What makes a short commercial video successful?

the 15 second commercial we've seen them we love them we love seeing how they're made they're in demand and more popular to make than ever i think that was a good one that's a good one it was actually way out of focus but in the rise of epic b-roll tutorials camera maneuver hacks or fancy lenses for those nice wide-angle macro shots in doing this are we really talking about what makes a product video or commercial truly successful i would argue that we are not with the democratization of filmmaking gear editing software and even access to filmmaking education making these commercials are more accessible than ever and you may think well that's absurd why did you move what you could have just sat here and kept talking so why do you always wear that hat anyway you may think well that's absurd it's like in every video there can't be competition because because what because what because they they um they they don't have the professional gear that i have uh except that i just argued a few seconds ago that the tools are more accessible than ever even most professional gear uh because they they i don't know i just don't know i am proud of you for being honest you know how hard it is to find honesty these days yeah thanks why are we talking to ourselves again no idea but you should get back to your main point yep the goal of any video that features a product whether it's on tv or on social media is to get the person who's watching the content to eventually take out their wallet or phone and make a purchase or take a specific action to any business owner with a product i'm sure that always puts a smile on their face but as we know it all depends on how well the video convinces the viewer to make that decision and if you're a content creator well this is where you come in but i have a question what exactly determines a good or even a great product video is it the cool sound effects is it the super slow motion shots [Music] is it those unbelievable transitions [Music] no not that kind of transition what kidding aside i think you already knew what i actually meant but as you consider these examples ask yourself this what are some of the most memorable commercials you've seen like ever can you think of them why were they so memorable if you're anything like me chances are these commercials either made you laugh shocked sad that's not that's not like sad but that's like happy sad happy or so weirded out that you actually started thinking about dumb ways to die [Music] in the very least i would think that they were so good that i would want to share them with my friends and family but now you're probably wondering well those things won't necessarily make someone pull out their wallet and buy something they can just enjoy the content without wanting to buy the product and that's true which brings me to what i think the bottom line of what a great product video or commercial should contain and that's this it presents a problem or need or a desire and offers a solution and that's it but you and i both know that just announcing the problem and providing the solution in a very blunt way are you always tired then buy this please probably won't work my point being there's gotta be a sense of connection with the viewer so we need to be creative in how we establish that connection think back to the memorable commercials that you thought of among other things you and i would probably agree some of the most common factors that made those commercials stand out is that they one tell a story two they communicate the brand's value and message number three they're relatable in some sense sometimes painfully relatable and then number four it offers a solution and that's it there was nothing about a thousand frames per second or crazy transitions now before i get in trouble for saying that let me say this these techniques can be very very helpful in certain circumstances like if it is a specific request from the client then i'm sure these techniques will serve its purpose great but at the end of the day all i'm trying to do is examine the bigger picture about what does make a product video successful and if this sounds obvious to you and you agree with what i'm saying to an extent then why is some of the most viral content out there focused on how to maneuver your camera in a specific way or how to float a can in midair does this not and this is my honest sincere question does this not take the creativity out of short form filmmaking and consequentially does this not de-emphasize the focus on the people who will end up watching these videos in the end and then structuring our videos accordingly okay let me demonstrate what i mean instead of showing you behind the scenes footage of ways to shoot certain things i'm instead going to walk you through just two main elements that i don't think are talked about enough number one is how to tell a relatable story within 30 seconds and then number two is the pacing of your edit let's start with number one how to tell a relatable story within 30 seconds to hopefully give you some perspective it's kind of interesting to know that some of the biggest advertising agencies spend thousands even hundreds of thousands of dollars finding out ways to tell effective stories in 30 seconds or less and you may find that some of these stories end up in super bowl ads billboards or simply in your head and you just can't get it out [Music] but this doesn't mean that you need to spend this much money to do something similar all you need to start with is a story that people will most likely respond to and a shot list creating a shot list becomes so much easier when you know the story you want to tell so let's focus on telling stories when thinking of a product video or a commercial think first about what moves people and i mean what really moves them what makes them laugh what would surprise them what would make them sad or even what would make them tick and then try and connect that thought to the product you're trying to showcase in your video to show you what i mean i'm going to demonstrate an example of me planning a short commercial for a bag of coffee totally not an overdone subject at all alright so the concept of this story that i came up with was to kind of point out some of the flaws that i have that i know drive my girlfriend really crazy and it's little things like leaving the fridge door open or not twisting caps all the way on bottles i do that pretty often and it drives her insane so it's one of those things where i want to kind of portray that it's kind of embarrassing but i think for this coffee ad i think that would tie in very well because the concept is going to be here's me doing all these things first and then after the coffee it's going to be corrected and everything's going to be put in the right place so i'm going to show you that right now and here we go [Music] okay so from this shot list i just made sure to film each shot as i had planned one thing to keep in mind when shooting is to film way more than you intended i actually covered this a little bit more in depth in another video but my point being it's always better to have way more footage than not enough because if there's one thing i learned the hard way it's this it really sucks having to reshoot something because you don't have enough coverage okay so we created the story slash the concept we created the shot list for it we filmed it now it's time to put it in our timeline and edit the video and if there's one thing with which i would encourage you to train your focus on when editing your video it's your pacing think of pacing as the rhythm of your video just like how two songs that have two very different rhythms will be completely different in how they sound and even and how they make you feel your video can also have this effect when you pair this with the story you created in the first step you should have a very solid video to begin working with so the goal of great pacing and what i'm going to focus with my coffee video is one finding the right music two is finding the right balance between all forms of media everything from the shots themselves to the sound effects and the music you can think of this as the timing of everything in the video alright so for the sake of this video i'm going to just show you a completed sequence and i'm going to break down each step that i took to create this video so what i started with first was the music so with this song i just slowed it down lowered the pitch a little bit and this is what it sounds like and then it stops there so that's the beginning part and then the second part with the music all i did was i sped it up so that it's a little bit more up-tempo upbeat and the music's a lot faster [Music] at the end it's kind of like all right everything's done alright so that's the music let's show you the um the clips that i chose um the first clip is me taking out the milk and then right after i took a wider shot of the door kind of just banging open against the wall behind it and then the second is right where i spill the milk and right there as you can see i completely just miss and then i go ahead i proceed to pour milk in the bowl so it just shows you just everything's a mess right off the bat right and then after that i put the cap on okay and then after that comes the kind of the climax of this part of the video and that's me putting the milk in the sink instead of the fridge and then it stops and then i'll put some text saying you know let's try that again and then once it opens up the first shot was me pouring it into the uh the v60 and then the second shot was a wide shot of it same shot and then after that i got a close-up shot of the coffee dripping into the uh the kolita and then a shot of me pouring it into my mug so that's kind of the sequence of the coffee right it's just coffee pouring pouring pouring and then pouring into the cup and that's it so that that that's an indication to the viewer that i just had my cup of coffee and then after that i go back to each mistake that i made in the first part of the video and i corrected it so i'm getting the milk out closing it and then here's a very quick shot of me not missing the bowl of cereal and then after that is me tightening the lid of the milk and then right after i put the milk back in the fridge and not in the sink and then i close the door and then after that i'm gonna have some text here saying got coffee you know i can put other things like i can put the logo of the company if i say this is for a client or anything like that but i'm not shooting this for a client so i'm just gonna put got coffee uh at the end and that's gonna be the ad and then it goes to blurriness the way i did that is all i did was i just these two clips here are the same thing i just cut it right here and this part of the clip i put a gaussian blur gaussian blur and then i put a cross dissolve effect to kind of transition into that as soon as my hand pulls away just like that okay all right now that we're done with the video let's review it one more time and see how it is [Music] [Music] you know when i created the first version of this coffee video i stuck to pretty much what i thought worked which was just a bunch of you know static shots packed together with cool music and maybe one or two slow-mo shots and comparing that to what i created now i at least realize the importance of telling a captivating story above all else no matter how short the video or how insignificant the product might be and it makes a world of a difference in my opinion if there's anything i would want you to take away from this video it's this it's to think beyond the mere tactics and more into humanizing your videos and stories because after all it's who we make these videos for in the first place and i think it gives a whole new perspective into creating commercials when we think about it in that way [Music]

Channel: figandlight

Views: 236,507

Keywords: product videography, product videos for marketing, product video tutorial, 15 second commercial, short commercial ideas, short commercial ads, short commercials, coffee commercial, product commercial, filming commercials, how to film short ads, planning a product video

Id: LbAmzc0sb6w

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021