Google Super Bowl Ad
February 10, 2010
Like a lot of folks, I was intrigued by the rare ad run by Google during the Super Bowl. Some people loved it, some hated it, some indifferent. Certainly, if loud action shots, side splitting humor, or just good ole’ fashioned big boobs are what float your boat as far as commercials go then this was a departure!
In case you missed it, here it is again:
Me? I saw a brilliant video…almost a work of art. The combination of imagery, perfect music, and use of screen capture “scenes” put together into a 60 second collage was awesome.
But when it was over, I immediately thought, “Whoa! I could do THAT!”
Since I’m speaking at Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins S.I.M.P.L.E. Event this month, I put together my own little “search story”. Here it is:
The really sweet part? I don’t have to pay $3 million bucks to air it! Actually, this clip is WAYYYY long because I couldn’t resist putting in the Cape Fear clip, so the 3 1/2 minute video would cost $10.5 million during that TV time slot. 
The biggest concept to understand if you want to make one of these yourself is that it’s made up of individual “scenes” captured with Camtasia individually and then stitched together during editing.
If you tried to just grab ALL the footage in one recording shot? Hmmm…that would be VERY messy and you would never end up with anything that looked smooth. The biggest problem is that most of the scenes are “sped up” to give that cool fast typing effect.
I tried using Camtasia’s Clip Speed feature for this at first but since you can’t see the effects of the speed up until AFTER you produce, it was a TOTAL nightmare (come on Techsmith!! Uggg…).
I gave up and dropped the clips into Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum where the whole thing was a complete snap and I could monitor the timing and tweaks in real time. Syncing the music, sounds, and other audio was also a breeze in Vegas.
I exported to a AVI file and did the Pan & Zooms in Camtasia (which is easier than Vegas to me), and rendered it out to MP4 Flash.
These kinds of videos aren’t new. They are called Search Stories and you can see other examples on this YouTube Channel.
A big thanks to Andy Jenkins (The Video Boss) for his blog post that gave me the inspiration and motivation to whip this out.
BTW…it took me about 7.5 hours, start to finish. Planning (as usual) took the biggest percentage of time (about 3.5 hours), setting up my “shots” and rehearsal about 2 hours, and the rest in editing and final production.
What do you think?
Lon
Posted in Cool Samples, QuickTips
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February 10th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Way Cool! I’m glad to know that “Robert” won’t be visiting though! Both your video and the Google ad give me inspiration to try my own as part of a product I’ll be launching soon…
Now if I can just learn to compose music too….
February 11th, 2010 at 1:49 am
SWEET!!!
February 11th, 2010 at 1:54 am
Love it! It’s amazing how much you got into that video in that time frame- way more than any other medium. What a great promotion!
.-= Shirley´s last blog ..Experience Greece: The Cradle of Western Civilization =-.
February 11th, 2010 at 2:00 am
Awesome Brad. Do leave a link when you have one so we can check it out!
Thanks,
Lon
February 11th, 2010 at 2:13 am
I didn’t see the super bowl but I realy like what you put together and I can think of many applications! Thanks for sharing!
Jon
February 11th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Awesome Lon!
February 11th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Very good Lon. Your emails and tips are always welcome.
February 11th, 2010 at 3:25 am
Lon, Its a high Ball …It’s …going going, GONE!! …..Over the Wall!! You did it again….)
February 11th, 2010 at 4:48 am
I a word Lon “Inspirational”.
Just purchased “Vegas Platinum” and will purchase “Camtasia” in the very near future.
My Sony camcorder recently gave up functioning – old age I think – and I am looking around for a replacement within a reasonable budget — got any advice . I live in South Australia but that doesn’t cause any contraints generally speaking.
I would also like to say how much I am enjoying and benefitting from my membership at “Screencast Profits”.
Thanks again and best regards,
Norman Holden
.-= Norman Holden´s last blog ..Massage Tips =-.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:39 am
Totally awesome job, Lon! I love the way you teach by doing!
February 11th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Very nice job.
A lot of production time for a short clip, but definitely worth it.
The Cape Fear clip was a great addition. DeNiro totally creeped me out in this one.
.-= Albert Grande´s last blog ..I Can Do It! San Diego: The Mind, Body, Soul Retreat, May 2010 =-.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Lon, that is awesome. So when are you going to make a free tutorial to show us how to make that type of video without costing us our arms, legs, kids, house, etc. lol? Very nice work and as always very impressive. Thanks for sharing.
Fred.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
great job Lon and thkns for the info……very cleaver and clean!!
gabriel
;=p
February 12th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Thank you for your video.
I have found myself weary lately trying to get my
Internet business going (not to mention dealing with major money issues)
What is produced is true art!!!
I was really inspired.
Thanks – I needed that.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Thanks all for the great comments!
It seems that the consensus is: “We want a video tutorial!”
OK. I’ll get a step-by-step going on how I did this. And…some folks wanted to “promote” this video. Well, I’m going to set the tutorial up so you can send traffic to it AND get affiliate credit if someone purchases any paid member levels in ScreenCast Profits.
Sound good?
Lon
February 13th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Lon,
I LOVED what you created!!! It makes me so excited that I have chosen Camtasia as my specialized niche. After seeing what you did I now have a client that wants something similar and I can’t wait to get all creative with it just as you have.
Michelle
.-= Michelle Schoen´s last blog ..Running a “Fake” Live Webinar =-.
February 25th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
lon,
ur amazing, and that’s why you are
my video hero
i got my s3 account set up, and it’s
very cool…
rock on
jeff
.-= Jeff Davis´s last blog ..Hidden, REALLY Cheap Traffic Source (Free Video)… =-.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Inspiring videos Lon!
Thanks for the Sony Vegas tip!
February 25th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Great video!
March 4th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
[...] Google Search Video Post [...]
March 4th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Hey Lon
That’s cool – I was inspired by seeing the breakdown that Andy Jenkins did and did one for my niche (I run a high end corporate and wedding band in the UK). Here’s the google style video for my band:
Live band for weddings
Hope you like it!
April 15th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Very Very nnice I use these type of video’s sometimes. As you stated a bit to long. I have been cutting my video time from 3 to 1 minute,an less. Thanks for a great shoot
Cheers
June 29th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Fantastic! You make it look so easy.
October 28th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Lon You’re My Hero!!
April 13th, 2011 at 11:06 am
Thanks for the reminder I’d forgotten how good the google video was, its simplicity is decieving a lot of skill and thought went into that screencast!
September 3rd, 2011 at 5:52 am
Hey that was pretty cool, teach me…