Getting into the Heart
If you were given the task of making a commercial for something — and you were given all the resources you’ll ever need — what would you do? Of course, it depends on what that something is, but what is your first natural inclination? What would you be striving towards? The cool factor? Show how awesome the thing is?
That’s the general take of commercials these days, and you’ll see an abundance of visual effects and 3D shtuff out there. The market is over-saturated with commercials (and movies) like this.
Special effects are no longer special*.
Now, rather than trying to wow people with flares and whistles, let’s say you want to get down to the emotive core. What would you do? Apple’s done an incredible job over the past few years, and now, so has the firm that’s responsible for pumping out Google Chrome ads.
There’s something about videos with practical effects — practical, as in, non-visual effects. There is something special about doing everything in-camera. Rather than being super-slick, it’s much more homely, which adds to the emotive value. The Google Chrome ads have been faithful in keeping everything practical, going as far as revealing the harpist in some. Practical effects to visual effects is like hand puppets to slick cartoons, Old Star Wars to New Star Wars (though, Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks are equally annoying), and Jackie Chan to Jet Li. The great news is that practical effects are more accessible to you and me, though that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily easy to pull off.
* Not all special effects are no longer special. I do think, however, that it’s much harder to impress the crowd these days via vfx, unless it’s done really well. (Think Avatar.)
Related Posts
Tagged as inspiration + Categorized as Design