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19 July 1998 |
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We got there just in time, but then everyone else was late. We had soda, coffee, bagels while waiting for everything to come together. El Presidente's teenage son had several friends on hand to get shot for the commercial, and El Prez had asked the Condiman's girlfriend, Dearheart, to come do this too. Each subject was placed on his or her knees in front of the blue sparkling pool with a bottle of soda. One guy held up a screen to keep the sunlight from being too harsh while another guy shot the scene. The subject would drink some of the soda then turn and smile at the camera, to be handed another flavor and do it again. Much of this time was eaten up positioning the subject and the bottle, working around shadows, etc. You don't want a thumb obscuring the label, for instance. Then a group shot was taken involving all the teens sitting on the edge of the pool, kicking each other and horsing around, giggling and sipping the soda. Darth Vader (formerly known as Moomie) got his chance to sit in front of the camera and look cute. C3PO (Boober) thought this was fun until they started giving him directions, at which point he got sullen, so we didn't subject him to any more of that. Next came the product shots. El Prez piled a bunch of ice on a plastic sheet under a tree and the camera guy got all set up in front of it. The first series of shots were stop animation shots of the bottles appearing one at a time to form a group of all twelve at the end, refreshingly nestled in crushed ice. As each bottle was placed, it was vital not to let any other bottles move lest it ruin the whole thing. We got away with only one do-over. Then it was a rainbow of the fruity flavors, and then some close-ups on a few flavors individually. That took care of all the footage for the commercials. That's when El Prez got an idea for some marketing video. He recruited one of the teens from the earlier shots to come sit by the pool on a lounge chair with an empty Jones bottle. She was to pout over its emptiness, then pick up the phone and dial. "Hello. Wawa? Do you carry Jones Soda? ... No?!" She is heartbroken. This was shot in eight or nine versions, each with the name of a different major supermarket or convenience store chain in it. At the end they got a shot that could be added to the end of all the others, a solitary glycerine tear sliding down her pretty cheek. Much of what was shot today will wind up canned for future use. The commercial we plan to air next month will feature one or the other of the female models drinking the Jones. As she drinks it, the bottle morphs from one flavor to the next to the next, rather quickly. This effect will of course be added in the editing. --Spring
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