DRUGS shot on HVX

SurJones said:
I would love to shoot with old people. HOWEVER I have a big fear that they wont respect me because I am younger. Was this the case. Did you have the same fear as a director. How did they take direction? Where these old people trained actors? I know so many questions.

you pulled this off real nice. Cant wait to see more. Also post a high res. version if you can.
Click to expand...

Wow I just got back from a whole week of working with retired people. They're great to work with. For the most part very pleasant, no hidden agenda, eager to please. I say work through your fear and have fun. I didn't direct this spot. I was the shooter, gaffer and editor. My partner wrote and directed it. He's very good at getting performances out of people. We had a casting agent get us a number of auditions. Penny (left) stood out immediately and Rose (the one doing all the talking) initally struck me as an awkward mom type trying to wear her street smarts that she picked up watching reruns of McGiever. (which I thought was hysterical.) Well, after a few rehearsals she turned into this bat out of hell character which is just great.

I'm not entirely familiar with the other type of work these actors have done, but I'm farily sure they don't make a living doing this. They took direction very well. We rehearsed with Rose quite a bit before the shoot, and she really worked hard practicing the part....that made all the difference.

You really have to know what you want BEFORE you start directing people. (well..actually before you cast the part) I guess to answer your question. If you're the director they HAVE to respect you. If you're a good director and you know what you want and pretty much know how you're going to get it they WILL respect you.

My big fear working with non career actors is getting that community theater feel. You know, in an effort to be expressive the face just kind of goes blank, the hands mirror and awkwardly gesture at chest height and the line sounds kinda flat and rehtorical. The biggest give away are the HUGE holes in the dialog where it sounds like they're trying to remeber their line. A lot of the delivery is done in the edit. You have to edit funny. Rose did a great job, but we edited her lines to the point where it feels like she's talking over herself.

Hey someone commented in an earlier post about the punchline not being edited correctly. I assume the reference is to the "I like to see who I'm buying from" line. We didn't get the performance we wanted on that line...so we had to make do. I still think it works fine, but I did have to fight that a bit in the edit.

Thanks for all the feed back. I promise to get a better version online this week.
 
I think it looked awsome. But the punch is a bit off and after old ladies show up it drags a bit. Instead of 1:30 make it tight 1:00 or even 30s and you are fine.
 
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