Rehearsal and an Unexpected Video

We had our official rehearsal with our child star yesterday. It went extremely well, we learned how to frame everything better, where we were going to need to focus the boom mic and how to get our kid to open up and participate.

An unexpected bonus was that during the "blocking" (for lack of a better term) for some b-roll our talent gave our kid a 20 minute long tutorial on just about every single tool in our arsenal. As a result I'm going to try to cut a series of videos explaining the tools we use from the footage we got. Luckily we were quick and got the boom on them properly. The only problem I'm encountering turning this into a usable, useful video is the lack of satisfactory close-ups of the tools. It's especially difficult for the screwdrivers. We have CUs of the bodies, but everyone knows what a screwdriver looks like, I want to see the differences in the blade, dammit.

Luckily the kid is the son of one of our CSRs so he fits in pretty well here. He was a little shy and when we gave him lines he didn't quite deliver them as I'd imagined. That said, it was his first time in front of a camera giving lines. Anyone would be a little stiff, especially a 12 year-old with little acting experience. He gave the best performance when he didn't realize the camera was on. I'm going to have to try to remember that next week.

All in all, it was a success. I'm excited to see what comes out of next week's shoot.