Thursday, January 28, 2010

Little Red Light

Had a fun experience the other night. I was asked by the local hospital system to appear in a commercial they recorded to advertise their cancer program. The spot featured another doc and myself reading a short script about the program while standing in front of some "high-tech equipment" (actually a cardiac catheterization table, which has nothing to do with the cancer program but looked nice and scientific on camera).

We worked off of a teleprompter, which was pretty neat, and got to see the finished product on the monitor when we were done. There was really no director per se, so no one could help me explore what my character's motivation was. I was reading a script about cancer, which I felt needed to be played with a serious undertone, yet I wanted to warm up the cold surroundings of the sterile-looking cath lab with an expression that said "I care. Really, I do." Unfortunately, the internal conflict about my direction, coupled with my steadfast efforts to keep from slouching, led to an on-camera effort the likes of which television hasn't seen since Cindy Brady was on a quiz show.

Rumor has it that I may be receiving an electronic copy of said commercial; if so, I'll do my best to post it here. It'll scare the cancer right out of you.

No comments: