shooting local commercials

[DVX100Shooter]

I want to start shooting some commercials for local businesses. Now is it my job to get the finished product aired as well, as in going to the cable or TV station or do I just hand over the tape after they have paid and let them deal with that part of the process?

Also when doing work for businesses like commercials, PSA's or whatever else, how much black or color bars is needed at the head of the tape and at the end? I have heard 30 seconds of color bars followed by 10-15 seconds of black at the begining and about 30 seconds at the end. Is that accurate?

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: shooting local commercials

Buying airtime is an entirely different specialty, you probably will want to partner up with some media buyers in your area (who may become a source for jobs for you too).

Leaving it for the client to deal with will likely mean that instead of becoming the source of a solution, you're the source of a problem that they're ill-equipped to deal with. Package yourself with a media buyer, do the spot and then hand them over to the media buyer, and you'll be out of the loop and leaving them in good hands.

As for slates/bars/tone, best to ask the stations in your area what they're used to accepting. Some want specific seconds of bars, then black, then slate, then black, then spot... most recently I've just been handing them 30 seconds of bars 'n' tone, then a slate that also has a countdown, followed by the spot itself. No complaints, except everyone gripes about tone level (some want it at -20, some at -12, some at 0) so now I'm including a cover letter with every spot explaining to the engineer exactly how the audio's set up. But I'm dealing with stations in Ohio and California and elsewhere... for local spots you should be able to meet with the techs at the local station and have them tell you exactly what they expect.

 

[DVX100Shooter]

Re: shooting local commercials

Hey Barry,

Is it unreasonable to walk into a business and ask them if they need help with promoting their business in way of commercial? I am just trying to be professional in my approach. I'd rather have businesses contact me for commercial work but I do realize that I have to start somewhere. How do well established production companies go about doing local commercial work? I am sure they have sales teams that do the dirty work and sets it all up for the crew to come in and shoot it though.

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: shooting local commercials

Most decent commercial gigs come through advertising agencies, so your sales force would be dedicated towards getting in with the ad agencies.

If a company realizes the value of advertising, and of spending enough to make a decent commercial, the odds are overwhelming that they will also already be under contract with an ad agency.

The ad agency convinces the company to spend money to make a spot, then they hire you to make it for them.  They will call themselves the producer and will often supply storyboards, etc.

Is it unreasonable to walk into someone's place and ask 'em to do a commercial?  Heck no, I do it all the time.  I come up with what I think would be a killer concept for a spot, then I go pester companies until I find one who will bankroll it.  That's how I got my BBB spots done, and they ended up giving me 3 Emmy nominations, one Emmy trophy, and two follow-up jobs.  And once you've done something for the competition, it's usually that much easier to talk new clients into doing something, because they know that someone else did it, y'know?

But be aware that this is going to be much lower-budget work than what the ad agencies may be getting you.  It's usually fairly impossible to break into the ad agencies though, usually they won't depart from their tried 'n' true production team unless that team royally fouls up on 'em.