Mock Advert Review / Tips

 

Mock Advert for LL Productions

I Emailed this advert to Radar films to gain some insight into what I had done well and what I could have done better on. This is the response I received.

Hey Luke,

Thanks for this. It’s a great effort.

I like the music, I like the way you’ve focussed on the idea of family values. I like the effort you have gone to with the ‘whip pan’ transitions which you’ve done manually, and I can see that you’ve spent time speed ramping a zoom transition. It’s got visually interesting elements.

How to make it better?

The shots need to be stabilised. I’d advise a tripod. Or if you are going to use handheld transitions, try switching the frame rate up in the camera to 60 FPS and then ramping the whip pans. Slo mo is a great way of cheating in that respect. You need to make sure you know how slo mo works – some camears will shoot high frame rates but not play it back automatically. You have to ‘conform’ the footage in the editing software. It’s easy, but it needs some research!

Also – a minute is way too long. You need to be looking at about 15 seconds if it’s an advert for social media.

Lighting. Learn about lighting, there are some great tutorials. Are you familiar with Daniel Schiffer? Or Austen Paul? Have a look at their channel. Epic Light Media do some great tutorials on lighting, also, take a look at my website on the product page and have a look at the whiskey video. I did that in my kitchen with 3 lights and a £5 blind from homebase. Lighting is the difference between a good video and a sexy video.

Keep working on your stuff, you are doing great.

Chris

The response helps pinpoint one area that I need to work on more which is lighting and Chris gives some really good examples of ways that I can improve my work.