Product Description

Imagine a job where you need to work only 10 days a year to make $100,000. A job that allows you to be a respected artist, a savvy craftsman, and a hip partygoer who hangs out with celebrities, superstars, and top models. No need to wear a tie and suit. No corporate office hours, and no supervising department heads checking your time card. At your command explosions occur, cars crash, helicopters swoop, and you are expected to spend a million dollars in a week or two. This job exists. It's called a commercial director, the creative mind behind the production of a TV spot. While being a commercial director may be one of the coolest jobs in the world, it's also one of the toughest jobs to get (and keep). The 30-Second Storyteller: The Art and Business of Directing Commercials teaches any filmmaker how to get work as a commercial director, how to navigate the pitfalls of production, and how to get clients to keep coming back to you for more. The book is not a textbook on directing -- plenty of other books cover that. Rather, The 30-Second Storyteller focuses on directorial challenges specifically related to creating a TV spot -- the techniques involved, the technologies of choice, and the obstacles that come between you and a successful career. It begins by teaching you how to get your foot in the door -- creating a spec reel, picking a specialty, getting signed with a production company, and successfully bidding for projects. It then covers the production of a commercial from preproduction through the shoot, all the way to finishing in post-production. Examples from a real-world commercial are utilized throughout to illustrate concepts. The book concludes with advice on obtaining work abroad, and making the jump from commercials to features, as TV ads are a training ground for Hollywood's next blockbuster director. Filmmakers like Ridley Scott, Michael Bay, David Fincher, Jonathan Glazer, Tarsem and Zack Snyder have all gotten their start in commercials.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #598852 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781598632262
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Since earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Film from the prestigious Art Center College of Design, Thomas Richter has won dozens of awards for both commercials and short films, including the John Sayles Award for Best Narrative Short, the Silver Hugo Award for Best Campaign, and the ITVA Platinum Award for Media Excellence. Thomas has directed commercials for clients as diverse as Ford, Toyota, Infiniti, The San Francisco Giants, IKEA, and Coolboarders the videogame, among many others. Check out his work at http://www.thomasrichter.net/.

Customer Reviews

Well done job for general audience by accomplished working commercial director
I'll say up front that certain film books are a bit dubious. I have been working on sets since a teenager so I am biased a bit in "hands on" training. Reading about making film is sometimes just a very small part of a big education.

Having said that, Thomas Richter impressed me. Mostly by the fact that he is a very pragmatic, level headed director who is actually working, signed and talented who had the nuts to put this down on paper. I've found most advice in specialized arenas like this is unfortunately not given by people who are quite qualified enough.

Mr. Richter is signed at Boxer, an LA production company that I am familiar with. I am also signed at a similar level bicostal shop so when I bought this book I was curious how true the read would be. I have to say that pretty much every thing he speaks about I find quite true and his experiences resonated with mine. To me that is again impressive - this is the real thing.

For my tastes there was a bit too much focus on practical filmmaking. He spells out this book is not a guide to filmmaking but rather about the business world of actually working as a commerical director. Saying that I think there are times he strays a bit and focuses a bit on some very fundamental stuff. This is probably necessary to make the book more accessable but perhaps Mr. Richter missed an interesting opportunity to take this from general interest to a true reference material. I'd love to personally hear more about the values of a great Executive Producer and Producer. Those relationships. Releationships with the sales reps. Knowing how and when to navigate moving to a different production company. I'd love to see the book slanted a bit more for the guide to keep using if you can really get past assembling a spec reel and getting signed.

That being said I enthusiastically recommend this book for getting a chance to see the landscape that is very difficult to navigate from the outside. If only this were written five years ago when I was poking my head in from the outside it might have helped me tremendously. From a working director now I can only say I admire the guts for Thomas Richter to lay it out there and put his name on it. It's a nice work that should be read - especially considering the complete drout of similar quality (real) information either in print or online.

Excellent resource and advice
What I liked about the book was the straightforward advice and insights into how things really get done in commercials. The author really gets into the nitty-gritty talking about his experiences so that you are left with an idea as to how these highly charged commercials are made. Do visit his website to see the actual commercial which was the main case study in the book.

EXACTLY what I was looking for
As a producer/artist who is considering a move into the commercial production world, I wanted a book that explained, in a step-by-step fashion, the mundane work routines of a commercial director without glamorizing the business or condescending like an Idiot's guide. This book is exactly that. No frills, just the facts. It is so well-organized, informative, and concise--with tons of great advice that I know I will continue to reference for years to come. It will probably be some time before I can apply all the tools in this book to my professional career, but in the meantime, I feel so much more confident about my decision to move in this new direction. Thanks for writing this, Thomas. I would have been wondering for years if I should take the plunge or not.