From the Midwest to Hollywood

Tuesday morning, I arose at 4:00am so I could be at a director’s house by 4:40. All of us bleary-eyed, we packed into his SUV and arrived in Newport Beach by 5:45. We needed an empty beach in order to pull off the look of a deserted island.

While the four-person crew put together equipment for the shots they needed, I took the torn-up costume they gave me and made it looked as bedraggled as I could. I marked myself up with charcoal and then rolled around in the sand and made sand angels–they work remarkably well; I wonder why one hears so much more about snow angels.

My job was to wake up on the deserted island, parched and hungry. Then I was to search around, pass by a pencil and discover, as though it were a mirage, a Heinz Ketchup bottle. I guzzled it down with delight, and then, preparing myself to die, I lay down with my bottle and watched the sea. Then, quick as a flash, it occurred to me that with the pencil I had seen, I could send send a message in a bottle for help.

The shoot was really fun. They shot me from about three different angles doing perhaps five takes from each angle. Mostly, the director adjusted me to smile with delight about the ketchup and speed up the tempo, as it was only a thirty-second commercial.

Once we had completed this part of the shoot, we drove to a different spot in the ocean and met a friend of the director. We boarded his boat and went out about three miles from shore. The night before, the director had used fishing line to piece together scraps of wreckage to simulate the shipwreck. After getting that laid out on the surface of the water, I jumped in with another larger piece of wood, equipped with two pieces of styrofoam. This was to keep me afloat while I pretended to be unconscious.

This section of the day was certainly more challenging than the first. Though one might not expect California waters to be cold, I was shivering soon after I got into the water. Also, as I was supposed to be unconscious and therefore unable to raise my head, I swallowed a substantial amount of saltwater. Finally, the crew in the boat circled around me over and over again, giving me the sensation that I was spinning around. When we had finished, I was glad to be back in the boat.

Though my job ended when I got out of the water, the filmmakers still needed to edit the film. Because they plan to enter it in Heinz’ national contest, they needed to finish the commercial in a few days. Fifteen of the entrants will be selected for viewers to vote on, and the five commercials that receive the most votes will air nationally. Should our commercial make the top fifteen, I plan to put a link here so you can all go vote for it.

To view the final product, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSUNChZdqbI