[Mark Suszko]

People still run :60’s?

[Mark Suszko]

“Wall to wall” music is not always a good choice. My first choice might be to use it only for main and end titles, then voiceover narrative parts and introductions/ bumpers out of segments, but not under each person’s speech. It should also try to carry an emotional subtext that’s in line with the story you’re telling. I like Bakery products, we have pretty much the whole collection. Sounddogs.com is a great option for a la carte shopping. We also now use a lot of custom loop-generated tracks to fit exact lengths, using Garage Band as well as Sonicfire.

[Mark Suszko]

Walk without rythm, and the worm cannot find you… nor can moderators.

Your lighting problem sounds like an auto-iris /exposure problem. All cameras should be run on manual focus and manual iris for a job like that, pre-white balanced before the colored stage lighting goes on, then just leave the colors as the LD intended them. Sometimes you can get the lighting man to leave up a minimal base level of white light, enough to keep the camera shots from getting too grainy from having to boost gain. But modern cameras are much more sensitive than when I used to do this sort of thing using tube cameras and early CCD’s

Whether you want to live-switch the show and just tidy up in post, or just shoot 3 cameras all iso and then replicate the live switch in post, you should probably rent the right cameras for this, and the rental shop will tell you what they have that’s the best fit . Classically, you’d have two cameras right and left, plus one halfway back of the house or more, shooting coverage on a wide-shot, that one will want the longest lens and sturdiest tripod, and best low-light ability because of the distance, and the extra stop or two lost for the longer lens. A fourth cam would rove behind and onstage and in the front row. You could actually do a pretty good job with just two, if they were very coordinated and each one covered well while the other moved and got their next shot, using radio intercoms, noise-free headsets and a director watching their shots. But that’s tough even for pros. More cameras = more safety, flexibility and reliability. When Idid the multicam iso thing in the field, I and my partner had a pre-decided set of rules for who would shoot what, and an agreed set of hand signals to each other for who was/wanted to go tight or wide at any moment. Takes some coordination!

Tip: shoot the rehearsal end to end, and do most of that with the cameras right onstage and close-up, particularly the lead singer and drummer. You may be able to inter-cut this later and look like you had six cameras, plus then you don’t have to ruin the crowd’s experience of the band during the actual show with cameramen on stage. Don’t forget to get plenty of b-roll reaction shots of band members and crowd to cover edits.

You would want to run the board mix into one channel of each camcorder to help you out later. The other channel can be the onboard mic for use as a scratch track and maybe for extra crowd effects later.

Don’t be sanguine about trusting the audio recording to some venue guy sight unseen, no matter how experienced he is. One reason is, the guy mixing for the house is tailoring his mix so it sounds good in the room full of noisy people with the speakers and geometry of the live space. If those same settings make a good sound for a TV recording as well, it would be a big coincidence. Just one aspect of that would be how much the drums are mic’ed, for example. You could wind up with a very thin drum section if not careful. So you need to talk these aspects over with the sound guy ahead of time, maybe cover your bets by placing an independent recorder and stereo pair somewhere on or near center stage for an alternate pickup point. Also, be sure your recordings are not too hot or too low level-wise: use matching transformers or keep everything on line level, with a pad standing by.

[Mark Suszko]

Firewire from camera to laptop, use freeware/shareware like Scenalyzer to capture the video and be able to step-frame thru it. There is a separate application that imitates what a telestrator can do, I’ll have to look it up and get back to you on that. Meanwhile, look at this and see if will help:

https://downloads.zdnet.com/download.aspx?docid=217359

[Mark Suszko]

Steve’s comment reminds me of the Fedex commercial where the nebbishy junior exec’s idea is not heard by anyone at the table until repeated as if original by the CEO. Maybe I didn’t do the hand gesture right? (grin)

[Mark Suszko]

The stock footage is not the worst problem for me. The writing is. You’re right that it may not be any cheaper to shoot the same kinds of shots as what you can buy from stock. Though it might be nice to finish with one that has the vet’s place in the background.

That would be a great way to keep the best of both worlds and have the economy of the stock footage with the customization we think the spot needs. Make a similar shot of pet and owner as owner scoops pet out of car and walks it into the clinic, with the signage prominent. Variation: the vet’s reception area or examination room, with smiling vet and assistant ready to greet the customer and make all ga-ga over the pet and reassure the owner. If you stage that shot right you can tell that message and sell the emotional subtext in six seconds. Those six seconds could mean the difference between undistinguished cookie-cutter blah and a message that moves people.

The other thing it does is sell YOU. How long does it take a client to figure out he can buy the stock footage the same place you do and cut you out of the process? Unless you bring the ADDED VALUE of that customized shot that brings everything together to make the sale. That’s a key to repeat business.

You would have to budget the time to shoot that punchline shot and shoot it in a style that matches all the stock footage. Only an hour to shoot but perhaps additional time in post to massage the footage with some filters and plug-ins. Say three hours to match the look.

I would plan to spend more hours on writing better, more targeted narration copy, and perhaps in exploring what other manipulations you could do with the stock shots to personalize and customize it more. That could be simple things like putting them in PIP boxes floating over a wallpaper of the vet’s logo and name. That’s been done to death too, but one can always play with better execution of a tired idea and make it fresh again.

Like my kids and their legos. They get a kit that makes one kind of robot guy they like. They can stop there, but they get bored after a while with the off the shelf stock design, then they start modifying the things, trading parts and adding non-original parts and new functions, sometimes until they are unrecognizable from the stock version. These look dumb sometimes, but more often they look wicked cool. And that’s the point. Isn’t it? Use stock if you want but not a stock approach to the footage. Costs a little more time, bill for it.

[Mark Suszko]

BTW Jonas, be sure to double-check the weather report next time you take the Minnow out… 😉

[Mark Suszko]

Thanks for the awesome response, feels like I got an extra Christmas present! 🙂

[Mark Suszko]

I looked at some of the demos on the Spot Runner site. Frankly, I was appalled.

Such generic writing and production doesn’t seem like a good value for my TV ad dollar. These generic cookie-cutter things I think work better in the print medium.

If these spots actually work anywhere, I’d have to wonder how much MORE effective a spot would be if it was custom-written and produced locally from the ground-up.

The sample political campaign ads are unintentionally hysterical in the way they point out how “generic” campaign-related spotmaking already is.

If you want to find some intersting and useful reading on how to create good copy for spots, there are two radio-related sites that have a lot to say that’s relevant to TV as well. Google Dick Orkin’s (yes, he of the famous “Chickenman” spots and al those ads with Burt Burdis) Radio Ranch and Dan O’Day for some great free creative tips and lists of cliche’s to avoid.

[Mark Suszko]

I think Adam Wilt or more likely Jim Feely mentioned a handy plug-in utility in one of the trade mags that will automatically update your graphics for you instantly, when you modify one master template. It’s the kind of thing that’s perfect for updating box scores and election results graphics, that sort of thing. I’m unfortunately drawing a blank on the name of the product right now….