Identifying Elements of Production

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPJUaZZOss[/youtube]

Commercial: A Cat’s Guide To Taking Care Of Your Human

Brand: Tidy Cats

Plot: While humans are huge and can open up cans, they need to be taken care of by their cat. The cat gives various advice on how to take care of humans like reminding them there is more to life than staring at light boxes (laptops) and that each cat needs to cover their human’s body bags (clothes) with fur since a human has no fur of its own and might freeze to death. At the end, the cat reminds the audience, that in return for all the cat’s help that humans must provide them with food and a comfortable place for them to do their business.

Character: The Cat and the Human.

Conflict: The cat must do various tasks everyday in order to keep their human happy and healthy.

Setting: House

Theme: Family, love, and caring for others.

Production Role: DP

Since cats are difficult to direct, the DP has to be quick on their feet in order capture the shots needed before the cat moves and messes up the shot. Keeping the subject in focus would be difficult just because of the cat’s unpredictable movements.The DP would have to shot a lot of footage to make sure that the editor has enough to work with.  The DP would have to plan out a storyboard and request all the equipment that they will need in order to film and light the commercial. For this commercial, the DP may have requested long lenses in order to get close ups and other shots of the cat without being too close to the cat in order to prevent scaring it or detracting it. 

Target Audience: This commercial is for cat lovers who jokingly refer to themselves as simply can openers. If this commercial was directed towards dog owners for a similar product like wee wee pads or pooper scoopers, the subject and humor in the commercial would have to change in order to suit the new audience. The subject would have to change to a dog. The humor would have to be lighter and more playful because cats a viewed as being more serious while dogs are seen as more silly. The setting would also have to include the outdoors since dogs are sporty pets.

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0[/youtube]

Commercial: The Bear and The Hare

Brand: John Lewis

Plot: The Bear and the Hare are best friends and are walking through the forest when a snowflake falls on the Bear’s nose. The Bear yaws and the Hare looks sad. The Hare takes the increasingly tired Bear to this giant pine tree in the middle of the forest that is being decorated for Christmas by other animals. The Bear yaws again and heads off to his cave to hibernate, leaving the Hare alone. Days go by and one day the Hare drops off a present in the Bear’s cave. Christmas morning arrives and all the other animals are celebrating and giving presents to one another while the Hare is sad and alone. The Bear arrives and sees Christmas for the first time and the Hare is overjoyed to see him. It is revealed that the Hare gave the Bear an alarm clock for Christmas. They join the other animals and enjoy their first Christmas together.

Character: The Bear and the Hare.

Conflict: The Hare wants to celebrate Christmas with the Bear, but the Bear has never seen Christmas because he hibernates every year.

Setting: The forest.

Theme: The magic of Christmas and the power of friendship.

Production Role: Producer

This commercial  is a stop motion animation, so the producer would have to help coordinate both the 2D animation team and the  stop motion team. The 2d animation team drew and created cutouts of the animals for each frame and the stop motion team built the set and then placed cutouts into each scene. Therefore, the producer would have to make sure each team is on a schedule that would permit both teams enough times to do their respected jobs, while not making one team wait too for the other to finish something.   The producer would also have to secure the rights to use “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane and find an artist to cover the song. The producer would also have to hire the crew and markup the script so that the animators and the director would know exactly what needs to be in the commercial.

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0HI4DAmVDo[/youtube]

Commercial: Brotherhood

Brand: Budweiser

Plot: A man raises a Clydesdale horse from birth. As he trains and cares for the horse, they develop a strong friendship. When the horse grows up, the man sells him to Budweiser to be apart of the Budweiser Clydesdales. Three years later, the man goes to Chicago to see the Budweiser Clydesdales at a parade. He is excited to see his old friend, but is disappointed when the horse walks by without recognizing him. At the end of the parade, the horse has his blinders taken off and sees the man walking away from the parade. The man hops into his car, but before he has a chance to speed off, the horse runs after him. He gets out of his car and the old buddies reunite and hug

Character: The Horse, the Man

Setting: Ranch, Parade

Theme: Friendship

Production Role: Music Supervisor:

This commercial aired during the Superbowl, so the music supervisor role was crucial because they had to select music that would convey the brand’s message to a huge audience while guiding the storyline .  The music supervisor had to consider hundreds of songs in order to find something that was emotional, but classic in order to resonate with their target audience (young men) and the audience of the Superbowl (men of all ages). The choice of using Landslide was a great one because it’s a classic that is easily recognizable without being cliche. Along with picking the music, the music supervisor also had to make sure that the lyrics matched up with the commercial’s storyline. With this particular song and commercial, it was important for the music supervisor to collaborate with the writer of the commercial in order to make sure that the lyrics and the image matched up well.