Think NLE or Camera maters? Watch this

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Andrew Kimery] “Other than click bait (which is great from a promo stand point) I don’t see what this Bentley/Apple cross promotional effort brings to the table.”

It reminds us that in order to use the technology button in a Bentley, someone else needs to be driving.

Bentleys come with a chauffeur, right? Or is that too much technology for the technology button?

[Shawn Miller]

[Simon Ubsdell] “Well, it certainly shows that if you want your interviewees to be in focus and you don’t want to blow your highlights and you want to avoid any number of really nasty artifacts, and you don’t want to have to grade everything B&W to cover up the colour problems, you’re certainly better off not trying to shoot on an iPhone.”

Agreed, even black and white couldn’t hide issues like ugly highlights on the faces of the subjects or limited latitude. Did you notice the strobing on the headlights? Terrible… I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Sure, you can shoot commercials on a smartphone (with a $10k+ gimbal)… but why, when you can shoot 12bit raw video for less than $100.00 a day… I just don’t get the point. :-/

Shawn

[Franz Bieberkopf]

[Andy Field] “Think NLE or Camera matters?”

Andy,

There’s always an argument that the specific tools don’t matter – that there’s some other ephemeral quality that transcends tools. (Some of these arguments are more convincing than others.)

This commercial is no such argument.

Franz.

[Bill Davis]

[Shawn Miller] “I just don’t get the point. :-/”

I do.

The point is that what matters to us – doesn’t matter to them.

Many here are playing the “I’ve learned pro standards and I believe them to be important – so I’ll proselytize for them” game. Which is fine, but irrelevant.

Bentley (and Apple, really) are essentially playing the “We’re here to sell our products” game.

Apple is also playing the “we’re the guys who make the super cool tools that transform industries” game.

The central questions for Bentley are: Will this video help sell Bentleys?

From which there springs a useful sub question which is “can we take this largely staid brand and make it seem a bit “hipper” without damaging our brand credibility.”

So consider this: How many Bentley sales will the presence of some blown highlights in the video prevent? The answer is zero. The secondary question is how many people UNDER 60 will, after watching this – think of the Bentley as a potential vehicle choice. If the answer is significantly ABOVE zero – then someone got the marketing right.

Deep video quality is NOT a metric in either of these scoring systems. At least not compared to overall campaign effectiveness.

(I’m probably overly sensitive to the whole “scoring” issue since I just returned 20 minutes ago from earning another Apple Certification – and I’m VERY mindful that the only score that matters in that testing system is what the testing system SAYS matters – not so much that I might have wanted them to think matters. ; )

And so it goes.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Bill Davis] “So consider this: How many Bentley sales will the presence of some blown highlights in the video prevent? The answer is zero. The secondary question is how many people UNDER 60 will, after watching this – think of the Bentley as a potential vehicle choice. If the answer is significantly ABOVE zero – then someone got the marketing right.

Deep video quality is NOT a metric in either of these scoring systems. At least not compared to overall campaign effectiveness.”

Leaving aside that the starting price of a Bentley is well north of 100,000 of our English pounds, and hence unlikely to be appealing directly to the skater crowd, does a “hip” young person right now in the middle of 2014 still believe that it’s “hip” to shoot anything on an iPhone?

Surely that’s very much last year’s news and hence about as unhip as you can get?

I think this is a serious error of judgement marketing-wise, at least as far as Bentley are concerned. But who knows?

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Gary Huff]

[Andy Field] “Think you missed the point here”

I think you actually missed the point. This was not shot “on an iPhone”…it was shot on an iPhone…with a $5000 Movi M5, and probably another $2000-$3000 carbon fiber mount with an assortment of external lenses.

[Lance Bachelder]

I watched it twice and other than the strobing fog lights I think the whole piece is great – great framing, editing, pacing, music and message. The black & white grade had a 60’s French new wave feel that I love.

I personally like the blown out highlights and technically they don’t matter (2 t’s) because the face is exposed properly. Sure it could look flawless if shot on something like an Alexa but no one out site of these forums will ever care.

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Lance Bachelder] “Sure it could look flawless if shot on something like an Alexa but no one out site of these forums will ever care.”

So that’s it. From now on all those fancy car commercials can be shot on an iPhone.

How cool is that!?

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Gary Huff]

I get the strong feeling it wasn’t intended to be B&W from the get go, either. That feels like an auto white balance issue wreaking havoc.

[Gary Huff]

[Simon Ubsdell] “So that’s it. From now on all those fancy car commercials can be shot an on iPhone.”

Though, granted, 7D footage wasn’t terrible better and we lived through that.