Our deadline was approaching quickly, and we hadn’t shot a single frame for a holiday spot that was rapidly becoming as stressful as the actual holidays.
We’d scrubbed two shooting dates and had to cancel a shoot ten minutes in because we couldn’t find the right costume for the talent. Disaster was looming over us, so I dealt with it the best way I could… planning for the shoot.
And you know what? Things turned out okay.
Three times in two weeks, I had clients call with requests for the raw footage from earlier shoots I’d performed for them. In all three cases, they wanted me to send it to other production companies.
At the time, I felt compelled to say yes. Now, there’s a clause in our standard production contract that lets me tell them no. In the long run, it’s better to try and keep the rights to your footage.
Local commercials are a lot of things, but mostly they’re bad. Go to any small-to-medium TV market in America, and you’ll find wooden acting, awful scripts, grade Z production values and a complete lack of self-awareness in local TV spots.
But deep down, they’ve got heart. There’s an earnestness there that can’t be matched by the slickest of Madison Avenue agencies. Local commercials aren’t just people talking to you — they are you. They’re made by your friends, your neighbors, and other folks you run into every single day.
That’s one of the reasons that I fell in love with producing TV spots in a small Southeastern town, and why I continue to do it today. I’m helping connect businesses directly with their customers, with a level of personal contact that was strangely missing from the national spots I worked on.
Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about how to make an effective, cost-conscious commercial. Your local commercial doesn’t have to suck.
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