Five ways to do TV and video

Edward Boches, Professor of Advertising

 Some tips

• One thing you want to say: reduce it to a word

• Audience: what matters to them, or a key insight
• Look at it from multiple perspectives
 Bookstore Chain
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One word: service, exploration, discovery, escape, knowledge

Audience: personal touch, adventure, shut out the digital world,
introduction of exposure to something new
Angle: employees, books and their content, the physical place, anti-
Amazon, persona of the reader, a belief in reading and learning
TV/ideo
Think like a creator
not a viewer.
 The message
The story
The way it’s told
Characters
Dialog
Music
Editing and pacing
 Concept:
The core story and idea
!

Execution:
How the idea is brought to life
Thoughts on TV/Video
What are the advantages of this medium?
• Television and video offer endless opportunities to tell a story, feature a product, bring a
user to life, capture our imagination.
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• You can be serious, provocative, funny.
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• You can convey a feeling, leave an impression or educate the viewer.
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• But the one thing you have to remember is that every person sitting in front of the TV
set has a remote control within reach.
What makes great?
• Are you interesting enough to watch?
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• Is the idea fresh, original, new, different, awe-inspiring?
!
• Are you rewarding viewers for their time?
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• Are you respecting their intelligence?
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• Would you want to watch it yourself?
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• Would you share it with a friend?
What come first?
Strategy
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Audience
!
Message
!
Concept
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Execution
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Would you want to watch it yourself?
Strategy: client, planner, account team, CD
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Audience: client, planner, media
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Message: planner, account team, CD
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Concept: writer, art director
!
Execution: CD, writer, art director, producer, director, editor,
Where do you start?
What do you want to say?
Samsung washing machines are __________
How can you say it?
Samsung washing machines are vibration free.
Be interesting.
Five ways to do video
 All are concepts that
you can remember
and tell someone about.
(Stories)
Good advertising is storytelling: it’s magic; it touches some kind of a human, universal
truth; it treats the viewer with respect and intelligence; and it humanizes a product or
company in a way that’s special.
!
Humans respond to storytelling, not just to telling—nobody wants a finger poked in their
chest. Doing that well and telling a great truth about a brand or a product is the secret; it’s
that easy and that difficult.”

David Lubars, Chief Creative Officer,

BBDO Worldwide, BU Alum
 Manifesto: say it brilliantly in words
Narrative: beginning, middle, end -- classic dramatic structure
Visual: bring a powerful image to life to convey a feeling
Dialog/scene: create a mini drama with characters and dialog
Monolog: personal story or recollection
The Manifesto: a short, moving speech
!
If you let me play sports
I will like myself more;
I will have more self-confidence,
I will be 60 percent less likely to get breast cancer;
I will suffer less depression.
I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me.
I will be less likely to get pregnant
I will learn what it means to be strong.
If you let me play sports.
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

When I grow up, I want to file all day.
I want to claw my way up to middle management.
Be replaced on a whim.
I want to have a brown nose.
I want to be a yes man.
Yes woman.
Yes sir. Coming Sir.
Anything for a raise sir.
When I grow up I want to be under appreciated.
Be paid less for doing the same job.
I want to be forced into early retirement.
Plain was the same as it ever was.
Plainly plain.
Samely same.
But then, someone lit the flame.
Plain rode away on lion’s mane.
Where plain met fruits with strangely names.
Such wonderful things they did contain.
A shot of life to a hungry vein.
That kept a beast who broke the chain.
And there upon that fruited plane

Is where plain became what plain became.
So much more than more than plain.
Plain will never be the same.
What does the product stand for and believe?
What do you want me to know about its vision?
Tell a story with words that resonate. Or with images.
Write it. Write it again. Write it again. And again.
Visual story telling: a little movie
VW’s handles great in the snow.
Mercedes Benz handles great in the snow.
Levi’s is for rebels
VW has useful features like the remote key
Certain foods/snacks demand milk
Google search has all the answers
How can I convey that in a story?
Is there tension and drama?
Character development?
Is there a protagonist? An enemy?
What makes me remember it?
Reasons not to speed.
How is time manipulated?
How can I dramatize what I want to convey with a story.
Come up with 100 answers.
Evaluate them based on relevance to brand, target, category convention.
Presuming they are original, fresh, unexpected.
One Powerful Visual: a print ad turned into a story
What is the one thing you want to say?
Joy and happiness. Amazing color. Women’s independence. Ultimate desire. Stability.
Come up with 100 visual ways to say it.
Ask how you can bring it to life: timing, sequence, music
Dialog / Scene: performance and acting
Is there a metaphor?
Is there a mini-drama?
Is there a simple encounter?
How can one character convert or persuade another?
Tell your story in a small scene from a longer movie or theater performance.
First person monolog: relate a story, remember, share
Express a virtue that is connected to the product (VW)
Share a sentiment, a wish, a regret that a product promises to address (Axe)
Talk to your audience over the shoulder of someone else.
But you are always telling a story, a narrative, that is interesting.
Sometimes spots combine more than one.
 inform: tell me about new product or feature or benefit
persuade: convince me you’re better than the alternative
inspire: make me feel good, connect around shared beliefs
entertain: make me laugh and like your brand
reveal a truth: tap into fundamental human beliefs
Get someone to like you,
overcome indifference.
Idea first, but then the
details matter.
Shot list
Casting
Location
Music
Editing
Most important, make me want to
watch until the end.
 Elements of a script

Idea
Story
Sequence
Storyboard/shot list (visual references)
Dialog/monolog
V/O
Logo and closing treatment
 Canal +
No one can nurture your love of cinema like Canal +
 Questions?

Who watches movies?

How can I bring them to life?
What is the benefit to them?
Is it about the movies they watch or how versed they become by watching?
There was a bear rug that watched so many Canal + movies it figured why not
direct one itself.
!
(Show how Canal +’s nurtures your passion for cinema.)
This is also on Learn
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Sequence of shots
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Description/explanation of action
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Dialog/VO
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SFX/Music
FAGE
:45 Launch Television
“PLAIN”

VO: Plain was the same as it ever was the same. Plainly plain... Samely same... But then, someone lit the flame.

Plain went against the grain of plain old plain. It rode away... ...on a lion’s mane. Where plain met fruits with strangely names.
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 What you need to know

You should see the spot in your head.

Sequence of shots, angles, camera position, CU or medium or LS
Cuts from one shot/scene to another
Dialog and sound in relationship to imagery
Beginning, middle, end