Nice 30sec clip, and your's is the best of the top ten!

Awesome spot!
I really look forward to your "Making Of."

Edit: I agree that yours is the clear winner. Some really nice entries, but you're has the best fit to their theme and that alternative rock feel. Nicely done.

Impressive !

Job well done.

good luck !


Ted

Thanks everybody for the kind words. I finished the "Making Of" and posted it on my "in development" website. I will probably get around to putting on YouTube but I want to wait till the contest is over.
Let me know what you think!
www.weatherstonstudio.com/newwebsite/galleries/motiongraphics/making89x/making89x.html

I watched each of the top 10. There was only one other that I even remotely liked besides yours. I can honestly say yours is the best, IMHO. Good luck!

Wow - Great job on the Making Of too.

Maybe it's too late for changes, but I recommend keeping the big text on-screen and not fading it off-then-on while the band-walking shots are fading in-and-out.

I also suggest not using negative text like "YOU DON'T KNOW...". Think of a positive way to communicate the same message.

Excellent commercial that is likely to actually make an impact, not just look good.

A few nits:

1. For some viewers, it will be a distraction to see "DONT" instead of "DON'T".

2. I agree with Tim that it might have been better with a positive message, but I don't think that is crucial here.

3. When zooming out from the stage, the white text with depth really works well, except the word "BEST" is partially obstructed by somebody's head in a way that makes the word have less impact.

4. The station name should have stayed on screen longer at the end, to create a lasting impact. That is the #1 most important change I would make, because that is the product being sold, and if it doesn't stick, well, then this is all just for show as opposed to create new listeners.

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you liked the "making of." As far as the positive/negative issue, I totally understand what you're saying. We discussed this in pre-production and went back & forth. The full sentence is "You don't know this band yet." The idea being that the radio station introduces bands to listeners. But I couldn't think of another way to communicate it without weakening it's impact (YOU...WILL...SOON...KNOW...THIS...BAND). Let me know if there are any ideas out there for a better text overlay, I would be very open to changing it.
Also, the logo is on the screen for the last 5 seconds of the commercial. Admittedly that's including a good portion of the zoom. But please let me know if :5 of :30 is not enough.
If you haven't checked out the "making of" let me know if you like it. It's meant to be more cute than inspiring or intense. My eagle eye wife spotted a typo that I'll need to fix so if there are any other changes you would recommend, feel free to post away.
Thanks everyone and I've never been part of a more helpful, informative, POSITIVE forum. The Vegas community rocks!
-Ben

Very cool tutorial!
I'd like to learn more about some of the compositing and grading you did, like "Light Wrap," etc.
Thanks for putting that up.

I wouldn't change any of it. It made me want to listen to the station. That is the important part. In short, it works. You can tweek something forever and find that you lost it somewhere. Best of luck with the contest.

I'm glad you guys like it! As for the Light Wrap, it's an incredibly simple technique but I haven't figured out how to do it in Vegas. Please help me discover it if you are up to the challenge. If you're familiar with Photoshop, there are Adjustment layers that affect all the layers underneath it. After Effects has the same feature which turns out to be a compositing lifesaver. Instead of color correcting two separate layers, just add a color correction adjustment layer on top of both of them. The light wrap effect is just a blank adjustment layer with the Glow effect applied to it. That way, the highlights are blurred out over the edges of the layers above it.
Can anyone think of a way to do this in Vegas? I've tried a few different ideas but nothing works. You could always export the frames to Photoshop and apply the Diffuse Glow effect. Let me know if anybody knows a way.

As far as my commercial, they still haven't announced a winner yet. Wish me luck!
-Ben

bdub

can you email me privately - info is under my username

thanks

cheno

What you have described as light warp is what the GLOW VFX in Vegas does. I use it and then add a gradient map to get some delicate looks. You have probably tried it and found the AE method to work better for you. It can not be added to a group of layers though without rendering the composite to a new track first.