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Digital Storytelling

Commercial Concepts

+Commercial Concepts

What makes an effective commercial? It depends upon the goal of that commercial. Informational

These commercials are aimed toward providing information about a specific company or program

Mattress Ranch Visual Media Group Extreme Example – Red House Furniture

+Branding Commercials

Branding What is branding? These types of commercials are aimed

toward providing an image of a particular brand to an audience

They contain little by way of message and focus on evoking a certain or emotion towards a brand

Coke iPod

The Happy Medium Julian Acosta: 360 Electrical , UMLA

+Group Exercise: Find a commercial I want you to spend a moment searching for a commercial on

the internet Decide whether the commercial is aimed more towards

providing information, or branding the product. Then depending upon your answer think about 1 of these 2 questions.1. If branding: What kind of feeling did the commercial give you

about the product? Do you think the commercial was effective?2. If informational: What kind of information was the commercial

giving you about the product? How effective was it in its goal?

Share your commercial with the person next to you and be prepared to share with the class

+Parts of a Treatment

A treatment is what you present to a client to let them know what your vision of a particular commercial is. Richter in “The 30-second Storyteller” lists the different parts of a treatment Title Page Concept – How the commercial or the story will help or affect the

brand Story – A written description of the plot of the story The Look – What you want the commercial to look like. Here you can

place a few screenshots of different films or show video clips that would help the client visualize what the commercial will look like

The Sounds – Any music that you think would go along with the commercial

Casting – What should these characters be like. Evoke the name of specific actors and actresses to help the client understand your vision of the cast.

+Commercial Workflow

Commercial Director Cole Webley’s typical workflow1. Boards from the Ad Agency2. Conference call from the Agency – they pitch you the spot3. Director writes the treatment and gives to agency4. Another conference call5. Recommend you as director to the client6. Client picks you as the director and you pitch the

commercial

+Case Study: Cole Webley

Cole’s Portfolio Now we are going to take a slight detour and take a

deeper look at his process Take a look at Cole’s Treatments How do these translate into the finished piece?

+Commercial Scripting

Scripts for commercials adhere to the two column format

The left column describes what the viewer will see at any given time. Directors also may choose to

include descriptions of actors or shots used

The right column describes what the audience will hear (music, SFX, dialogue, etc)

Script Example

+Using Celtx to write your commercial In scriptwriting, formatting is essential! If you haven’t done so, download Celtx at www.celtx.com Open up a template AV script (Day at the Races) to get an

idea of what a commercial script will look like when we are done

Tab through to get to the right layer Scene Heading > Shot > Character > Dialog > Parenthetical

Practice on a commercial from Saint Cloud: Drug Free America

+Group Project: Creating a Pitch

For our next project you will be working with a group to create a treatment/pitch for a commercial. Together you will develop an idea, write a script, and develop storyboards for your project.

When finished your group will do the following: Pick a brand or product that you want to develop an idea for (could be a local

or national brand) Decide what aspect of that brand you want to develop or focus on:

How should the company be branded? What themes or aspects of the company do you think you could bring

forth? Pick a few pieces of media that will act as an indicator for the look and feel of

your project Write a brief summary of the story that you will be telling in your commercial Develop a storyboard for you commercial Write an AV script for your commercial

+Work for this week

Writing Assignment: Using Celtx, you are going to translate a commercial that you find online into a printed document.

CLOSAT Journal Discussion Post: Take a look at treatments for videos on

keithschofield.com. Discuss one of the following: What kind of information does Schofield include when he is

pitching a music video?  What surprised you most about the information that he

includes? Compare the final video with the treatment.  How was the

treatment translated?