Domino's - ID# 56

Maine South
Commercial
Entry Description

Teens tired of the same old frozen pizza option get a super surprising visit from the local Domino’s delivery guy. Domino’s is quick, convenient, and easy.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 4/24 1:47 pm - Great editing and use of music! Very funny and great story!
  • 3/4 8:53 am - Clever story concept & way to edit so many different camera tricks together!
Judge 1

Positives: Perfect score! You earned it! (Between you and me, this is the only project that I gave a perfect score) I can tell you put in a LOT of work for this (planning, on set, and editing). I love the violin horror sounds for the frozen pizza! Great use of close ups. So many directors are scared to use close ups, you used them very well. Your commercial is so funny and ridiculous. Commercials are supposed to GRAB ATTENTION by being funny and ridiculous, I love it! This moment was EXPERT level: Close up: "Always fresh, never frozen" zoom out and cut music "do you need a towel?" YES BRAVO! That was superbowl-commercial-quality camera work and editing. Love the overhead shot with the out of focus people and the logo is very clear and visible. You got great performances from your actors! The pacing of the editing was great. Each shot was pretty fast, this really kept my attention.

Improvements: It's very clear to me that you have a lot of experience and/or natural talent. BECAUSE you have so much experience and/or natural talent, I'm going to hold you to a way higher standard with some "things that you could improve" below: 0:45 The lighting of the pizza could have been about 15% brighter and more colorful. The pizza was slightly dark and slightly shadowy. When food is shown in a commercial, it will always be overly saturated with color, and bright. I'm a professional actor who's been in 100+ commercials... Whenever I do a food commercial, the most important shot of the day is always the big "look how tasty this product is!" close up shot. I had a lead role in a commercial for Hardees... the STAR of the commercial is the burger. They spent hours getting the lighting just right, and making the burger as aesthetically pleasing as possible. So for your Dominoes pizza close up at 0:45 (if you want to be held to a professional standard), I would experiment with how to make the food as irresistible as possible. Maybe it would look slightly more appetizing with more light? Maybe it looks better with less mushrooms? Maybe a slightly different angle? More or less zoomed in? etc... 0:19 I think the watermark in the back is a little distracting and I'm not sure you need it here. I think the cold couple with coats eating frozen pizza moment speaks for itself. 0:32 They are calling dominoes on the phone. It's obvious from context but I couldn't read the phone the first few times watching this. I would slow that moment down and zoom in extra tight so the audience knows who they are calling (on the first time viewing). 0:46 The "hot pizza anywhere" text is a little hard to read at times. It just felt a little busy and clashing with the images behind it. If that text is super important, then find a way to put it on a more solid (or unfocused) background. This might have been out of your control... But I would have removed the hot tub cover from the back of the shot. I think it would have been a little more visually pleasing to see a nice backyard out of focus in the background Maybe you did it because you didn't want to show that black fence? Maybe that WAS the right move. I think visual depth is always nice (even if it's out of focus), the cover kinda cut off the depth. "Do you need a towel?" This moment is really funny, but it kinda seems like they turned on the dominoes guy a bit, like maybe now they kinda want the delivery driver to leave. If I was on set for this commercial, I would have said "Ok that is really funny, but let's film a few other funny options where it doesn't seem like the couple is annoyed by the dominoes employee." Maybe he says "oops, I forgot to bring towels" - It's still funny but now they are all in it together and he's not mad at the dominoes guy. Next time you film something, try getting options in situations like this. That way you always have a backup funny line in case some lame producer has an issue. Your commercial is 60 seconds, most commercials today are 30 or 15 seconds! I have a challenge for you... Pretend Dominoes called you and said "Hey we love your commercial but you HAVE to cut it down. Give us a 30 second version using the same footage, and also give us a 15 second version using the same footage." - Still keep your 60 second version of course! But I think it would be beneficial to try to cut your commercial down to 30 and 15 sec into something that still makes sense and still has the fun + humor moments. CONCLUSION: I was very impressed with your commercial. I watched it 30 times and I was entertained every time. You have such a natural talent for directing and editing. Wow!

Judge 2

Positives: I love the horror when they open the freezer, and how the freeze carries through to the environment as well as the hot pizza caring through to the hot tub. There is an excellent brand story happening here. I watched this without sound to better examine the shots and I found them well constructed and executed. You can understand the entire story even without sound.

Improvements: The awkward moment at the end is funny but maybe a tad overindulgent. The light outside was also failing at that point. And this moment makes the commercial run a little long and start to loose its rhythm. The urge to pack it all in, causes professionals to make the same mistake from time to time. If you cut at the first dominos logo 52s. I'd have given you a perfect score. "Fresh Never Frozen" is a wendy's tag-line. Cutting while they are all enjoying themselves also associates that care-free, anything-goes attitude with the brand. Going to the next beat made me associate the lack of professionalism in the delivery person with the brand. I didn't take off story points for this because I to think the joke is funny but I did deduct from the edit because it threw off the vibe and the pace. Fantastic work!

Judge 3

Positives: Wow - great work! Too many good things to call out! 1) Funny! Great, absurd storytelling anchored in a real, competitive dig at frozen pizzas. 2) Great shooting! Variety of shots, angles, lighting - all that stuff. Really great eye.

Improvements: It's really hard to find criticisms! 1) Small note - but when working for a brand - they'll likely want to see their brand represented earlier in the spot - this came :20 seconds in...but again - small note! 2) I think there's alot to take in - and I'd consider cutting a shot here or there to give the viewer more time to take it in.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements:

Judge 5

Positives:

Improvements: