BACK-UP ACTOR

 

As stories go this is stranger than most.  My son was into acting, being a TV/Film Producer/Director gave us an edge.  He stayed busy.  My eight-year-old son enjoyed acting; he was a natural and a ham.  Cameras, lights, crew and such never bothered him.  He grew up in a family where all of that was every day life.

 

This particular audition was as many before, boring.  We sit and sit and wait and wait, finally he auditions and comes out with a smile.  We go home.  Next day we get a call from our agent, she says that my son did not get the job, but he will be paid to back up the child that did get the job.  This never happened to us before and I was curious as to what the deal was.  Using my contacts I unraveled the story behind a struggle for power.

 

Commercials can be complicated.  You have the client, the ad agency and the production company.  All have creative input; sometimes they butt heads.  The client hires the ad agency to create the advertising campaign; the ad agency hires the production company to produce one aspect of the ad campaign, the Television Commercial.  This particular commercial had two powerful people at odds with each other: the creative director of the ad agency and the director of the commercial.

 

The ad agency creative director wanted the other boy and the director wanted my son.  The compromise was my son as back-up actor.  We arrived on shoot day at 6am.  I brought several games, chess, cards and reading material.  The lights were not full on in the lobby till about 9am.  Production people scurried about crossing the lobby because support was on one side and the studio on the other.  The dad for the actor with the part sat to himself reading the paper.  The mom of the girl actress spent most of the time on the phone.  Lunch was served at noon; the director came to me and asked if we could stay the day.  I said sure, no problem.  The scurrying was taking on a pained look and I could hear shouting from the support side; people in ties hounding the director.  It slowly became apparent that the shoot was not going well.

 

The commercial was for a toy bread masher.  You put a slice of bread in it, picked a pattern and squished the bread.  The child that won the part could not get it right.  They had spent nearly seven studio production hours and had not one good take.  Another tie arrived and sent the ties hounding the director out of the building.  A few minutes later the little boys dad was asked back to the studio and shortly thereafter a crying boy with dad hastily left the building.  The director came out all smiles.  My son hopped up without a word (scary, he knew what was going on all along), went straight to make-up and wardrobe and one hour latter the commercial was a wrap.  It is not fair to say that he waltzed through the spot.  The other cast members and the crew had several hours of practice, as it were, and my son stepped in, took direction and completed his part.

 

I saw the rushes and he looked great.  But the ad agency had the last laugh.  My son was nearly cut from the spot.  He had about three seconds on camera, partial shots and no dialogue.  The pay is the same, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why the other boy was having difficulties.  It is possible that the director was making it difficult for him, but the mom of the little girl in the spot told me the other kid was a brat, always questioned why, missed his mark and could not look into the camera.

This business is not for everyone.  The dad of the fired son was not supportive and was actually chewing his son out.  Later I found out that there agency dropped them and that no other local agency would pick them up.

 

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