Jake & Will: CONTEST WARRIORS

Our latest contest video is also the latest video I've directed starring children. The first was Bird Island, a music video featuring a little girl going on a journey to a forbidden island. The latest stars a class of 3rd graders singing.

I wasn't exactly dreading directing them, but I was aware that a group of 3rd graders would be considerably more difficult than to direct than a group of adults. All of their unfocused energy is like a bunch of shotguns going off at the same time. Cover your face and hands... but it actually turned out to be a pleasant experience. I spoke in a calm, but firm manner-- I still still let them have fun-- but made absolutely sure the shot list was planned out in advance and everything was well organized.

At one point I had to direct individual kids for potential vignettes in the video. In one situation, a child simply had to deliver a line. In another, a kid had to wink in a very specific way. We ended up doing take after take after take of each... and I realized, especially with the latter vignette, that acting can turn the simplest thing into a weird complicated unnatural mess. The more takes you do past the initial take, the less meaning the line or movement has. That was something I really want to pay attention to the next time I direct-- because once I hit that wall I didn't know how to get them through it. Thankfully, they were all supplemental shots, but if they had been more integral to the video, I may have had to compromise with a performance I wasn't happy with... something I'm going to keep in mind for the future.