"What's it like to work on a commercial"

I often forget that things I do are unusual compared to most people.

One thing that I do is spend time on television and movie sets. Not nearly as much as I'd like but a number of times a year I work around very big productions. This means grip trucks (those are large trucks filled with lighting equipment) wardrobe people, make up, craft services (food on the set) and lots and lots of production assistants (PAs).

My son Duncan just shot a commercial for Sony Playstation. Basically, since this is my son, I'm so much more excited than anything I've done professionally. Plus, I had to be on the set as a legal guardian, so I could observe and get in the way more.

Duncan has the same agent as I do in San Francisco. To do commercial acting, you have to have an agent, it's the way you are submitted for auditions or modeling or voice over work.

My agent is Mary Tonry, Tonry Talent. I've been with her for 10 or 12 years. Pretty long time. I like her a lot, I like the staff a lot. They are super nice and really supportive.

So here was the process.

Allie in Mary's office called and asked if Duncan would be available to miss a few days of school before they submitted him. Sometimes I get these calls and say sure! When I hang up, I sort of forget about it, you don't tend to hear back. Duncan had just finished a play at school, I wouldn't have had him miss being in the play, that lets a lot of people down. This was Thursday around 4 in the afternoon.

Friday morning around 10:30, they call and say they would like to check Duncan's availability. This means, they like him a lot and want to make sure he really can be there. At this point they've chosen a bunch of actors in each category and they are comparing them side by side and discussing which they like most.

That was really exciting, I sent an email to Duncan at school. But still it's also a long shot from this point. They may have 10 actors for that one spot, that's still a 1 in 10 shot. Who knows they might even have more and they are just checking.

I get another call an hour later. I needed to update his clothing sizes. They just need everything organized.

I sent an email with his shoe size, sports coat size, waist... Checked around 3 to make sure that they got the email. Allie said, you know how it is... we'll keep our fingers crossed.

10 minutes later Allie called and booked Duncan!

The most unusual part, there was no audition. They never even asked me to bring him somewhere where they could just say hi and see if he actually looks like his pictures. Luckily, I just had his pictures done so they look a lot like him, same glasses same hairstyle. Kids change a lot, so it's easy to get out of date on the pictures.

Saturday someone from the wardrobe department called, double checks his sizes, shoes etc. They have to shop for various things to try on him. They will buy a lot of things and return a lot of things later that are not used.

Sunday, someone from the production office calls and tells me Duncan has to come on Monday for a few hours, time is not certain yet but he will rehearse and they have to fit his wardrobe.

Monday I got the exact time and location by email. (yes, this is all last minute stuff). I got Duncan at school around 10:20. brought him to the Playstation office about 30 minutes from San Francisco. We were met in the lobby by a production assistant who brought us to the make shift wardrobe area. There was one other kids there.

We met the producer and the director and of course the two wardrobe people. Plus this is in the middle of Playstation so it's really cool, stuff all over the walls and people cubicles had crazy 6 foot creature cut outs.

They had trouble deciding what Duncan should wear. He tried on about 6 different combinations, including shoes. When you watch the final production it doesn't look like much, jeans a t-shirt and fleece but colors and looks have to be coordinated and they have to match the other actors and the backgrounds.

The kids all met (plus all of us moms). We went into a small room with a TV where they taught the kids to play a demo of the new game "Deadmun's Quest". Playstation is promoting the new "moves" game system. This is a game for next Christmas, it's still a long way from being done. There are God knows how many designers, engineers still working on it. This was a prototype the kids used that was about 10 minutes of the game.

They all practiced. And they said they would tell us the exact location later Monday night. Yup, it was shooting the next day and they still were deciding. That is pretty normal for this sort of thing. I tend to live life in general that way, so I just accept it.

Got the email later with directions and details and our call time (what time we have to show up). They sent me an Excel spread sheet with everyone's name and contact information. I only needed one or two numbers but this is how it's done. I was surprised there were 50 or 60 names. Duncan and I were getting really excited. Up to this point we didn't know much about this thing, it could have just been a camera a director and a lighting person, what did we know?

The commercial was shot in a huge very very expensive house in the shadow of Mt Diablo, this is a high end community 40 miles from San Francisco. When we got there, there were trucks and guys with tool belts carrying lighting equipment cables, cars parked everywhere. this is a pretty quiet street with big houses. It's really cool. I can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking and imagining what was happening across the street.

We were greeted (luckily) right away by the producer who told us where to go.

Inside this house, there are cables, lights, monitors, runners on the nice floors where the teamsters were walking. They used a whole room just for 3 monitors for a person to watch as it was shot. They had 2 people watching a laptop and a special feed just to watch the game as the kids would play. Everything with any sort of logo was gone.

There was a tutor on the set, since they were dealing with minors. They were supposed to do 3 hours of school work. Mostly the kids just used it as a day off. Duncan did actually have a lot of school work, it was 2 weeks before finals.

The main job of the tutor is to make sure the laws for using underage workers are obeyed. This was not the set of Harry Potter, it was just a day off of school for most of the kids.

One by one the kids got into the make up chair. Did a little make up and fixed their hair. While he did this, I got a coffee and bagel.

On to the set they go. There is a hubbub of activity all around. I stood out of the way with the other moms and watched and giggled. I was just so happy to watch my son do this, I chucked all "cool" out the window. We don't get to do this very often! The other moms were acting more cool than me but since I was willing to act like a geek, they let go a bit and let out their excitement too.

The director, assistant director, camera person, representatives from Sony, lighting person rearranged the kids over and over. Had them pretend to play, switched kids, changed clothes slightly, changed lights, shouted things like "there's a hot spot near the edge of the couch"

Then the kids had to act like they were having a good time. Over and over and over and over. The camera was on a track so it moved in around, about a third of the way around them. Because they needed specific actions, they would shout, "use the arrow now, pull out the throwing stars! Smile, move slower, move faster" They spent two and a half hours just on this shot. All the kids did great. After 30 minutes it's not that fun anymore for sure, it's just tiring.

Then they switched kid's positions, some went back to do school work or read. They would bring kids back as they needed them.

We broke for lunch. Lunch on sets is awesome. Fully catered, steaks and pulled pork. It's way easy to overeat. Amazing deserts. They set out long tables for crew and "talent" to eat.

I love free food, I always have to control myself in these situations. Especially lately when I've noticed, I'm becoming a big fat clown.

Back to work.

Kids did school work while they switched the camera and lighting and shot the kids from behind into the TV. The first time they used the TV for real. From behind they masked the TV with green to insert the game later. The lighting on that took a long time, it has to perfect so you don't notice that the game is inserted.

Again, shots over and over and over. Eventually switching kids out.

Then the kids shot for hours in front of a big green screen they had set up in this 4 car garage. Mostly the kids danced for a different game. They didn't use those shots even though they spent hours shooting. That's the way it goes.

The day was done around 5:30, we arrived at 8. Tiring, full day. We happened to have tickets for the Giant's game, so we drove there, my younger son met us. The benefit of living in a large city, kids can get around easily and do things like meet at a baseball game.

I was more tired than Duncan. He still had homework to do when we got home at 10:45, after getting up really early, shooting a commercial and going to a baseball game.

That night, I posted the pictures I took on Facebook. Duncan was a bit embarrassed by me taking pictures but he was really happy I did. The next day word got around his school like mosquitos finding new campers. Duncan was a big shot for a day with kids asking him about the commercial all day. How cool would that be when you were 17?

For me, that was the best part. Because I make my living as a performer, I don't get to give my family the things I would really like. We don't eat out very often. We take driving vacations. We can only get a newer car (never brand new) when it's absolutely necessary.

But not a lot of parents could give this experience to their child, so that made me feel good.

The commercial was used at the giant Sony E3 conference in LA, starting two days ago. They were using it in under two weeks from the production! That's a fast turnaround. Especially when you consider this thing has to be approved on many levels. There is a lot of money riding on this for Sony. I understand they spend millions and millions of dollars on a game, so they don't want to mess it up with a bad commercial.

Everyone is asking me about money and residuals. Here is how this one works.

This is showing on the Internet only. That is a specific contract. If they use it on TV or in movie theatres or in another country they have to have me sign a new contract. I have a feeling they know what they are doing and there won't be other contracts.

Duncan was paid for the day. He got paid about double the day rate again, because there are no royalties and he got some money to go to the fitting. The agent gets 10% of the whole thing. It was a good amount of money. Especially for a teenager.

Since Duncan's going to start applying for colleges, this is a nice little gift for him. It will buy pizzas and late night coffees for a few months.

Here's the commercial! Enjoy, I'm just so proud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N81kqBSgqg