Hello Atom owners, enthusiasts…and we hope creative minds.
We (TMI Crew) want to make a video in North America that will be fun for all involved….and also create some entertaining video footage in the process.
The Atom has had some great videos to date….but we want to make another great one with the help of Atom owners (or Atom enthusiasts).
Questions/thoughts/comments:
- If anyone happens to be enrolled in film school and needs a project for film school give us a call….What better subject than the Ariel Atom….
- If anyone happens to know someone who happens to be in film school and needs a project…tell them to give us a call. As above…the Atom is great content.
- If you just love doing awesome stuff…and want to make awesome videos….give us a call
Bottom line is that we have many pieces of the puzzle to create some great content…but are looking for outside influence for ideas.
As it stands now we have a potential great venue (VIR Raceway) that has tracks, skid pads, etc…and we also have access to some Atoms. We are lacking on some production talent….story boarding….and likely editing. We do have the desire to have some fun and enjoy the Atom a bit.
Ideas:
- The crazier the better – we are thinking iconic video vs performance test. Main criteria is that no animals are harmed during the filming.
- Ken Block has done some nice stuff in his day.
- We really cannot over look how great the first Atom appearance on Top Gear was….and how messed up Jeremy Clarkson’s face was!
Looking for ideas……At this point it is nothing more than that…but we want to push forward and hope that we can credit the Atom community for ideas, support, and maybe even somebody school project.
Thanks in advance.
Feel free to post ideas here…..
Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
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Anx
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
Interesting idea... I think the first thing you need to figure out is who exactly the target market is for the video you want to make, and what kind of reaction you hope to evoke from them. If you want to make something compelling, it's about the story, and that really boils down to the human experience.
I think going for the traditional "This is the performance, blah blah blah" isn't that interesting or compelling - Top Gear already did that and you'll be hard pressed to do something better or that adds something to the equation that wasn't there before. Just because the car has a different engine or whatever doesn't matter as much because everyone under the sun is going to be telling that story. I think people miss the fact that it's not really the Atom that is the star of the Top Gear video - it's Jeremy Clarkson's very visual experience in the car - that's what people connect to. I think that's also why the original video garnered 10m+ views while the v8 one only got a fraction of it - it was a story we had already seen, sure, it's fun to see it again, but it's not nearly as dramatic.
I think the Ken Block videos are cool and fun to watch, but if you do something like that, it's just another "Check out this video that's like that Red Bull guy", you really have to be the first in order to capture the kind of zeitgeist Ken's did.
Personally, the direction I would go would be to tell the story about the people who love this unique vehicle - why the chose it and what they do with it. If you're looking to try to sell cars from the video, beyond the Top Gear video, this would probably be the best in my opinion, because you could cover several points of view, and each persons perspective is going to be different and will resonate with people in a different way.
For instance, I could easily see you making a documentary that's made up of several vignettes about different owners. Try to track down say 7 or 8 owners who are doing extreme things with their Atoms - the more diverse, the better. Figure that you'll end out using probably 6 of the people in the video - you'll have some B roll connector material, so each segment would be probably 7 minutes or so (the final target length being ~48 minutes so you could submit it to shows like POV or Independent Lens). Let's use some more concrete examples of the people - there's at least one guy who has done several cross country trips - so interview him, and if possible document a bit of his trip. Talk about what it's like doing a trip in something like the Atom - what drew it to him originally - what surprised him most about owning one, etc. Next, pick someone who has just purchased an Atom, and is planning to drive it back from the factory. Interview him before he leaves, show his arrival and picking up the car, some of the drive home, and then interview him a month later after he's had the car a while. Ask him a different set of questions - knowing what you know now, what would you do differently in regards to the atom - what aspects were more intense than you expected - etc. Obviously include someone who is racing with the car - ideally find someone who has a variety of other vehicles and show the evolution of how he ended up with an Atom. Show some track time with him, show some of the reactions it gets around the track, etc.
If you look at a film like Senna, it's the personification of this - they told a story about F1, but they told it from the perspective of a single driver in F1. If they hadn't done that, I don't think it would have been nearly as compelling (and there have been numerous F1 documentaries before this one that never garnered the recognition that it has).
Anyway, that's my 2c - I've been working on a pilot for the last few months and have been spending an inordinate amount of time on the subject of storytelling so it's at the front of my brain at the moment. Obviously what I describe would take more to pull off then grabbing a few cameras and setting them up around some track - but it also has a chance to appeal to a much broader audience and have some lasting merit. I think if you found some independent filmmaker and pitched them on the human side of the story instead of the machine side, you could probably make something very special and unique....
Oh, and can rest assured I'm doing everything in my power to work the Atom into the pilot I'm involved with...
I think going for the traditional "This is the performance, blah blah blah" isn't that interesting or compelling - Top Gear already did that and you'll be hard pressed to do something better or that adds something to the equation that wasn't there before. Just because the car has a different engine or whatever doesn't matter as much because everyone under the sun is going to be telling that story. I think people miss the fact that it's not really the Atom that is the star of the Top Gear video - it's Jeremy Clarkson's very visual experience in the car - that's what people connect to. I think that's also why the original video garnered 10m+ views while the v8 one only got a fraction of it - it was a story we had already seen, sure, it's fun to see it again, but it's not nearly as dramatic.
I think the Ken Block videos are cool and fun to watch, but if you do something like that, it's just another "Check out this video that's like that Red Bull guy", you really have to be the first in order to capture the kind of zeitgeist Ken's did.
Personally, the direction I would go would be to tell the story about the people who love this unique vehicle - why the chose it and what they do with it. If you're looking to try to sell cars from the video, beyond the Top Gear video, this would probably be the best in my opinion, because you could cover several points of view, and each persons perspective is going to be different and will resonate with people in a different way.
For instance, I could easily see you making a documentary that's made up of several vignettes about different owners. Try to track down say 7 or 8 owners who are doing extreme things with their Atoms - the more diverse, the better. Figure that you'll end out using probably 6 of the people in the video - you'll have some B roll connector material, so each segment would be probably 7 minutes or so (the final target length being ~48 minutes so you could submit it to shows like POV or Independent Lens). Let's use some more concrete examples of the people - there's at least one guy who has done several cross country trips - so interview him, and if possible document a bit of his trip. Talk about what it's like doing a trip in something like the Atom - what drew it to him originally - what surprised him most about owning one, etc. Next, pick someone who has just purchased an Atom, and is planning to drive it back from the factory. Interview him before he leaves, show his arrival and picking up the car, some of the drive home, and then interview him a month later after he's had the car a while. Ask him a different set of questions - knowing what you know now, what would you do differently in regards to the atom - what aspects were more intense than you expected - etc. Obviously include someone who is racing with the car - ideally find someone who has a variety of other vehicles and show the evolution of how he ended up with an Atom. Show some track time with him, show some of the reactions it gets around the track, etc.
If you look at a film like Senna, it's the personification of this - they told a story about F1, but they told it from the perspective of a single driver in F1. If they hadn't done that, I don't think it would have been nearly as compelling (and there have been numerous F1 documentaries before this one that never garnered the recognition that it has).
Anyway, that's my 2c - I've been working on a pilot for the last few months and have been spending an inordinate amount of time on the subject of storytelling so it's at the front of my brain at the moment. Obviously what I describe would take more to pull off then grabbing a few cameras and setting them up around some track - but it also has a chance to appeal to a much broader audience and have some lasting merit. I think if you found some independent filmmaker and pitched them on the human side of the story instead of the machine side, you could probably make something very special and unique....
Oh, and can rest assured I'm doing everything in my power to work the Atom into the pilot I'm involved with...
Last edited by Anx on Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Bruce Fielding
- Posts: 16320
- Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:13 pm
- Location: London
- Contact:
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
It definitely needs to be viral enabled.
Look at Watties videos of the macdonalds (over a quarter of a million hits) and the ice cream blonde (over 11,000 hits)
YouTube is the way forward these days, but you need to do something pretty awesome to get noticed.
I would use the properties of the car to do something extraordinary - it's just a frame so you can do all sorts of things with that that you can't in any other street legal car.
I'm not going to go much further with thinking about it because, honestly, this is the sort of thing that I earn my living doing and giving ideas away goes against the grain.
The thing about broadcast program content is that it's really hard to sell unless it's special, and it takes a lot of work, negotiation etc. to get it out there with no certainty of an audience and no reliable way of measuring that audience.
If you just want to make a nice sales video of the car, however, then that's perfectly acceptable, but you need to know that getting the sort of camerawork and editing skills that producing something of the level that your average TV viewer expects is bloody expensive and time consuming.
Look at Watties videos of the macdonalds (over a quarter of a million hits) and the ice cream blonde (over 11,000 hits)
YouTube is the way forward these days, but you need to do something pretty awesome to get noticed.
I would use the properties of the car to do something extraordinary - it's just a frame so you can do all sorts of things with that that you can't in any other street legal car.
I'm not going to go much further with thinking about it because, honestly, this is the sort of thing that I earn my living doing and giving ideas away goes against the grain.
The thing about broadcast program content is that it's really hard to sell unless it's special, and it takes a lot of work, negotiation etc. to get it out there with no certainty of an audience and no reliable way of measuring that audience.
If you just want to make a nice sales video of the car, however, then that's perfectly acceptable, but you need to know that getting the sort of camerawork and editing skills that producing something of the level that your average TV viewer expects is bloody expensive and time consuming.
Ariel Atom Owners Club founder, based in Central London
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AtomMadStew
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
Did think the GangnAtom style video idea Wattie was a really really good idea...
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Anx
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
I think it still all boils down to what they want the video to do - my assumption is that they're looking to sell cars, but I suppose they could just as easily be trying to build brand awareness.
I think the Top Gear video accomplished both goals, increased brand awareness but at the same time spoke to potential buyers - but I think that's really difficult to do.
While Watties videos are definitely cool and certainly get lots of hits, I don't know how many of those viewers would translate into sales... Of course, when you get a million viewers, the percentage that convert doesn't have to be as high. And if it's brand awareness that they're going for, is that the associations they want... Only Ariel/TMI can really answer that - or they can defer to the old adage "There's no such thing as bad press".
I think Bruce is spot on for the viral part about picking some element that car and then taking it to the extreme... Whether in a satirical way or in a performance kind of way.
For me it always goes back to story, because in general I think people will suffer through lower production value if the story is good, than people will watch something of high production value if the story is bad... Of course Hollywood proves me wrong on that every year.
One nice thing is that the tools to raise the production value of something are getting less and less expensive every year - the pilot I'm involved on is shooting entirely on Red's (we're using 3 of them), and getting that kind of quality even a couple years ago would have been all but impossible. But once again to Bruce's point, you can put a $100k Red setup in my hands and I can make it look like a $1k camcorder, and you can put a $1k camcorder in a pro's hands and he'll make it look like a $100k Red.
I think the Top Gear video accomplished both goals, increased brand awareness but at the same time spoke to potential buyers - but I think that's really difficult to do.
While Watties videos are definitely cool and certainly get lots of hits, I don't know how many of those viewers would translate into sales... Of course, when you get a million viewers, the percentage that convert doesn't have to be as high. And if it's brand awareness that they're going for, is that the associations they want... Only Ariel/TMI can really answer that - or they can defer to the old adage "There's no such thing as bad press".
I think Bruce is spot on for the viral part about picking some element that car and then taking it to the extreme... Whether in a satirical way or in a performance kind of way.
For me it always goes back to story, because in general I think people will suffer through lower production value if the story is good, than people will watch something of high production value if the story is bad... Of course Hollywood proves me wrong on that every year.
One nice thing is that the tools to raise the production value of something are getting less and less expensive every year - the pilot I'm involved on is shooting entirely on Red's (we're using 3 of them), and getting that kind of quality even a couple years ago would have been all but impossible. But once again to Bruce's point, you can put a $100k Red setup in my hands and I can make it look like a $1k camcorder, and you can put a $1k camcorder in a pro's hands and he'll make it look like a $100k Red.
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Flying Phil
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
There was reference to Top Gear earlier on. One of the most impressive clips, for me, was Clarkson lamenting the possible immenent demise of the high powered, large displacement sports cars. Then, without any commentary, he drove a V12 Vantage through the Highlands of Scotland, with the viewer left only with the exhaust note to listen to, and the sight of this epic car surrounded by stirring scenery. Effective.
Would a 'Made in Virginia' angle be wise, what is the target audience? Play up the 'hidden animal' angle... mild mannered accountant bringing milk home for the wife, spots free lapping day at VIR, quickly pops in for a 'go', seen passing 458's and 911 turbo's, to then be seen driving from the track, return home, straighten tie, then delivers rather large block of butter to suspicious wife.
Lots to play with here...
Would a 'Made in Virginia' angle be wise, what is the target audience? Play up the 'hidden animal' angle... mild mannered accountant bringing milk home for the wife, spots free lapping day at VIR, quickly pops in for a 'go', seen passing 458's and 911 turbo's, to then be seen driving from the track, return home, straighten tie, then delivers rather large block of butter to suspicious wife.
Lots to play with here...
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Flying Phil
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
"The TMI Ariel Atom 3... made in Virgina... for accountants"
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Jacob Potts
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
I have been advised that, if I wanted to make Internet video series, the longest I could make them would be three minutes long. High impact, iconic images are needed for each Webisode.
At the same time, I was told that nobody knows the formula for telling a good Web series, that the whole idea is searching for a form. If anyone comes up with a great format, the Internet will beat a path to their door. We are inventing the Web series as we go along.
Are you looking to do a series? Do you want to tell a story?
Jacob :-)
P.S. My wife has just informed me that I must make money. - J.P.
At the same time, I was told that nobody knows the formula for telling a good Web series, that the whole idea is searching for a form. If anyone comes up with a great format, the Internet will beat a path to their door. We are inventing the Web series as we go along.
Are you looking to do a series? Do you want to tell a story?
Jacob :-)
P.S. My wife has just informed me that I must make money. - J.P.
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Jacob Potts
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
How about a different spin on something like this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053534/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl
Jacob :-)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053534/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl
Jacob :-)
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Jacob Potts
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
Hi! Has this idea gone forward? What has happened? Thanks! :-)
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Jacob Potts
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
Hi! What is the progress on the video?
Jacob Potts :-)
Jacob Potts :-)
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rbuckingham
Re: Atom Video - Ideas Wanted
well there are some new videos from TMI on youtube:
http://youtu.be/cql4Au0CO54?list=UUKa5vi4RcEdSW_BX1pUqf2g
http://youtu.be/kes8nWFvg-4?list=UUKa5vi4RcEdSW_BX1pUqf2g
I'm guessing the commercial was the outcome of this?
http://youtu.be/cql4Au0CO54?list=UUKa5vi4RcEdSW_BX1pUqf2g
http://youtu.be/kes8nWFvg-4?list=UUKa5vi4RcEdSW_BX1pUqf2g
I'm guessing the commercial was the outcome of this?
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