Cable Spots Follow Up

[Herb Sevush]

Randall –

“I think you’re an egocentric spoiled brat”

You seem to be the ultimate proof of the Fruedian contention that most complaints are projection.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Aaron Cadieux]

Herb,

Thanks a lot for your support. A critique of my spots would be greatly appreciated.

Just a little background. The first 6 spots were done at my full-time job. I did 90% of the shooting, all of the editing and all of the graphics from scratch for those 6 spots. The last two were produced by my freelance business. The bar spot at the end is my least favorite on the reel, but I included it as a cheaper-end spot. Here is the link.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=mBWrClepmQA

Again, thanks for your support.

Best,

Aaron Cadieux

[Brendan Coots]

This topic looks about beat to death, but I just have to weigh in:

1. I checked your video on both a PC and a Mac, using Safari and Firefox – the video would not play on either platform. The problem, at least in part, is the method/code you have used to embed it into your web page and has nothing to do with your visitor’s computers or OS. That method of embedding is no longer supported by any mainstream browser due to a lawsuit a few years back. Read this link to understand what is going wrong and how to fix it. Yes it’s an Apple/Quicktime site, but it applies to ALL embedded media including WMV, on ALL platforms.

2. Using WMV is a bad idea for at least one reason – not everyone has or uses Windows Media Player. You say 99% of your customers and potential customers are on Windows, but that is just ridiculous. First of all, there is no way for you to know that. Secondly, you may get 1,000 visits a day from “potential customers” who, being Mac users, leave and never look back simply because they cannot view your work. Unless you own stock in Microsoft or something, why risk alienating customers? There are many options out there, but MPEG-4 based Quicktime files have the widest support of any format, primarily because both Mac and PC users can see them.

3. As someone who came from a web design background, I have to agree that your site could use some work. I know that’s not why you came here, but the rates you can get away with charging are directly related to the impression you leave on potential customers. If the design of your site isn’t as good as it could be, people will assume your work isn’t so hot either (especially if they can’t see your demo reel!!!) Don’t be offended by people’s comments on this, they are only trying to help you succeed. In today’s marketplace, people are fully used to and expect to see well designed, easy to navigate, highly polished web sites. Play the game or get left behind, straight up.

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[Randy Wheeler]

It better look good with the setup they have and I’m sure the price is out of range for 99% of local businesses that need a local cable TV commercial. From their website:

“Bright House Networks HD and Film units only shoot on Eastman Kodak film stock with Panavision 16 or 35 mm cameras”

Here are few more of their demo videos, one showing a behind the scenes which will give you an idea of the production cost that is involved.

https://brighthouseadvertising.com/man_sec/creative_s/hdcrtve.html

Too bad most if not all of their QuickTime Demo movies are interlaced, it really degrades the look. All that money spent on 35mm and they can’t click a deinterlace button.

I can do that for a dollar!

Randy

[Randy Wheeler]

Brendan Coots wrote: “There are many options out there, but MPEG-4 based Quicktime files have the widest support of any format, primarily because both Mac and PC users can see them.”

I don’t agree with that at all, Flash is now being used way more on websites and is far more compatible with Mac and PC’s. Just look at your own website, it uses Flash video for all your demos:

https://www.splitvisiondigital.com/portfolio.asp

By the way you might want to change the QuickTime logo that is next to the “view demo reel” text link to a Flash logo.

I’m using a PC and sometimes have problems loading QuickTime movies on websites. For example, one that works is the Digital Juice site which uses Quicktime in all their DJ product galleries and DJ Showcase section. All their tutorial videos use Flash.

Now if I go to a site like I had mentioned in my previous post:

https://brighthouseadvertising.com/man_sec/creative_s/hdcrtve.html

These QuickTime movies will not open and play when clicked on after buffering to my hard drive. I have to right click and Save As to my hard drive first then click on the file name to play them as a file using my QuickTime Pro player. This happens about half the time when I deal with QuickTime videos on websites. Why some sites with QuickTime videos work like Digital Juice and some don’t I have no idea but site with Flash always work.

By the way, I had no problem playing Aaron’s WMV videos on his site using Internet Explorer:

https://www.bigoperations.com/comreel.html

However, they would not load using Firefox. My advice to Aaron on price is to either charge by hour at your existing per hour rate or charge as much as the client is willing to pay if it’s a fixed price. First thing I ask a TV commercial client is what their budget is and go from there.

Randy

[Rick Dolishny]

[Randy] “By the way, I had no problem playing Aaron’s WMV videos on his site using Internet Explorer:”

Ah, a clue.

I rarely use IE and when I did I got the following popup:

This website wants to run the following add-on: “Windows Media Player Extension”…”

Whatever that is, is causing most of us the problem. It stands to reason many Firefox and most Mac users won’t be able to see the video. Again, this is so we can help Aaron by answering his question.

—
Rick Dolishny
Discrete Editors COW Leader
http://www.thecreativeprocess.ca

[Herb Sevush]

Aaron –

Realizing that these are very low budget spots I still would reorganize and prune the reel.

You might think about making a montage of your spots, instead of showing all of them, because they have some nice moments but are generally flawed. The biggest problem is that the director is not conscious enough of how the people in the spot look, and that is a key to any spot. The car spokesman is reading a cue card to the side of the lens which is an absolute no-no. It never works, especially in close-ups. How do you feel when you talk to someone who wont look you in the eye? well that’s how an off camera cue card makes the viewer feel.

You also have to be sensitive to who you put in font of the camera. In the old age home you have a shot of 2 aides, one of whom looks hugely overweight and butch. She might be a wonderful person but she does not make for effective advertising, nor does the on camera advocacy of a woman with a n oxygen tube in her nose. Otherwise this spot is your best, the shots of the patients dancing, the graphics, the end statement by the other older woman all are strong. In a spot “montage” you could accent the positives of all your spots and bury the flaws.

If you feel you need to go with a string of finished spots I would suggest leading with the 2 Cox spots, then the first Furniture spot, which has a nice graphic look and then the first Car spot, and that only because it’s good to show you’ve done them. Then the old age home. I would leave off the other 3 spots altogether.

In general the spots are well edited; the camera work is not as strong, but serviceable.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Brendan Coots]

As I mentioned it’s just the way it’s embedded into the web page, that method is basically deprecated and most modern browsers won’t (and cannot legally) support it.

And Randy, you’re right Flash video is probably much safer, and very high quality to boot. I should have mentioned that.

[Joel Jackson]

Hey all,

I just read the entire post and her is my 47.5 yen.

Is this really what the COW was designed to do? Please let’s keep it cool. Words can be hard to interpret on the screen. This is the best forum ever created (thanks Ron).

Let’s keep it positive. A lot of stuff sucks (oh hell, I’m a professional an I said sucks) but the people that post here want help in a constructive way. I know that it sometimes means constructive criticism, but, be gentile if possible. We’re all in the same boat and just need a bit of advice

Peace all,

Joel Jackson
http://www.creativebloc.com/port.html

[Randall Raymond]

[joel jackson] “Hey all,

I just read the entire post and her is my 47.5 yen.

Is this really what the COW was designed to do? Please let’s keep it cool. Words can be hard to interpret on the screen. This is the best forum ever created (thanks Ron).

Let’s keep it positive. A lot of stuff sucks (oh hell, I’m a professional an I said sucks) but the people that post here want help in a constructive way. I know that it sometimes means constructive criticism, but, be gentile if possible. We’re all in the same boat and just need a bit of advice

Peace all,

Joel Jackson”

You’re right. I stepped over the line and apologize to everyone, especially to Aaron.