This is a spec ad for Marshall, shot by students who, a month earlier, had never touched a camera. In this article I review it: what works, what doesn’t, and what could be improved.

The Class at H-Farm College

This commercial comes from my class of 2024 at H-Farm College. If you don’t know H-Farm, it is the largest innovation and education campus in Europe. It hosts lecture halls, companies, startups, schools and, of course, the College.

There I teach a month-long class in commercial video production to students who have mostly never touched a camera. In one month they have to learn the tools and create a commercial from start to finish. It’s basically a film school crash course. It is a very challenging class, for both me and my students, but it is also very rewarding.

The Good

Concept

Let’s start with the concept, which is very strong and in line with the brand.

The commercial’s payoff is Sound evolves, soul remains, a strong line that fits Marshall’s image. Each scene is set in a different era, from the brand’s founding in 1962 to today. It isn’t immediately clear when you watch the video, but the idea is solid. I could see this as a real campaign for the brand.

Technical Approach

The commercial was shot on a Sony FX3 with a PL adapter and a kit of DZO Vespid primes, so nothing out of the ordinary. Most of it was shot from a fixed overhead position. The exceptions are the first shot and the second-to-last shot. For those the students used a DJI gimbal attached to a crane, which was attached to a dolly on tracks. That is a very complicated setup and a very ambitious shot.

The technical approach works well. With only two camera moves, at the start and at the end, and an overhead shot for everything else, the students could focus on set design and action. That was a smart choice, because none of them had touched a camera before.

Acting

Another great idea was not showing anyone’s face. I always tell my students to avoid faces: if you show a face, that face needs to act, and if it doesn’t act well, the video immediately feels like a student project. Less facial acting means a more professional result, and here that works well.

Set Design

Lastly, the set design is very good. The students brought in so many objects and props that almost every scene feels full and lived-in.

Overhead shot of a cluttered desk with a turntable and a Marshall amp, a hand playing a red electric guitar
Overhead shot of a man typing on a vintage typewriter at a wooden desk covered with open books
Overhead shot of a tattoo artist working on a client's arm next to a sheet of tattoo designs, lit by a desk lamp

The Bad, and What to Improve

The result is solid, but a few things are worth discussing.

Editing: Action Position in the Frame

Let’s start with something they did right but didn’t carry through to the end. When they shot the commercial, they followed my advice and thought about where the action would sit in the frame. The action changes from shot to shot but stays in the same spot across each cut, which makes the edit easy to read.

For example, in one shot you see the girls going up. In the next, a guy in the same position goes back. He starts typing, and the cut lands on other hands.

Overhead shot of a girl in a fringed jacket moving up out of the frame, an arrow marking the direction
Next shot at the typewriter desk: a man in a white shirt moves back from the same spot, an arrow marking the direction

This works very well, but I wish they had kept it up until the end. After this sequence, the action mostly stays in the center of the frame, and then the continuity breaks again: the action moves from the center to the left side.

Then there’s another attempt. A girl takes a plant out of a box and puts it on the right side of the table. The next scene has a similar movement with a beer, but it doesn’t quite work, because the two movements overlap a little. If the guy had already been holding the beer up and then put it down, the cut would have worked better.

Overhead shot of a woman at a lamp-lit desk, a cross marking the action in the centre of the frame
Overhead shot of a girl taking a plant out of a box, a cross marking the action on the left
The same girl placing the plant on the right side of the table, a cross marking the action
The tattoo scene, a cross marking a hand lifting a beer on the right of the frame

More vertical and horizontal movement with match cuts could improve the result. This includes the last cut: the idea of closing the laptop and putting down the Marshall is good, but the framing as a whole is less effective.

Lighting an Overhead Shot

The lighting isn’t always at its best. Overhead shots are usually hard to light, because every lighting concept you know has to be rotated by 90 degrees, and it’s often unclear how to get the result you have in mind. Sometimes you wish you could put a light under the floor.

The opening is moody, but it looks a little fake. There are two light sources with different color temperatures, which is nice, but the main light comes from an odd position and doesn’t feel natural. The rest of the video looks mostly natural, so the style changes.

The other scenes look quite natural. I prefer the well-lit ones, which feel like real places. The darker ones are less effective. The nail polish scene, for example, is a little flat. A visible light source would have added contrast, as in the tattoo scene, where the cigarette helps.

Opening shot: a man seen from behind at a desk with a turntable, a circle marking the light falling on his shoulder
Overhead shot of hands with rings resting on a desk, lit in magenta and blue

Storytelling: What Feels Fake

From a storytelling point of view, most of the scenes work well: they tell a story. But a couple of them don’t convince me.

The first is the scene with the “Stop Racism” sign. It’s hard to imagine someone actually writing a sign like that. It feels very generic. The table also looks a bit random: there are a couple of political books that look deliberately placed, an open bag of chips, and not enough space for the sign. It doesn’t feel like a real situation.

The police arrest also feels a little fake. The idea is good, but the acting doesn’t deliver: the guy is slammed against the table, and then the action just stops. A better performance would have made it more convincing. Then again, there are no real actors here, which is exactly why it’s always a good idea not to rely on performance.

Pacing a 60-Second Commercial

My last point is about pacing. In this class we aim for a 60-second commercial. This one runs 45 seconds, so it’s a little short, yet it still feels slow. Without cutting a single scene, you could bring the edit down to 30 seconds with faster action and quicker cuts, and the result would have more impact.

Final Verdict

Overall, this is a great spec commercial, better than what most people have in their portfolios. Not bad for people who had never touched a camera a month earlier.

If you liked this review, check out the H-Farm College channel. I’ll be reviewing more student videos in the future.