Back to the top

Rob P.

Billesse: Perfume for Dogs [52 Sellout Week 38]

I confess, I didn’t know perfume for dogs was a real thing until I made this ad, so if any retailer needs a ready-made, abstract, arty commercial this week’s 52 Sellout is for you!

It’s been a busy week here at RobPRocks HQ and I wanted to keep my weekly streak of 52 Sellout posts alive so I needed something I could shoot locally and a music track with a stripped-down arrangement. I had a piece of music I’d been playing with after finding the melody in an old voice memo on my phone (my voice memo app is an unending scroll of snippets of music and lyrics). It reminded me of a nocturne and I figured if I matched the music with some night photography it could look like one of those art film-looking fragrance ads.

A few weeks ago I recorded some good night footage from in front of the Brooklyn Public Library when I was testing a camera stabilizer so I thought about using that, but there were no people in it, which wouldn’t really work for the kind of perfume ad I had in mind. Then I remembered I had some really fun footage of a dog playing in the fountain at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It was a First Saturday, which is a monthly free event at the museum, and I went over to practice some night shooting. I heard some kids squealing with delight over by the fountain and when I looked in their direction I saw the happiest dog in the world playing in the dancing water.

I love dogs, especially happy dogs that are trying to bite moving water, so I got as much footage of the guy as I could. I wasn’t planning on using it for anything, I just wanted the save the moment. I thought it would be nice to look at on stressful days. But how to use images of a dog in a fountain for an arty perfume ad? Boom: dog perfume.

It seemed so ridiculous I ran with it, not knowing that it’s an absolute real thing (though “dog deodorant” is probably more accurate).

The Sweet Soul of Auto Sales [52 Sellout Week 32]

The sad desperation of a lonely soul singer can only be outdone by a desperate car salesman, so I decided to put the two together for this week’s 52 Sellout. In week 32 we meet Randy from Brennschluss Auto, a formerly #1 auto dealership that is trying everything to win back its Tri-State-area customers.

The music actually came first in this week’s project. About a month ago I decided to try to compose something in the “deep soul” vein, like this song from James Carr, or early 70s Candi Staton.

O.K., gotta find some Candi Staton. I mean, how good is her cover of Otis Redding’s That’s How Strong My Love is?!?!


Sorry, can’t help myself when I think about Candi Staton.

Anyhoo, I wanted to try to write something with that kind of groove, with some smooth horn parts, and I ended up liking what I wrote and thought I should try to find a way to use it in my little ol’ weekly project.

It took me a while to settle on what kind of monologue to work into it. It had to be something desperate and needy, and I finally came around to thinking that the desperation of a car salesman at year-end clearance time would be just about right. Hope you like it!

Brenn-Auto-Poster-Frame-03[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Real Story Behind The Trump Campaign Logo [52 Sellout Week 29]

The Trump campaign’s new logo is, um, interesting. It was roundly mocked online for its “graphic” design, but instead of making fun I decided to try to capture the essence of the logo in song.

O.K., I am making fun of it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the sexy soul jam I put together. Just don’t think too much about the lyrics or the logistics of sticking Ts in Ps.

Songs about Songs [Oof, Who Charted?]

I brought back my “Oof, Who Charted?” series for a new installment on songs about songs! Some songwriters run out of ideas for their songs so they just write about a different song, or maybe even the song they’re writing, like some kind of musical Escher drawing. In the video I break down some recent offenders.

First we get into Selena Gomez’ “Love You Like a Love Song” in which she basically admits there are already enough love songs out there. Unfortunately that doesn’t stop her from attempting this one. Then we get into Kid Rock’s nostalgia track “All Summer Long” in which he reminisces about singing “Sweet Home Alabama.” What happens in 20 years when someone writes a song about how great it was to sing “All Summer Long”? Thankfully, that will never happen.

Next is Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” which cracks me up because she just flat out says “this is my fight song” in the chorus. She should do a whole album of songs that just tell us what they are: “This is my workout jam!” ”This is my song for rainy Sundays.”

And then there’s a country song by Brett Eldredge called “Wanna Be That Song” which, as far as I can tell, is told from the point of view of the song itself expressing the desire to be a popular song. And the only reason I know about this song is because the video was shot at Wrigley Field and as a long-suffering Cubs fan the internet algorithms threw it at me several times.

There are many more examples but I kept it to these 4 for the sake of video brevity. Hope you like it!

Wireless Charging Is Useless! [52 Sellout Week 27]

Every time I see those ads for wireless phone chargers I wonder how those things are more convenient than the little cords you have to plug into the phone. I mean, you have to have the wireless pad on a surface, the wireless charging pad has to be plugged in so there’s a wire anyway, and the things are bigger than normal chargers so they suck to travel with.

I guess it’s a little bit cool to charge your phone “wirelessly” but is it worth all of the extra hassle?

So I took all of that confusion and put it into this week’s 52 Sellout. And to add to the confusion I did some techno music that sounds like a hangover. Enjoy!

Load More
© Paravonian