I made a beer commercial at home
Lockdown in the ages of COVID-19 means that I don’t get the chance to go outside and film the videos I had planned for this year. Most of my ideas are scrapped. To fill this void, I decided to practise more on my broll techniques and film more product videos with the things I have at home.
This video was mainly inspired by a YouTuber under the name of James Kelly. Like any other videographer and photographer, James took a big hit from the current market conditions. Instead of giving up, he decided to share some of his knowledge on YouTube for free. The other day he posted a video on how he shot a beer commercial in his own kitchen.
Watching the video I wished I had his gear to film one like this. And then it hit me. Why not film a similar video with makeshift gear I can put together from things I have lying around at home? So I did.
I don’t own a backdrop, so I had to improvise and use the cushions from our couch with some black table runners on top to darken the whole background. Instead of an electricity-power rotating base, I used a spare, cheap, glass shelve from IKEA we had lying around, on top of a fidget spinner. Yes, a fidget spinner. This meant that some of the shots were unstable and I had to do a great deal of balancing before each shot.
I picked Beavertown as my brew of choice for two reasons. Firstly, because I really like the Gamma Ray APA they make, and secondly, because the colourful packaging they have makes the bottles stand out from any background.
I used some handheld movements to add more range to my shots, but all of my main shots were filmed on a tripod, changing between focal lengths to add more depth. To make it more interesting, I filmed at 120p so I end up with “buttery-smooth” slow-motion shots, and froze the glass to make it look more dramatic.
The one thing I made sure I had full control of was lighting. I ended up using a Neewer light dome and a small Aputure light as a fill light to make sure that the beer cans stood out from the background.
Overall, the whole video took me about an hour to film, and even though I thought it wasn’t much, I ended up liking the result. Maybe not an advert Beavertown would pay for to broadcast on national TV, but I’ll get there eventually.
Let me know your thoughts!
Till next time…
Check out my other videos here.
