W.C. Fields hated working with them—as one wag commented on the late comedian, "Anyone who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad"—but Bob Ebel, president/director of Ebel Productions in Chicago, loves child actors. "I enjoy being around kids," he says. "They’re full of fresh ideas and curiosity." Ebel is not alone. Gary Califano, director/cameraman at bicoastal OneSuch Films, works almost exclusively on spots featuring children. He began working with kids in 1987 as a freelance DP, collaborating with director John Sturner of Firehouse Films, Mamaronek, N.Y. Califano made the move from cameraman to director in ’90, and he hasn’t looked back. "Working with children is the most fun I’ve had on a job," he explains. "You never grow up." He does add, however, that "kids are hard [to work with], and non-SAG kids are even harder."
Yet if children are a challenge, then spots involving children and toys are even more daunting—those ads are an art form in and of themselves. Besides the tricks involved in working with kids, there are the legal restrictions on how a toy can be presented to its young audience. Directors crafting toy ads must strike a delicate balance between presenting the toy in an exciting manner, and keeping the product claims from being unrealistic.
"The creative challenge is to make the spot fun and exciting and still be true to the product," acknowledges Monica H. Anderson, principal/director at Black Watch Productions, New York. "That is one of our specialties."
Indeed, there is a large collection of directors who make it their habit to get into the hearts and minds of kids. Most create such spots by choice, some by necessity—"You tend to get pigeonholed in this industry," sighs one—but an artist’s skill is required to be successful. That’s because getting a child to perform under the sometimes grueling conditions of a TV commercial may involve coaching a small person, which is no small task.
The first step entails the audition. Ebel, who says that 10 percent of his ad work involves toy commercials, another 30 percent comprises non-toy kid spots, and the remainder consists of ads targeted at adults, will frequently see as many as 1,500 applicants for one role. (Ebel has his own in-house casting arm, called Bass Casting; additionally, the firm has an in-house editing division called Bass Editorial.) In casting situations involving children, directors are looking for specific qualities and skills, even more so than when they are auditioning adults. "The child is the messenger," explains Ebel, who recently helmed "My I?" for McDonald’s, out of Burrell Communications, Chicago. "When we look for kids, we look for ones who have curiosity, who aren’t ‘normal,’ who can add spontaneity. We try to get to know the kids in casting and callbacks, allowing them to put their personality in the commercials."
Once the child is chosen, the directors have to scrupulously prepare—again, even more meticulously than with adults. One reason is legal—there are limits on how long children may work on a set—but another is practical. Whereas grown-ups can hide impatience and control anxieties, youngsters can easily grow bored and temperamental, and that can ruin the mood of a shoot.
"The burden is shifted on the crew," observes Mark Dippé, a director at Pandemonium, San Francisco, who often works with children and special effects. "The crew has to be more prepped to deal with having less time with the actors. You can’t have young kids sitting around while you’re changing lights or camera angles."
"Kids only last so long," agrees Califano. "And, even then, it’s diminishing returns."
Therefore, children are brought on the set only when needed. "You structure the day around the principals, using stand-ins to set up the shots," notes Califano. When they’re not working, children can found in play areas off set."
Many helmers who frequently work with kids make sure that everything is perfectly set up before bringing their performers in. "I like to have beautiful lighting and well-thought-out sets," says Elyse Lewin, director at Lewin Pictures, Los Angeles, whose recent credits include "Twins" and "Baby Proof Home" for Pampers, out of Bromley Communications, San Antonio. "Then I bring in the kids at the last minute."
Mutual Respect
The directors all agree that equally important to having a well-prepared set is building a bond of trust with their young thespians, because a trusting child is a rewarding child, giving a better performance. "You have to treat them like people and not talk down to them," observes Jeffrey Berry, owner/director at SBK Pictures, Philadelphia, whose recent credits include Nickelodeon’s "Totally Angelica," out of FCB, Los Angeles. "Everyone has their own language, and you want to tune in to theirs. When I’m talking to them, I always try to sit down on a crate or something, so I’m the same eye height. And I try not to seem to lord over them. I try to communicate in a simple and fun way, too. You don’t give them a lot of directions—just one that they can think about. Once they’ve done that, you give them another."
"It’s a creative challenge keeping children motivated," admits Lewin. "I try to have fun with them on the set. If there are two kids in the spot, I may let one sit on my lap and be the ‘assistant director.’ I’ll say, ‘What do you think of this?’ It has to be fun and a total pleasure for them. They have to be involved."
Most of the directors have children themselves, and that has helped them relate to the little performers. Berry has four kids, while Califano, is the father of six. "Performance work is the most fun," Califano says, explaining that "getting a child’s attention and keeping them involved and happy means you have to put them at ease. But kids are smart. The worst thing you can do on the set is talk down to them. I’ve never had a bad experience with a kid getting motivated. They’ll rise to whatever level you set."
Effects Driven
Special effects are often used in toy spots, and keeping a child happy is even more challenging in such situations. Califano directed a series of spots for Hasbro out of Grey, New York—"Comtech," "Power FX" and "Gunner"—which interpolated child actors into scenes from the Star Wars movies. "We had a lot of blue screen work with kids in rigs," he recalls. "It’s more difficult because you don’t want to keep them in the ‘flying’ rigs for too long. It’ll become tedious for them and they lose their spontaneity."
"We try to plan the entire process in detail, but we also had to be flexible," adds Dippé, who directed the effects-heavy spots "Wacky Faces" and "Twist" for Nabisco Fun Fruit Snacks, via FCB, New York. "Twist" opens in a school cafeteria where two boys are embroiled in a game of tic-tac-toe with Nabisco "Gamester" Fruit Snacks. Each boy attempts to outdo the other, finding creative ways to twist their arms as they play the game. One boy’s arms become a blur as they madly twist into a pretzel and fling colorful fruit pieces into the air.
"When there are so many issues that need to be addressed, you really need to understand the process and be able to trouble shoot, because changes come up constantly," states Dippé. "When you’re shooting live action, you have to take what’s in front of you—the actors, location, your crew—and you have to make it work. The same applies when you’re dealing with effects."
Restrictions
The director must also balance the child’s needs with the commercial’s requirements. Toy spots may not show the products doing things that they cannot do, and children must always be seen operating the gadgets; and there is always a straight-ahead, unadorned product shot at the end.
"You can’t show the toy doing something that will only occur once out of a hundred times," explains Califano. "Let’s say you have a toy that jumps or spins—a child has to be able to reproduce that. And if you need to push a button for the action figure to kick, you have to show that. You can’t over-glamorize the products. You also have to show how the toy looks to a kid, which often means shooting at eye level, including things in the shots as reference points—like a finger; and refraining from tricks of scale, lighting, and performance. It’s intense work."
The challenge is to convey excitement, fantasy and pleasure, showcasing the toy and the child. Consequently, many of the toy spots on the market today consist of quick shots of the product (creating a sense of speed) as breathless announcers narrate the action (using phrases like "the ultimate challenge," "it’s blasting through" and "it’s lightning quick").
Califano says that to achieve the right look, he and his peers will often employ tool kits of specialized camera rigs and effects that include everything from bungee cord rigs ("to push the camera faster than you could on a dolly or tracks") and Innovision Probe-II lenses ("to get into tight spaces you couldn’t get into with a 35mm lens"), to specialized video rigs that can maneuver through and around toys ("which comes in handy when you’re shooting Hot Wheels loop-de-loops").
There are other techniques, as well. For "Yano the Magic Storyteller," an in-house spot promoting a talking doll created by Original San Francisco Toymakers, Anderson of Blackwatch blended fantasy and reality. "The doll just stands still and moves its arms," she explains. "How do you make that exciting and fun?"
The director and the creatives solved that problem by creating a "crystal cave" in which the children encountered the doll, which was shown through various creative camera angles that, Anderson says, "created a feeling of intimacy with the toy." The cave eventually dissolves into a playroom, indicating that the children have imagined the fantastic environment.
Bottom line, say those involved, getting the most out of kids-and-toy spots can be a labor-intensive task, but ultimately a rewarding one. "You have to love toys and children to shoot them well," Califano says. "It’s really a challenge to your imagination."
