Cinema and Advertising: making feelings alive

Did you ever experience strong feelings from watching any movie? Has it also happened to you with some kind of advertisement or advertising material? The answer will most certainly be yes; with more than 5000 audiovisual impacts a day, sooner or later the feelings will rise. Cinema and Advertising excite equally.

Sometimes is the argument, sometimes is the characters or maybe certain actions in the plot; But I believe that we have to focus on the way those contents are audiovisually produced: what camera angle will we use for this character? What objects can we show on camera to metaphorize this concept? I want this scene to cause distress to the viewer, how can I make the image accompany the situation I want to show?

These questions and more are applicable to both film and advertising product productions. It's fascinating how a certain way of presenting something on screen is able to make emotions bloom in the viewer.

"Oh, but they're not the same"

Of course they are not, but they have in common the audiovisual format in which they are presented. We cannot put on productions that mostly last more than an hour, in front of spots of around thirty seconds. Cinema itself doesn't seek purchase, advertising does have this intentionality. But what about a movie trailer? We can interpret that it is the announcement that is made from the cinema because we consume the production that has been made. In these trailers, a sequence of premeditated shots are introduced to express to the viewer the story, the feelings and the experience that he will live if he decides to see the film.

In a spot, a brand uses these same seconds to convey to the audience what it means to buy its product or acquire their service: the need that will be satisfied, the feelings surrounding the product or brand, what kind of consumer experience there will be... Whether it does or not, we also have a premeditated sequence of plans that seek to generate an emotional impact.

So, can we believe that cinema is a good reference for finding audiovisual expression techniques while producing any advertising material? Personally, I very strongly believe so.

Cinema and Advertising as artistic examples

Can we relate techniques applied at cinema and in advertising spots? We have enough examples to stop a train. Right now I'm going to introduce you to a technique that, precisely, is not one of the most used: the Sequence Plan. This technique consists of making a sequence (that is, a narrative unit made up of scenes and shots) recorded with a single camera shot. And in addition, Cinema and Advertising have used it equally. (You can also take a look at my Storytelling post, which is similar to cinema scripts)

The Sequence Plan is used to generate a high degree of attention in the viewer by providing a lot of dynamism due to the lack of image cuts. It tends to give more emotion to the characters and concepts that are shown, for example: in a romantic film it would help to show the intimacy, passion or sexual desire of the protagonists; in a horror or thriller film it would help bring suspense to the viewer, who would expect something bad to happen.

In this audiovisual comparison we have about 60 years of difference, but the use of the Sequence Plan in common. The creation of Orson Welles makes us watch the screen for fear that the bomb will explode while the car carrying it passes through an area with many people. Vimema's production makes us pay attention to the screen, observing the consequences of poor sexual education mixed with metaphorically explicit plans.

In this comparison we have different applications of the Sequence Plan due to the intentions of each production. Orson Welles shows us a shot without any cuts while Vimema uses cuts to give certain incisions in the sequence (but without taking away the feeling of dynamism, since everything takes place in the same physical space).

Cinema and advertising generate very beautiful productions rich in audiovisual expressive techniques. The historical path of the two disciplines has been very well used, making techniques that are many years old be used with modern technological possibilities.

Do you think that cinema is a good source of inspiration for today's advertising? Do you think that cinema and advertising are synonymous concepts in audiovisual terms? Would you like me to comment on the use of any other audiovisual technique in the two disciplines? I look forward to your answers in the comments!