The artsy 'handheld' look in commercials...

G

grantw

Well-known member
So I've been seeing alot more commercials have that 'homemade-handheld' artsy look to them. Alot of people are doing it, including myself. I personally like it because it feels like a cross between vintage homevideos and a nice clean professional look.

Kraft Cheese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkE8RS6XRvE

On these sets, how well are these commercials storyboarded and then lit you think? I've worked on a few commercials and there was always a pretty big crew of at least 15+ people with each scene taking alot of time being set up like you'd see in a movie feature. Do you think these setups are that elaborate? Or are they a bit more looser with small crew? Also do you think that each of those shots are being storyboarded before? Or they simply set up the 'scene' with the actors and just take a bunch of footage and put the story together in post?
 
They do both very carefully planned shots (the Kraft commercial) and just-a-bunch-of-footage. Every shot in that Kraft commercial was carefully lit. It's no accident that at :06, the heart has a perfect shadow around the girls eye.

Meanwhile, I recently attended a national commercial shoot where they spent the day shooting outdoors with parents and children with various setups of playing outdoors. Nothing was planned other than a general idea of what activities were to be shot.
 
Completely depends on the director. However considering how many of those shots were closeups/inserts, I would imagine they were at the very least shot listed.

I can see why a lot of companies are going to this style commercial. It's quick to light, generally easy to shoot, no need for a big crew, fast, etc.
 
If you we're asking me, I would say that this Kraft commercial had very little pre production and had a very small budget. The very first shot is under lit. In fact the whole piece feels underexposed. It looks like they walked into someone's kitchen, put on a fast lens, and used what light was available.

Of course this could be the look they were going for to make Kraft Cheese seem more appealing to the average family and less produced. If so I would say they achieved their goal.
 
I was confused the whole time as to why I wasn't watching this on Vimeo. Seriously, looks like they hired some right out of a Staff Pick.
 
I would be shocked if that commercial was carefully lit. Underexposed all over the place, everything spilling everywhere, mixed color temps on faces, sloppy shadows, etc. Looks like some light panels augmenting available light to me.
 
You still will be amazed about the size of the crew used for a commercial like this. Because it looks cheap doesn't mean it was cheap to produce.

When there are children on set you need a set teacher, with that much talent and kids there is most likely a 2nd AD. They used HMI through the windows, that means a genni and a gaffer + electrics, key grip + 2/3 grips, DP/operator + 2 AC's, DIT, Video playback, script supervisor, Art-director + 3, prop-stylist, food stylist, Make-up + assistant, wardrobe stylist + assistant, 3/4 production assistants, gang boss, 2 moho drivers, crafty, PM, coordinator, producer, director, 1st AD, location manager, still photographer, a BTS crew and maybe drivers for the client, agency and director...

With out the talent I would think there is a 30+ crew used for this commercial with a week and half pre-production.
 
Agreed. I am on a commercial right now. Cant believe how many people are here. 5 day shoot too. I am only on four however.
 
mraaron895 said:
If you we're asking me, I would say that this Kraft commercial had very little pre production and had a very small budget. The very first shot is under lit. In fact the whole piece feels underexposed. It looks like they walked into someone's kitchen, put on a fast lens, and used what light was available.

Of course this could be the look they were going for to make Kraft Cheese seem more appealing to the average family and less produced. If so I would say they achieved their goal.
Click to expand...


I would say exactly the opposite to all your points (except I agree that it is effective.)

No client (agency and advertiser) I have ever worked with would allow some haphazard process such as you suggest.

Preproducton:

Scripts would have been written to a well researched brief.
Casting would have been comprehensive and tested.
Talent costs ...substantial $$$
Locations searched for and are not "random place next door "
Art department would have been well considered and propped accordingly
Food styling specific and detailed.
Cinematography is professional and to a "look". It is not under exposed.
Music and graphics...more complex than meets the eye.

Shoot Crew ...my guess if I was doing it...15 people minimum.
Likely that agency and client would add up to at least the same (15)

TVC is obviously part of a Campaign and probably serialised with the same "family' (TheTrotters)
You maybe surprised how much time would have gone into j=just making a name for the 'family"

Commercials are made in "pre production"...not on the day ...or in post production.

BTW - I like ther TVC and the energised feel of it.
 
Shooter said:
I would say exactly the opposite to all your points (except I agree that it is effective.)

No client (agency and advertiser) I have ever worked with would allow some haphazard process such as you suggest.

Preproducton:

Scripts would have been written to a well researched brief.
Casting would have been comprehensive and tested.
Talent costs ...substantial $$$
Locations searched for and are not "random place next door "
Art department would have been well considered and propped accordingly
Food styling specific and detailed.
Cinematography is professional and to a "look". It is not under exposed.
Music and graphics...more complex than meets the eye.

Shoot Crew ...my guess if I was doing it...15 people minimum.
Likely that agency and client would add up to at least the same (15)

TVC is obviously part of a Campaign and probably serialised with the same "family' (TheTrotters)
You maybe surprised how much time would have gone into j=just making a name for the 'family"

Commercials are made in "pre production"...not on the day ...or in post production.

BTW - I like ther TVC and the energised feel of it.
Click to expand...

I completely agree that there is a huge amount of pre-planning that goes into any commercial shoot, or at least there should be. I have shot and been on a fair share of high end commercial sets and know first hand how much work goes into putting out a quality product. This piece was not up to my standards from a lighting stand point. But again in this commercial's defense I feel this is more of a lifestyle video shoot than a product advertisement. If you don't believe me go watch a ProActive commercial and look at the quality of lighting for the models and product.
 
And like the previous poster stated, commercials are made in pre-production and only executed on the shoot day. There is very little room for creativity on the shoot days itself, every thing that happens has to be approved by the client. Client is king, even if he doesn't wear any clothes.


Here is an interesting 2010 article in Ad Age about Kraft's new approach with an anual ad budget of $1.7 billion for there products.

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/kraft-shaking-advertising-agencies/147105/
 
I somehow missed that it was a TV spot the first time around. I figured it was something for the web, definitely not crazy about the look.
 
I agree with Shooter.

This looks to be a very professional shoot & was lit to look like it wasn't, which can be a lot more elaborate than it seems.
 
Everything Shooter said ;)
I´d even go this far and say, the Trotters are a real family. Maybe it even IS there home. Casting a "family of actors" probably isn´t more difficult than casting four different actors to later form a believable family. This doesn´t mean this production was anything near a lower budget though. Don't think they saved a few bucks by getting a "package deal", family and house together, but even if so, I´m sure this wasn´t the clients objective for going the "reality-based" route.
I even guess this was über-scripted:
They probably wrote down dozens of scenes for each character, what could happen to them and the various possible combinations of the family members and just recorded as much as they could fit in the days, to sort it out later in post.
There´s also a difference between "just shooting what happens" and letting the camera roll before and after the scripted scene takes place. More sorting out in post also means more budget;)
I guess they shot at least two versions of each scene, cleaner ones and more shaky ones with the slightly off-balanced LED fill, giving it that "mum filmed the kids doing funny stuff" feel and for being able to decide in post, when to cut to a more arbitrarily framed shot and when to stay save.
The shots of the actual product, the grilled cheese sandwiches, are also pretty straight forward, just not lit like the usual foodshots in TVCs (hard backlite, soft fill), so no "by accident" here too.
Anyway, not seeing anything low budget here;)

Edit: They really trying to sell the "real world people" thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUVGJwfJDKg&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Also look at the comments... ;)
 
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