The assistant director gives instructions: she shows how to film it literally with her fingers.
A little later, she “directs” the young actress. 
Please note that the assistant has a microphone in her hand. Through him, general instructions on the set.
Surely everyone knows that the most difficult things to photograph are children and animals. There are children and animals in this video, which adds incredible complexity to it. 
The big, calm cat plays himself in the movie. He needs to lie down and look out the window. He does just that. 
The cat does not always sit, but only during general runs. During training, he is replaced by a plush stand-in. 
According to the script, the girl’s hand is smeared with paint. There is also a guy who is responsible for the paint on his hand. In total, more than 70 people were involved in the filming. 
Chief operator. Instructions given over the radio station will only be heard by technical specialists - lighting technicians, operators, etc. 
his workplace on the other side. All the computers on set are Macs. 
In the meantime, a break was announced. Mom feeds the main actress. 
This is the storyboard of the video. Every scene is filmed on it. After a scene has been filmed, it is crossed out and moved on to the next one. 
Customer representatives. There is the same monitor as on the operator's console. The customer approves each scene. 
In the photo, a representative of the film crew gives commentary on the episode, helping himself with a plastic fork. Creative people, what can I say.
What an idyll: a mother reads a fairy tale to her daughter. 
In a cozy home interior. 
Meanwhile, work is in full swing behind the scenes. Operators, lighting technicians, and directors are working. 
You small business, desperate for publicity? Are you an aspiring musician or actor hungry for fame? A blogger who dreams of becoming famous and attracting millions of subscribers to his blog? Then this tip is for you! I’ll tell you how to shoot and broadcast a commercial for free, which will allow you to wake up famous literally the next day!
I'll start with a short overview of the television advertising market.
An advertising video - the kind you see every day on the air of central television channels - is a very difficult and expensive thing. The work on creating a thirty-second video lasts from one to several months, several dozen people take part in it (sometimes 100-150 people!) and this pleasure costs the advertiser from 1 to tens of millions of rubles in our country and up to several million dollars in the USA . Only very large, often transnational, companies that produce consumer goods can afford such advertising. And such advertising is produced by special companies, so-called production houses (from the English Production house - production company).
It would seem, what can we talk about in such a situation, what kind of free videos for aspiring musicians or bloggers? Indeed, this is where my advice would end if there were no such thing in the world as the Internet. The World Wide Web provides almost unlimited opportunities for advertising anything or anyone, and completely free of charge. Let's talk about this. First, about how to film your own commercial, then how to promote it online.
Today, video production technologies have become so simplified that almost nothing is needed to film your own commercial. Video can be shot on a simple video camera, camera, even a smartphone or computer webcam - all of them today provide a level of quality sufficient for broadcasting on the Internet and the ability to attract a multimillion-dollar audience. The only thing you really need to succeed is an idea.
An idea is as simple as it is complex.
Its simplicity lies in the fact that, again, nothing is needed for its birth. As popular wisdom says: everything ingenious is simple. The difficulty is that not everything simple is brilliant. It can take a minute, a year, or a lifetime to come up with a brilliant idea. But it’s worth a try in any case, because whether your idea is brilliant or not is impossible to understand right away. You may think everything is bad, but people will like it. Or it's the other way around. The main thing in this process is not to get hung up and not engage in perfectionism. Made and launched! It won’t work, you can come up with another idea and try again. Once again. And one more thing... If you burn with desire, do everything with enthusiasm, excitement, drive, one day everything will work out and your efforts will be rewarded.
The Internet is a unique place to place your advertising. Free and reusable space. If you like the idea, millions will know about you, and you won’t have to do anything for this - information on the Internet spreads at tremendous speed and captures millions and tens of millions of people.
But where do you get the idea if you've never done anything like this? On the same Internet! Take a couple of hours or a couple of days and watch videos of other people, companies, organizations, promotions, musicians, video clips and the best commercials, such as the winners of the Cannes Lions festival, for example. Well, something like this: , or .
Read blogs and forums about your business, see what people like about it in social networks, which has the most views on Youtube. The Internet is full of ideas, you need to absorb into yourself like a sponge all the best that has been created by people, let it pass through yourself - your experience, your passion, your understanding of the world and come out with something of your own, unique.
Under no circumstances try to copy someone else’s idea, even if it brought its creator worldwide fame - this is a road to nowhere. True success comes only to those who create their own, original, unlike anything else - this is what attracts the attention of millions and brings fame. To paraphrase a well-known saying: keep it simple, be yourself and people will be drawn to you.
You can film, as I already wrote, with a smartphone camera, a computer webcam, or a DVR - the main thing is that the action being filmed is original and captivates the viewer, forces him to rewatch your video or clip, and send a link to it to all his friends . You can edit it in any simple video editor, add music and sound of almost any quality - on the Internet, no one expects the quality of Channel One videos from you, but everyone expects non-standard, interesting action, original plot, unexpected twists - give people what they are waiting for and people will respond to you with their increased attention. As, for example, the little-known musical group “Serebro” did at one time, literally blowing up the Internet with its video filmed inside a car:
The videos we are talking about are called viral. They have nothing to do with influenza and Ebola; the name comes from the way they spread - from person to person, from one group to other groups of people, capturing a larger and larger audience. The most famous viral videos and music videos are made very by simple means, without involving professionals, but the number of people who watched them is hundreds of millions of people.
Today, even many large advertising companies are resorting to creating viral videos for the Internet, realizing their potential. An example is the Volvo Tracks video, which has received tens of millions of views worldwide (the video currently has 76 million views).
Of course, they participated in its creation the best professionals of his business, including the Hollywood star - actor Van Damme, but who said that interesting ideas can only occur to professionals? Or why don't you become a pro at creating great ideas?
These are questions that require a certain amount of self-confidence and adventurism to answer positively, but it is precisely such people who become famous, create masterpieces and achieve great heights. Become one of them!
Well, having made a video, all that remains is to post it on Youtube (after creating an account there if you don’t already have one), and provide a link to the video as much as possible a large number your friends, acquaintances, relatives, classmates, classmates, etc. and so on. If they like the video, be sure that it will instantly spread far beyond this circle - many of your friends will send the link to their friends, and they will send it to theirs... This is the beauty of the Internet - it works for you and for you, if you or your product are worth it .
If there is no success, as I already wrote, you should not despair, you should make another or more than one attempt. Not everything brilliant happens the first or even the second time. You need to analyze as meticulously as possible what you did wrong and understand why your idea did not find a response in the hearts of your friends. It might be worth having a heart-to-heart with some of them, gathering opinions about your video and its shortcomings. The main thing here is not to fall into ambition, which has ruined more than one novice creator: “I made a brilliant video, they are all fools - they didn’t understand, they didn’t appreciate it.” This may well be so, but you don’t want self-glory, but the recognition of millions, don’t you? It’s worth understanding what these same millions want and making a video for them, and not for yourself.
By the way, this is one of the fundamental principles of advertising - you do it not for yourself, but for other people. And although the product is yours (by product I mean anything - a product you made, a service you want to sell, your music, your voice, the lyrics of your song, etc.), you are selling it to people, so should be guided by their needs and tastes. For successful sale your product (and your commercial as well), you must understand your consumer - his preferences, mentality, tastes and demands. To stand out, your idea, your product or your service must be more original, more interesting, more unusual than what people see around them, on TV or on the Internet.
That is, everything is not simple, but also not as difficult as it might seem to someone. It is enough to find your niche, to find that individual string that will touch a nerve, if not everyone, but some large group people - teenagers, retirees, snowboarders or office workers - success will be guaranteed.
And finally, a selection of videos that touched a nerve and surprised me personally. Not all of them are commercials in the truest sense of the word. But advertising is a broad concept; often the task is to attract attention to oneself, one’s activities, one’s products. In this sense, the examples given, it seems to me, fulfill this goal 100 percent.
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Do you want to sell something? It needs to be advertised correctly. Do you want to advertise so that buyers flock in flocks and shoals? The best way- make a video advertisement. It has long been known that our people prefer to look at moving pictures than to listen, much less read. So, don’t hesitate to order an advertising video shoot from us - it really works. Of course, it all depends on who is filming.
Now the phrase literally suggests itself about what cool professionals we are and how you need to order advertising only from us. We are not just professionals - we are monsters advertising market, we are the Mark Zuckerbergs of video production for TV, we are the Elon Musks of image video advertising. In short, if there is someone cooler than us, then it’s only us in the future: because with every video we become better.
We answer: yes! iPhone is always cool. This is super-duper cool, and he shoots cool, and the result is always cool, and why do we need all these cameramen, copywriters, directors, stylists. In general, when you’ve played enough, you’re welcome to watch a normal video.
Why do they shoot advertising?
No, this is not an evening of dumb questions, this is a task that you need to decide on before any shooting. Video advertising has many purposes. Well, for example:
- ensure that when they see your product they don’t shrug their shoulders in bewilderment, but snatch it with sparkling eyes and run around trading floor with joyful cries, they knocked down with a cart the insolent person who dared to take the last unit from the shelf;
- tell why your product (service, brand) is better than nothing, and why competitors offer ge on a stick, and you offer real delicious candy;
- remind lazy customers that you haven’t actually closed yet, that the warehouses are full of products and it’s time to grab them, run!
- increase the number of people who will shamelessly believe that you are the best in the world. Look at the iPhone fans on the day of the presentation. We will help you achieve the same effect.
In general, decide and voice the requirements in the brief - we must know why we are starting the production of the next masterpiece. Otherwise, we will get huge queues for you, and all you wanted was to film the boss’s youngest daughter in a video and show it on TV. After all, she is so cute at 42.
Pre-production, production, post-production and other nonsense - what is it and why understand it?
These are all “productions” - the stages of creating turnkey video advertising. Professional buzzwords that studio representatives like to throw around to throw dust in the client’s eyes. This is how we imagine a typical monologue: “What are you doing??? Discount on advertising shooting?? This is PRODUCTION!!! So that you are no longer frightened by this terminology, let us explain what it means:
- Production Production (in our case, video) or, speaking in Russian (it’s much clearer, right?) – video shooting. Some advertising filming studios also call themselves production studios. This is cool and adds a couple of zeros to the price. We tried it ourselves - it works. In general, when your beer-drinking neighbor films his friend on his mobile phone, who is ruining the environment under a tree, this is also production.
- Pre-production – preparation for filming. This is when the neighbor is still drinking beer and says to the sidekick: “Let’s film something, really.” In short, these are all the stages of preparation for filming: script, storyboard, casting, selection of props from the nearest landfill, and so on.
- Post-production Returning to the neighbor: this is when he had already taken off his imperishable film and downloaded free application for editing and put some funny music on the video. And he did the right thing, because post-production involves editing, color correction, sound mixing, writing music, applying effects, 3D computer graphics, and so on.
How is filming going?
Estimate for a commercial
Everyone wants to make a creative, cool, selling, professional video with Hollywood effects, stars in the frame, exploding cars, battles shot with a panorama from a drone, 3D animation at the Pixar level - and all this for 300-500 dollars. Well, what – we’re all too greedy here, we don’t want to work, and we’re only interested in money. And it is true.
Well, in fact, we set the price for shooting video advertising not out of the blue (there are no prices there, we checked), but depending on the type of video, timing, level of specialists, cost of locations, quality of equipment, graphics. For example, if you need to advertise delicious cutlets made from the meat of an unknown Chinese animal, we will have to hire a food stylist who will beautifully cover this biomass with grease and varnish so that everything in the frame will be fried and tasty. This will all be included in the estimate, no doubt about it.
- locations – if you want the filming to take place in the palace of the Queen of England, be prepared to invest quite a lot in rent and permission;
- the quantity and quality of specialists in the film crew and actors - everything is clear here, either a talented duo of young wedding videographers for a modest remuneration, or a professional film crew, but more expensive. The stars have their own fees, and everything is serious there too;
- equipment, props, consumables - a camera with a video function, and we include in the estimate cameras, light, sound, cranes, rails, smoke machines, drones and a canister of cognac for the film crew;
- post-production (that word again, yes) – you need to pay for editing, computer graphics, renting a studio for dubbing and everything else;
- royalties to the composer or royalties for the use of a famous song. We need to work legally, guys. So we forget about the idea of using the song “Vladimir Central” for nothing;
In food commercials, we often see things that are so delicious that we unwittingly become victims of marketers. And the sandwiches there are delicious, and the cocktails are multi-layered, and some Bavarian sausages are so steamy that it seems that you would give a lot for a couple of such servings.
But you will be very disappointed when you find out WHAT we are actually offered to taste!
Now we will share with you the main secrets that are used in the studio when filming such gastronomic videos.
Milk rivers
The milk you see in a plate with very healthy mules is actually a mixture sunscreen and glue. This liquid has a greater shine and flows beautifully from a spoon. The flakes do not get soggy in it and remain very appetizing.
Foam Mountains
Have you seen the foam rising above beer mugs? She is lush, huge, almost lace. But definitely not a beer hall! To make it, take regular soap or dishwashing liquid and generously add it to a bottle of tea or a mixture of apple juice and vegetable oil. The beer is ready!
Exotic cocktails
Do you think they contain really expensive colored alcohol? Do you hope that the lady in the bikini really is sipping it through a straw and that’s why she’s smiling so blissfully? No matter how it is! These color illusions use regular gelatin and dye. Well, and some water, of course)
Clouds of steam
What you think is fragrant steam from hot food is actually smoke from incense sticks. They are hidden behind a plate of food and filmed from the desired angle. Therefore, the studio always smells not of some shawarma, but, for example, of jasmine, which has a much better effect on the work process and does not allow the staff to relax.
And if they save even on sticks, then they simply draw “steam” on the computer.
Meat supplies
The meat in advertising is usually neither pork nor beef. Cut-up makeup sponges are used to advertise dishes with exposed meat fillings (such as tacos). These porous pieces are thoroughly soaked in sauces, after which they look very much like meat and keep their shape perfectly. If a dish consists of several layers of dough, they are often glued together.
And if you need to remove a whole piece of meat (for example, a steak), then use a raw semi-finished product, only slightly browned for appearance. Then it is covered with hairspray and the characteristic “grill stripes” are applied with a special marker!
To create a golden brown crust on a chicken leg, it is processed construction hairdryer, and mashed potatoes are injected under the skin using a syringe (this gives the chicken silhouette a fuller appearance).
Ice icebergs
If you suddenly see ice in an advertisement, immediately say Stanislav’s “I don’t believe it!” Frozen water would instantly melt from the heat of the spotlights and the studio temperature that is comfortable for people, so acrylic transparent cubes are always thrown into glasses, not ice.
Juicy dew
When in advertisements for soft drinks (juices, waters, nectars, etc.) we are shown beautiful glass glasses, all so foggy and with droplets of liquid, then immediately imagine food stylists who diligently rub the dishes before filming with matting cream and sprinkle them a mixture of glycerin and water. And then the drink is brought to a well-heated state and - voila! — you can start the first take!
Ice cream balls
For those who think that advertising ice cream is ice cream, a bad mark in the diary! Advertisers don’t want to spend several hours in sweet colored puddles, so they prudently stock up on a convenient mixture of flour, dyes and packaged vanilla cream. As an option, sometimes silicone or gel masses are used and painted over them. different colors PVA.
Multi-decker sandwiches
This engineering structure of 6-8 layers does not bother signing contracts, and therefore there is no clause on mandatory sustainability either. To keep all these cutlets, cheeses, tomatoes, herbs and sesame buns together, they are placed on toothpicks, Chinese chopsticks are glued to them, and tape and cardboard are used in all sorts of combinations.
Then the camera skillfully moves in from the right direction - and you admire yet another culinary miracle of fast food!
Pre-production preparation should be the main part, as you need to carefully think through the plot, approve the actors, create the scenery, decide on the voiceover and musical accompaniment.
First, evaluate your capabilities, calculate your budget, calling the studios that are most suitable for you, have professional cameras, and provide auxiliary materials. Some agencies shoot videos to order, providing the customer with everything necessary, from equipment to costumes for actors. But in this case, the cost of filming will be much higher than if you prepared the materials yourself. Of course, the professional quality of a video will be much different from an amateur video.
How companies create commercials
A company that shoots professional videos will prepare a script for you, think through the design, select suitable actors, ensure good sound of music and phrases, edit the footage and create a full-fledged, high-quality film. Therefore, if you do not know the rules and the necessary skills required to produce commercials, it is better to find a production studio that can handle it all on top level. When choosing a company, be guided by their experience and the availability of already filmed materials confirming their professionalism. You should first listen to the voices of the announcers in order to choose exactly the sound timbre that suits you. the best way suitable for advertising your products.
In order to reduce costs, try to conclude a contract for filming a video directly with the TV channel on which you plan to show it. Avoid involvement of intermediary organizations.
How to make a promotional video yourself
If you still plan to shoot a video yourself, but you do not have any special skills or abilities, follow the rule of simplicity in everything. You should not use complex effects that are only available to professionals. Eliminate long statements and minimize the participation of actors. High quality videos best to shoot on outdoors, on a bright sunny day. Additionally, you can use a directional light source to help avoid shadows. When choosing music and sound effects, strive for naturalness, avoid too loud sounds, annoying repetitions of the same words, long lists of the advantages of the product and its properties.
An example of good musical accompaniment may be music that suits the meaning of the plot. For example, when advertising products for children, you can choose a cheerful children's song; when presenting recreational products, choose a gentle, light melody. And for advertising sporting goods, the music can be rhythmic and invigorating.
At the end, show the created story to your friends and colleagues, who will be able to express their comments and draw your attention to successful and dubious shots.