Making a Commercial!

For our fall marketing campaign, we had our owners (yes that is what we call our clients – “owners”) tell their stories of why they love dealing with Libro and what makes us different. I thought Shannon O’Shea Ross would be a great spokesperson, but I didn’t realize at the time that meant I’d be on TV too!

When you think of TV, you think fancy dressing room and makeup etc., just like the stars. Well, my part of the commercial was taped at Kirkton at the public pool and the change rooms weren’t open. I had half of my wardrobe in my car, so once Gary (the director) choose what outfit I should wear, he was upset that there wasn’t actually anywhere for me to change. I told him I’d change in my van, he though I was crazy! As a country girl running from work to ball or some other event, changing in the car isn’t such a big deal.

Now I was ready for filming. I had to sit and pretend to talk on the phone, without looking at the camera. If you know me at all, I talk with my hands so once my hands went into the story it sailed along! Then the hard part, Gary asked me to stand and look up at the camera on the count of three – but I couldn’t smile - easier said then done. There was a lot of giggling on my part, but I finally got it!

The next part was Shannon and I swinging on the swings and chatting about her finances and what she wanted to do – her goals and dreams. We started swinging on these big swings at the park, but apparently we were going too fast! All they were getting on film was our feet and bottoms flying by! The crew had no idea we’d get going so high. Our reply? We farm girls swing big! Then the rain started to roll in, it put a bit of a damper on the shoot but they rolled with the weather quite well. Shannon wanted to go bounce on the diving board. I was laughing because I figured she’d fall in, well, she almost did! Good thing she regained her balance, there was more filming to do and it was a cold rainy day – not the best for a dip.

Overall it was a great experience and the commercial looks great, even though it’s still odd to see myself on TV when I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy! You can watch the finished product here and our other commercials are on the video sidebar, check them out!