First I would like to thank you for choosing me for that project that has an education and beneficial feel to it and has to appeal to every child to learn how to take good care of their teeth.
Overview & Approach
As soon as I read the script I felt like we are about to make an educational fun commercial that teaches the kids a great lesson but in a competitive funny way as I wish to present it. Since this is mainly a commercial targeting kids this means we need to think from a child's point of view and think of what will attract his eyes, what will he understand and more importantly what would he like to watch. That's why I believe we need to show this commercial as if it was a competition with catchy props and colorful art direction so the kids can easily get attracted to it in addition to our joyful competition. However this will not contradict with Miswak's traditional and classical feel, being a leading brand with a specific character in the Middle East and most importantly we will focus not to lose the educational factor of the ad between the story or kid's competition.
Storyline
We start the commercial with an introduction shot presenting our location which is the stage with the stylized art direction that has to do with the world of teeth and toothbrushes.
The competition is seen through the set design of the podiums that we will have, showing how the three kids are standing behind each podium waiting to perform their act.
The teacher introduces the competition and the the the first kid appears with a spotlight on him and out with the pencil and paper to the center of the stage, where we spot him, he then puts the pencil in his mouth when he forgets his lines, which causes his teeth to ache and gets embarrassed from the kid's laughs and leaves the stage. Here we have the first podium appear in red which shows how his answer was wrong.
Afterwards comes the second kid where we see how confidently he starts talking about his toothpaste and then smiles to show us how his teeth are yellow. The teacher points out so that he gets embarrassed as well and leaves. Here the podium gives another red light showing that this is not the right way to brush the teeth and the kid leaves the stage.
Here comes our hero finally with deep confidence and a bright white smile and introduces our product Miswak which makes the podium show the green light to give the impression that we have found the right answer!
The kids starts cheering for our hero while we see his mother very proud of him and emotional then she turn around to the camera to talk about Miswak being the solution.
We then cut to the demo where it is very important to show our product and the white teeth of the character with a spark on the teeth, showing how Miswak is the perfect solution. We will also show the human body as a whole and zoom in to get his mouth, entering to his teeth and showing how Miswak goes into the fine, small details between the teeth to clean it unlike any other tooth brush.
We end with a final shot where we see our hero being lifted by his colleagues in chants and everybody saying his name with confetti and a gold medal that he has on. The final shot is of the boy smiling while we see his white teeth with a spark sound effect and fade out to end our commercial.
Location
Art Direction
I picture the podiums to have the shape of a real teeth so we have three podiums at the end standing next to another and the kids standing behind.
Each one of the kids comes out to present himself; the first one shows his yellow teeth, the second one puts a pen in his mouth and gets in pain, which shows how his teeth are weak and the third is our hero, who comes out with white teeth that look nice and strong.
We see the stage very decorated with teeth related elements, food and everything that has to do with the world of teeth brushing and tooth pastes. We also see how when each child comes out to say his line, the podium in the shape of the teeth reacts to his behavior by giving a red light for a wrong or bad teeth condition and then finally gives a green light for our Miswak hero.
Cast
The three kids are different in terms of wardrobe and in terms of teeth condition, as mentioned we will have one with yellow teeth, another with broken weak teeth and the this is our hero with great bright ones.
As for the mother I picture her to be in Hijab and to be emotional especially in the scene where she is proud of her son. She needs to look very pleasant and confident while talking to the camera.
Wardrobe
The wardrobe here has to be very stylized to match our modern set up and style of our copy however the mother will remain in hijab.
In the wardrobe we will stick to a bright color palette as well and we will have each candidate wear a different striking color like red, blue and green. The boy with the green wardrobe is our hero of course.
Grading & Look
Our commercial as mentioned before is a kid's commercial which means the colors have to be bright and catchy for a child's eye. We will also make sure to stress on green elements as this is our brand's main color.
Camera Movement & Techniques
The camera technique will be mainly steady, and tracking the children while being behind the podium and also when coming in the center of the stage. Also it will track the reaction of the mother and take a shot from her back looking at her child being proud and then turns to the camera to say her final line. Most importantly we will have the top shot from above the hero at the very end being held from his colleagues and we finally see his white teeth.
Reference for camera and children's attitude
Music
The music must have a character that matches the nature of our commercial and has a catchy feel for a child to listen to. It will also be assisted by the sound effects that we will add to the art direction.
Conclusion
So as I'm sure you can tell by now I have quite a vision for our commercial. What I always like to remind my creative partners of at this stage of the process is that we really are at step one of the filmmaking process.
We have a script we all love, we have a succinct vision we all desire, we now just have to come together and really hone the story, the characters, and the action on this occasion until we end up creating a commercial that is beyond all of our expectations.
It is my job as a director to keep pushing, to keep creating, and to keep delivering. And this is exactly what I intend to achieve for you.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.