Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1953)

'NO'-BUDGET FILM COMMERCIALS By Carl Pehlmaii IN ORDER to assist our advertisers in making the best possible presentation of their commercial messages, KKTV (TV) Colorado Springs is equipped to produce lowcost film commercials. This service was instituted because of a definite need in our market on the part of some advertisers to present more personal, localized messages to the viewers. Despite the fact that prepared film commercials are available to dealers for most nationally advertised products, there are times when these films fail to tell the specific story desired by the local account. Also, dealers and merchants are very frequently more interested in selling services or products for which there are no prepared commercial films available. When the possibility of using a professionally produced film commercial has been eliminated, the account is left with only three choices: Live studio presentation, station announcement over opaques or transparencies and, finally, special production of a film to meet the client's individual needs. Professionally produced film commercials certainly are not cheap: The four-figure cost of 20 and 60 second spots is far beyond the means of one-store dealers and merchants. What, then, is the solution when our sales department finds, upon thorough analysis of a client's requirements, that the only practical way to present the message is through the use of film? Our answer is to offer our film production services to the client at a cost that generally would not greatly exceed normal art work and photography charges for opaque and transparency commercials. As compared with live presentation, the extra charges for a few live camera spots would pay for the film commercial. It is reasonably simple to determine the type of merchandise best adapted to selling by means of film. For instance, a far better selling job can be accomplished on a power lawn mower by showing the mower in action than shov/ing it inanimate as it would be on a photograjih or even live in the studio. In the case of used cars, it is obviously more impressive to show them in use, particularly in road tests, rather than showing a still picture. This same reasoning can be effectively applied to countless other articles of merchandise. For the advertiser who prefers to sell services, film oflfers the best means of demonstration by showing, on location, an actual job being done by the advertiser. When it has been determined that a locally produced film commercial is the answer to the best possible selling job for a specific client, the next step is to determine exactly what must go into the film. The obvious purpose of a motion picture is to show something in motion: a film scene which shows no motion is valueless since the same job could be done with a still photograph. Therefore, each scene must be planned to include some bit of impressive motion to attract the viewer's attention. There would be, however, no objection to short closeup clips in which there is no motion providing the scene has a direct and important bearing on the film commercial as a whole. When it is necessary to photograph a scene or an object which involves no movement, motion can be imparted to the scene by the use of a zoom lens or camera dollying. Zooming or dollying, in most cases, should be done slowly. Car Dealer's Film To demonstrate the preceding paragraph. I will describe a film job we did recently for a dealer in used cars. This particular dealer uses film almost exclusively for his television commercials. Whenever he has a particularly desirable selection of used cars on his lot, he selects a few of the better automobiles for showing on TV via film. For example, one of the cars on this job was a late model Packard. We selected a suitable location in a city park, where there was no distracting background, and set up our camera. The car was driven into the scene and stopped in the center of the picture on cue from the cameraman. The driver then left the car and walked out of the picture. The next scene was to show the attractive, gleaming grillwork of the Packard. For this shot, the camera was placed to the left and far enough in front of the car to get a pleasing angle shot on the 20mm setting of our zoom lens; the grille was then brought closeup by zooming slowly to the 60mm position. This same technique was repeated to point out the beauty of rear-end styling of tail lights and curved rear window. The finished result was a commercial that had motion in every scene and showed the car to the best advantage. On the same job, we employed a simple camera trick that provided a very effective bit of footage. The object was to show how easy it would be for the viewer to own a better car by making use of our advertiser's liberal terms. The stage was set by placing an old, battered Chevrolet in the scene. After a few seconds, the talent was cued to walk into the picture, stop and wave his hand at the car. At this point the camera was stopped, the talent "froze" with his hand in the waving position and the old Chevrolet was replaced with a shiny late model Chevrolet in the sarhe position. The camera was rolled again and the finished film showed a bit of magic as our actor, by the simple waving of his hand, caused a newer car to appear in place of the old model. In other used car commercials, we have filmed cars on the road or climbing hills, both from inside the vehicles and from outside at suitable camera locations. These commercials, needless to say, are silent film designed for live audio. An interesting sidelight is the fact that the Packard commercial, for instance, can be used every time the dealer has a Packard of that specific model on the lot. The used car filming job, partially described above, included six different automobiles. Total time spent on location was about three hours. How much did it cost the advertiser? Our basic charge is $30 for furnishing all photographic equipment, including lighting, when necessary, and to include {Continued on Page 110) *THE FILM DIRECTOR OF A COLORADO STATION EXPLAINS HOW TO SHOOT INEXPENSIVE SPOTS FOR LOCAL CLIENTS Page 108 • September 14, 1953 Broadcasting • Telecasting