Commercial Shoot for Ms C

Remember previously I had wrote a blog regarding a casting for a commercial shoot? Today, we were finally there to do the shooting at the scene. It was a long way though.  We had travelled a day early to Worsley, Manchester and staying overnight at Novotel Hotel. We had a bit of problem checking in though as someone had taken our room! The person told the reception her surname and they could not find her on the system.  Her daughter was a replacement for another model who was unable to turn up. I think they assumed that we were the ones who were unable to turn up – the receptionist was so shocked when we arrived!

It was raining when we got to the location for getting their outfit. The dressing area was located at a very posh house (worth £2.7 million after Googling it). All the child models changed into their outfits and got onto the bus which dropped us at the playground.

This was Ms C in her winter outfit in cool Summer weather!  She was not a happy bunny as she had to wear a thick coat and wellies!  When we reached the location, we were not told what to do but just stayed around the playground.  Also the children weren’t allowed to crease or dirty the clothing!  It was not easy to stop them from playing at the public playground and muddy puddle.

After almost 1.5 hours of shooting of other children, it was Ms C’s turn.  But she refused to go down the slide!  Firstly, her wellies were too sticky on the slide and secondly, she’s not very keen on slides!  Luckily, the producer said she could do the swing scene with another 20 month old baby model. Soon, they did the scene with her and she was happy for them to push her while I was at least 3 metres away from her!  It was great that she felt comfortable without me following her. I was able to watch from the monitor and see how they film from different angles. It was really interesting to how the scenes translate on to video.

When they were going to shoot the wardrobe scene, one of the younger models was too scared and refused to go in. Even Ms C hated it. She was too small compared to the rest of the children. To put 7 children into a wardrobe was a recipe for disaster. Younger children will get pushed over or struggle to cope with the running out of the wardrobe. And disaster did happen. The 20 month old toddler fell out.  She was fine, but just a bit scared after the experience. They had to leave out the toddler, Ms C and the other young child from the wardrobe scene.

The whole shoot went over schedule and left all children and adults very hungry.  After 1 pm, we finally went back to the dressing area for the children’s lunch and all the adults had to walk to another location for our lunch. It was over at a cricket club. Everyone sat in a double decker bus. Ms C was thrilled to see the bus.  She made two friends and they were played happily on the top level of the bus.

After a sumptuous lunch, we went back to the dressing house. We had to wait for another hour before they were ready to do the next scene.  Children were restless and parents were very anxious as some of us had a long way to get back home. I was very worried that we had to stay longer than what we expected.  Soon we were asked to go to the girl’s bedroom and by then Ms C was so comfortable with the crew and other models. She was actually enjoying herself especially when they were allowed to jump on the bed!  She also managed to get inside the wardrobe. I had to leave the room as it was very small and crowded with 8 crew members and a few cameras hovering around. I was outside watching the monitor of the inside scene.

After that we went into a boy’s room for a scene with two younger children. It didn’t take them long to film the scene and our job was done! I am so glad that we managed to escape before the rush hour.  We were all set and ready to go home!

I was so proud of my little girl who had come so far over such a long day and she managed to do her job well and everyone was very pleased for her. For a 30 seconds commercial shoot, it took at least 20 men and women and a day to do the job! I will post a link to the commercial once it is out. So excited!