Hi everyone,
I've just catched up on S10, and I'm loving it, but something annoys me over and over. Why do they always have the candidates 'directing' commercials/promotional videos. I work in media myself and it seems pretty universal that all the business candidates will cock up this task, given that they have little to no real expertise in this complicated field. Regardless, being good in this should matters little in the business world where you would ideally hire a company or someone to do this for you (yes, even with a 250k investement).

So I don't really get why this is in the show every season. Given that they have graphic designers, product designers working for them on other tasks, and chefs, drivers etc. etc, why do they always have to direct their own promotional videos?

Is this because Lord Alan Sugar really wants someone who can work well with media or perhaps thinks that making a video is an easy task that can be done by everyone? Or is this the producers' idea of creating some entertainement value for the audience? Every time Lord Sugar comes with some quip about 'this is not Felini' or 'relax Spielberg' I just cringe. It's got nothing to do with business.

I just don't get this, and it's in every season.

Cos it's funny!

Bigger answer - the candidates direct everything. The graphic designer doesn't direct the team's box art any more than the cameraman directs the team's viral ad. The video task doesn't punish them any more or less than other design tasks.

The Apprentice was founded on the concept of making people in suits do jobs they weren't trained for, in two days, with a group of people who hate them, then laughing at them if they don't achieve industry standards. "Make a video" is no exception.

I know but directing is actually a very logistical job that requires an education and a basic knowledge of how to use tools (like a graphic designer/product designer). I do think that the teams should come up with the concept, storyboard and script for a video; but that the execution and directing should be left to a professional. The candidates flying about on set calling themselves 'choreographers' (cough s8) is just a bit daft. At this level it is actually more of a craft than an art anyway.

I think we're just left with the entertainment value and LS' little quips, its getting a little old by now.

I agree but you do laugh at how precious some of the professionals are about it. I remember watching a your fired show when it had an executive from an advertising agency and he was so snotty about their efforts. I was thinking if someone told you to come up for a product, brand it, and make a tv advert, signed sealed and delivered in 2 days you would look at them as if they were mad.

I think it's a task that really forces you out of your comfort zone if you never done that sort of work. Also I think he wants to test your ability to just concentrate on marketing the product rather than come up with sone creative masterpiece which tells the consumer next to nothing about the product.

You know, I watch the products they make and I'm actually surprised, many of them I'd buy from a supermarket and/or online if I didn't know better. It is ALWAYS the video that lets them down because it's directed by an amateur - the product designs/websites have a more polished look because they're obviously finished by a professional.

I know nothing about the business. Have their been great technological advances in making using the camera properly a lot easier.? I remember about 10 years ago being told that it takes ages just learning to hold the camera properly and move it around the scene without making the viewer sea sick.

I can imagine that the finished product really does need a professionals touch in order to polish it up.

I think there's something to be learned in seeing how well the contestants understand their proposal and market and can present it. I can see the danger in letting a good project look bad on TV too..It would make more sense if just the ideas, and both presentations, were marked, and both teams were given equal professional support . The problem would be if a top professional made a gem out of coal- while another produced something less good with better ideas.

The problem is its all probably irrelevant to the decision. Mark won't have to work with James. What matters is the plan, and the profit and risk . It might just be important for Mark to convince that he can present. But, what happens in finals doesn't usually matter- as pluses and negatives can be found anywhere. He's often ignored what happens, and awarded the win to people who have come up with the weakest product, had bad ideas for company names (Niks) or shown weaknesses presenting it.

I wasn't talking about cameramen per se. Being a director is a multi-disciplinary task that involves camera/sound/composition/people skills and just requires a great allaround technical knowledge which none of the candidates have shown to date. But it doesn't matter, I guess, when the producers get endless laughs watching these headless chickens mock up their own day jobs. I guess it's a meta thing for them.