I Want My MTV (Back)

Posted on August 13, 2010. Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Duran Duran, Hungry Like The Wolf, Michael Jackson, Motto Productions, MTV, Porter Sound, Simon LeBon, The Bablove Agency, Thriller, TV commercial, video shoot |

Yesterday I shot a scene for a TV commercial for a local credit union. Since it’s not part of my normal day, I really looked forward to it. The people behind the scenes – from Paul (the director) and Bianca (the make-up artist/hair stylist who also happened to go to high school with my older brother) to Fred (the sound guy) and Roman and Carlos (the camera guys) – are all friends and colleagues I’ve worked with on a variety of projects over the years. Good people all around.

Although I’ve been in a few TV commercials before, yesterday I was given a line of dialogue.

Words! Seven of them to be exact. I know this because I said them many, many, many times.

I was pretty excited because my professional acting résumé from previous gigs included:

• Woman walking in the background on a college campus with friend.
• Woman wearing a different outfit walking in the background of a library on a college campus.
• Woman smiling into the camera.

So you can see why this was a pretty cool gig.

Unless you count the fact that our house was used as background scenery in a few other commercials, plus I’ve done some voiceovers for TV and radio, most of my work has been behind the scenes in video and audio production. In my opinion, it’s almost magical. It’s amazing how hours of footage and 15 or so takes of someone saying the same seven words can produce a polished 30-second TV spot or a classic MTV music video that you recall frame-for-frame from the 80’s.

For me, that would be Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Hmmmm…if I had a dollar for every time I watched those two videos after school. And of course, I studied every dance move in “Thriller,” which I still perform at special family occasions.

Anyway, if you see my TV spot, you might also notice a little bit of glitter around my neck. My daughter, Zoë, came with me to the shoot and “bedazzled” me with her green glitter right before the last series of takes.

She said she thought it would look pretty.

I wonder what Simon LeBon would think.

Do you have a fav MTV video from back in the day? If so, share the love and leave a comment.

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