Need tips for directing a prize car giveaway...

[Kyle Stebbins]

Hey all,

This Wednesday, I'm going to be in a small town filming the giveaway of a brand new car. The campaign has featured a "spokesperson" of sorts who will be doing the giveaway. The winner has already been notified and is aware that we will be at her home in a couple of days. We are inviting some townspeople (since it's a small town) to be present for the giveaway a la extreme home makeover style.

Since I've never shot something like this, there is one big thing that I am battling with: Is it best to shoot the immediate giveaway first (handing over the keys) so we can capture our winner's most genuine reaction first, and then worry about the "car driving into driveway" type shots after the fact? or is there another, better way... I just don't want the winner to be standing on her porch watching us film the car drive up over, and over, and over... and then telling her to "act" excited - but at the same time, I don't want to lose the interest of the townspeople by doing the giveaway first and asking them to stick around for the car drive up shots. See my dilemma? I'm sure I'm overthinking it.

Does anyone here have experience with this? Any help before tomorrow night or Wednesday morning would be greatly appreciated. :cheesy::cheesy:

Kyle

 

[clang]

Yup, the 'money shot' is the winner's genuine reaction at getting the keys, so should be shot first. Could even be worth faking a little drama by having the winner being 'surprised' by the car's time of arrival, i.e. the first they know is when there's a knock on the door? And maybe have townspeople hiding nearby so they can jump out and yell "Surprise!" when the winner sees the car?

Depends a lot on how cheesy you want it all to be, the street/house layout, how well the winner knows the other townspeople (e.g. if they all know each other really well, some of the townspeople could even already be at the house, deliberately distracting the winner to not notice the car arrival), the personality of the winner (if known) etc.

Plan lots of cutaway shots - close-ups of the car, happy townspeople etc, so you can cut around any awkward bits and technical glitches in post.