Pitching & Agency Pitch Assist
Whatever your concept, script or end usage, on receipt of your brief/script
we’ll put together a ‘Real time reel’ - where we build you an online reel of
relevant ads from appropriate directors. It only takes us a couple of hours to
compile, it doesn’t cost anything, it saves you wading through long reels and
you might see something that’s spot on brief.
We’ll then compile a detailed production report/template, creative treatments
from the shortlisted Directors (see example attached), an initial schedule and
a full APA/IPA budget breakdown.
If you’re pitching for an account we’ll put together a package containing your
chosen director’s showreel, a storyboard, mood/style boards and casting &
location suggestions or an animation test. And, if you like, we’ll also come
along and present to client as part of your team.
This is all part of the pre-sales service, so there is no cost, no obligation and
no commitment.
To illustrate what you can expect and to demonstrate how accurate these
pitch documents are, here are two scripts from BT’s ‘Freedom’ campaign,
followed by Ian Sciacaluga’s initial treatment and, finally, links to the two
finished commercials.
Contents
1. Agency scripts for BT’s ‘Freedom’ campaign
Garden Studios, 11-15 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9BP
t + 44 (0) 20 7470 8791 : f + 44 (0) 20 7470 8792 Email: mail@commercialsunlimited.net
Producers
Neil Molyneux - Simon Devine - Jo Marsden
Client Services Manager
Luke Kemp
2. Ian Sciacaluga’s initial Director’s Treatment
Interpretation of the scripts
Format, look & styling
Casting
Soundtrack, FX & Post production
Director’s Storyboard
3. The completed commercials
For more information or to give this free service a try, call Luke on
0207 470 8791 or email luke@commercialsunlimited.net
Agency Script 1
Client: BT
Title: Bannister Agency Script 2
FINAL VERSION
30 sec TV package (£8.95 BB)
VIDEO
Open on an extreme close-up of an attractive woman’s face. Her hair is blowing back as she travels at speed backwards. The scene is happening in slow motion. She’s squealing with
delight. What’s going on?
Anncr: Once you’ve experienced the freedom of a BT Total
Broadband wireless hub…
We inter-cut to the astonished faces of various rather well heeled
looking people.
The camera is gradually widening out from the young woman and
we soon realise that she’s actually sliding down a stair bannister.
Anncr: …you’ll never feel restricted by anything again.
Titles: 8Mb broadband and wireless hub. From just £8.95 a
month for the first 6 months.
Anncr: com
Freefone 0800 444 123 or visit freedomiscatching.
Titles: FREEFONE 0800 444 123
www.freedomiscatching.com
VIDEO
In a final, quick shot we see our young woman, who
has just landed, landing on the lobby floor of a very posh and rather
stuffy hotel. She glances around at the other guests and shrugs
with a smile as if to say ‘what?”
Anncr:
BT. Bringing it all together.
Titles: BT logo and strap line –“BT. Bringing it all together”.
Client: BT
Title: Trampoline
FINAL VERSION
30 sec TV (£7.95 call package)
VIDEO
We open on Ted, a man in his early 40s, leaving his
house for work in the morning. He’s wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase. As he pulls the front door behind him and walks
down the driveway, he spots his kids’ trampoline. It’s in the middle
of the front lawn.
Anncr:
Once you’ve experienced the freedom of BT’s unlimited, anytime calls to the UK and Ireland, for just £7.95 a month…
The urge proves too irresistible. Suddenly, instead of getting into
his car, he deviates from the path and heads straight for a jump on
the trampoline. We see Ted whizzing into the air with a smile on his
face.
Anncr
….you’ll never feel restricted by anything again.
Titles:
UNLIMITED ANYTIME CALLS. JUST £7.95 A
MONTH
Anncr: com
Freefone 0800 444 123 or visit freedomiscatching.
Titles: FREEFONE 0800 444 123
www.freedomiscatching.com
Anncr:
BT. Bringing it all together.
Titles: BT logo and strap line –“BT. Bringing it all together”.
Director’s treatment (Ian Sciacaluga)
BT ‘Freedom’
A Creative Treatment 2 x 30 second TV commercials
Interpretation of Scripts
Two very different characters are observed ‘bursting out’ in otherwise restricted/
conservative worlds - in a hotel lobby and in the front garden of a suburban house.
These ‘bursting out’ scenes are joyous expressions of freedom, likened to BT’s
restriction-free packages. The point being, that freedom can be enjoyed even in the
most seemingly inhibiting environments - something very much to be envied! – and
that the viewer may be feel jealous for missing out on this truly generous and flexible
telecommunications service.
Proposal
My approach to making these commercials is to film them in a way that uses
SUBJECTIVE and OBJECTIVE shots to communicate the narrative.
Subjective
--- In the sense that the camera will be very close/ almost upon our main characters,
or looking out from their points of view when they feel like ‘bursting out’: the woman
sliding down the bannister, the businessman jumping up and down on the trampoline
on his front lawn.
By personalising the exuberant feeling of freedom in these close-to-the-character
shots, the viewer gets to share in the excitement, the release and the sheer, unbridled
joy of ‘letting go.’
An example of a subjective shot: wide angle
lenses linked to the woman as she slides
down the bannister.
A fine reference for this approach is an award-winning BT commercial*
showing a dad unleashing his son on his first, stabiliser-free bike ride. The
Camera remains fixed on the boy’s face as dad casts him off. As the boy sails
down the hill, we can revel in the child’s ever changing expressions: from
apprehension, to fear, to determination, relief, release and finally, utter joy.
This is how I envisage filming our characters’ ‘bursting out’ moment - by
remaining wide angle, intimate and totally TRUE to their features.
These reactions are equally important to
the power of the communication as they
illustrate the public’s response to the lucky
few BT customers who have chosen its
restriction-free packages. It goes
without saying that they also make the
spots highly amusing and engaging.
With a wide angle lens
also, the rest of the
world is pushed back into
oblivion.
-- The transfixed expression
on the opposite neighbour
nosing out of her window at
the businessman bouncing
on the trampoline --
Film Playout
Objective. --- In the way we cut away from the above to show the austere and
restricted WORLDS where the scenarios are set, in wide shots: the
businessman exiting his pristine suburban house and perfectly manicured
street on his way to work, the luxurious and polished hotel lobby distilling with
the anodyne hubbub of the swanky clientele.
Within these ordinary, conservative backgrounds I’ll observe people’s
reactions to our characters’ ‘bursting out’ activities. For example, the look on
the hotel doorman and a young guest’s face when the woman slides down the
big bannister.
Rich and
beautiful
young guest
.. and the
Doorman
I propose to establish the ‘bursting out’ moments of freedom at different points
in each film. I feel that by structuring events in this way, the commercials
become unpredictable and distinctive (in the best sense of the word.)
For example, in the hotel scenario, we introduce the film just at the moment
the woman sets off down the big bannister. We initially signal her intention
through a POV shot of her grappling arm and leg hooking over the balustrade
with the busy concourse seen in the background below, oblivious to the event.
Then, in the same shot, and in the spirit of the aforementioned BT
commercial*, the Camera travels with the woman down the stairs.
This is what we see first
(obviously in a hotel
setting, imagining the
hammock to be the
bannister and the pier
and sky to be the lobby
below!)
Subsequently, we will
experience every colour of
her exhilaration, making it a
VISCERAL experience.
By being this close to the action, the sense of movement and spontaneity is accentuated to
the point that, sometimes, faces may exit the screen.….
Bannister shape
We only cut to our objective, wider
shots the moment the woman
careers off the end of the bannister.
The camera pans awkwardly to find her
landing on a slippery rug.
She steadies herself, adjusts her
rumpled skirt and exits the revolving
door. As she leaves the frame, we
focus on the doorman and a young,
idling guest looking on in
amazement.
I’m proposing that the bannister takes a sudden sharp turn, whereby the woman’s
rate accelerates, and she’s momentarily flung to one side, as this still illustrates.
A final shot of the woman swinging out
of the hotel door and passing by the
camera with a smile on her face will
help punctuate her satisfaction to her
sudden “burst out” – whatever age she
is.
However, in the Trampoline scenario, I will first establish a ‘Reginald Perrin’
world of clockwork ritual before the businessman unpredictably springs on
the trampoline. The playout here has an element of unexpected and eccentric
SURPRISE.
POV Wide angle jump
He disappears out of shot again, re-appears – this time in glorious slow
motion - performing an interesting turnover, then landing on his bum, flying back
up and landing on his feet.
The businessman in bouncing action
There’s nothing wrong with these
archetypes because what they end
up doing makes the effect more
ridiculous and unexpected.
.. then growing more confident.
For example, the businessman first receives an expectant kiss on his cheek
from his wife. He closes the front door firmly and marches purposefully down
the garden path (this is all effected with an air of bored habit).
Suddenly, he suddenly steers off course and steps (tentatively at first) onto his
kids’ trampoline.
At this point, the filming angles change-- as the shots become increasingly
subjective and expressive – a wide angle POV of his feet springing up and
down on the trampoline; wide close ups of him leaping in and out of frame,
wearing a relieved look, a blissful smile, a joyous aspect, etcetera.
At first timid.
As in the hotel scenario, we now proceed to gauge a smattering of reactions in
the surburban street itself: a curious neighbour looking out of her window, or a pet
(the only living thing awake at that time in the morning).
Secret admiration
before hitting his stride.
Cats are terrified by change in
people.
“Hello mum!”
Top of the world.
... And back to earth.
.. but dogs offer sympathy!
Perhaps a more telling reaction would be of a rival neighbour - looking like a
businessman’s version of ‘Tom Cruise’ - inching by across frame in his sporty
convertible, staring blankly through dark sunglasses (a kind of jealousy between the Management class illustrated in this instance).
----and/or by having low sun flares striking the lens in the trampoline bouncing
shot (if the location allows).
The hotel lobby will play more
on an artificial, incandescent
type of lighting and look, and the
location will very much influence
that.
To end this commercial, I propose a shot returning to the serenity of the
suburban environment i.e. a lonely angle of our hero businessman closing the
gate with appropriate care and marching on down the street.
Practical incandescent lights
adorn the hotel.
Or, alternatively, a POV of the dog/ cat peeping out
of the window, watching our businessman casually
set off to work – seemingly the only intelligent witness to his sudden “outburst”.
Format look and Styling
Apart from the standard 35mm Camera
kit, a tracking arm like a hot-head (or
even a Steadicam) will be required to
realise the shot of the woman sliding
down the stairs*. This will be achieved
in two separate ‘passes’.
The commercials are to be originated on Super 35mm film and the look will
be crisp, sharp, colourful (saturated) with an eye to the environment being
depicted. For example, an early morning feel for the businessman setting out
to work. This could be manifested by a magenta-biased tone to the grade---
One as a background plate shot on
location, and another featuring the
woman sitting astride a prop
bannister and filmed against a
greenscreen with wind machine
effect for her hair.
As for the actual locations, I propose employing a spacious, opulent/very elegant
hotel lobby setting filled with colourful, ornate and antique furniture to make this
particular world seem very PRECIOUS indeed, and an archetypal suburban street
that has very symmetrical design in terms of garden and house shape to illustrate
the ORDERLINESS of this world.
Early morning
spacious lobby
Cast
I’m proposing a middle class, conservatively good-looking or educated-looking
man to play the businessman (his clean, aspirational look is important
because the “burst out” that follows will be all the more funnier as it’s so
unexpected).
Well tended suburbia
The bannister woman
should be a person who
looks like she belongs in
the elegant, up-market hotel
environment so that, as with
the businessman, when her
freedom moment bursts out
and she slides down the
bannister, it’s totally out of
character.
The characters HAVE to belong to the environment they are being
established in, for the concept of freedom to be effectively and appropriately
communicated.
I will use improvisations loosely based on the script to discover the best and
most imaginative performers for the roles. I will be looking for honest
character traits rather than theatrical performers in order to make the “burst
out” effects more impressive.
Soundtrack
I propose avoiding music until the end of the commercial, and in keeping with
the appearance of the BT Supers. In this respect, each setting can come to
life in a way that best communicates the story.
For example, the early morning birdsong in the suburban street is
intermittently broken by the squeaky trampoline springs. These sounds for
me highlight an amusing and solitary disturbance in the peace. The hubbub
of chatter in the hotel lobby illustrates the guests’ oblivion to the woman’s
attempt to slide down the stairs. Now in this scenario, I propose introducing
elevator or lobby-type music into the scene the moment the woman lands in
the lobby and recomposes herself - a touch that signals the end of her
irresistible “burst out”.
FX
A STUNT WOMAN is required to realise the tail end of the take-off from the
stair bannister. It would be particularly amusing if the woman had to stagger
to a standstill, tripping up a little over the carpet/ rug on the floor and perhaps
even crash into a couple of hotel guests in front of her.
Post Production
There is a degree of compositing, tracking and combining the green-screen
action of the woman sliding down the bannister with a moving plate for the
hotel script, as well as adding touches to a sun flare for the businessman’s
leap on the trampoline.
BT Freedom Interpretation - Ian Sciaclauga
Directors Storyboard
Click to view the completed commercials
For more information or to give this free service
a try, call Luke on 0207 470 8791 or email
luke@commercialsunlimited.net