21.03.2008

if you need someone to pour your gravy

I love my job.

During the last two days I have been shooting an ad, for television, and it has been exhausting and challenging, but also lots of fun. After both days of shooting I got home feeling really satisfied about having done a good day's work. This may sound strange, for after all it was an ad, but what happened was a really strong sense of working together with a team of great people, all of whom are very skilled at their jobs, creating a tiny gem which tells a story in words and pictures. I think I was lucky, because this ad was probably more atmospheric, moody and perhaps film-like than a lot of other ads, and the director, Glendyn Ivin, and his producer Jane Liscombe were fantastic (and indeed are now going on to work on Glendyn's first feature.)

Making an ad presents a lot of challenges for everyone concerned, this is primarily because it is expensive and so there's a lot of pressure to get everything right in a very short time. This ad was for a product related to the kitchen and cooking and the story and style of the ad was that it was a documentary, and so they were filming me but the film crew were present behind the camera. The first day's shooting was of me and the second day's shooting was of the product.

So, during the first day we told the story of Stephanie in her house and in her kitchen, all revolving around the product. At the start of the day, 7.30 am, there were still a couple of unresolved issues about the character's clothing. As you can imagine issues about the look of an ad are always critical. The slightly tricky thing is that there is constant negotiation, on set, for the duration of the shoot, between the client, who is representing the product; the agency, who is the intermediary between the client and the creative team; and the producer and director. In this instance that was about seven or eight people, all of whom had an opinion. So this negotiation began with the outfit, on which finally a compromise was reached, and kept happening, particularly on the more complex shots. So we would do maybe 17 or 18 takes of a shot, or I think even once we did 21, to satisfy everyone's concerns. It was quite gruelling and required a great deal of concentration and stamina and calm. But the thing was we absolutely got there in the end, got the shots we wanted and they wanted, and also had some fun and kept buoyant, and that's what made it satisfying.

The second day was easier in a way, because I was only being a hand which poured gravy on food, and so it required no acting. However it held its own challenges. The selection of me to do this job was arbitrary really, because if they had needed a very beautiful hand they would have used a hand model, but they didn't and so offered the work to me. The crazy thing was that it turned out that in fact I was very good at this job, which entailed pouring gravy in a very, very specific manner onto different types of food. It was extremely nerve-wracking, as again it was a collaborative affair (where exactly the gravy had to fall, how it had to fall etc etc), and also because there were a limited amount of dishes of food available, and if I had messed it up too many times it could have been terrible: expensive, time-consuming and very tense.

It went like this: I had to pour at the correct speed (each gravy being a bit different) beginning from an exact point between the potatoes and the end of the meat (for example) and then follow the line of the steak or the curve of the chicken legs, just allowing a sexy dollop to fall between the two legs of chicken (!) and then finishing up at the end with another dollop, but not too big and not too small and then place the packet down in the exact same spot every time with no drip and no wobble and keeping everything in frame and at the right angle. While it was silent and twenty people were watching. Again huge concentration required, nerves of steel and a pedantic and precise character (which fortunately I have.) And again, it was pretty satisfying. Not as much fun as the day before, but still surprisingly fine.

So there we are: more good acting experience, working with some lovely people and the discovery of a new skill; if you need someone to pour your gravy you know where to find me.