Monday Morning Meeting with Madboy Creative, Mr. Shree Karthick

Directing Advertising Commercials are expensive and always challenging. Stages are big but duration is limited. In 30-40 seconds you need to put the product into customers mind, a tricky task. First the customers have to buy your story and then comes the product.

Against this backdrop, Annapurna College of Film and Media hosted a webinar with Mr. Shree Karthick of Madboys Creatives (Chennai), upon "Ad Film Making Techniques and Basics" as part of BFA and BA specialization course in advertising and digital marketing. Mr. Karthick directed more than 30 commercials. Reflecting upon his portfolio,he reinforced the benefits of studying ad film making in a film school setting, importance of teamwork, commonalities between story telling and story selling, the inherent creative satisfaction in making an impact through visual narratives, in addition to discussing hacks and techniques about making advertising stories more quirkier, snappier and richer. (short bio about the speaker: In 2019, he signed his debut bilingual ?lm with reputed production firm Dream Warrior Pictures that is being shot currently. In 2014, I wrote and directed South India’s first web series produced by Sony Entertainment. In 2015, I wrote and directed a short titled “Vyugam”, critically acclaimed in festivals. In 2017, wrote and directed another short titled “Childhood diaries” which bagged ‘Best Story’ at the Norway film festival.)

The session dealt with a whole gamut of issues,challenges, case-lets and hacks related ad film making and following are the major nuggets and pointers of what transpired in the 90 minute webinar with him today. The advertising commercials that got discussed can be accessed here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXb5SLRhTcn2RxQKOgsQNDQ/videos

Proof and Puffery

The claims made by puffery may be false, but they are not really lies because no one can disprove them. Typically in Indian context, Puffery is characterized by exaggeration and hyperbole!!

Story Selling and Story Telling are Same

There are many commonalities between the two facets of story telling and story selling and transition is rather seamless. In story selling world of advertising, the product is more often, the hero/protagonist and STORY is what moves the things forward in both cases

All For One and One For All

Visual Medium like film making is an art form that relies heavily on teamwork. Mr. Karthick says one can’t make worthwhile films all by your lonesome, and even if you could, you’d quickly find yourself deficient in ways you never would have suspected. Not only is teamwork required in film or any creative project, but good teamwork makes good movies. Great filmmakers openly lean on their collaborators and mythical idea of the lone genius is at best, a myth!!!

Active Listening and Continual Communicating

Continual communication and active listening skills are critical in every industry, but they’re particularly necessary on a film set where the very act of directing centers on communicating the vision and collaborating with others to get the final result. Getting the communication and prior approvals with clients for all micro decisions (casting, production design and etc) and macro decisions (budgets, mood boards, story boards, music, treatment and etc) eliminates a lot of wastage and duplication

Words Change Meanings and Words are Everything

When done well, a slogan can become the centerpiece of a company’s communication plan/identity – and if done poorly, a slogan can send the wrong message and actually drive customers away. Recounting the case of Mr. Gold Sunflower Oil, he recounted that the phrase (Tamilian phrase in this case) with meaning stroked more of a chord with the customer than just the brand name alone because a good slogan not only gives the customer a commitment but tells them what they stands for. According to him, they must be complete, emotionally driven and reliable.

Quick Gun Murugan

The competition for attention is fierce and to be the best, one's ads need to stand out from the crowd to get noticed by making them QUIRKIER AND SNAPPIER with HOOKS (borrowing from storytelling techniques). According to him, finding the right elements to make the product or brand stand out in a sea of sell, sell, sell can be difficult to say the least and one need to be always ever vigilant and open to new ideas and concepts. Exaggeration, clever visual effects, detailing and other techniques can be leveraged for producing visually arresting designs and material.

Mere Dad Ki Maruti

Branded content is an effective response to an increasingly saturated market and this also presents myriad number of creative opportunities for all film makers. Today, users are overwhelmed with ads and information at all times, to the point that many of them resort to solutions such as ad blockers. To combat the disdain for traditional advertising, brands are looking for new ways to connect with their audience, impact them in creative ways, and convey the values they represent in an intelligent and non-domineering way. Branded content or advertainment proffers many possibilities for story tellers, partnerships with creatives, artists and content creators.