Five crafted commercials that take a step back

Enzo’s Monday Motion #197: sometimes you have to take a step back, to move forward. Five back-pan commercials that tell stunning stories.

The surprise effect

The biggest strength of the forward camera pan is the tension build-up: you see danger coming from far ahead. For a succesfull plot twist, the opposite makes perfect sense.

Scholz & Friends created a massive impact with the campaign for the German Federal Ministry of Transport. Director Peter Dietrich creates a massive plot twist with a strong closeup and strong choice of music. A great project produced by Element-E.

The bigger picture

A lottery ticket can bring big dreams to life…

The strongest part of this commercial isn’t the surprise, but the concept-execution link. The small investment of a ticket can turn into something huge. Tinka Lottery plays perfectly with the fear of missing out. Concept by Y&R Lima, directed by Alvaro Quevedo.

Stacking up

Bloemenbureau Holland gives you so many reasons, it’s hard to keep your home plant-free.

Every single argument isn’t super strong, but as a whole they make a pretty convincing (and funny) point. The continuous straight pan brings rhythm to the story and slowly builds curiosity on what may follow next.

Freestyling

There’s nothing more liberating from a camera point of view than a drone. Here’s the winner of The New York Drone festival of 2018.

Where the previous film uses smart set design to stitch surprising shots, the drone-video captures it in a real one-taker. Extra credits to the audio design which lifts up the whole video and adds an interesting storyline.

Timed to the beat

Where the flower commercial loosely based their flow around a rhythm, the timing gets more on the beat with the following music video of Martin Garrix.

Even though the acting and styling are e a bit cheesy, the video as a whole is fun to watch. I like the director’s eye for detail when he adds extra (timed) animation within a single scene, like the flying laundry around 01:15. Altogether a great example of the back pan.

Last Week

Let’s not fix this in post… Here are five videos where the magic happens on set!

Enzo Greco is Motion Director at Born05.