Sure, the big faceless corporation is just out there to get money out of you, but hidden right in front of you could be a masterclass in lighting, production design, and short story telling. This video takes a look at how Ikea made use out of a highly skilled director and production team to create this simple yet effective advertisement.
Commercials, no matter how annoying or intrusive we might find them, are a craft all on their own, and many of those in the film and video industry either make a full-time living from them or work on them between bigger productions, in order to keep their business ticking over. Director of Photography, Patrick O'Sullivan, is one of those people and he's here to break down the lighting and blocking in this Ikea commercial by director, Rune Milton. O'Sullivan goes through the commercial clip by clip while going into great detail about how he believes Milton and/or his cinematographer lit each scene.
Despite this video being purely focused on cinematography, photographers can learn a lot from being able to analyze work like this. A DoP is focused on getting consistent natural lighting so that every frame within a scene makes sense to the viewer. So, depending on what you're working on — or towards — as a photographer, creating natural-looking lighting conditions in less than optimal conditions could be an extremely valuable skill to have.
Have you, as a photographer, learned something useful from this video?
Awesome..
A wonderful insight into working a vision into reality. Its refreshing that you show that great imagary isn't about camera MTF charts, but mastering light and putting the thought and hard work in
I loved the interplay of soft and hard light, and the way that the range of products was hinted at with the lighting.
Good walk through!