Locations for TV COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION

Shortly after leaving the Ansel

TV commercial production

company staff job I was hired by Steve Horn, the hottest TV commercial director in New York, for two or three days to scout locations. I ended up working with him off and on for several weeks.

TV Commewrcial production with Steve Horn

Steve Horn

Here’s an excerpt from my TV commercial production book, Circumstances Beyond My Control.

“Most of this scouting was ‘cold’ by which I mean that I was sent to … suburbia … and told to find an upscale dining room or a sunset beach (very hard to find in the East). This is the most difficult kind of scouting because it’s without local contacts or leads. I was totally on my own. As rare as sunset beaches are in the NYC area, finding an interior in an upscale house is even harder without some kind of an ‘in’.

“I would … head for an area such as Great Neck … and drive around until I saw a likely looking house then ring the doorbell. (As I write about this now I find it hard to believe that I actually did it.) When the woman of the house (it was always a woman) came to the door I would introduce myself and explain why I was there. I got turned away most of the time but what’s amazing is how many times I didn’t. On a typical day, after seven or eight hours of this bizarre activity I’d return to the office with interior shots of four to six houses.

“There were hazards to this work which I learned early on one day in Scarsdale. I’d been fruitlessly ringing doorbells for an hour or so when I was pulled over by the local fuzz. It seemed that in such a neighborhood behavior like mine was suspect. All I had in the way of bona fides was some business cards from Steve Horn Productions and I narrowly avoided being taken to the station house for further inquiry. I was advised that in the future before cruising around casing Scarsdale I should register my intentions, backed up by a letter of introduction from the company, before engaging in such practice. I immediately headed for the next town.

“Whatever the commercial was for that required a sunset beach also required my presence on the shoot. Once again I was in a production role with a new client as a result of being a location scout. The shoot went well and Steve and I were compatible. It was a good thing.

“Steve Horn was (probably still is) a wonderful character. Totally focused on his work he at first seemed cold and unfriendly but that was an illusion because he was neither. He just needed time and exposure to get to know you. … Unpretentious yet intense he was brilliant at his job and had the level of business appropriate to his skills. … you didn’t work with him more than once if you couldn’t cut it and when he got to know and trust you he was a delight. …

Click here to get more TV commercial production stories in Circumstances Beyond My Control.

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