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$1K vs $10K vs $100K videos


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7 minutes ago, kaylee said:

is this a joke?

What is a joke about it? 

Other than perhaps the way they've managed to not so subtly turn this into one big advert for themselves (cunning!). 

But I still feel this was an interesting and useful series of videos to watch for those who are curious. 

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Interesting concept but I'm not very impressed by the ads creatively. The attempts to be funny got in the way of actually explaining or selling the product in my opinion.

Also a little disingenuous. I doubt you'd get a large video production agency to devote it's whole office, staff, and creative planning, shooting and editing to create a 2 minute video for just $1000.

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1 hour ago, Anaconda_ said:

Just imagine what they could have done making 1 ad for $111k

Would be indistinguishable from the $100K video most likely. 

 

12 minutes ago, austinchimp said:

Also a little disingenuous. I doubt you'd get a large video production agency to devote it's whole office, staff, and creative planning, shooting and editing to create a 2 minute video for just $1000.

They didn't. 

Watch the BTS as well! When they explain what happened. 

The $1K video was mostly one guy by himself and an iPhone. 
(wellll.... he kinda got a little help some of the time, but it was just whoever he could twist the arm of to lend a hand. He never had an specialists working on it. I think the lady he got to swing the boom usually is an editor instead?? They have what looks like a ME66 running into an H5. Ugh! Though then later on he mentions he used a lav straight to the iPhone. So dunno as to exactly what they did for audio. Maybe a mix of various approaches)

But broadly speaking I agree with you, most agency wouldn't even answer the phone for $1K. More like double or triple that would be their floor for even the smallest social media video. 

There certainly are lots of holes we could pick in this series, but hey, that makes for fun discussions like this! ?
For instance unless you're shooting it yourself (which to be fair... seems to be who they're pitching the $1K video at!! Which when viewed that way, the $1K video process makes a lot more sense) and an iPhone is all you use, then you'd almost never use an iPhone! As even on a $1K corporate video you'd still at least use something like say a GH3/5Dmk3/a6000/etc instead. Much nicer than an iPhone!

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29 minutes ago, IronFilm said:


Watch the BTS as well! When they explain what happened. 

The $1K video was mostly one guy by himself and an iPhone. 
 

I did watch it and he obviously had engagement and input from some of the senior creatives in the agency which alone would have pushed the budget over $1000! But anyway as you said it's a fun discussion.

To me what it emphasises is the importance of having an interesting and creative core concept over having all the gear, which is a lesson I personally find it important to remember in my daily work! I guess in this case, the most creative concept, and the real ad here is the '1k, 10k, 100k' idea, rather than the actual product being shown. In that sense it's actually a very creative ad for the agency. We're sitting here watching it and discussing it so it obviously worked!

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5 minutes ago, kaylee said:

hmmm...!

i think my reaction, when watching the three videos ascending in budget, was that theyre the same~!

call me a tough critic!

THIS cost $100k?? in DOLLARS?!??

what ?

 

Well 100K is a huge budget for something like this. But the difference between the 1K and 100K is huge though ? Maybe youre not a tough critic, but maybe suffering a bit from blindness though. Just joking :) I don't like one the commercials, but this was a real smart marketing idea :) 

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Interesting concept for a commercial with the funny part being that I understood the product the most from the $1000 video.

The whole budget aspect is really irrelevant though since they were shooting the pieces at the same time, so the location budget was probably paid for by the highest budget production. 

In the end, the entire process is irrelevant because Wistia will save everybody from having to spend any budget on an internet ad. So while we as filmmakers argue which budget looked and sounded the best, Wistia is selling a product directly to our customers that show they don’t need us... well they don’t need you guys because I don’t make commercials.

So in summation... Wistia paid $111,000 to make a commercial to show their potential customers that they can make commercials for next to nothing... oh the irony... the lesson here is that Wistia probably should have used their own product.

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Interesting concept. I guess it's similar for making movies, where the story is always king and many CGI elements can be replaced by well executed effects where props and great lighting and camera work can make things look much better (like miniature cars shows as gull sized ones or miniature sets replacing full sized ones too). 

For me the $100k Ad somehow didn't justify the budget. There was nothing extra-ordinary in the lighting or effects or anything else. Even the dolly movements were limited do a  much higher budget.

I've realised from working on films of different budgets that on larger budget productions, Stars, Locations (not necessarily well created sets) and Equipment constitute the majority of the budget and therefore as one goes higher, the concept of diminishing marginal returns applies wrt to how visually stunning or amazing other elements of the film are. The biggest giveaway of a low budget film is usually the sound.

 

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6 hours ago, austinchimp said:

I did watch it and he obviously had engagement and input from some of the senior creatives in the agency which alone would have pushed the budget over $1000!

Why do you say that?


The only "higher up discussion" I feel there might have been is making sure that all three kinda tie in with each other (I guess because they're part of this series) with some referential humor to each other. 

 

6 hours ago, kaylee said:

i think my reaction, when watching the three videos ascending in budget, was that theyre the same~!

 call me a tough critic!

THIS cost $100k?? in DOLLARS?!??

Seriously??? You can't tell the production quality difference between them?? They're very different!

Not even between the $1K and $100K videos??? (although the biggest leap in production quality was from $1K to $10K, then the law of diminishing returns kicks in)

 

6 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

Maybe youre not a tough critic, but maybe suffering a bit from blindness though.

hahaha

6 hours ago, austinchimp said:

I guess in this case, the most creative concept, and the real ad here is the '1k, 10k, 100k' idea, rather than the actual product being shown. In that sense it's actually a very creative ad for the agency. We're sitting here watching it and discussing it so it obviously worked!

YUP!!

I feel this overall (& semi hidden!) advertising concept here is the real message they're pushing. But that each individual piece of it could perhaps push its "message" (of what they overtly claim to be advertising) better. 

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10 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Why do you say that?


The only "higher up discussion" I feel there might have been is making sure that all three kinda tie in with each other (I guess because they're part of this series) with some referential humor to each other. 

I only watched it once but wasn't there a behind the scenes clip where the camera panned away from the guy filming on an iPhone to show some of the other guys sitting and watching and reacting?

It's not very clear but it suggests they were contributing to it in some sense. To get multiple senior creatives to have any input in a '$1000 video' strikes me as a little unlikely but who knows.

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6 hours ago, kaylee said:

that clip is super generic. whats different about it, that youve never seen before? kno what i mean

Well the  fact is most of your run of the mill work is well.... your run of the mill work. 

You're not winning a Clio / ADDY / etc Award every day of the week.

Often it is just a person talking to a camera, telling you about their product, and next. 

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6 hours ago, mercer said:

The whole budget aspect is really irrelevant though since they were shooting the pieces at the same time, so the location budget was probably paid for by the highest budget production. 


Nope. 

The $1K was just shot in his office. No locations budget spent there at all. 

 

5 hours ago, sanveer said:

For me the $100k Ad somehow didn't justify the budget. There was nothing extra-ordinary in the lighting or effects or anything else. Even the dolly movements were limited do a  much higher budget.

 

Even $100K isn't unlimited budget, that can quickly disappear on an advert too. 
But you can noticeably tell how things like camera movement / lighting / VFX / etc is a step up with the $100K advert over the $10K advert. 

 

5 hours ago, sanveer said:

 I've realised from working on films of different budgets that on larger budget productions, Stars, Locations (not necessarily well created sets) and Equipment constitute the majority of the budget and therefore as one goes higher, the concept of diminishing marginal returns applies wrt to how visually stunning or amazing other elements of the film are. The biggest giveaway of a low budget film is usually the sound.


I was kinda disappointed how little they put into sound at each level. Even the $100K was just one guy doing it ENG

 

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23 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Nope. 

The $1K was just shot in his office. No locations budget spent there at all. 

Yup, in the $1000 ad, there was a whole scene where the actor gets in the shot of the other guy sitting on the sofa while filming the other commercial. Plus his office was within the larger office. I don’t think that location was the production companies’ office building. 

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26 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

I think in this day and age nobody but the people making money off of it care about a 100K Ad.  The iPhone gets the point across just as well as an Arri can. Whole new era.

And in some ways the iPhone makes more sense than a low end or middle of the ground camera. 

I was working an event this weekend and the local Fox affiliate had a news crew there with their heavy hitters from the morning show and the event was shot with a small iPhone rig. 

49 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

I was kinda disappointed how little they put into sound at each level. Even the $100K was just one guy doing it ENG

Well, it’s a commercial for internet ads... who even listens to them?

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