STORIES FROM THE FIELD

THIRTY FIVE TAKES LATER

It was late afternoon on the set of Futurelife’s most recent commercial and  it was going badly. We could not get our hero shot because one of our three characters, a four year old, was permanently scowling. The breakfast scene necessitated a radiant  smile that we knew she had in her. While she had seemed an utter delight during casting, responding brilliantly to direction, under the bright lights of set, surrounded by strangers (one of whom was pretending to be her mother) and forced to sit next to some one year old she’d never met, she was now in a constant, immovable state of gloom, take after take. As a director you can begin to feel pretty powerless in situations like this. Here’s how we got through it:

• Keep calm. Staring defeat in the face you have to maintain an exterior facade of serenity. Smile, clap, encourage, praise - even if your insides are turning cold  at the prospect of a re-cast and re-shoot.
• Roll on. If you can, don’t stop rolling. You never know when that smile will suddenly come. It’s often right after you say ‘cut’. So don’t.
• Improvise. We had the child’s mother sit under the table, right next to her, making funny faces and showing her videos. Anything to elicit a smile. It worked.