Friday, August 27, 2010

How Dew Does a Commercial

So, I entered a video into a 15 second contest on DEWmocracy.com for the chance to be in a Mountain Dew commercial, and I won! Well, it may not actually be as simple as that. I have been active as a fan on DEWlabs for months, I was given extra responsibility and a closer behind-the-scenes look at how the Mountain Dew brand machine works. Truly, it has been an awesome and very educational experience. Along the way I have exchanged emails and met people, including some of the fine folks at Motive (the Colorado based company that put together the Mountain Dew Throwback spotting challenges and prizes as well as the three traveling flavor teams during the DEWmocracy 2 campaign). Motive also happens to be participating in this commercial contest.

So, what's it like to win the chance to be in a commercial? The commercial shoot is 3 days away, so I don't know what it is like to actually be filmed for a commercial but I do know what it is like to win and that is pretty cool. I have never been to the filming of anything so I really don't know what to expect. Here is what I know so far: commercial production is last minute! Like I said the shoot is three days away, I fly out day after tomorrow, and I am yet to receive travel information outside of that I will leave sometime Sunday morning. The commercial producer, Beth Aranda working with The Joneses production company, tells me though that while such last minute arrangements aren't normal in "regular" life, they are in film production.

So what to I have to do, and what do I get in return? Well, my understanding is that I don't have to do much more than show up, listen carefully to directions, and just be myself. What could be easier than that? In return they fly me out to Denver (coach class of course), put me up in a moderately nice hotel (4 stars), and give me a little money per diem and a shoot day fee (which I don't know if I am allowed to disclose, but anything is great).

So far my interactions with the production people have been top notch. These people obviously know what they are doing organizing what seems to be impossibly complex, yet they have time to be friendly and patiently help me along.

I wont lie, I am still very nervous. This sort of thing, interacting with lots of people, is really out of my element. I guess we'll see how it goes!