A director known as Twist sent in this beautifully photographed and stylized spec commercial for Wii. Titled "Wii Boxing," the piece is designed to reflect the physicality and the sweet science in a visual spot that would pique the interest of new adult gamers.
Director: Twist
Production Company: Contraband, USA
Director AG Rojas sent us this Beatles-inspired spec spot for Nike, and we're anxious to hear what you think about it. You have to watch the spot all the way to the end to decide if it truly carries its weight...
"I've had this idea since college," says Rojas, who directs music videos and other film projects. "One day, I decided to get up and do it."
Director: AG Rojas
Producer: Chris Black
"Imagine a job where you work 10 days a year and make a hundred grand?"
Welcome to SpotLab, a new Web series following fledgling commercial directors in which each participant will shoot three original spec spots in three months to break into advertising.
15 filmmakers were chosen from over 60 applicants - each ready to become the next hot commercial director. Financing a commercial shoot is no small feat and these brave directors will put it all on the line, pulling together a new showreel in the next 90 days. The series runs on http://www.thespotlab.com.
We covered the launch of SpotLab - the program - on our Artists in Advertising page last month (click here for that story), and it's only appropriate that news of SpotLab - the Web series - should break on our home page. Not only are we excited to see a series about the creation of a commercial showreel, we're confident that this will be an entertaining and informative series, given that it is based on a hugely successful program.
Formerly known as Group101Spots, the organization has an impressive track record launching the careers of over 70 commercial directors through connecting members with agency scripts and one-on-one mentoring. "One of the things we're most proud of is that we are not only bringing up the directors, but all the dps, editors, producers, production designers, and other artists who collaborate with them," founder and executive producer, Dina Mande-Gould points out. "We've heard of many people working in the industry getting their first agent, or getting bumped up from assistant editor to staff editor, as a result of the work they've done in this program."
The Web series tracks the directors' progress as they select their scripts, shoot their spots and create a great new reel to transform their careers.
"It's not film school, but it is a laboratory, and it's a place from which directors can launch or transform their careers" says Mande-Gould. We're tuning in to watch these stories unfold.
It was in November of 2006 that we posted the first viral video on RagingArtists.com.
As part of an initial Web Campaign for PF Flyers, SLAM (Sportie LA Media) created a two-minute video purporting to be a "lost casting tape" from Martin Scorsese's 1990 mob classic Goodfellas. It featured an actor auditioning for the Joe Pesci role, delivering the same lines as they might be performed by famous actors of the day, including Al Pacino, Dudley Moore, Sean Connery, and Pesci himself.
We thought it would be interesting to chart the success of this endeavor, so we traveled to the unofficial SLAM office, in the bar at Raffles L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills, to speak with SLAM Marketing Director Justo Diaz:
Raging Artists: Thanks for inviting us to drinks, Justo.
Justo Diaz: Am I buying? Is that how this works?
RA: You're the one with the successful viral video.
JD: You know that doesn't make me rich. It gives me street cred...not much else.
RA: It also makes you smart. So you're the perfect person to tell us the criteria for a hit viral.
JD: There are too many ways to make a popular viral. The key to a viral's success, though, is to know what a viral is and what it can potentially do for a business. What distinguishes a Viral from a Web commercial or a Web video is the degree to which it makes an impact and spreads across the Web. In the case of this viral, we wanted to garner search positions for the terms Goodfellas Cast, Goodfellas Audition, and Goodfellas keywords in general. You see, we wanted our target audience to become familiar with the PF Flyers brand by connecting to a cultural icon that this demographic relates to. The Viral was so successful in this regard that - nearly two years later - if you type in Goodfellas Audition, you will get two Google pages full of different iterations of our video. The fact that this video garnered so many Goodfellas keyword positions on google is what made it a viral - in this case.
RA: It seems like many people measure viral success in terms of millions of hits -
JD: Some virals get millions of hits - Will Ferrell's "The Landlord" video, for instance - and that is what makes them successful. The adage "any press is good press" applies to virals, and the more people who see them the better. However, a brand's goals and audience may be much more specific than the audience for a comedy video. What most successful virals have in common is that they appear to have little or no connection to the corporate message. That makes them appear to be real and not conjured up by marketers.
RA: Given the fact that many advertisers see creating commissioned content for the Web as a means of keeping costs down, how important is production value?
JD: Production value is actually important, but not in the way most people think. A viral needs to look dynamic, as if it was shot on the spot - without any preparation. It needs to feel "real". For instance, if you caught Britney Spears stealing a pair of sneakers, trampling an elderly person as she ran out the door, you would have a viral. Millions of people would tune in to watch this video because they would automatically assume it was real and shot with a camera phone. Now, if the sneakers she took were clearly Pumas or Nikes, then you might suspect that this is a commercial, but you would still watch, so a viral is what you would have. If the production quality was high, and its stamp sent you to corporate headquarters, you would lose the viral quality and it would just be a commercial. It would take a lot of money to get Miss Spears to steal a pair of Pumas, so production costs would be high, even if the quality was purposely low. In other words, production quality would not be important in this case, but the subject and environment are key components that may cost you some money.
RA: Speaking of budget, is it true that "Goodfellas Cast Party" was essentially shot on spec?
JD: The project fell outside the scope of the planned campaign for PF, so there was no money for production or seeding. But I'd conceived the spot as a means of connecting with a specific demographic, and knew in advance that we would capture and own keywords that dealt with Goodfellas. I also knew in advance that our target demographic loved this movie and all things related to the movie. The success was a byproduct of design.
RA: So you pulled this off with very little money, but money is still important.
JD: Yeah, it's important. The Coke and Mentos viral was extremely inexpensive in terms of quality, but to orchestrate it well took time and energy. Still, in the end we are talking a fraction of the cost of a real commercial. In the case of Goodfellas, it had to look like it was on film in a real studio. Otherwise, people would not believe this was a real studio-produced audition tape. The sound and background were key elements that made it look and feel real. I guess what I'm saying is that production value may or may not be important. Realism is what you are after. The Goodfellas video looked good - it had to.
RA: So the fact that it looks good has helped the video build momentum over the last couple of years.
JD: Exactly, people continue to link to this video because the debate about whether it was real is still out there. That controversy is what powers the video. The links are what garner Google positions for Goodfellas keywords. Blogs often publish this video when talking about Goodfellas. Bloggers are more powerful than people realize, even now.
International blogger - and sometime party host - MondoMouth grabbed Raging Artists founder/editor-in-chief Hesh Rephun at a recent party for the launch of Reebok's Kool Aid collabo. While we generally don't like to talk shop at parties, Mondo pried some good stuff out of Hesh, which took place at the Melrose digs of top indie retailer Sportie LA 4/16...
Our Spec Commercial of the Month, for Monster.com, started out at the agency but never got made. Copywriter Ella Nemcova brought it to director Lanre Olabisi, who brought to life this story of a talented man in search of a new profession. "Pimpin Ain't Easy," but for the right dude, it can open the door to a new career.
"Pimpin' Aint Easy"
Director: Lanre Olabisi
Production Company: sugar|travelers
DP: Larry Hillier
Writer: Ella Nemcova
Producer: Lanre Olabisi & Gabriel Sedgwick
At Raging Artists, we're always on the lookout for innovative approaches to spotmaking and production in general. On our radar this month is Radar Music Videos, "a simple way for bands, record labels and filmmakers to connect online to make and get music videos." Check it out...
Born out of two years' experience running record label music video competitions over the internet, RadarMusicVideos.com has created a worldwide community of music video filmmakers, with revolutionary intentions.
The site connects talented new filmmakers online with record labels and bands looking for low budget music videos. "It's a win-win-win scenario for record labels, bands and filmmakers," founder Caroline Bottomley told us. "It's increasingly vital to have a great music video to promote music, yet budgets across the industry are in decline. At the same time, there is a vast pool of talented filmmakers in the world who before now, found it very difficult to get access to music video work. Radar Music Videos creates a brand new platform for filmmakers, unsigned bands and record labels to connect and get great low budget music videos."
Commissions for both record labels and unsigned bands have already begun through the site. Radar has over 500 signed-up filmmakers on the site, many of them award-winning directors, spanning from Auckland to Vancouver and most countries in between. Radar is also developing a distribution arm. Representing copyright cleared music videos made by members, they are already distributing content to specialist music and online video sites, in addition to the Radar Picks channel on the website.
"The potential for Radar is absolutely massive," Bottomley says. "Filmmakers love the site, record labels are very excited about being able to generate more videos and unsigned bands have a way to access world class talent for their more limited budgets. It's a very exciting time."
Shots - Raging Artists - Experiments In Advertising
Hesh Rephun talks to shots about Raging Artists' spec commercial initiative...
