One of our loyal videomakers here at XLNTads is Zack Scott. He’s a great guy, a funny fella and one smart videomaker. He recently earned some cash from us for his hilarious barfing mailbox for ProQuo and he’s written a great guest post for Nalts’ blog Will Video for Food about how he went about making his winning video.
Here are some of his main thoughts on how he did it:
- Parody - The main humor throughout the video is based on the fact the video is a parody without being a parody of the product. That way both the audience and the company executives can enjoy it. But who knows, maybe directly trashing the product is a better approach? I’ll try it next time.
- Bizarreness – Frankly, I think the talking mailbox is both creepy and bizarre (and maybe even cheesy), but it is essential for setting up ProQuo as something to treat various ailments. Although the first half of the video feels different from the second half, I think it worked out great. Samuel did a great job with computer effects and stop-motion.
- Randomness – I think random humor can be really funny when there can be a true connection to the topic. The scenes of Samuel looking cool, me being inept at sports, Samuel stumbling out of a portable toilet, and me pulling a huge weed out of the ground appear to be random. But if you look at any pharmaceutical commercial, there are always clips of people doing random activities from the mundane to the extreme. So why not just have us performing weird activities? It allows for some slapstick humor and a way to keep the video exciting while the voiceover discusses some important aspects of ProQuo.
- Punchline – Since XLNTads and ProQuo wanted funny, I felt there had to be a “punchline” of sorts. I don’t want to spoil it, but it is funny due to the parody aspect and the much-needed self-depreciating humor. Plus, it is true. I guess the main lesson here is that once you have an idea or a full concept, figure out how you can utilize it to its full potential.
Definitely head over and read the whole article. Zack’s a smart guy and certainly knows what he’s talking about.
[tags]zack scott, nalts, video, contest, how to[/tags]
