From brief to approved storyboard
A performer in a commercial is engaged for a term, a territory and a named list of media. Run the spot outside any one of those three and the engagement has to be renegotiated before it airs again. That fact separates advertising from every other kind of film, and it is why a commercial gets agreed on paper long before a camera is booked.
The sequence runs brief, concept, treatment, storyboard or animatic, shot list, then a sign-off gate where the client and a legal reviewer both put their name to the boards. Everything after that gate is priced against them. Location, crew, talent and schedule are all booked to execute a specific set of frames, so a note arriving after the gate is not a note, it is a change order.
Two kinds of job reach that gate from different directions. An agency-led job arrives with a creative team attached, boards already internally approved, and an agency producer owning the client relationship. Studio 47 shoots those to the boards as drawn. A direct-to-brand job has nobody in the middle, so the concept work happens here.
When the gate slips, the shoot date moves and the delivery date does not, because delivery is attached to a media buy somebody already paid for. That compression lands on post. Marketing managers who have been through it once put the legal reviewer in the room at treatment stage.
The cut-down matrix a media plan actually needs
One shoot has to feed every placement on the media plan, and the matrix gets designed at the boarding stage rather than salvaged in the edit.
Duration is the first axis. A sixty establishes, a thirty carries the argument, a fifteen carries one idea, and a six carries a brand and a product shot. Those are not trims of each other. A six that works is usually built from a frame composed for it, and choosing that frame on the boards costs nothing while choosing it in the edit costs the shot.
Variants are the second axis: alternate end cards for different offers or regions, alternate voiceover for a second language, a version with the legal super sized to whatever the reviewer demands. Each multiplies the deliverable count without adding a shoot day, provided the plates were shot clean.
Frame is the third. A 16:9 hero at 1920 by 1080 and a 9:16 cut at 1080 by 1920 are not the same shot reframed unless it was composed for both, which means blocking action towards the centre and shooting a dedicated vertical pass on the setups that carry the campaign. The craft of composing for the vertical frame belongs to social media content. Here it is a line on the media plan. Get the matrix wrong and the symptom shows up in the short cuts, which read as something removed from a longer film rather than as an ad in their own right.
Where a broadcast spot and a paid social buy diverge
Broadcast delivery has requirements a digital buy does not. Duration is exact to the frame. A slate and clock lead the file. Caption files travel with it, textless elements go alongside so a distributor can re-version, and audio has to conform to a loudness target rather than simply sounding loud enough.
That last one is regulation, not preference. Television commercial loudness in the United States falls under the CALM Act, and distributors apply the ATSC A/85 Recommended Practice to the spots they transmit. Underneath sits ITU-R Recommendation BS.1770, the algorithm defining how programme loudness is measured. A mix that ignores it gets rejected by the distributor rather than by the audience.
Trafficking is the step brands forget. An approved spot does not go to the broadcaster directly. It goes through an ad delivery vendor with its own file specification, metadata fields and cut-off, and that deadline sits after picture lock, so the approval calendar has to end early enough to leave room.
A paid social buy inverts most of this. The platform transcodes whatever it receives, with no slate, no textless requirement and no distributor enforcing loudness. What replaces all of it is a sound-off default and a feed that will not wait. Every other technical delivery question is handled on the post production page.
Shooting product for a spot that has to sell it
Product work is a lighting problem before it is a camera problem. A matte surface and a polished one want opposite treatments, and a bottle, a screen and a piece of grilled food each behave like a mirror in a different way. Control comes from flags, negative fill and small hard sources rather than from a bigger light.
Macro and probe lenses put glass inches from a subject at working apertures, which turns focus into millimetres and makes repeatability essential. That is what motion control and a well-built slider move are for: an identical camera path across takes lets the edit combine a perfect first half with a perfect second half, and lets a compositor add a label or a splash that could not be shot practically.
Food and drink run on a clock. A pour has one good second, a sear looks right for about ninety of them, and ice is a shot list of its own. That means multiples of the hero product on set and a shooting order built around perishability instead of convenience. Studio 47's commercial for The Best Paddle sat in that territory: a physical product that has to look precise on camera and has to demonstrably work, shot to boards and versioned down for the placements the campaign bought.
How long a spot runs changes what it costs
Two commercials can shoot identically and cost very differently, and the reason is almost never the camera.
A spot that runs for six weeks on your own channels is a straightforward job. A spot that runs for a year across paid media brings in more people and more of their time: cast booked for a longer engagement, music selected for a longer term, a finish that holds up at higher resolution because it will be seen on bigger screens. Those costs are set before the shoot day, not after it.
The practical move is to decide the run at the brief stage. Tell us how long you want it live, where it will play and whether you expect to extend it, and the budget gets built once. Deciding after delivery means going back to everyone involved and renegotiating from a weaker position.
The same logic applies to versions. A campaign that will need a fifteen second cut in November is cheaper to plan for in September, because we shoot the coverage for it while the set is still standing. Coming back for it later means rebuilding the set, rebooking the cast and paying for a second day to get thirty seconds of footage.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a 30 second commercial cost to produce?
Concept complexity leads, then cast and the usage window attached to them, then locations, shoot days and how much finishing the spot needs. Duration barely registers, which is why a thirty is not cheaper than a sixty shot on the same day. Two separate bills also exist: making the spot and buying the airtime are different budgets.
How long does it take to make a commercial?
Roughly a week or two on concept, treatment and boards, plus the legal review sitting on top, then one or two shoot days, then two to four weeks of finishing including caption files and trafficking. Public locations add a floor, since FilmLA takes applications at least three full business days ahead. Studio 47 books crew against signed boards, so a late gate compresses post rather than moving delivery.
Why do two commercials with the same shoot cost different amounts?
Because how long and where it runs is decided before the camera turns over. A spot for your own channels for six weeks is a smaller job than one running a year across paid media, which needs more cast time, a longer music arrangement and a higher finish. Decide the run at the brief stage and the budget gets built once.
Can the same commercial run on TV and social media?
Yes, when the versions were planned on the boards. Broadcast wants exact duration to the frame, a slate and clock, caption files, textless elements and audio conformed to a loudness target under the CALM Act, applied through ATSC A/85 and measured per ITU-R BS.1770, then trafficked through a vendor whose deadline sits after picture lock. A paid social buy needs none of that and needs a first second that works sound off.
Do I need professional actors for my commercial?
Not always. Real staff and real customers work well when the spot is about credibility, and they cost less. Professional talent is worth it when the script needs timing, a specific look, or a performance that has to hold for thirty seconds under close scrutiny. We will tell you which one your script actually needs before you cast it.
How many versions of a commercial should we make?
Plan for at least three: the full spot, a fifteen second cut, and a vertical version. Shooting the coverage for all three on the same day costs almost nothing extra. Coming back later means rebuilding the set, rebooking talent and paying for a second day to get fifteen seconds of footage.
Can we use a popular song in our commercial?
Not without paying for it, and for most brands the cost is out of proportion to the benefit. Custom composition or a good production library track is the usual answer, and a piece written for your edit will fit your cuts better than a hit record does. We handle the music side as part of the job.