Thursday 25 August 2011

The Art of Persuading Random Persons To Sit In Wheelchairs

Sequel to: The Art of Avoiding Persons You Wish to Avoid

For the last 3-4 weeks I have been stressed out (nothing new really) about a certain Zebra nursing Advert. After only 3 weeks prep on a budget so small, a crew of 4 and next to no resources it's finally all done. I can rest now, sort of, the job search is still pretty much my main focus.

The filming took less than a day combined and I think, is still being edited. First day, the photo shoot, was quite amusing. In true disaster style, our two actors didn't turn up and the rest of the crew (apart from me and Rachel, awesome photographer) were late. After an hour of 'what the hell do we do now' everything started to go into place. We got an actress and a member of the crew to be the nurses, my Nan and her friend were the elderly patients and asked a random guy off the street (thanks Steve!) to play a guy in a wheelchair. All it took was to step outside the house, watch the other producer struggle to get the wheelchair out of her car. Next thing that happens, a random nice guy offers to help carry the chair to the house and then ask if he wouldn't mind sparing 10 minutes. Simple as that. The photos were excellent and we got all the shots we needed, all in under 2 hours.

The next day of shooting wasn't for the Zebra advert, it was for a viral advert. It was a 14 hour shoot, mostly because of delays and people turning up late but thanks to one person, it was hilarious! We both stressed out at first and the room heated up like crazy, mostly due to the lights we were using. As the day went by, I got demoted, which actually wasn't too bad. First I was supposed to be 1st AD, but the director didn't need me, so I became a Production Assistant, but there wasn't much to do, so I ended up as Clapper Board, which was fun, especially when I kept dropping the chalk. Over all it was a successful shoot. The script was good but I couldn't quite tell if we were shooting a parody or a serious drama.

The next day was the last shoot and it lasted 3 hours. This was the main part of the Zebra advert and went very smoothly. Two person crew and a wonderful actress, Suzanne, who was telling me about her quite neighbourhood and how she was spooked the other night when she thought she saw a person crawling under a bush but when it lept out and ran across the road she saw that it was deer. Unlike where we were shooting, Hounslow, and all we got were planes. Continuously. Other than that, we wrapped early. As I type the advert should be edited right now and soon be up on the client's website.

Other than filming, I have also finished my first few cards. Boring Fish is back!!

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