PART 1: TV and Web Commercial Production ideas

For the Small Business Owner

 

 

A combination of shortened attention spans and a demand for video on websites has given the aging thirty-second TV commercial format a new lease on life.  This is good news for the small business owner.

 

In fact, for the small business owner who wishes to brand, promote and market their goods and services using video, this is great news.  Investing time, creative talents, and a manageable amount of money in a TV commercial for your business now gives you twice the bang-for-the-buck as it used to.  In the good old days (three years ago), before broadband and streaming video, you paid a lot of money to have someone produce your TV commercial.  Then you bought air time on local stations to broadcast your message to the masses.  Today you can double the value of your investment by airing the same commercial 24/7 on your website.  And it’s free!  Now TV viewers and internet visitors are twice as likely to recall your message and to become curious about what you’re got to offer.  Remember, you’ve got to hit the public a minimum of three times before it begins to sink in. Tell them who you are, and then tell them again . . . and again.

 

“But,” you say, “I can’t afford to produce a commercial for TV right now.  I can’t afford to gamble with my marketing dollars in the hopes that someone will see my commercial, pick up the phone, and/or visit my website.”

 

Good point.  If that’s how you feel right now, then you’re probably not ready to jump onto the airways with your message.  Above all, you should never try to create and produce your own ‘do-it-yourself’ commercial for TV.  To be successful producing for TV, you need a unique combination of creative, marketing and technical skills, not to mention a lot of luck.  You may have a grasp of the marketing side, but I’ll bet that you don’t have the following gear sitting around in your bedroom closet: A professional TV lighting system ($1500.); A professional tape deck to record the finished commercial in a format that the station will accept ($2,000 to $5,000.);  Micing equipment ($500.);  A Hi-Def, three chip video camera ($5,000);  A thru-the-lens teleprompter ($1,000); A properly lit green screen to use as your capture back drop ($1000);  An editing system ($5,000) capable of adding all the bells and whistles to your video, including animations. If you add all that up, you’ve got over $15,000. in equipment just to produce a commercial for TV that will look and sound as good as your competitors.  Please note that the $15,000. doesn’t include the cost of someone who knows how to write it, shoot it, light it, mic it, direct it and edit it.

 

So if you can’t afford to produce a commercial for TV, where is the good news for the small business owner that I talked about earlier?  Two words.  THE INTERNET.  You can produce a commercial/promotional piece for your website for under $100.00 with much less skill and gear than is required to make a commercial for TV.  Other bonuses in self-production include the fact that you can shoot, edit and re-edit your internet commercial until you are happy with it. You can change it as much as you like for free and it costs you nothing to air it! 

The other huge bonus is that you are getting hands-on experience using video to sell your product and services with little or no risk.  You are honing the same skills that you are going to need to produce a commercial for TV when the time is right.

 

But wait. Did I say, ‘for under $100.00?’  Yes. I am assuming that you already own a small home digital camcorder with a tripod and a little camera light, a home computer with an inexpensive video editing program installed, and a wireless mic that the person doing the talking will wear.

 

PRE-PRODUCTION: - Getting it down on paper.

 

But let’s not worry about the gear right now.  Let’s focus on something you already know a lot about.  Your business.  It’s time to boil everything you have to say about your business down into twenty-two seconds of spoken words or less.   Here are the first steps you need to take in creating a thirty second commercial for TV and/or the internet.

 

STEP 1:  Write down what you want people to know about your goods and services.  Write it so that it can be read by someone other than you at a comfortable pace in eighteen to twenty-two seconds.

 

STEP 2:  Now use different words to describe the same idea TEN DIFFERENT WAYS.  Remember; keep the read timing between eighteen and twenty-two seconds.

 

NOTE: This is probably the most challenging, and at the same time, the most exciting part of the commercial in which you will participate ‘hands-on.’  It may take a little getting used to, but the end result will pay-off big time.

 

Step 3:  The next step is to visualize what viewers are going to see as you read your commercial copy.  Remember, this is TV, not radio.  We call this visual representation of the script, or copy, ‘the storyboard.’  Create your storyboard with a series of picture frames, in which you will sketch out what someone will see as they are listening to someone read your copy aloud.  Be sure to write the words of the script under the boxes so you can begin to get a feel for the audio and visual relationships.  If you go to www.google.com  and type in the word ‘storyboard samples,’ you will get lots of samples, and some blank storyboard sample frames that you can print out and fill in.

 

Remember, you don’t have to have eighteen seconds of constant talking, or static shots of still images.  Use your imagination.  Get silly. Then serious.  Then crazy.  Have fun.  Don’t take this part of the process so serious that you loose your sense of humor.  That will only cramp your essence and personality.  Remember, up to 25% of what you see in a finished feature film is the accidents, mistakes and blunders that happen during filming.  These moments are also referred to as ‘the out-takes.’  Get used to accepting your mistakes and bloopers as part of the creative process. It’s amazing how brilliant business owners can be when they take their blinders off and stop saying ‘NO!’  Laugh at yourself.  Let others laugh at you . . . and with you.  Then laugh back at them.  Remember, when you say ‘NO’ to any step in the creative process, the game is over.  You will never see an improve artist on “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” say ‘NO’ to a premise.  If they do, they will loose.

 

In PART TWO of this column, I will outline the preparation and shooting of your storyboard with a camera.  Until then, email me your three best eighteen to twenty-two second scripts.  Include your storyboard if you wish.  I will take a look at them and email back to you my constructive feedback. You can reach me at info@letsdovegasforfree.com

 

In the meantime, here are two recent commercials that I created the storyboard for and produced for Tony Wilson, owner of  Consumer One Realty.  The second commercial, is for his loan referral service, www.vegasloanshark.com.  Tony and I collaborated on the writing.   I will be using these examples next time to illustrate specific steps in the production process.  Both commercials are currently running several times a day on CNN Headline News Local Edition and FX.

 

View commercial sample # 1 – Short Sale

 

View commercial sample # 2 – vegasloanshark.com

 

Until next time, keep “Puttin’ On the Hits”

Allen Fawcett

Executive Producer,

“Let’s Do Vegas” TV

www.letsdovegasforfree.com

 

Copyright 2007, Allen Fawcett Entertainment

All rights reserved - Used by Permission