“Television will kill the movies!” That’s what Hollywood was afraid of in the 50s. That’s when wide screen “epic” film formats were developed and movies like Cleopatra and Ben Hur came to represent the movies. The idea was that filmmakers had to come up with something that would clearly draw audiences away from television otherwise no one would ever again leave the comfort of their homes.
I am Melton Cartes, the chief Ad Guy, and I created this virtual ad agency as a way of delivering top-notch advertising talent directly to businesses that want it without the overhead that traditional agencies pass onto their clients.
An Ad Guy is committed to increasing your business by helping you communicate more persuasively with your audience through the development and focus of your business’ key message.
The term An Ad Guy is a throwback to the golden age of advertising, referring to guys like Bill Bernbach (the famous Volkswagen “Think Small” campaign), Howard Gossage (The Fina “Pink Air” and the Whiskey Distillers of Ireland campaigns) Saul Bass (the “Psycho” shower sequence and the Kleenex logo, to name a very few of his accomplishments) and Marget Larsen (SF’s Parisian Bread logo).
These men and women each applied common sense and the fun notion of speaking to real people with their work, instead of at them, and rather than simply seeing demographics, tactics and dollar signs.
I’m an ad guy.
I began my career in advertising at a small high-tech agency as an art director with a strength in graphic design. As the joke goes, I’m one of the few art directors who can actually draw.
Since then, I’ve added copywriting to my toolkit and due to the demands of being an ad guy (an art director or copywriter) my strategic skills grew and have served me in the position of creative director several times.
Businesses face all sorts of challenges that come in all sizes. As a virtual ad agency, An Ad Guy is capable of adapting to the scale of the need by pulling in additional resources as needed or using only what’s needed. Since most projects are either conceptual or executional, most of those can be handled by me. But if a project requires more, additional resources can easily be applied to the task.
Take for example producing a TV commercial. I draw your attention to the low-budget TV spot in the Production section of this site. As far as production values are concerned, this spot was modest and that’s a big factor in making it a low-budget production. But if the client wants and can afford a more complex production, say something with multiple actors, a set and props, or an outdoor shoot involving more activity, a larger production would have to be set up. An Ad Guy has several industry contacts that we could call upon in such a case.
So, if you’re looking for your next postcard or your next national TV campaign, consider applying advertising talent directly where needed. Use An Ad Guy.
Direct mail is a slice of the “direct response” pie and literally consists of communication pieces that are mailed directly to people considered to be part of an advertiser’s target audience.
The only thing I did not do in this project was act; that was handled by the wonderful Yvonne Cornell. I wrote this script, lit it (with help from my friend David Fischer), shot it, edited it and of course, directed it.
The budget for this commercial was under five thousand dollars, way under. While I don’t recommend that (and I won’t do that again), it is proof that good quality television advertising doesn’t have to be expensive. Obviously, this was a low-budget concept; a single actor, no props and no set construction required. Music was provided by a local musician and that was it.
It was shot using MiniDV technology and a ridiculously tiny camera, my friend David’s little Sony 3-chip camcorder he uses on vacations. Nonetheless, with an additional camera and a more realistic budget, a very good TV spot is well within the range of any business—if that medium is right for your marketing plan. Add to that regional cable media buys and any business can run its own respectable and effective TV campaign.
A low-budget commercial for a long-distance phone plan.
30 seconds
Making TV commercials or major motion pictures can be complex and expensive. Storyboards and Production
Design are film’s counterpart to architectural drawings. It is a way to visualize and make tangible what otherwise would only exist in one person’s head. As an advertising art director, my job has always been to create comps (comprehensive sketches) or mockups to show what the final product will be for a given project. Thanks to my innate drawing abilities, I’m also a very capable storyboard artist, capable of drawing either very precise frames or a multitude of simpler looser renderings. This can be useful if you have a limited budget but would like a storyboard for your whole project.
Production design can be as simple as a few concept boards, showing how key scenes might look, or it can be more comprehensive, depicting every detail of a film production.
