Monday, June 29, 2009

Working with Actors vs. Non-Actors

At On the Leesh, we work with actors all the time. We are blessed actually with the talent that we work with. They are prepared, professional and supportive of their cast members.

For What You Can Do, we have made a conscious decision to make our “hosts” for each episode be real people. Therefore, some of our personalities are average Americans. We feature a fire fighter (thanks Jack!), a teacher (thanks Shannon!), a graphic designer (thanks Lana!) and so on. To be honest, we were worried that this would raise some problems on set.

Typically when you’re on set, you want to limit as many variables as possible. That means, hiring actors. These people are trained – and paid to remember their lines. They know what’s expected of them and don’t mind waiting around while we set up shots. Would this be the same with the other people we were going to work with?

Amazingly…YES! Each episode has taken about an hour to shoot with the “host.” They have been able to nail their lines within the first couple of takes. That means – they were able to memorize complicated phrases – Purina’s Pets for People Program – sorry Melissa. They were able to stay focused on the task at hand. They were all pros! Every one was excited to be on set and see how the videos were being made. Even Winnie – our two year old was focused and easy to work with.

I don’t want to jinx these videos, but…these guys are blowing our actors out of the water!

Thanks to all our volunteers!

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