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My attempt at an iPod commercial

mikemodena

mikemodena

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 30, 2005
552
0
Connecticut
I had an idea today during school to film these 2 kids dancing on a blue screen set and make an iPod commercial. My idea is to do a more complicated one like the new iPod commercials with the backdrops and such, but I just got home from work and threw this together in an hour just for fun before I put hours into the VFX. I also realized I may need to re-shoot some of it because this one wasn't perfect, but pretty awesome for a test run. My parents and friends wouldn't believe I made it. Oh, and it's called iPed because my video teacher is Mr. Pedevillano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPvhAd9wIdo
 
FF_productions said:
That was pretty cool, you should have made the characters completely black, that would have completely replicated the iPod commercial. Nice Job!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I attached a before and after shot of the raw footage and the edited clip
 

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It's just a shame that your friends don't seem to be particularly good dancers - it keeps looking like they might be about to do something good and then they just do the same thing all over again. Maybe you should get them to dancer to famously awful songs and then parody the iPod comercials in that way - sort of anti-cool ads that look like your dad dancing. A way to make the iPod appeal to the older generation.
I suggest:
the birdie song
or other great wedding disco classics:
anything by Abba
Grease medley
It's Rainging Men
YMCA

Rather than remake the adverts, try thinking different. It's what Steve would want!
 
mikemodena said:
Thanks! I attached a before and after shot of the raw footage and the edited clip
Click to expand...
that looks like the same cloth i got from my local curtain shop !

but you have a shed load more :D
, do you have a bigger higher res vid of that ?
 
liketom said:
that looks like the same cloth i got from my local curtain shop !

but you have a shed load more :D
, do you have a bigger higher res vid of that ?
Click to expand...

I wiped 2 fabric stores out of blue fabric buying it for the school. I do have the full version, but its 280 megs.. is there any specific format you want me to make it for you?
 
jimN said:
It's just a shame that your friends don't seem to be particularly good dancers - it keeps looking like they might be about to do something good and then they just do the same thing all over again. Maybe you should get them to dancer to famously awful songs and then parody the iPod comercials in that way - sort of anti-cool ads that look like your dad dancing. A way to make the iPod appeal to the older generation.
I suggest:
the birdie song
or other great wedding disco classics:
anything by Abba
Grease medley
It's Rainging Men
YMCA

Rather than remake the adverts, try thinking different. It's what Steve would want!
Click to expand...

to his credit tho, I think its a skill to copy. I mean what is Windows?! I think either way, you have experience with this, the highest form of flattery is imitation, keep up the good work, one day all this work will lead to your own creativity. ;)
 
Not bad, but try using a garbage matte to take out some of the areas that didn't key so well. The edges are too blurred as well, if you are trying to copy the originals, I would make them more crisp. I understand doing this all in FCS is a little bit more limiting then doing it in After Effects. A lot of the Apple commercials use AE for a large portion of the compositing from what I have heard, so maybe you could take a look at it for some more advanced keying options (if your still interested in improving this). And I noticed the subjects going out of frame, which looks kind of weird. Nice music choice, and nice job overall on it though.

-Woolf
 
jimN said:
It's just a shame that your friends don't seem to be particularly good dancers - it keeps looking like they might be about to do something good and then they just do the same thing all over again. Maybe you should get them to dancer to famously awful songs and then parody the iPod comercials in that way - sort of anti-cool ads that look like your dad dancing. A way to make the iPod appeal to the older generation.
I suggest:
the birdie song
or other great wedding disco classics:
anything by Abba
Grease medley
It's Rainging Men
YMCA

Rather than remake the adverts, try thinking different. It's what Steve would want!
Click to expand...

That is an awesome idea, I can see it now:

Silhouette of old dude in wheel chair, starts to break dance in the chair and do wheelies.

Old lady with walker starts doing some sort of Stomp-esque thing

Three guys with canes start doing the classic cane dances

Damn, if I only had the time to make that! :( :p
 
corywoolf said:
That is an awesome idea, I can see it now:

Silhouette of old dude in wheel chair, starts to break dance in the chair and do wheelies.

Old lady with walker starts doing some sort of Stomp-esque thing

Three guys with canes start doing the classic cane dances

Damn, if I only had the time to make that! :( :p
Click to expand...

That actually sounds cool. I had more of a vision of middle aged men and women dancing badly to disco classics - YMCA and the birdie song have very obvious visual imagery to accompany famours songs. Although a breakdancing wheelchair bound chap would be cool - they have a troupe of wheelchair dancers that they use for one of the fill-ins on the BBC, the look could be pretty cool.
 
Well I have to say, through my expierence, using a shotty blue screen and an old Windows computer with an old version of adobe premier... and not very good lighting... Chroma keyin or Blue Screening is hard to get just perfect. We have trouble with our newscast every month...

Either way, it looks awsome! Dancing was funny to :D
 
mikemodena said:
I wiped 2 fabric stores out of blue fabric buying it for the school. I do have the full version, but its 280 megs.. is there any specific format you want me to make it for you?
Click to expand...
sure if you can do 848x480 h.264

bet that looks just plain cool:D
 
liketom said:
sure if you can do 848x480 h.264
Click to expand...

Gonna open up Compressor right now for ya

Edit: It's uploading and it will be uploaded in about 20 minutes.. it's a 60 meg 848 x 477 16:9 H264 mov. I'll post a link when it's uploaded.
 
mikemodena said:
Gonna open up Compressor right now for ya

Edit: It's uploading and it will be uploaded in about 20 minutes.. it's a 60 meg 848 x 477 16:9 H264 mov. I'll post a link when it's uploaded.
Click to expand...
thanks very much - post a link and if you need help hosting it give me a shout .Mac will help out for ya:D
 
Sometimes, when you walk to the side of the screen, you disappear behind the yellow background. Correct this and make the figures black to perfect it.
 
®îçhå®? said:
Sometimes, when you walk to the side of the screen, you disappear behind the yellow background. Correct this and make the figures black to perfect it.
Click to expand...

I realize this, and this is because if you look at the raw part of the floor is exposed and I had to crop the shot, and as for them not being completely black , I prefer it this way. Again, this was a test before my actual attempt at it with the complete VFX like the new iPod Commercials (like the one with Eminem) and I was just very happy how good it came out for a half-assed attempt.
 
Some ideas (Some have been repeated from previous posts):

1. Your colors are off compared to Apples. Use Brighter more vibrant colors. (No Gray)
2. Your camera is completely stationary the whole time. Try to get some different angles.
3. Try to make your characters completely black.
4. Use a progressive camera instead of an interlaced one or at least run a de-interlacer on the footage before keying/matting it.
5. Get better dancers. Only use one person at a time in your shots
6. Try making a 30 second commercial of your best shots instead of a 2+ minute video of filler. Try using quick cuts for best results.
7. Try to make the iPods and headphones white if possible. (I know its not easy).

But very good work for a preliminary run!
 
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