Think NLE or Camera maters? Watch this

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Mark Raudonis] “I applaud the creator, NOT the critic.”

I really don’t know what I’ve done to upset you so much and I do apologise again for any offence caused.

The OP was clearly inviting a discussion of the merits or otherwise of the piece rather than inviting us all to join in a univocal litany of praise: “Think NLE or Camera maters? Watch this.”

Equally, the entire thrust of the Bentley/Apple campaign here is to do with “design excellence” or something of the kind – if you’re going to be making claims of that kind you need to make sure that your communication lives up to the message both in form and content.

And I don’t think it does. I don’t think it’s irredeemably dreadful and the most appropriate description is probably your own: “innocuous”.

My point was that “innocuous” doesn’t really seem adequate to the scale of the collective ambition on show here. As a piece of communication, it fails by its own standards – at least that’s my opinion, though yours is clearly different.

I’m not clear why that seems so unreasonable to you.

I might love Grace of Monaco and you might agree with some of the critics who have been less than kind to it – it’s surely permissible to critique creative work when it’s offered for public consumption.

Clearly if it were some kid in his bedroom who’d knocked this together, I would feel obliged to temper any overly harsh criticism.

And if someone wants to pour scorn on my work in the public domain I have absolutely no problem with that.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Aindreas Gallagher]

I just looked – you’re right – there is quite a lot of room to reasonably criticise this. Like a surprising amount of room.

the footage looks pretty ropey, and some of the b-roll shots in the cab where they’re working the ipad look almost scarily pedestrian.
And the black and white looks awfully muddy? It generally looks pretty battered in the fine details. The blowout on the buildings and exteriors is pretty crazy too.

mark has used that phrase with me before – to applaud the creator not the critic. but its seems a little limited to me – what if the creator is worthy of criticism?

Also – is anyone actually asking Mark to applaud the critic, or simply to recognise that criticism is valid? Or does he always want to applaud the creator? I get that Americans are unyieldingly positive and optimistic, but I’ve generally personally found criticism directed towards me handy/verging on utterly indispensable to any small advances I’ve ever made. Denigrating the notion of public criticism, where you have a reasonable professional basis to voice it seems ludicrous to me.

Also – and stating the obvious – this spot suffers horribly from comparison to Apple’s mega iphone 5S shoot to commemorate the superbowl spot. It’s obvious these guys were inspired by it, but well, in the proof of the pudding, they’re no Apple my friend.

Had apple’s spot ended up looking anything like that Bentley one, you’d think Apple would have activated the NDA’s, incinerated all the edit machines and burnt the phones in a smelting spot. we never would have seen it.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “I’ve generally personally found criticism directed towards me handy/verging on utterly indispensable to any small advances I’ve ever made.”

I’d absolutely agree on that.

Criticism, however painful if might be receive at times, is the one healthy thing that keeps you moving forward and trying to get better in this business and, I imagine (though I’m not an expert), in other areas of life too. Even misguided criticism can be a really useful catalyst for sharpening up your act.

As your mate Beckett put it, it’s all about failing better.

But, apparently, criticism of a piece of advertising from a large corporation is now embargoed. Not sure why, but there you go.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Gary Huff]

[Mark Raudonis] “I applaud the creator”

Any creator? Even if it’s crap?

[Gary Huff]

[Mark Raudonis] “I thought it was well shot, edited and effective.”

Really? Because it played itself out after the first 20 seconds and got really boring really quick.

[Tom Sefton]

I have no experience of any shoots of the magnitude of a car ad and probably no right to criticise. That said, I got bored real quick. I can’t understand the concept of linking a car that costs over £130,000 to the convenience of having an iPad in the back seat, and that it’s worth making a bad looking advert to highlight the possibility of duplicating it in that same back seat. It’s like an idea that a contestant in the apprentice came up with. I can almost hear Alan Sugar whining about it.

[Tony West]

I’m kind of all over the board with my feelings on it.

First and for most I really like that music they picked : )

Music is so key for me and I really liked that track.

The odd thing is, I kind of liked that behind the scenes cut at the end better than the spot hehehe

I don’t know what happened here, but if the client told them, “hey I want you to shoot this with an iPhone and do the best you can with it to make it look professional”, I would say they got the most they could get out of that phone.

I don’t really see anybody going through that much trouble to shoot with a phone unless the client
said “do this” But I don’t really know what happened.

I know I wouldn’t want to shoot with a phone but I would if somebody paid me to.

If I’m trying to showcase my car I think I would want to show it in color. There is beauty in color.
I bet those cars would look even better.

There have been some good points on both sides made.

I don’t know what else to say : )

[Marcus Moore]

For my money, Apple’s “1.24.14” spot is a better example of this. It’s better produced & edited overall and the message in relation to the shooting methodology is much more clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJahlKPCL9g

[Craig Alan]

I find it flat. Monotone voices with B&W that lacks texture, contrast, and light design. I’m left with no desire to touch any of this luxury. It did not have the look and feel of NY. Life would help. They were introducing two key industrial designers, perhaps hoping to bring them front and center like their version of Jonathan Ive. Not sure B&W was an after thought. I think they were going for the understated industrial matt grey design look. But even those backseat Ipads did not look like Ipads. Considering that BMW is already considered the Apple of autos, they have an uphill battle to win this image war. For starters, Bentley’s design has an old school look. The dual IPads are in the back seat. As are both subjects. One subject talks about drawing designs and cars being his toys. So why not show him drawing a car design on the Ipad in the back seat of the car he helped design while the other designer drives the car and maneuvers/accelerates out of danger while his colleague doesn’t miss a beat with his drawing because the ride is so smooth.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Mitch Ives]

I don’t think he did miss the point.

How about this point… to get good iPhone video, put $500 iPhones on a $15K motion rigs. Then hire a really expensive crew to get the video we’re all claiming is so amazing.

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill