How to Make and Submit a Spec Commercial

[Chris Fernando]

Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forum here and would really appreciate any advice on an endeavour I am considering undertaking. I would like to produce a spec commercial but I'm not sure how to go about "submitting" it to whoever would be interested in such a thing. I guess my first query would be: are these sent to ad agencies? If so, how does one go about finding out who represents who? My other question, perhaps my first, is: is it best to approach the ad agency or company (or whoever) with your idea for the commercial or is it best to go in with the finished product? Any advice/help would be much appreciated, Cheers.

 

[markcheng]

I think you'd want to get your reel to ad agencies that contract with the clients who hire them. I used to get a subscription to 'Boards magazine which covers production news in the ad agency... this is the website:



The magazine had a lot of different agency information in the articles... good luck with your specs... I made one a while back... check it (if you got Windows Media Player)



mark.

 

[Chris Fernando]

Mark,
Thanks for the info. I checked out the spec; very funny! Question for you, if you don't mind, were there any takers on it? If so, what was your experience like; were you able to get back the money you invested or was it more like you were trying to get your name out there? If you weren't successful and the company didn't bite on it, what did you learn from the experience? Thanks again for your help.

Regards,
Chris

 

[markcheng]

Chris, thanks, I'm glad you liked it. I made that one and a couple of others (actually a great directing exercise cuz it forces you to work on multiple short projects - not too overwhelming...)

Anyway, I realized while making them that I enjoy working on my own story/idea concepts a lot and might not enjoy doing other people's ideas the way much of the ad industry works... so I ended up writing my own short film and am in production right now with it...

What I was planning to do and what you might want to do is get a subscription to 'Boards Magazine which totally covers the creative part of the advertising industry. They analyze spots, talk about who's who... and have special production issues where you get a full directory of companies and what they work on... There are a lot of names and addresses you'll be able to use and send your reel to. Good luck! I strongly recommend 'Boards cuz that's where I learned a lot about commercial production...

Oh yeah, another thing that made me realize that I might not fit into commercials is that I always wanted my projects to be longer than the industry standard 15 sec, 30, and sometimes 1:00 length... I always wanted to stuff more narrative in!

mark.

 

[tiramisushi]

spec

spec

Hey Chris,
Check this out, might help. Kinda pricey, but I see the DVDs on eBay every once in a while.