The Shortest Form studio is designed to fine-tune our production skills by producing concise, focused and innovative television commercials for a client. TVC’s are one of the shortest forms of video production and require a unique approach from the writing stage through to editing. As commercial production is of particular interest to me it was a valuable opportunity to gain experience in this area.
Our client was GetUp!, Action for Australia. We were to produce a commercial promoting any one of their campaigns. At the beginning of semester Flavia, Paul and I spoke with Kelsey, GetUp’s online community coordinator regarding our commercial concepts. While they wrote back a short response, the project brief was very open and we were given plenty of freedom. While this was great for us, as many of us had become attached with our ideas, we were unable to develop our skills in client liaison, which is such a vital part of the commercial production industry. It would have been beneficial to have GetUp more involved in the process and taught us how to work to a tight brief. However, apart from our (lack of) client liaison, the rest of the commercial production was extremely beneficial.
Let’s start at the beginning:
Idea development
My experience throughout the script writing process was surprisingly pleasant, (I normally cringe at the thought of writing). The campaign that caught my eye was fighting for the preservation of Tasmania’s ancient forests. The campaign highlighted the generational impacts of logging ancient forests, making the 70-year growth cycle a main concern. Using the ‘crying child anti-smoking’ and ‘Qantas, I still call Australia home’ campaigns as inspiration my idea began to take shape. As Trevor Marriot (Creative Director, Guerrilla TV) pointed out, you are better off communicating one idea, as opposed to ‘throwing 4 tennis balls at them at once’. I followed the generational idea and came up with a series of commercials showcasing the children of today trying to repair their ancient forests. My intention was to produce a believable series that evoked enough emotion in the viewers to take action. I chose four 30-second television commercials, which focused on one child at a time, as well as one 60-second video (originally 90 seconds) that showcased a group of children working together to repair their forest. The 90 seconds was originally intended for online distribution, however throughout the editing process we cut it down to 60 so it is suitable for broadcast and will form a nice conclusion to the series.
Concepts:
| 30-seconds | Young girl sticky-taping paper leaves to a dead branch |
| Young girl watering a tree stump | |
| Young boy planting a dead branch | |
| Young boy nailing bark back onto a tree stump | |
| 60-seconds | Group of children working together trying to glue a branch back onto a tree stump |
Thankfully the ideas didn’t require any dialogue, which made the writing and production phases that much easier, especially working with children. My intention was to use close ups and shallow depth of field to hide the child’s location and actions to create the impression that the child was playing with crafts or toys, building up anticipation and revealing their intentions and location in the last shot, achieving that ‘ooooh’ response. While 30 seconds seems extremely quick, a commercial can still drag and loose viewers attention if they do not remain engaging from start to end. In order to maintain engagement the close ups needed to spark interest and form an emotional connection between the viewer and the child, (hence the close-ups of the children’s faces – the ‘window to the soul’ (cheesy but true!)). Practicality was also a large factor in the scripts. In order for these commercials to be credible I made sure the children’s intentions were believable for that age group. I wanted the children to look like they were genuinely trying to fix the forest. This is why I wanted quite young actors (3-5 years old).
Pre-Production
The only issue we had during preproduction was location sourcing. Jillian and I took two-day trips exploring different areas around Melbourne and were just beginning to brainstorm completely different commercial ideas when we stumbled across a clearing in the Toolangi State Forrest. The location was a 20minute drive through the forest on a windy dirt road so we had to accommodate for the shoot, however thankfully everything ran perfectly on the day. A main concern for us was bathroom availability and leeches. However after developing a connection with the Toolangi Tavern (albeit a 20minute drive) we were able to use their facilities, including bathroom and power before and during their opening hours.
Having found our location we were able to send out our casting call. Casting for children was easier than I expected. I called for boys and girls aged 3-7. While I wanted them to look as young as possible, the practicality of working with minors also came into it. Fortunately we had several applications, including two fantastic families both with a boy and girl who were in the right age bracket however looked much younger, were extremely mature and all but one had acting experience. The families were very accommodating and the children were beyond excited about the commercials.
Production
As we were attempting to shoot 5 commercials in one day (with children!) we had storyboarded and planned the day to the Nth degree. As we had two families we arranged to shoot the two children from one family in the morning, then have the other family arrive to shoot the group, then the first family were free to go while we filmed the last two commercials. As we were working with children this was the most efficient rundown. As it were, the youngest of the children (3 years old) began getting quite restless after 1½ hours, which made it quite difficult to film his shots. Looking back we should have anticipated this and filmed the youngest first to give him a break between his shoot and the group commercial. Apart from the difficulties with the youngest, all other children were fantastic to work with (I’d say better than adults!) which made the day really fun and helped us get some great footage.
Thankfully we had Sarah Lynch, a photography student come along to the shoot. She was able to take production stills and photos of the children and families to keep them occupied while we set up. Having an extra crew member also meant she was able to drive back and forth from the Tavern charging batteries and transfer footage onto the computer when memory cards filled. She also had her own 5D camera and lenses which proved extremely useful as I ended up shooting the majority of shots on her macro lens.
Post Production
Being so excited about what we had just shot, I threw together the rough cuts as soon as I got home from the shoot. This gave us a great head start in the editing process and got things underway quickly. After experimenting with different shots to get the ‘reveal’ spot on we realized we will have to wait until the very last wide shot, otherwise there is not enough time to build interest and develop emotion with the close ups.
We had some issues with a few wide shots being shaky. We experimented with a few filters and effects in Final Cut Pro, however none of them were sufficient. We also had some issues with a few of the tracking shots being quite wobbly, however we were able to counteract this with the ‘SmoothCam’ effect. As for colour grading we have decided to keep it to a minimum. The colour of the image is fantastic so we are only matching a few over exposed shots. We did have intentions of desaturating the image as the emotion changed through the story however after editing them together the colour manipulation is not necessary.
We are also debating taglines for the very end of the commercials. This line needs to explain exactly what the children are doing in 7 words or less. While we have plenty in mind they are all either too cheesy or done before, and they need to be spot on otherwise the whole concept will be lost.
Overall
Overall this studio has been extremely beneficial and eye opening. The art of television commercials is so different to short films and requires a different approach to all areas of production. I have gained an understanding of concise story telling, and how to work to strict time restrictions. Due to the short time frame every shot must have an intention and contribute to the story. The art of establishing emotion within 20 seconds is quite difficult, however useful skills like shooting at a child’s level and close ups of their eyes are very helpful.
I have learnt the importance of concise and specific taglines. They can make or break a commercial. The ‘tennis ball’ concept is great to keep in mind and really helped with all aspects of production.
Contribution and Collaboration:
Seeing as we had such a large Steering Committee Rachel gave us a few more responsibilities to even out the workload between the other groups. Because of this we were all given specific roles which made the whole process run a lot smoother. At the start I worked with Jill put together a website mockup for Ezra to work off (which is all in this blog). We worked out the website navigation and layouts for each page. I then took on the poster responsibilities, designing and printing each weeks posters, which is all in my this blog. I also send out emails and raised awareness within the RMITV community. As for the showcase I am helping Jill design the ‘business card’ invitations (thats all explained here).
Proactive Learning:
As the poster designer I taught myself InDesign because it would produce a better product. I also liased with the printers and experimented with the various files to ensure they could print the best possible posters. We had a few issues with one of the first batches but I worked with them to find a solution.
Participation:
Unfortunately I couldn’t make one or two of the first classes, but I kept up to date with what was happening by speaking with group members and keeping on top of facebook. It was definately a disadvantage not being around for the first meeting as a lot was discussed in these initial stages but I made the majority of meetings after this and made up for my absence by taking on the posters.
I got to 5 of the 6 seminars and made an effort to get to as many other MI2 classes as possible.
Connections & Intersections:
These seminars have given me a great insight into the different areas of the Media industry. It was great to get some hands on advice from the professionals and hear where their career path has taken them. The contacts from the seminar guests alone has been worth it, and im sure they will lead to more down the track. The series has helped me with my networking by providing a comfortable environment to approach people and build up my networking confidence. The Steering Committee has taught me the value of marketing and helped me develop strategies to target particular audiences.
As part of the Steering Committee it is our responsibility to market the 3rd year showcase coming up in November. We met the other day to brainstorm marketing ideas and came up with our ‘business card’ approach. We will be doing up individual cards for each studio to insert into A5 folded invitations. These will only be for the 50-odd industry professionals. As for the rest of the world we will be putting up posters to promote the screening around uni, with a ‘teaser’ coming out first to generate a little interest, followed by a more detailed poster closer to the date. We also need to keep in mind that these will be going up right at the end of uni, so there won’t be many people around to see them. Therefore we are also printing some general business cards to spread around. These will have all the necessary information such as title, date, time and place, and direct them to the website for more details.
I am helping Jill design the general ‘business cards’ so we can get them printed as soon as possible. We also want to get the teaser posters up asap so as many people can see them as possible.
Everything is boot scooting’ right along with the Steering Committee. We are on top of all our duties at the moment and all is running smoothly. Jill started a box.net account which has been extremely helpful with such a large group. We are able to upload all the important files that we constantly use so no emailing back and forth is required which just delays jobs. Facebook has also been a huge help with everyone being able to keep on top of where we are at.
I am putting together the posters for each week and getting them off to the printers. We have had a few issues with the printers not letting us know when they are ready and taking their time but generally they are ready to be put up around campus by Tuesday, with the seminar on the Friday. Seeing as the majority seem to get removed after a night or two this is a good timeframe.
Life in the Reel World.
I would say this was the most anticipated seminar of the series. The majority of students in our degree are interested in Filmmaking and were looking forward to hearing from some of the best in the biz. Daniel Scharf, Natalie Elftheriadis and Sandra Sciberras were great guests and offered some great insights into the different areas of filmmaking. While it was definitely more focused on Directing, I feel they still managed to touch on the different areas to get a wider insight into the film industry. I was particularly interested in Natalie Elftheriadis’ point of view, as she produced and starred in her film ‘Birthday’ and I was interested to hear about production from an actors perspective. She offered some great advice in regards to working with actors and getting the most out of them, in particular to ensure that everyone understands the directors vision (not just actors, all the crew as well) as this will ensure everyone is on the same page and produce the best work.
As for the management of the seminar, they raised the bar with the ice-cream and popcorn at the door which showed they had put effort into ensuring the audience had an enjoyable experience, however unfortunately I feel they let it slip when the guests were left to chat and ramble off-topic. This lost the audiences attention a few times, however they always managed to pick it up again by asking a new question. The floor was opened at the end to audience questions, as always, which worked well. If they had only tightened the rains on the chit-chat a little they would have kept my attention for the whole two hours and I wouldn’t have a notebook full of scribbles.
Overall, still a really interesting seminar!
High Distinction!
The Steering Committee has been communicating mostly via facebook. We created a group at the beginning of semester and it has been our platform for file sharing, brainstorming, meeting arrangements and discussions. It was very useful for the beginning stages where we were trying to secure our logo and poster designs. Because we all had separate jobs in the group it was a great place for us to get in touch with everyone quickly and pass on any news. It was convenient for me to let others know when the posters were ready to be picked up from the printers and up online.
Your Comprehensive TV Guide
I have to say this has been my favorite seminar thus far. From the very beginning they had our attention by dimming the lights, and the opening video got everyone intrigued and excited about the speakers to come. By interviewing the guests one by one they were able to keep the conversations on track, and limit any rambling or chit-chat amongst the speakers. Julian did a great job as host and was able to maintain attention through comedy and engage the audience by keeping the guests answers relevant and not allowing them to get off topic (which is where some other seminars fell short). He didn’t let the interviews drag at all (which was a downfall of other seminars) and give the audience a chance to loose interest and get distracted by their phones. The audience contribution was great at the end, just enough time for people to ask a few main questions but not enough time for it to get awkward and drag.
Patricia Edgar, Andrew Maj and Bruce Kane were all great candidates for a TV Seminar. Their different career paths made for an interesting insight into the industry and allowed for great covereage of the different areas. I am glad they mixed it up a little and it was interesting to hear how they all came together in one way or another throughout their careers. The whole seminar had a great flow, interviewing one on one and hearing about their individual experiences, to then coming together in the end to conclude the talk was great. The intro videos have raised the bar for seminars to come and I hope they manage to live up to this new standard because it definitely makes for a more enjoyable two hours.
Overall great work guys!
High Distinction!
We are powering through our chores for the steering committee and have our look down pat. Jill and I designed the layout of the website and ezra brought it to life at rmitmedia2011.info
This will be our central hub where everyone can find all the information around the seminars, and further down the track, the showcase and student details. Ezra has done a great job of putting it together. So far it holds all the showcase dates and is slowly getting filled with guest bios and photos. Once a seminar is over we will upload a highlights reel and possibly a transcript, summary and photos.
For the students section we are thinking of including all our names and possibly a city of residence (for the international students) and area of interest. (This will all be finalised much later)
As for the showcase, we haven’t thought too much about that as yet but have created the space on the website for all information we need.
Is This Reel Life?
I found this seminar quite interesting. All the guests gave great insight into the documentary industry and went into detail on the process of producing a great documentary. Their practical guide to production, such as recommendations to team up with a reputable production company or producer with a great track record to aid in funding, and reminding us to always get release forms, was extremely helpful. They went through and explained the different documentary genres and how this affects the ‘shape’ of the film (how you tell the story). I found it very interesting to hear how all their careers developed, and valued their insights into the industry. Overall I feel all the guests were selected very carefully. They all had different experiences to contribute to the conversation.
While the conversation did start to drag at points and loose the audiences attention, they managed to pick it up and get back on track eventually. The hosts probably should have kept on top of this a little more and reined the guests in when they started getting off track, but having said that, some of the most interesting points came out of this chit-chat so I guess it was worth it! Maintaining audience attention did seem to be a bit of a struggle for the hosts, but being the first seminar they had no experience to go from so did a good job overall. They also allowed plenty of time at the end for audience contribution for any questions we had.
Plus they have put together a great highlights reel which sums up the seminar nicely!
Is This Reel Life: Highlights Reel
High Distinction!
It’s decided. I’m on the Steering Committee.
While I was quite keen on helping to organise a seminar on independent producing, due to the overwhelming interest in the other seminars we became obsolete. Seeing as the other seminar groups were either too full or not really up my alley, I joined the Steering Committee to help develop the seminar branding and promotion as well as the Showcase at the end of the year. Our responsibilities included coming up with the seminar image, producing posters, developing the Media 2011 social media content, making sure everyone was organised and had everything that they needed, promoting the seminars to other schools and people outside the university.
We checked out some of the ideas from previous years and brainstormed a few possibilities for our seminars. We also started up a facebook group where we could keep tabs on ideas and share notes.