TCM Lights
This music or background sound in this clip has a sound that is a combination of a vibrating electric quitar combined with a rythmic beat that has a metallic sound effect . The music and beat are very slow and produce a lonely, desolate feel for the piece.
In my opinion the sound is similiar to an old western film where a dangerous character slowly enters a darkened scene leaving the viewer with the feel that something unpredictable is about to occur.
With the feel set for the viewer with the use of this mysterious sound, the creators of the clip enhance the mystery by leaving the initial screen a vaste empty black canvas. Just then a close up shot of a hand lighting a match enters the darkness. The strike of the match is timed along with one of the metal like twang sound effects in the background music. Shortly after the match is lit, the hand pulls to the background, as the hand itself completely blurs out of the view the match flame is muted into a soft circle of light. This softened circle of white light morphs into the headlights of an oncoming car. The car is approaching in time to the music and just as it approached close enough to have to leave the frame, instead it morphs into the light at the end of a flashlight. Then rather than leaving the frame the position of the flashlight stays in the lower left corner, yet the direction of the light emitted from the flashlight lifts to the upper right corner of the clip.
As the flashlight is pointed to the upper right corner, the hue of the light changes to a small white bright source of light that is emmitting a blueish green/grey light. The length of the light has shortened and is eluminating a small section of ledge that outcrops from the side of what appears to be a curved mountainess roundway. The light has again morphed into car headlights approaching around this bend, but this time as the lights approach they morph into the head of a lit cigarette. The red head of the cigarette drifts off into the background and morphs into a red tail light of a car driving into the darkness.
The tail lights drive off into the distance and eventually become nothing more than a white spot, or metallic hi-lite. The white spot splits into head lights that are again approaching. This then becomes a shot of two red gas station pumps, each having a light overhead, with the far off headlights of the oncoming car seen in between the gas pumps. The image of the gas pumps is very similiar to the previous image of the red car tail lights. This time the car comes clearly into view as it approaches the gas pumps, and then the TCM logo appears near the car.
This entire piece offers the viewer just enough visual information to make out what light source or object they are seeing. The morphing is very smooth, and although the items being morphed make no sense, it occurs in a manner that holds the viewers attention and keeps them interested and guessing what is next. The play on minimal imagery and morphing is very well put together.

The Travel Channel
This clip begins with a sound effect of a falling object or sound waves vibrating. As this sound is played a visual is shown which has the earth to the left of the words 'break away'. Almost immediately the earth begins to fall into the distance. At a certain point it hits the background, which until now was just a flat dusty rose colored background. However, when the earth hits a certain point, the background becomes a liquid surface and the earth breaks the surface tension and splashes into the liguid and out of view. The disturbance in the liquid that is caused by the fallen earth spins and morphs into a very close up tight shot of the top of a stick of cotton candy. As the cotton candy appears a very eerie song begins to play, it has almost a haunting sound to it. The cotton candy is being held by a kneeling child on a beach. The camera shot quickly changes to this same young girl walking with her family hand in hand. They are walking at an almost dancing type of quick stepped pace as they excitedly approach an amusement park near the shore.
As the family approaches the board walk the young girl lets go of her parents hand and runs into a sea of bubbles that are floating through the air. She has broken away from her parents, similiar to how her parents chose to break away from routine to let the family enjoy some quality family fun time on a vacation. The family continues off into the distance together, as a clown with an oversized bubble wand waves his wand as the logo for the Travel Channel appears. A very formal male narrator then states , " The new Travel Channel......break away. "

W Network at Spark Creative Inc
This clip has five distinct sections. The first section begins with a bell like sound that chimes out the W Network theme song while a drum rythm beats in the background. The first visual you see is a bullseye target like graphic in the center of the screen that appears to be emitting waves outward. As these waves grow a planet or star drifts from the foreground into the distance and it is then immmediately joined by numerous stars or planets moving through space. The color of the clip is almost completely made up of shades of a greenish grey with the exception of the bullseye like graphic which includes an area of bright red and very little white. The background has many softly squared lights that fade into the picture. They give the illusion of city buildings in the distance. Just as the building lights enter, one of the heavenly spherical objects lands into soft sand. This sphere has the W logo on it and it lands exactly as the final bell tone is chimed.
The second section uses the same musical lyric, only played with completely different instruments producing a much softer sound. The bell sound is higher pitched and sounds more like wind chimes. The background drumming sound is absent and in it's place there is a heavenly soft classical soothing musical background. The picture opens with the same bullseye target in the center of the screen, with large oversized snowflakes floating around the entire screen. The camera zooms out as the target fades and the snowflakes are now seen to be encased within a snowglobe. As the snowglobe moves to the distance the familiar lights appear that resemble the lighted windows of city buildings. Then as the snowglobe moves into the distance it eventually becomes a sphere with the W logo, again this is timed perfectly to the last note of the accompanying music.
The third section of this Holiday clip for the W Network begins with a very tight shot of a red christmas light as seen through the branches of a christmas tree. The music is the same theme, again the instruments have been modified for another sound effect. The bells are very high pitched chimes but are played with more notes that produce a lighter faster sound. The background sound effect isn't as noticable, but there is a hollow wood percussion sound effect that can be heard at the end of this section. It is not as powerful as the previous drums or heavenly musical background sounds that were used. The screen shot zooms out until the entire tree is visable. Again the target is present, and it fades out soon after being displayed. Once the tree is fully visible it begins to rotate at an angle leading the viewer to look down the tree from the center of the treetop. As this occurs the familiar city lights come into view, and the tree moves into the distance. Once zoomed out from the tree, the tree becomes nothing more than a red sphere, in which the W logo is placed. Again, timed perfectly with the final note of the musical accompaniment.
The fourth section, begins with a tight shot looking at the top of a red christmas ornament. As the shot zooms out the angle is pivoted so that you are viewing the front of the ornament. The background is made up of barren deciduous saplings with very few random red christmas ornaments strung on a few branches.The theme song this time is played with a flute or woodwind instrument and has a funky kind of rythm playing in the background. The color background this time is white and the previous lights described as lighted windows are now shown in green and red. The final shot has the ornament at a distance with the W logo within it, which is timed to the last note of the music perfectly, of course.
The final section has a white background, with red poisettas and petals floating from the foreground into the distance. The music is a bell chime sound that has a few deep bass notes held in the background. As the petals and flowers float into the distance they are all gathered into one location and morph into a red sphere with the W logo in the center. As the logo appears a final electric sounding note is played.

ZDTV

The ZDTV broadcasting company has used a combination of human personalities, red geometric shapes, and an unusual fictional world. Colors within the clip are golden warm shades, and movements within the clip are floating with smooth transitions. There are four personalities shown beginning with a black dressed designer. He is the creator who is shown with his finger on the corner of a holey cube that is spinning. This display gives the viewer the feel that this person, whose head and face is intentionally not shown, has the control of the fictional world that he has created. As he spins the cube the camera zooms in close to his face as he peers into the cube and eventually the camera zooms to within the inner core of the cube.
Once inside the cube a beautiful fictional world is uncovered. The world has a dark glistening body of water covering the entire surface of this world. The water appears like black glass, with small waves jumping consistantly as white light reflects off the surface. In the distance is a warm golden cloudy sunset with the clouds floating slowly. In this world three more personalities are introduced. Two are a young boy with a black cap, white shirt, suspenders and short trousers sitting in a small wooden rowboat, holding a fishing pole. With the young boy in the boat, is a gentleman, who also has a european look to him. This gentleman is the oarsman of the boat, appearing as a kind person, either a family member or friend who has the boys best interest in mind. As the two are sitting in the old wooden row boat, a beautiful woman dressed in a black silky flowing outfit walks into the scene. She appears to be walking through the water, which must be only a few inches deep. This helps to set the scene as a fictional world, how could the two be fishing and rowing a boat in only 2 inches of water? One item in the shot is placed to clearly identify that this world is one that is not possible in reality. The one item that clearly identifies the fictional world is the fish. Orange, golden colored fish are randomly swimming past the woman and the two in the boat, but they are floating through the air, not in the water.
The young boy then holds up a small red cube and hands it to the woman. The red cube represents the ZDTV logo, and the fictional world. The woman takes the cube and moves over toward a larger cube that is hollow and steps within the center void. She holds up the small cube and it floats within the void. The camera zooms into the red cube which is morphing into a blob. It appears to be changing shape as it determines it identity. Eventually the small cube transforms into the ZDTV logo cube.

The sounds in the beginning of the piece are very technical sounding. The music has electrical zaps and effects within it. As the shots change to the fictional world the music has a foreign, less technical sound. The music is egyptian or sounding as if from some part of the middle east. This ties in well with the woman, and her outfit and enhances the mystical feeling of the piece.

The Mummy

The credits to this movie open on a black screen. Slowly in the background the lower portion of a sarcophagus comes into view and the camera pans up until the doglike head of the sarcopagus is visible. The whole time the sarcophagus is being panned by the camera, in the background a very eerie sound effect is played. It is kind of a combination of a mysterious haunting scream and a heavy wind. The scream doesn't sound human it has an unfamiliar sound to it. When the doglike head is shown in a full frontal shot, the movie title, The Mummy comes from the foreground into alignment in front of the doglike head. The text is both emitting a glowing light into the black background, and the letters are also holding rolling flames within the boundaries of the title letters. Skeleton bones are thrown from the text to the left and off the screen, and then the title explodes into small embers than shoot out and disppear off the screen to the left in the high winds that can be heard. The camera pans around the sarcophagus showing the left profile of the doglike head. Also in view is a swirling mass of locusts in both the foreground and background. This shot fades out and the black screen is back.
Onto the black screen the wall of a tomb is softly lit, but it is only a very small area of the tomb wall that is visible. The effect is as if this small area was being lit by a torch. In the background a mysterious song begins to play, the song has the perfect effect to introduce intrigue and interest. As credits appear onto the scene they enter randomly so that the words cannot be identified until completly exposed. This ties in well with the hierogliphics displayed on the tomb wall. The overal effect makes the view feel like they are unraveling hidden messages within a tomb, while they are doing little more than reading movie credits. Also as letters are exposed some enter as hierogliphic symbols that are then converted to letters. This is a nice touch keeping to the movie setting.

DIRECTV "ESPN Full Court"

'The Farmer'

This advertisement for ESPN'S Full Court opens with a sunrise shot of a farm. The day is dawning, at the 'All Seasons Farm', the dirt road winds up to a large red barn, complete with a pond in the right foreground, and geese flying overhead. The sound is that of a simple banjo playing, and a rooster can be heard crowing in the distance. At first appearances this will be an advertisement for an agricultural spot. The farm scene was nicely set, and is followed by an overall clad farmer starting the day from inside a darkened barn, as he walks into the daylight opening the barn door, he narrates that 'Harvest time, has got to be the toughest time, but of course when we get a crop like this, it really makes it all worthwhile." Just then the farmer lifts a basketball to his face and smells it as if it were just picked from the fields. The scene is followed with a shot of college students and basketball players that are out in what appears like a pumpkin patch. They are harvesting this seasons crop of freshly grown basketballs.
Narration again is used as the banjo continues to play, " Grandad always said that is takes a great ball to have a great game". The farmer continues on adding 'To many a basketball is just a vegetable, to us, it's a way of life' , as he reaches down in the garden picking a fresh new basketball and admiring it just like any gardener would admire a good crop.
The humorous comparison of basketballs to vegetables continues, as the ad displays a packaging facility with bins of basketballs that are being scrutinized for 'freshness' by college basketball coaches. This is followed by a testimonial taken on a basketball court from a coach who is supporting the importance of a well ripened basketball, and stating that this is why they take the time to check out the crop in person at the farm.
The humor is really brought to it's peak as the old farmer continues on to state how important the correct ripeness is, as he informs that last year a farm worker 'Jimmy' put a 'green one' in the bunch as the farmer is recalling this mishap on the farm a shot from a basketball game is playing. The game shot shows a very green basketball being passed to a player, the player attempts to hold or pass the ball, but both the player and ball take on an out of control very uncoordinated move as if reflecting the fact that since the ball wasn't ripe, the player couldn't take control of it.
The farmer immediately follows the comment with ' you can't leave it on the vine too long, that's no good either". This statement is made as a ball player is shown making a leaping dunk shot, yet as the ball hits the rim it shatters into a million mushy pieces, just like a smashed pumpkin.
The commercial ends with the clip of some exciting moves on a court during gametime, as a coach states that basketball is simple sport, if you take good players, give them good produce, you'll have a good game. The final statement 'If you want good basketball, you have to go to the source..." As the final comment is made the ESPN Full Court logo lights up the screen and the banjo music closes.

Lenovo ThinkPad

This commercial opens with close up shot of a fictional representation of a menacing computer virus. The virus has been designed to appear as a living microscopic organism, that is somewhat similiar to an alien lifeform. The virus also appears to exist within what mirrors a human bloodstream to some degree. The virus is intent on approaching a cluster of similiar virus's that have already attached themselves to the host cell. As the virus makes its final approach it opens slowly as an arrowhead type prong appears, which the virus thrusts into the healthy cell and then grabs hold along with the cluster of virus's already attached. The background in this scene is dark and there are other virus's blurred in the distance floating randomly about. This resembles cells floating throught the blood vessels of a liviing creation, and the evil virus is comparable to a human virus or illness that is violently attacking the health and wellbeing of the host. As the arrowlike prong enters the healthy cell, there is a sound similiar to a biting or invasive slashing sound.
As soon as the virus is attached, the destruction of the host begins. A red somewhat crystalized substance rapidly begins to consume the host. The camera begins to back out to show that this began at a microscopic level, but is now becoming a larger than life destructive corruption of the host, that can't be stopped. As the red oozing, crystalized mass begins to consume the outer keyboard surface , it is now clear that the host is a computer. The destruction continues, and does resemble the decomposition of flesh. The sounds in the background are mixed with space like technology streams, as well as a melting fleshlike sound.
Then suddenly the virus reaches a climax and peaks with a shot of exploding computer parts. All types of circuit boards, monitor parts, keys, and other parts explode out into space. Just as rapidly as they explode apart, they are reassembled into a working laptop computer. All the parts land perfectly into place, the computer is started at and appears to be back and ready to use. A narrator states "Virus Recovery Button, with Thinkpad 360 with Intel Centrino Mobile Technology"..Followed by the company logo and slogan "New Thinking. New Technology".

National Geographic - Sizzle Upfront 2005

Dare to Explore

The 'Dare to Explore' clip is a promotional presentation representing the National Geographic Corporation. The promotion begins with a beautiful extremely tight shot of the center of a flower, which is followed by a translucent inner womb video clip of an early stage fetus floating and pulsating. These shots set the stage for the message that will continue throughout the promo. The message being life and the world in lives in. In its many different forms and stages.
The video cuts from photos of the pure nature, to simple life styles in third world countries, to nasa and the space program. The clip is full of contrast. Including contrast of cultures and people, as well as calm weather contrasted with violent weather, small simple life and complex scientific technological advancements - they are all portrayed and given their moment on stage. A smokey, trailing effect was added to most of the photo shots. The effect is sometimes appearing as smoke or flame like trail in the background, yet in many shots it is actually pulled from an object in the photo. For example, a black like smoke trails off the back pack of a mountain climber, and then later an explorer is riding through the jungle on a cable and again the smokey trail runs off of the red and yellow handle of the device he is hanging onto.
The clip continues on displaying shots of various types of risk taking. Fast cars, parachuting, white water rafting are a few of the clips that are displayed. From these fast paced shots the tone changes somewhat into shots that still demonstrate risk taking, however more in the form of scientific exploration with risk, not just for sport.
Throughout the video promo, the song 'Dare you to Move', by Switchfoot plays. The words and rythm to the song are very well matched to the message being put forth. The words Welcome to the Planet, Welcome to existence, everyone's here.....What happens next.....These words combine perfectly with the photos to help build upon the powerful message showing that mankind has always had a powerful urge to explore and learn about the world.
At the end of the clip an explorer states a few words about man's need to explore, and the clip closes with the National Geographic logo, and a slogan added stating "Dare to Explore", which challenges the viewer to participate in the exploration by watching the NGC channel/programming.

Mission Impossible

This introduction opens with an extremely tight shot of a translucent blue and orange flame shown against a black background. It is the head of a match that has just been lit. While the flame floats slowly and finally lights the entire match head, the intro theme music ties in nicely with the display. Then just at the moment the head is totally lit two things happen. One the match ignites a wick to an explosive, and the display changes to this rapidly sparking wick. The music likewise picks up to a rapid chaotic pace.
Soon after the wick is lit, the images cut out, and 'Paramout Pictures Presents' appears in a clear font in the center of the screen. While this text is displayed , a larger blurred, somewhat opaque text stating 'Paramount' rapidly streams from right to left.
The intro then cuts to very rapidly changing black and white facial shots, almost like mug shots. Once they've completed, a color image of a concerned womans face is shown, and the display then cuts to what appears to be official badges of some type. All of the photos are have hard cuts from one to the next, with the one close up of the concerned woman being given just a little more time in the sequence. This is followed by another black background with white centered white text, that again has the oversized blurred partial text rapidly flying by from right to left.
This is the pattern is repeated again and again. A rapid selection of photos followed by the text animation. The photos throughtout the intro include closeups of concerned individuals, several shots of technical equipment, dangerous scenarios, official looking documents and computer data, and the reoccuring flash of the sparking wick.
The beat of the theme song, combined with the sparking wick, and the photo selections all come together to produce the feeling of urgency. Anyone watching immediately knows that the movie will be comprised of intelligent, quick thinking, quick reacting individuals that are in situations that they must resolve immediately to avoid dire consequences.