Reed's Commercial

Link to the video of Reed's commercial for Rocky Mountain Power:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLYRxrA-OsQ


One thing that happened this summer that was really fun for our family was Reed being chosen to "star" in a commercial.  We got a random call from one of our friends asking if Reed played the tuba.  I replied that he really played the baritone, but that he could play a little on the tuba. . . and that we just happened to own one.  She told me that she had already shown his photo to the director (thanks to Facebook) and that they wanted to audition him. 

The following day we packed the tuba into the Prius and headed up to the audition site.  They were waiting for us and we passed by all sorts of kids with 8 x 10 glossy headshots.  The actual audition was about a minute and a half long.  Then we were on the road back home.  We just laughed about the audition and thought we would never hear anything. 

The following Monday I got a phone call saying that they wanted him . . . and me!  He was picked to be "Tuba Boy" and they wanted me as an extra.  When they called Reed was on TREK with our ward, so I was imagining him coming home with a horrible sunburn and a zillion bug bites.  Luckily he actually wore sunscreen and there weren't many bugs, so he looked great when he got home Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday morning we headed to Salt Lake to find the house where we were filming.  As soon as we got there they did his make up and chose an outfit from all the items we had brought.  The clothing was a little tricky becuase they didn't want any logo wear. . . and that's about all Reed wears!  We had a little shopping trip to Kohl's.

The filming took about six and a half hours.  Reed did exciting things like turn off a lamp 25 times and flipping a light switch 30 times!  The longest shot was of a fan.  Yup.  A ceiling fan.  They shot it from two different angles and that took about 2 hours.  That included cleaning the fan and after the shot was done, some panic while all the company people feverishly tried to determine if the fan that they had just spent two hours filming was Energy Star approved. I laughed.  Out loud.

 

One funny moment was when they were filming Reed unplugging an iPod.  It was staged in the boy's room.  His name was Nate and on his bulletin board there was a poster that some girl had made for him of doodles of his name.  I was watching the monitor in another room and I said, "Isn't the boy's name Steve in the commercial?"  I got told that it was.  I innocently said, "Wouldn't it be a little creepy for Steve to have a Nate poster on his bulletin board?"  All of a sudden a hand came into the shot and took the Nate Doodles off the buletin board.  Too funny.

Reed's favorite part of the day was the catering table.  There were lots of treats and cookies and drinks.  I think he cleaned out the gummy bear container.

So, now Reed is semi-famous.  At first he was VERY embarrassed when anyone brought it up, but now he loves it.  Especially when the junior high age girls recognize him and squeal.  It has been a fun experience.