The Commercial Process:
A Director's Point of View - Part One
Tony Johns
Copyright © Tony Johns, 2001
What is a Commercial Director? Unlike a feature
film director, who has at least 90 minutes to tell a story, a
commercial director has, usually, only 30 seconds. Like a feature film
director, however, the onus is on the commercial director to tell a
story and to entertain. More than this though he has to persuade the
consumer to buy a product. How the commercial director goes about this
is to a large extent dependent on budget. This can be anything from a
few thousand dollars to a few million but the approach from start to
finish is usually no different from the approach to feature filmmaking.
The same technical crew and staff are required as well as the same
post-production follow through.
One of the major differences is the amount of
time allowed for principal photography. A medium size commercial will
more than likely take one to two days shooting. A top end commercial
can take anywhere between 3 to 14 days and it is not unheard of for a
commercial production to shoot for six weeks or longer.
Commercials can very in length but usually they
run at 15 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, or 90 sec and, if being shown in
cinemas, up to 3 minutes. Television commercials, unlike feature films,
can never be a frame over or under the required time frame.
Advertising agencies have creative teams
normally consisting of an Art Director and Copywriter but the size of
the team can vary from campaign to campaign. The account director
(suit) from an agency looks after the client's interests and liaises
between the client, the creative teams, the producers, etc. The suit
may have only one client to look after but that client can have several
products to sell (e.g. Ford Motors). The suit's main aim is to look
after the welfare of the client.
Depending on the type of account, creative
teams will work on several campaigns or, in some cases, work for just
the one client. A creative team will put forward several ideas for a
television commercial before the client finally accepts one. It is not
uncommon for the script (board) to go to research. Research is a way of
determining whether an idea will prove popular and indeed, whether or
not it has crossed the bounds of good taste. That is, is the commercial
'politically correct' (i.e. will it offend anyone), is it targeting the
right consumer group and more importantly, can people identify the
product. There is no point in spending half a million to make a
commercial if no one knows what it is trying to sell. If the results of
the research are negative any of the following can occur. The script is
revised (do characters, situations need changing?). The dialogue is
changed. The script is scrapped altogether some really great
ideas have been lost this way.
Once the script has been approved the next step
is to hire a director. There are several ways of approaching this. The
creative team might sift through countless director's Showreels until
they find a director who they feel can do justice to their idea. The
agency's TV producer will recommend a director. This can happen when
agencies have a new creative team or the team is inexperienced. A
creative team has built up a relationship with a director who they tend
to trust. Occasionally a director is lucky enough to present his
showreel to the creative team at the precise time they are looking for
someone. (Right time, right place). Word of mouth.
With most brand commercials several directors
will be approached to submit a treatment. This treatment outlines the
director's ideas and approach to the commercial. This should include
everything from art direction to talent, to lighting, to the finished
look. The treatment can some times win or lose the job for the
director. In some cases a director will put together a demo tape
(anamatic) of his ideas. This may consist of stills, wild footage,
graphics, etc.
At the same time the director's producer is
asked to submit a budget. This also plays a significant role in whether
the director gets the job or not. Too low and the agency might wonder
about the capabilities of the producer/director team. Too high and they
might be dismissed altogether. More often though, if the director is
the preferred choice, he will be asked to re-think his ideas to
accommodate the budget or the agency may approach the client for more
money. The difficulty for the producer when budgeting a commercial is
that not all agencies give ballpark figures to work with. Another
problem is that the agency's ideas for a commercial can outstrip the
client's projected budget. In other words the client has been sold an
idea by the agency without fully appreciating the full production cost.
In my next article I will discuss in more depth
the treatment process and the communication between the director and
creative team.
Tony Johns Bio - An award winning international television
commercial Director, Tony Johns came to this profession through his
involvement as a successful recording artist in the 1980's. Tony began
directing music promos for his own band and was the first independent
director in New Zealand to do so. Until that time all band promos had
been directed by Television New Zealand staff. Impressed with his
refreshingly innovative and creative music promos airing on Television
New Zealand, Tony was invited by music promos for other recording
artists of the day. Advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and
Colenso, attracted by Tony's success with music promos, commissioned
him to direct television commercials.
The demand for Tony's directing talents
compelled him to defer his musical ambitions to concentrate on his
burgeoning directing career. It was a natural career change he was more
than willing to make given the new opportunities to indulge his passion
for story telling. Tony's ability to see beyond the basic script,
visualising all the details from the selection of professional talent,
to the details of art direction, visualizing camera angles and creative
lighting design, to the final edit design in the planning stages of
every project, sets him apart.
Tony has directed commercials in New Zealand,
Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. Tony has recently come under the
umbrella of WeDoFilms in the USA. Samples of Tony's work can be viewed
at www.wedofilms.com and he can be contacted at lintonfilms@xtra.co.nz
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