Randall Raymond
Forum Replies Created
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[Timothy J. Allen] “Credibility is absolutely vital for this type of ad, so you need actors who are truly sincere and believe in the product”
Actors are actors – they are paid to look and act sincere. The better ones don’t need much direction – the average actor does. The non-actor needs a lot of direction. Where does that direction come from?
When an shooter-guy or an editor-guy (and, Ben, you’re a good one) tries to make a commercial, they had better be a good director as well. They are usually not.
Directorship is not really about managing actors, it’s about making a story-board come alive. Successful productions are about one guy putting his vision together in sight and sound. He’s the one guy video studios need if they are to make commercials and make their mark. When you find him, hire him and pay him well. He’ll grow your business, not the software you throw at it.
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[Mark Suszko] “I wouldn’t ride the guy too hard on what he’s done. It’s technically very well executed for what it is, particularly the fake airline seat compositing.”
I agree, it was super in that regard. But he asked what he should charge. Someone suggested $25,000. On that score, since I think it missed the greater mark of actually convincing people, I think it needs to be fixed before sold. It came off as a huckster and planted shills – I guess that still works on some people but, for the majority, it’s a complete turn-off.
What would you pay him? That’s his question.
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[Mark Raudonis] “Give the guy some credit for a great spec spot!”
Well, there were certainly some great keyed shots. We all agree on that – very clever. But as Zane remarked, ‘Who cares?’ Beyond that, why do you think it was so great?
Bottom-line – it didn’t sell me, it advertised at me. None of the ad agencies I’ve worked with would have accepted it or payed for it.
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[Mark Raudonis] “May I be blunt? Who asked you for your critical opinion?”
He did – by asking what it was worth. Would you pay $25,000 for it? He asked for your critical opinion as well. So what would YOU pay? $100,000.00? What? Be blunt – I wanna understand your standards. Let’s go, man, put your money where your mouth is…
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[Ben Avechuco] “Yes – The Kiro Pillow spot is my spot. if you look at the YouTube previews, you’ll probably see a link to the :30 version.”
May I be blunt? The acting is horrible and unbelievable. Typical over-acting. It really detracts from the message – because the thing LOOKS like it could work really well. The voice over is all wrong as well – it should be soothing, relaxing – perhaps a female voice would have worked better.
Some technical wonders, yes, but the message got lost.
I would have liked to have seen the packaging in case I see it in an airport store. 16 shots of people in seats got old. i.e. It’s a truncated message when there’s more to it. e.g. You could have shown one of the actors AFTER the flight looking refreshed and at the top of his game. Just some thoughts…
What would I pay as a client? Nothing, until you fixed it. I don’t know how others will react, but I’ve had clients who would kick me out of their office if I showed up with a product full of problems like that.
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[Reggie Spires] “could you elaborate .. I have to have a ?amp breaker for each light”
15-20 amp breaker for each light. They show 11 amps for each. Lot of heat including the home wiring itself. You pretty much have to have each lamp on its own breaker. All I’m saying, is be prepared.
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[Reggie Spires] ”
I have two lighting kits in mind … I want the kit to be a multi purpose with a tilt to the green screen”I would go with the 6 light kit – be aware that you’ll be pulling close to 70amps. If it’s for a home-studio – you’ll need a room wired on 6-7 breakers – so add that electrical work into the cost.
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[Mike Cohen] “But seriously, if your clients need to be fed these kind of statistics to give you money, maybe they are not the kind of clients you need.”
I disagree. The more savvy the client, the more likely he wants, needs, or knows the numbers. It’s certainly part of my pitch – otherwise, it feels like just throwing money at advertising. Smaller companies tend to do what their competitors are doing – that is, sending ad money into the black hole of marginal returns.
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[Brendan Coots] “The main benefit of SEO for most media production companies is making it easier to find your website if they forget the address.”
Again, I completely disagree.”
I do too. See all those ads on either side of my post? – Ron, rents the space to those companies displaying their ads – they get the exposure and the Cow provides the traffic. That’s what google serves up on their ‘content network’ – image ads, text ads and video ads. If Ron had signed on for google’s ‘ad sense’ google would be sending him a check every month for the traffic. He can, obviously, do better with his own ad program.
Search engine optimization SEO is such a hit and miss proposition that the time spent doing it is practically worthless. Besides, 95% of searches is done on either Google or Yahoo and their robots are reading your pages, not what you say are on your pages. But it ain’t about searches anyway, at least for Google, it’s about traffic and that means their ‘content network.’
As one of my profs said “Marketing is about buying, Advertising is about selling.” The average person doesn’t know the difference – they think they are one and the same.
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[David Jones] “In situations like the one I described, I think you’re right the field producer will just show up with a “case” of cards to shoot on.”
Probably, and more likely, he’ll show up with a $70 hard-drive (250gig) – cheaper than tape or cards – or decks or card readers back at the studio. I think that scenario will pan out for either brand of cameras. The beauty of a digit is it’s ubiquitousness – the ‘media’ becomes anywhere it resides.