Building Strong Ads With Limited Budget
Building Strong Ads With Limited Budget
The most memorable ads are ones that elicit a strong emotion or sense of belonging. Budget can help with that but is, in many cases, one of the least important factors.
My name is Ahmad and I’m a cinematographer in Washington D.C. - working on commercials, documentaries, and narrative films. In this piece, we're going to discuss what makes a great ad and break down three key creative and budget friendly setups on a Toyota spec ad, produced by Lens End Media.
View the full ad below:
What are spec ads and why are they important?
Simply put - spec ads are fake commercials. They're self produced for brands that have not commissioned the work and have no stake in it.
Neither the director, Ibrahim Zafar, nor I have shot an automotive commercial before. The only way to shoot car ads for major brands are to have shot a car ad - a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario. Spec ads give the team a shot at showing clients they can tell unique stories at a high level of production.
“Representation matters, especially in advertising where brands have the power to shape perceptions and influence cultural narratives. With this spec ad, we hope to inspire Toyota and other major car manufacturers to take a closer look at the diverse stories within their consumer base and embrace more inclusive narratives in their mainstream TV spots." - Ibrahim Zafar, Director and Founder of Lens End Media
What makes a great ad?
Not all ads need to focus 100% on the product. Tell the stories you know. Nuanced life or community experiences can help you stand out while being relatable. Sometimes the best way is to show the product in a place and time in someone's life:
“The Rukhsati, or send off, is a trinket that is so embedded within Pakistani and broader South-Asian culture. It’s the moment in which the bride and groom are on their own for the first time. It’s emotional for both sides. You’re now each other’s responsibility instead of your parents’. And what’s even more beautiful is that every culture has their own version of this moment, and while the ad focuses on this moment from our culture, we hope the audience will interpret it from their own unique traditions.” - Ibrahim Zafar
People miss their families and their families miss them. That's the feeling we wanted to hone in on. Toyota acts as the backbone of the story and pushes it forward.
Let's look at three key setups from a theory and technical perspective that build on each to create an emotional pull.
1. Driving
The drive away from the wedding venue is bittersweet. You're starting a new life while leaving another. We wanted the main character, Sana, to go through the stages of happiness, grief, and acceptance in one drive.
It's also not an unfamiliar place for Sana. Her Father is seen standing next to his 1990's Camry at the end of the ad. Toyota was always there and will continue to be there for them.
Technical
Traditionally, the car and crew would be towed on a trailer so the talent can act safely without driving. To save on budget and reallocate funds to other scenes, our approach was to have the car stationary in the parking lot and instead move light through the scene - emulating passing by lamp posts. We stuck with close up shots that don't reveal anything beyond the windows.
A larger light source, seen below, served as a constant so the character doesn't go into full darkness between lamp posts. This mimics the natural ambient light that a city would have as lamp lights bounce off buildings. That may seem like a minor detail, but nuance is important when building an illusion.
With this, we were able to create the feeling of driving without having to move the car - a big win on budget, safety, and schedule.
2. Memories
In our early conversations, we referred to the Toyota as a space ship that could warp through time. Sana could use it to view the past while looking out the window. She could see key moments of her childhood - her Mother passing away from a terminal illness and the relationship with her now-widowed Father. Toyota is more than just a car for Sana. That's the core idea we continue to build on.
Technical
The goal was to capture these memories from the POV of Sana. We needed to move a long horizontal distance in the scene and pan the camera left/right - similar to how a person would view something outside of a moving car. To achieve that, we used 16 feet of pipe and moved the camera across it.
To further the effect, art department, led by Senna Ahmad, macgyvered a piece of a doorframe that we attached to the slider. Nothing fancy - just a black "L" that would be out of focus and stay in place as we panned the camera left and right.
3. Product Shots
At the end of the day, we need to direct these feelings towards the product. By showing the Toyota a few times amidst these moments, we give the viewer a reference for how they should feel the next time they see one on the street. It could even sway the decision towards buying one.
Technical
We opted to create these in Unreal Engine 5 since we'd have more control over the camera, lighting, and brand placement with the time we had. Unreal Engine is free and there are high quality 3D models of cars available for purchase online for around $100. A small price to pay for flexibility.
As technology develops, it becomes easier to create high quality 3D cinematics on your own or with a VFX artist. As a cinematographer with both live-action and virtual experience, we were able to leverage that with realistic camera movement + lighting.
It's important to ground your 3D shots in realism - good CGI is just CGI you don't notice. A great way to do this is to take a step towards your live-action footage. Limit the camera movement to something that could physically be achieved in the real world. You can get any shot you can think of in 3D, but for this story, the "coolest" shots were not necessarily the right ones. Subtle and simple was the goal here.
Finding solutions that are budget friendly can also be creatively freeing. Your story and what you want viewers to feel should be your north star. Everything else will align with enough development time.
If you like this, consider sharing with a friend! Happy to answer questions about any of this - feel free to shoot me an email at ahmadasaadDP@gmail.com
If you’d like to follow my work, I can be found on Instagram @ahmadasaaddp
Special thanks to the cast and crew
Cast
Leena Siddiqui, Manasi Mehta, Shabbir Kazmi, Hrishabh Sobti, Diana Hajali, Samira Sardella, and Krystel Chebli
Crew
Director/Producer: Ibrahim Zafar
Director of Photography: Ahmad Asaad
UPM: Neil Gerardo
1st AC: Caleb Hargett
DIT: Bryan Bermudez
Gaffer: Andrew Alfonsi
Key Grip: Skylar Carr
Grip: Michael Bittner
Production Designer/Costume Designer: Senna Ahmad
Assistant Production Designer/Wardrobe: Laura Foltz
HMUA: Salsabil Malik
Henna Artist: Senna Ahmad
Casting Director: Antoine Remy
Key PA: David Holman
PA: Andre Banks
Editor: Mark Moore III, Ibrahim Zafar
Original Score: Daniel Frankhuizen
SFX: Jeremy Barr
VFX/Color: Ahmad Asaad
Story: Ibrahim Zafar, Niha Zafar
