What does a knight in armor have to do with a gate opener?

Everything, if you've got thirty seconds and want people to remember it

A gate operator and access control maker wanted a TV commercial that didn't look like every other hardware ad, a guy pointing at a motor

I produced and directed it

Start a thousand years ago

Cracked desert earth, a blazing sun, a knight on horseback with a banner, riding toward a walled castle

People have been protecting their homes with walls and gates for as long as there have been homes, that's the story in about ten seconds

Desert light is brutal and beautiful at the same time, hard shadows, heat shimmer, the banner snapping in the wind. You don't need a word of dialogue, the picture says old, tough, built to keep people out

Then cut to today

A car pulls through the iron gates of a modern estate, smooth and quiet, and then the commercial gate operator that actually does the work

The castle sets up the promise, the product pays it off

Here is the deal, thirty seconds on TV is expensive air. If the viewer doesn't get it on the first watch, you paid for nothing

So it's one idea, the same idea a castle had, told twice, old and new

A logo built letter by letter

Chrome letters assemble one at a time to close, the website on screen the whole way through so the phone number never has to be memorized

Why a story beats a spec sheet

Would anybody remember a list of motor specs after a thirty second spot? no. They remember the knight

And when they need a gate opener six months later, the knight is what comes back

That's what a brand is, the picture that shows up in your head when you need the thing. Fashion works exactly the same way

Producer and camera

When the producer is the one building the shots, the jump from the castle to the estate gets planned in the viewfinder, same direction of movement, same light, so the cut feels like one story and not two ads glued together

More commercials in the Commercial gallery, and how I tell a story with one picture in the Fashion Photographer gallery

Castle walls, then and now

Length: 0 min 31 s · Producer & director: David Victory, VRSET video production, Los Angeles & Orange County

Key moments

  • 0:00 Desert opening
  • 0:03 Knight on horseback
  • 0:09 Banner over the desert
  • 0:14 The castle
  • 0:16 Modern gated estate
  • 0:21 Commercial gate operator
  • 0:24 Logo build

See the matching photography in the Commercial gallery.

More videos

The full video library

Also on our YouTube channel.

Planning a video or a fashion shoot? Contact David Victory or call (310) 988-6575 in Los Angeles, (949) 873-4551 in Orange County. Free consultation and quote for first-time clients.