Sponsor (July-Dec 1951)

sketches illustrating, in comic-strip stvle, the highpoints of the TV commercial) come to the producer from the agency's regular art department. Mainly, the Art Director is concerned with sets, and all the inanimate things that will go on them — furniture, rugs, lights, decoration, props, etc. Since the Art Director is usually working with an agencyman who is not versed in the finer points of film-making, some real problems regarding sets can arise. Agencies, it seems, don't plan their storyboard action and scripts well enough in advance when it comes to the balance of action-vs.-sets. "About nine out of ten scripts we get," said Petroff, "call for something like this. One or two lines will be spoken quickly against a vast background like Grand Central Station. Then, we'll have a series of several lines played in front of a set that is merely a blank wall. There is no attempt, in most . in Rochester it's WVET • WVET has more local accounts than any other Rochester station. (Many sponsors spend ALL their advertising budget with WVET!) • WVET has more programs that will win and hold Summertime listeners ... at or away from home! • WVET offers YOUR clients BETTER results per dollar invested. 5000 WATTS CM^J .U A u IN ROCHESTER. N. Y Represented Nationally fay THE BOLUNG COMPANY scripts and storyboards, to balance the action against the settings, particularly if there are several changes of scene. We have all seen lots of sets on Broadway and on the screen which are so overpowering we wonder why the actors went to the trouble to speak the lines. This is not what we want." "One client called recently for a shot showing two actors talking in the passageway underneath Yankee Stadium," Petroff told sponsor. "It would have involved an expensive location shot, with many lighting and sound problems. And. in any case, the background was just incidental to the dialogue. We managed to talk this client out of it, and fixed up a plain wall and a pillar in the studio, along with some Yankee Stadium signs. We faked crowd noises in the background with sound effects. The results were just as good . . . and a lot less expensive." Art Directors, of course, can't be as knowledgeable about all of the details of a client's selling know-how as the client's own agency. But, years of experience can help agencies save time and money. "Suppose," stated Petroff. "the agency calls for a short sequence where you see an actor sitting on a chair in a fancy living room. You don't have to spend, let's say, $200 for this chair — it's almost completely covered up by the actor sitting in it. An ordinary chair, which can be rented for $10 or $15 will do as well. If we always execute what the script writer wants in the way of settings, it would run to several thousand dollars a script, if not more. Compromises must be made." The Art Director's value is not measured only in terms of the dollars he can save an inexperienced agencyman. He is an expert on color "values" in terms of how they will look later in black-and-white photography, and still later on a TV screen. He knows, for instance, how most any color that might he in a label will look in terms of the "gray scale" (nine grays, from dark to light, plus black arid white) of regular television. In this, the eye is no guide. "Often, we have to do product labels and package designs in black-and-white art to get the correct gray scale for a TV film, then wrap them around balsa wood bases." Petroff admitted. "At the same time, we will eliminate much of the 'business' and fine print on labels, hi simplifx them. Some agencies can't understand why this is necessary, and sometimes a client will balk at re-doing a famous label. The end result we are trying to achieve is simplicity and a strong recognition for the product." "We achieve additional recognition by the use of trick lighting and focus," Petroff added. "For instance, we may have a streak of sunlight falling from a window on a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, to make them stand out from the rest of a breakfast table. Or, we may put a bottle of Chanel No. 5 on a dresser, open the lens up wide, focus on the perfume — and the other jars and creams will be slightly out of focus, highlighting the product we are selling." Individual values must not only be checked carefully, but the product must • ••••••• "In my experience, the essence of advertising can be summed up in nine words: 'Say it simply. Say it often. Make it burn'." THOMAS D'ARCY BROPHY, Chairman. Kenyon & Eckhardt. Inc., /V. Y. • ••••••• be balanced for color values (in terms of black and white and grays) with its surroundings. "To give you a bad example of color value in a TV film setup," said Petroff, "we once had to put on — at an agency's orders — a setup in which some jewelry was put against dark red velvet. The contrast to the eye was very fine; it looked beautiful, in fact. But. if we had shot it, the red would have photographed completely black, which is bad for TV. The jewelry would have turned completely white. A camera could not have exposed properly for either. The correct thing would have been to keep both on a very 'high key,' in other words to use a closely related background like light gray." Agencies should always make a point of discussing fully with the film company's Art Director the points they are trying to get across, and the ideas be iKLIXl In one of the west's RICHEST MARKETS Idaho's Fabulous Magic Valley Ask Hollingbery ABC at Twin Falls, Idaho Frank C. Mclntyre V. P. and Gen. Mgr. 1G SPONSOR