1. CAREER DAY! V3

2. CAREER DAY! with Allan Vajda (Aaron’s Dad)

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

5. I work in advertising, as a commercial Director Have you ever seen a commercial? Any favorites? Do you like them or hate them?

6. Over the next few minutes I’m going to talk about what I do, and I’m going to take you through the process of making a commercial.

7. First, an overview: I get to do a lot of very fun stuff, every day. With Commercials, I get to combine Art with Business. I get to combine music, and pictures, and performance, with the goal of creating an effective piece of communication ( a miniature movie, sort of). I get to travel to exciting places to shoot. I get to work with exciting people, even celebrities.

8. Let’s take a look at a mash-up of a few of my spots, then we’ll take a look at what goes into making them https://vimeo.com/84836750

9. So that’s what it looks like in front of the camera. Now let me show you a little bit of what it looks like behind the scenes.

10. This is my office...

26. Some video from behind-the-scenes: https://vimeo.com/84835728

27. As you can see, there are a lot of people on the set, all working together to make a great spot. Lighting department (gaffers and electricians) Grip department (key grips and grips) Location Scouts and Managers Wardrobe department Make-up department Production Assistants Producer Production Manager Production Coordinator Drivers Props Art Department Special Effects Editors Graphic Artists and more... This is a collaborative process!

28. Before we go further, let me back up and give you an overview of my field: -- Advertising is a BIG industry. $171 Billion in the US in 2013. (Source: Plunkett Research Ltd.) -- Television and Web commercials are just one part of the overall advertising structure (but the most fun!) -- All TV commercials are not alike. They range from small local ads that cost $200 to produce (think car dealers) to Huge Superbowl ads that cost as much as $2 million to produce (think Nike and Coke). My specialty is generally the mid range, from $200k to $800k. And that’s just the cost to produce the ad. The media time is usually 5 to 10 times more.

29. A lot of people and companies can be involved in creating a major TV campaign. (so how does the process work?)

30. -- Client (such as Ford) -- Advertising Agency (such as JWT) -- Production company (me) -- TV station or Channel (NBC, ESPN etc)

31. When I start a project, it usually begins with a storyboard...

32. “Storyboards” for 4 x :15 ‘national’ spots

33. Important... CREATIVITY IS KEY! (In both what you shoot and how you plan) When you approach any new project, one of the first things to do is come up with a good creative plan. -------------------------------------------------------------- -- It’s very important to think about how the finished spot should look, and how we will accomplish any Special Effects (pre-visualization is a valuable tool) -- One of the first decisions: deciding where to shoot. -- We’ll also need to cast our talent.

34. Where should we shoot Servpro? Location needs: Flooded basement, Burned House, Stormy traffic, City block, Hint: Which is most difficult to wrangle?

35. Let’s choose Orlando, because they have a large back lot that will work as the city location, and it’s located nearby. (other options: LA backlots, Canada backlots, Actual small towns) Location Scouting begins...

36. Let’s look at the back lot at Universal. links to videos: https://vimeo.com/84783798 https://vimeo.com/84783826

37. Let’s look at some Burned House options (the house must look like anywhere USA) links to video: https://vimeo.com/84783598

38. Let’s look at our Flooded Basement location.

39. Now, let’s look at some Casting! (you can use your friends for your own projects, like Aaron and Austin did with “Assassin”) But we need to use real talent for this spot (dependable, screened)

40. Casting: Basement Flood Couple

41. Casting: Warehouse Fire Guy

42. Casting: House Fire Woman

43. Now the fun part- Shooting! We take our huge crew and go to the location.

44. ServPro: Warehouse Fire On the set footage, raw footage, rough edits and final edits: https://vimeo.com/84835730

45. ServPro: House Fire On the set footage, raw footage, rough edits and final edits: https://vimeo.com/84835729

46. ServPro: Flooded Basement On the set footage, raw footage, rough edits and final edits: https://vimeo.com/84835727

47. To sum it all up: -- TV commercials (and advertising in general) allow you to combine Art and Business. -- The process closely resemble making films and TV shows. -- You get to see and do a lot of exciting things. -- You get immediate gratification. -- You collaborate and work as a team. -- You can dress casually!

48. Things to keep in mind: -- Beware: It can be very stressful and pressure packed. -- The most important work is the work you do with your mind, not the camera. -- Think about what you would like to do, make a great plan, be prepared! -- Creating something from scratch is very hard, it’s easy to feel threatened by other peoples opinions and criticism. -- If you approach the work the right way it is very gratifying.

49. If you want to work in this field: -- Embrace technology -- Study all forms of audio/visual communication -- Consider film school, mass communications or art in college. -- Be dependable and hard-working -- Be an excellent collaborator -- Be a self-starter -- Practice, practice, practice!

50. Questions?