Cinematic Low Budget Commercials - MasterClass

[Music] the blower baby i'm not sponsored by them but they did send it to me this is my favorite new way to get dust off my lens rather than using one of these old blood pressure things we're talking about commercial shooting today small crews how to do the best job all the experience i've had in the past 10 years and to one quick video that we did for this company called fuel here in toronto here's a little runner show we're going to talk about a few housekeeping things we're going to get into the gear and then get into the tips for commercial shooting but first thing september 12th the art of documentary is launching and if you want to jump on our wait list so you know when the early bird discounts come out it's where you can save up to 30 off on the course we're gonna be giving one person this what is this it's the black box great gift no this is the omni charge i got this sent to me from them earlier this year and i think it's my favorite thing that has been sent to me all year long it's not just a battery that you can charge your iphone with it will give you a full charge on a laptop you can also plug a hard drive into this and then plug your computer into this and it becomes a hub this thing can power pretty much anything that comes off of usb i love it it's saved our butts many times it's about 350 and we're giving one away to one lucky person who's on our wait list and if you're not sure if you're already on the wait list go join it again over at the art of documentary that's our course we're launching on the 12th we'll only have the doors open for about a week or so and if you miss this chance to get in the course you'll have to wait all the way till march so don't miss out and if you don't want to join the course well we have lots of fun events throughout the year so you'll want to be on our mailing list so go sign up let's get into this fuel shoot and the first thing we're going to do is talk about the gear i used because otherwise i'm going to have to talk about it in the comments so we tried to keep a small nimble crew for this and i tried to bring as little gear on set as possible but as much as i needed to get the best shoots so for camera we use the fx6 for lenses you guessed it helios 44-2 that's a 58 mil in focal length lens sigma art 35 and 24. we use the polar pro matte box system because i wanted to have these beautiful blooming soft focus flares in the background which is their miss filter that we threw on the map box for monitors we used the small hd cine 7 which we actually used their new teradek module that we added onto it so whoever wasn't shooting could see exactly what was going on everyone's going to ask what monitor arm i used because everyone always does it's called the ultralight i don't know where to buy it i bought it in the store here in toronto you can find one wooden camera has a similar one it's not exactly the same but it's pretty much identical but the one i used was called an ultra light speaking of lighting we used the aputure 300 d2 i would have rather used the new aperture roll thin foil light light matte sort of thing but they're tough to come by so we use the 300 but with their 60 90 softbox that's actually what's lighting my face right now it's a smaller lighter box the light dome is really big but we want it to be nimble so we use the 60 90 on that we had a hazer running in the corner it's by mark marq it's like if i was french and they spoke their names that way and then finally i used the sennheiser 416 that's actually what's miking me here right now and because we want to have a nimble crew on this using that mic was really awesome because we couldn't have a sound guy running around with us we didn't have budget in terms of the client and usually i do like having sound guys but this mic has been incredible i had full faith that it could capture all the sound we needed including the coach going around the room yelling at everyone okay so we've got three sets you're gonna be doing two minutes you've got 20 reps i have this other mic that i've mentioned the past that's 3 000 but i've actually been enjoying this 416 just as much because even though this mic is just a third of that price this mic captures a lot of the bass as you can hear my voice i have a big nose so some mics make me sound like i'm talking through a tin can but i really love the 416. i added this in adobe premiere oh i had lost issues i know guys i'm coming close to resolve may happen one day and for color i started with my cine lut v2 lut this one has not been released yet it will be part of our post production toolkit which will be available at checkout for the art of documentary i may release it worldwide at some point but it will be available for anyone buying the course and you can see the footage here with the lut and without with with that with without with without with without why is the lut swipe so satisfying and of course [Music] that feels nice um they're not getting any more love they're not paying me but it's a great piece of gear [Music] and so approaching this commercial well for all of us when we shoot commercials i i don't know about you but the dream for me is to have no client intervention and what i mean is they're not there bothering you you can be creative and just get the shots the way you are used to capturing them this doesn't always happen and i would say that usually doesn't happen because the client doesn't have trust with you and so how do you build trust with a client well trust begins with communication but it also really begins with listening so for us when we want that freedom on set this is my first tip is do lots of pre-production with your client and get them on board with your idea and run through those possible issues on set because if you're trying to build trust with the client on set you're going to have delays they're going to want to see things again and at some point they may start not trusting that you have their best intentions or their vision in mind and that's when things grind to a halt on set and in turn you get a mediocre product so how do you get that trust initially well the first thing you want to be doing is asking the client what problem they're trying to solve find out the client's needs for the shoot the reason why they want to come to you to make a commercial and in this case for fuel they really wanted to help identify their customers with their product they wanted a commercial that they could put on instagram so the people they're trying to reach would see themselves in this commercial and say hey i want to join that gym and if you want to find out more about the details of that conversation with the client you can check out art of documentary create earn we have all of our conversations built out in the course but more on that in a bit but for us we did lots of calls upfront lots of zoom calls and find out the main problem our client is trying to solve and so in turn for us we're not filmmakers at this point we're problem solvers so we began brainstorming creative ways to show that on screen and the best way to do this is create a pitch package i like building a pdf put some other branding in it and actually have links to examples inside that pdf you can see the one i made here for them we gave them two options and they chose the one that we liked sometimes it's better to put the option you want them to choose second so that it leads into that creative momentum so that they feel like there's something better coming up next so we sold them on this idea that really showed how accessible their gym was the types of people we made sure we had a diverse group of people in that gym and we made it fun but we showed how dang hard their workouts are because that is something their clients want they want to come in and within 50 minutes be completely punished by a trainer and they were and we showed that in the film and so with all of this pre-production our client was satisfied with the vision and we could go attack that they actually in this case were like we really love this pitch we want you to go do that on set my next point too was we wanted to have a nimble crew running around a gym we didn't want to stop the workout we knew there would be authentic moments that we could capture but we made sure that they extended their workout by twice as long now they weren't working out that entire time but it gave us the chance to get new angles and lowered the pressure on us because we had more time we had more time to be creative but it also kept the shoot cheaper because it wasn't going on all day so there was just three of us we had landon working the light and me and mike jumping back and forth between the cameras and again like i said we had no sound guy we just used our 416 but that was perfect it would have been overkill in this case to have had a sound guy but for me on set you've heard me say this before i don't want to be confused i'm okay to be a bit stressed have my adrenaline going so what we did ahead of time is we did a location scout we figured out when and where the best light is and unfortunately we had to shoot this at night so that's why we brought a light in and i would say this is bring one light one to two lights on your shoot sometimes three is okay but we didn't need many but that one light helped make everything look better so we could actually point the camera anywhere and get the best footage even in the daytime adding a light to certain shots helped significantly so for us having landon run around with the light it was just easier we didn't have a c-stand we could just point the camera anywhere and land it would run in and hold the light it made it for a much easier more mobile shoot so smaller crew less gear and scouting ahead of time will help you get way more content i would say way better content because you're not slowing down trying to figure out what's working best you can kind of point the camera anywhere if you already know the space and if you have that light the shots will end up working it's just a matter of turning the light so amanda knew to stand 45 degrees from us so everything had a bit of backlighting front lighting's kind of flat it's not my favorite way to shoot but this nimble crew kept things moving another thing is to choose your music ahead of time you've heard me talk about this before the music is my creative inspiration and that's where it all starts i actually even bring the song to set we played it over the speakers a few times while we were prepping just to get in the mood and then a few times i bring the phone up i even put it in mike's ear and would listen it for me you can see me with the monitor listening to the song just making sure the style and the quickness of our shots was matching the rhythm and the cadence of the song it's like we're editing on set i love knowing my music ahead of time and lastly make sure to leave a bit of time to try some new things we made sure that people arrived a bit earlier so we could try some different arrival shots not just the standard walking behind someone although we did that because with the clouds and sky it looked beautiful but we also got shots of someone riding in on a bike or meeting up their friend or getting out of a car just tried a few different angles because you as a filmmaker this is why we started filmmaking was we wanted to be nimble we wanted to pick up a camera and find new cool shops but i find when there's no time to do this when there's no time to try something new it gets so stressful that you just get the standard shots and you don't try for more unique things or you don't try doing a shot a few more times to really nail it so i would say for any commercial you're doing make sure that you schedule in actually put in the schedule called freestyle and this is just 10 to 20 of your day where there is no shot list you're just getting to try new things and find new ways of shooting and if you enjoyed this tutorial well you're in luck on september 12th we have a whole new module there's three modules in the art of documentary module one two and now our new create urn course this is all about i need a drink of water [Music] this is all about commercial shooting and running a business as a filmmaker how to make more money but not just that how to structure your business so you have time to create those passion projects that we have on our hearts and our minds as filmmakers it's not just about only making money as a filmmaker but it's about creating the things that we're most passionate about the stories that drew us to the craft in the beginning and creating urn is over 40 videos we do a deep dive on how to pitch to clients how to even write the right emails to get more clients whether you're freelancer or running a business how to shoot the actual commercials how to do testimonial videos all the way up to bigger sets where you have dozens of people working with you what's really cool is the fuel shoot we show you everything from the initial zoom calls to our pitch meetings to being on set to delivering the final product great nirn is the complete guide to making that transition as a filmmaker into running a business getting more clients not just one-off jobs but retainer clients who will pay you on a regular basis and as well as setting yourself up so you can create those passion projects so short films or even maybe your first feature it's part of the story and art of documentary module one is our foundations course where you get to learn all about creating your first film module two is about helping you find that voice as a director when you're making your next films and then module three is once you've created those films this is how to run that business so you get to make those films full time i hope you enjoyed this video leave any questions below don't miss out the launch on september 12th we've seen thousands of filmmakers come through the art of documentary and i don't know why you would miss this opportunity to level up your filmmaking and also create the films of your dreams the world needs your films the world needs your voice so don't miss this chance to be a part of art of documentary like i said doors closed just a week after we open on september 12th so you have to wait until march and our prices are always going up every launch so get in now get on that early bird wait list you'll get up to 30 off the purchase of your course when it comes out till then i'll see you somewhere maybe on instagram you can dm me all right have a good one [Music] you

Channel: Mark Bone

Views: 88,421

Keywords: the art of documentary, aod, mark bone, commercial shooting, how to shoot a commercial, low budget commercial, michael del monte, fuel gym toronto, fx6, fx6 breakdown, how to shoot cinematic, cinematic cheap budget, sony fx9, sony fx3, drone, fpv drone, canon, peter mckinnon, Sennheiser, 416, best microphone, best camera, tight budget commercial, sony fx3 review, fx3 review, fx3 vs canon

Id: 0zeUvJzjPTI

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 08 2022