Trick question: how many secs in a online 30sec commercial

All of my previous commercials i made at 26-30s and it was accepted. I noticed this new full 30s is getting cut off a little bit at the end.

so iask 2 questions here:

1. how many secs is a 30s and 1m commercial?

2. what other small details might i be aware of when sending cable my spots?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Your client will be able to give you very specific delivery instructions, and those instructions will include total running time. The running time may vary if your spot is going to be tagged, for instance.

But in general, a 30-second spot is 00:00:30:00, no more, no less. It doesn't matter whether you count in drop-frame or non-drop-frame timecode, because they're the same inside the first minute.

As for what other details you need to be aware of, the answer is all of them. Again, your client will give you incredibly specific instructions. It's not really possible to anticipate what those will be, because they can vary depending on whether or not your spot is going out from a tape dub or through Fastchannel or what have you.

The network shorting your commercials is their problem, and the clients problem. But Jeff is right, :30 is :30, not :29 or anything else.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

I can't believe you actually have to post that answer.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Well...to be honest...I actually asked a friend of mine who cuts commercials, if he cuts them to 29:15 or something...or actual 30fps period. I didn't know because I didn't cut commercials.

But..to have cut commercials for a while, THEN ask? That is a tad odd.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

yeah its running 6 times a day for the next 2 months. i have seen it 3x since it started last week. the last 2x it cut the last 20 frames or so.
It seemed to me that someone a while back ( long while) said to cut it 1sec short for safety.

Comcast always just says send us the dvd or dv tape at -10db and that is all. My colors are good ala scopes and eye. i was just making sure i was correct.
when i did the 28.5 secs they never cut. The client is happy but he is also not use to dealing with spots so i wanted to catch the problem before it became a problem.
my friend said he has never seen it cut out of the 5x he has seen it.

thanx
shane & jeff h for the info.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I made a commercial last year, 20 and 30 secs. it had a total run time of 20 and 30secs but to be sure I edited the voice over so that it ended one second before the clip was over.

>I edited the voice over so that it ended one second before the clip was over.

That's the way I do mine too. The last voice ends at least 20 frames before the last frame to allow them room to do a bit of trimming. Usually we hold on the end frame which is where the brand is. And yea, a 25 second spot, 25 seconds of video, not one frame more or one frame less. Same goes for the 35, 30 and 20 sec spots... Whatever they pay for, that's what they get, but the voice ends slightly earlier, coz they may need the handles.



www.strypesinpost.com

The safety approach is nice...but at least 90 per cent of the 30-second spots I've edited over the years has been packed with voice-over every nanosecond! I think agency people have gone a bit nuts with the writing. Too much yapping, trying to do the job with words when visuals would do much better. And it also results in some very amusing temp voice-over. I've had to speed up my producer's temp voice-over 150 per cent (!!!!!) to chipmunk levels, then use a pitch filter to try to get her back to somewhat human. She still sounds like she's analog tape being speed-wound!


www.derekmok.com

One of those good ol' editing tricks! Marginal speed ramps just to get those extra nano seconds of breathing time. Usually I'll get the EP or the director to come in to try to remove those extra words. Can't make that call myself as an editor.



www.strypesinpost.com

yep this is one of those nano-spots but not as extreme ( speed 115% no p-shift ). He also cam to my office with a russian mob to say these beautiful words, " ehhh like at end i wantch ze logo to exploded. ehhhhh it is like we are blowing up ze marketch ".

I said, " ohhh yeah, thats a great idea !!! " and he wrote the check already.

The moral to the story is, the ending just chops of the explosion part for about 4f. and the v/o ends before the explosion. So, there is no real problem if it is sporadic i saw 2 more that were fine and one that 4f cut it.

Also, sometimes you client is gonna say some crazy things and you shouldn't disagree until he has written a check.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I did notice the Big Kids all avoid putting anything of value in the first and last half-second or so.

When I worked for the TV station, we would get killed with the agencies who supplied 31 and 32 second commercials. We couldn't time dilate back then.

The agency always wins. If we juggled the break to include the whole thing, they win. If we cut them off at :30, they got what they paid for--and they would always try to complain. If we weren't paying attention, we would refund--and they win.

That got crazy and we started critical on-air logging.

Koz

They're TV commercials. We all struggle every day ? against the agency, against the client, against the director, against the whims of fate itself ? to put something of value into any one of the thirty seconds.

Realizing that the most emotionally engaging part of your spot is the legal at the end is enough to make you want to check out entirely and take up farming.