Three Commercial Spots

S

sdelahoyde

Active member
Put together these three spots for this free monthly DVD publication here in Chicago. We are given pretty much complete freedom with the ads we're assigned to, so you're free to be a bit weird with them. So for this month, for the three I was given, I wanted to try something new for me by making them all look stylistically very similar, yet each existing on their own as separate ads. All of the stills were shot with the DVX and a good number of the elements (those not stolen from Google) were also shot with the camera too. Compositing and animation in After Effects, and then kicked over into Vegas for editing and audio.

The Tonic Room
Quicktime: http://ic.funk.nu/Quicktime/tonicroom.mov
Real Player: http://ic.funk.nu/Real/tonicroom.rm

Pasta Bowl
Quicktime: http://ic.funk.nu/Quicktime/pastabowl.mov
Real Player: http://ic.funk.nu/Real/pastabowl.rm

Blue Line Club Car Restaurant
Quicktime: http://ic.funk.nu/Quicktime/blueline.mov
Real Player: http://ic.funk.nu/Real/blueline.rm
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

Loved the timing. They have a very cool not-so-ordinary feel overall imo. If those were in an ad rotation I would definitely pick up on the quirkiness (as a cool standout). Good job ;D
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

[quote author=taubkin link=board=Clips;num=1094138533;start=0#4 date=09/04/04 at 08:13:35]That was very... umm... very American. :P

But funny ;) . Nice job.[/quote]


just what i thought. very american, but creatively spoken: good effort! liked them.
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

[quote author=taubkin link=board=Clips;num=1094138533;start=0#4 date=09/04/04 at 08:13:35]That was very... umm... very American.  :P

But funny ;) . Nice job.[/quote]

That is not needed. Are you jealous or something?
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

Not really it was a pure, innocent joke.

And it's true that you don't see much of that in TV around latin america or the litlle I know about europe. So yes that is very american.

If you think that's bad... Well as an american video productor you can change that, I personally don't mind at all.

Hint: Sometimes you can see I'm joking by checking the smileys on the post! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Cheers!
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

Maybe there's just a language barrier here, but I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about with the "very American." I didn't take it as a negative comment, but can't say that I'm sure what you mean. The visuals, or the content, or the pacing?
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

I don't know, I guess it was more about the humor. But that style, with the extremely high paced narration, and the way the narrator speaks, well that's a consolidated ad style in America, but I don't see much of it in other countries. Just so you know, my father lives in America (He's under Frances, right now) I'm there a large part of my life and sure am much more american than you think. So it was not criticism, but I guess just an imput from another country's perspective. Kinda feels it's one of the great things over this board. (Ask any foreigner if that is not very american...)

Anyway, the only criticism I could give is about the art. I personally didn't like the superimposed stylish BW photos over the blurred backround and the more cartunesque (as in cartoon... hehehe) animation . Perhaps you should have gone more extreme with that (More style on the photos and more cartoon on the animation), or just dump it al all (using just photos...). I just feel that there is too computer in the animation and it somehow feels that it was a bad animator trying to mae it look real, other than a style choice (an exaggerattion, because everybody will understand it, but still)... Am I being too confusing?
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

:D Funny! I like that Mony Python style humor.

Only suggestion, I thought the pastabowl clip needed to focus a bit more time on the Pasta Bowl rather than the enchilada joke. It was confusing at to what the product was, Mexican food or Italian food, until near the end.

Otherwise, good job.
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

Yeah, I was going for something like Python's animation, or those Adult Swim cartoons that are very popular right now. It's that "animation...but just barely" look. The pace of it helps the thing along, I think, so the lack of quality doesn't bog it down. That's always something good to escape.

For it looking American-like, I think it's really interesting that you say that. Personally, I think it's definitely got that style of too-fast-because-everyone-has-ADD-now, which you see in everything from MTV to cheapo car dealer commercials. But for the humor and the visual style, I think that this isn't something that's very representational of American spots at all. Maybe a small subsection, but from my trips to Europe, I think my work is usually a little more similar to what they're doing over there. If you look at what American production companies like Smuggler are being asked to produce for Europe, like the Virgin Mobile spots, with their cheesy animation, absurd stories, all told at an obscenely fast pace, I think you see that you've got a culture that really doesn't demand the A to B linear approach that we have in the American advertising culture. These spots definitely wouldn't ever see the light of day in rotation here, but if you scaled up the production value slightly, I can see something like this being aired in Europe (maybe).

Thanks for the critiques! I love that this place exists, to allow me to get involved in discussions like this.
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

I have to check out the europpean ad styles then... ;)

I got the monty-phyton influence the first time I saw it too (and that's certainly not american, I know), but maybe that's it. It reminds me of a Car Dealer 10s spot, and I just realized that there are no car dealer spots like that in Brazil, for instance although they may even be worse around here. Regarding the animation, maybe I'm not a big fan of 3D... So it's good you're not taking my opinions harshly...It's very well done, can steal a few giggles, it's easy to remember it, and it's about funk. As a wise man once said: What is hip? ;D
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

it is the fast-paced narration that makes it appear "american" to me.

but i totally liked the first two. at the third i dunno. either i got used to it or it needed a bit more pucnh. but the first totally surprised me.
i do not mean "american style" as negative. only over here we hardly see this fast talking. reminds me also of asian ads. they also have fast narration sometimes in spots.
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

Awesome job, just wondering why you wouldnt use a digital camera opposed to the DVX?
 
Re: Three Commercial Spots

The Tonic Room isn't far from me, I'm new to Chicago maybe I should check it out.

Kinda fresh approaches. That's good. However, I did not like the animation at the end, its motion graphics gone bad. It reminds me of late night public access graphical treatments on no-budget community TV shows. My feeling on motion graphics is: if you really don't know what your doing stick to simplicity, white type on a black background would be way more professional and serve your purposes nicely.

I do not understand the "very American" comment. They by no means seem particularly American to me.
 
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