as the product, I had ZERO idea what it was about until the end. For a 30 second spot, I'd think you would want to grab the consumer more quickly with something, rather than having them go "huh?" for the first 27-28 seconds, only to tie it up in the final 2-3.

I also looked for a thread for the LOGO entry, but couldn't find one. Could you point me towards it when you can?

All that said, good job on getting out & filming, and getting something in! It's more than I did.
 
Thanks Norm, I appreciate the comments.

Color correction isn't really my specialty, although I imagine I'll get some knowledge of it as time goes on. I had plenty of trouble trying to learn Avid, After Effects, the HVX, and the Firestore in a very short period of time. I used Avid's built-in automatic color correction for all the park shots except the first one, where I wanted to make the grass look really green.

There's no official thread for the LOGO entry, I did it last minute and barely got it in. Feel free to make comments on it here if you like; I know it could have used some refinements.

It was a great learning experience, and I'm looking forward to screening the entries right now---I just got home from work.
 
I liked the kids in this ad. They looked like such monsters! =) And the main actor (you) looked so miserable. I bet there was no acting there whatsoever. I'd say that considering this was your first time with the HVX, Firestore, Avid and AE, you did great. Nice touch with the "Bubble Gum flavor".

Your second spot was nice and fun. The audio was a little tinny, but considering the short amount of time you had, that was understandable. Also, I don't see how you could get all this AE work done in such a short amount of time with the relatively limited experience you had at the time. Like I said, it was fun to watch. I really enjoyed both, but if I had to pick one that was a favorite I'd probably choose Should'a because it really made me afraid to have children. ;)
 
I enjoyed should'a. The end result was great.

I would have put the Dad in various environments going through hell with the kids though. Spilling milk on the table, breaking a window, cranking music when Dad's trying to relax... that sort of thing.

I think the payoff would have been a little better.

As it stands, I still really liked it. I laughed at the end, that's what counts. :)
 
I found the spot fairly humorous, and as someone already said some cc was needed, it looked rather bland or something.. But that could have been artistic intent so with that being said it conveyed the point quite well. I only have one complaint, is that it is very very similiar to a commercial I've seen before.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tyKdiuKOFjY

theres the link, you very well may have never seen it, but other than that good spot, I really like the titles you used at the end
 
Kyser said:
I enjoyed should'a. The end result was great.

I would have put the Dad in various environments going through hell with the kids though. Spilling milk on the table, breaking a window, cranking music when Dad's trying to relax... that sort of thing.

I think the payoff would have been a little better.
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Mike:

I agree with you. The original concept was much more involved, and we had several shots planned:, dad opening the car door and a big ball of noisy kids falling out onto the ground, dad walking to the park with the screaming kids climbing all over him, etc. On the day of shooting we had such difficulty with the heat and had to cut it short, so I was lucky to be able to use the little footage we did get. I had literally less than two minutes of raw footage to use, so we changed the concept a little to quiet park/crazy kids park.

Jutberg said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tyKdiuKOFjY

theres the link, you very well may have never seen it, but other than that good spot, I really like the titles you used at the end
Click to expand...

Thanks. No, I hadn't seen that one, but it's got the same concept as mine. I was trying to come up with a tounge-in-cheek, non-sexual theme for the product.
 
Ah, yes, the sweeties commercial. This is a good concept in either case. I have five kids, so I can TOTALLY relate to the scene at the park, although that's usually the scene in my house whereas at the park, they're relatively "quiet" kids.

I liked the shots, although I feel you held the opening shot of the park/playground a little too long. And maybe something a little extreme happening at the end... I don't know.

Good effort! Thanks for sharing!
 
For me the look was a little too flat and I got bored in the beginning. Ultimately it had a decent payoff but the pacing wasn't there for me.
 
cinealma said:
I liked the shots, although I feel you held the opening shot of the park/playground a little too long. And maybe something a little extreme happening at the end... I don't know.
Click to expand...

Jeremy Ordan said:
For me the look was a little too flat and I got bored in the beginning. Ultimately it had a decent payoff but the pacing wasn't there for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments, and believe me, I'm painfully aware of the shortcomings in this commercial. I just didn't have enough experience with the many pieces of equipment and software. Considering how much footage I was able to collect on the shooting day, I was lucky to salvage anything at all.

We had fun (not during production) and learned quite a bit, so it was definitely a worthwhile experience. Many thanks to dvxuser and the members here for the opportunity to enter in the festival. Look out for our next fest entry!
 
Haha, great, i knew someone had to do condoms at some point. Got a good set up to the product.
 
Ki-Ki said:
Haha, great, i knew someone had to do condoms at some point. Got a good set up to the product.
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I was surprised that I was the only one. I figured there would be a bunch of condom, personal lubricant, etc. commercials, so I tried to do it in a different, non-sexual way, although I think I broke with that strategy a little when I put the bubble gum flavor bit in at the end. Thanks for watching it!
 
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