Apart from working with clients on a professional basis, I also try and keep up with personal, creative projects. For those of you that don’t know, a Spec Ad, stands for a “speculative advertisement“, and videographers often do them as a way of testing their creative skills, or it can be used to as a promotional tool to attract the attention of well-known brands.
Why Shoot Spec Ads?
For me, spec ads are a really helpful way of testing out new filming methods so that I’m always ahead of new filming techniques for my clients, and it’s an opportunity in a non-pressure environment to push the boat a little bit.
I’ve shot a handful of spec ads, when I first started out I shot one for Can O Water, which you can see here, with this one for Keogh’s Crisps, being the most recent one. Before filming, I spent a little bit of time researching the brand and looking at the content they’d already published on their website and social media channels. The vibe I got was that it’s a rustic brand, focused on the source of the potatoes, and has a down to earth quality. A lot of their photos used on their website include the ingredients used in making their flavours of crisps as well.
Final Result
So with these ideas in mind I picked up a few bags of crisps, put together a rough shot list and began filming! Check out the finished result along with a behind the scenes vlog I made during filming.
Final Spec Ad
Behind The Scenes
I was really pleased with how the final version turned out. It took me awhile to source music that I felt matched the brand, I wanted something Irish and quite low-key (finding music is always the most difficult part for me!).
Techy Stuff
For those interested in the technical side of things, this was all shot on my Canon R6, with a 50mm 1.8. I pretty much only shoot handheld as well now as the IBIS is so good in the R6 that with a little stabilization in post you get really smooth footage, and shooting handheld allows you to be a lot more creative and flexible with movements.
