Inside The Movie

Hi,

Just finished this 30 second commercial for a client.

http://www.wba-advertising.com/inside/inside.html

I used 4 layers of movie tracks and 1 audio. Using timed sequences across the time lines for each individual movie segment (1 at the start and end, of each), aligned with timed sequences for the film strip movment, to create the overall effects. Simple solution for the desired presentation.

All the furniture comes complete with animations.

I kept watching the commercial and something was niggling.... I have re-edited it now and think the balance is right. What it lacked was a 'tempo' something to link the commercial from the begining to the end. The wording I believe has now done this.
I also edited the section at the very start, so now it loops well.

I had to watch it twice before I noticed the letters in the corner, and then I had to pay attention to the letters to read "it's all about living". Perhaps running the whole slogan across the bottom in the last frame instead? Also, I suspect a fade transition would be less jarring... the slide is too active for such passive scenes.

When we visited the clients shopping outlet, all the scenes you see, with many more, are all presented in these cubicles resembling 'frames' of a slide show. An interesting presentation, which is deplicted within the commercial.

Without adding the words, perhaps negates having the rest of the movie, where you could have the end logo, with the words in a single frame and show that for the full 30 seconds. A bit boring.

OK, so in the store they have that slogan presented across a series of displays?

What works in a store and what works in video are not necessarily the same.

In the store all that text is visible at once, no?

I can see the point to displaying it as it is in the store, now that you point it out, but also think presenting the whole message in the same frame is worthwhile.

Not as a separate frame, your point is well taken there and I really didn't mean that when I wrote it (apologies for being unclear), I was thinking that as you displayed the last room you could have the slogan scrolling across the bottom. Better, now you've pointed out the presentation in-world, would be to have the words scrolling across the frames as you show them, with one word being added every second frame as they are presented in the store.

As for the slide transition, I see now what you're doing, duplicating the layout of the store in time rather than space. That's a good idea, but like I said I found it jarring and I was paying more attention to the effect than to the product... and that's probably not what you intended. . Perhaps making the transition smoother by accelerating slowly into the slide to get rid of the "snap snap snap" effect?

Or how about this? Fading the frames in, but only using the lower 3/4 of the frame, and having each image slide across the top into place in a tableau at the top? That would make the slogan clearer, but perhaps would be too cluttered.

Hi Argent,

Thanks for the constructive comments. I can see your points.

For clarity, the words do not appear anywhere in the store, it is something that is perhaps overlooked, and something that we ask for, a slogan. It is a powerful way of gaining brand recognition. We as creators of advertising materials for clients and marketing companies, will use our experience to deploy symetry with brands, but also apply other elements that fit with the particular media.
I do see that even changing the font or its position, could have helped, or even leaving out one of the cubicles creating more time for the viewer to explore each of the views, would have given them more time to absorb the message being delivered. On the upside, you did watch the movie twice, which isn't a bad thing .

It was certainly useful to have read your comments. Something we will bear in mind for the next commercials that we do in this format. Thank you.

BTW, we are ever aware of the overheads that movies cause in SL, we strive to reduce them wherever possible, without effecting quality. Adding fade or disolving transitions, does increase the data bit rate of any movie, whereas moving a frame along the timeline, does not, as the two frames are not overlapping. When you apply a mp4 codec to the final media, it has issues in resolving those transitions/fades in a sharp manner and can pixelate the media. Over a longer movie, this can be dissapated, but with a short 30 second movie, delivering the media fast, without quality issues, must be foremost.

Its a wonderful movie as always. Keep up the great work