TV Commercial Production with Richard Avedon – a Vlog
- Posted on 12th October 2016
- in celebrity books, celebrity stories online, celebrity story, Entertainment, entertainment books, Film Production, TV Commercial Production
- by Ben
Most people don’t know that the great photographer, Richard Avedon was a director involved in
TV Commercial Production.
I was his First AD for several years. When he died in 2004 at 81 we lost a great guy.
Calvin Klein’s Obsession: The spots were written by Doon Arbus, daughter of actor Allan Arbus and the photographer Diane Arbus. The DP was one of the best: Nestor Almendros. winner of the cinematography Oscar for Days of Heaven.
Four commercials with five actors and a big set on a big sound stage with a star DP. We had a two week schedule including two days for reshoots with the leading lady model whom everyone was hoping would learn to act on the job. (She did.).
After Dick placed the actors around the set and had them walk back and forth so Nestor could see some action he put his lighting crew to work. It took them, under Almendros’ direction, about half an hour to set the lights and for the rest of the shoot barely an instrument was moved except for eye and edge lights. The man knew his business.
The lead model was pretty wooden but not dumb and she picked up pointers from the two skilled actors playing the older couple. Jean-Marc Barr, the young man, went on to a successful career in movies, mostly French. His first notable role in a movie with wide US distribution was as the diver in The Big Blue with Jean Reno and Rosanna Arquette, daughter of my high school pal Mike (AKA Lewis Arquette).
After completing the shoot we then reshot most of our leading lady’s close-ups and two-shots and she was noticeably better as an actor.
Throughout the shoot I was fascinated by Dick and Nestor’s dance of deference. Each had enormous respect for the other and when they disagreed on camera placement or the framing of a shot it was fun to watch them work it out.
A few months later on another shoot I told Dick about my observation. He laughed and said that it was fun for him too. He also told me that I should have been with him in Rome where he shot a Chanel #5 spot with Sven Nykvist. “Sven wouldn’t even tell me where he wanted to put the camera. I had to watch him walk around the set and when he would stop and clasp his hands behind his back I knew where he wanted it,” Dick said.
For more tales of TV Commercial Production click here to get Circumstances Beyond My Control.
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