TV Commercial Production Stunts

Shortly after quitting the only full-time job I ever had in TV commercial production – Ansel Productions studio manager – I landed my first freelance gig with Tardio Films.

Here’s a (condensed) tale from my TV commercial production book Circumstances Beyond My Control.

The director, Neil Tardio, had a VW Rabbit spot coming up and I was hired to scout the locations. The pay was more than for a production assistant but considerably less than for a producer but the entree was the important thing, a chance to become known to the company.

The title “Location Scout” appears self-explanatory but the job is more complex that just driving around taking pictures. First you meet with either the director or his/her producer, go over the story-board and location fee budget, get a sense of the requirements of the shoot (area to be considered, architectural specs if applicable etc.) schedule for the shoot and so forth.

This VW spot required a racetrack and the closest one was an unused raceway in Trenton, NJ. In addition to the shots at the track (the primary location) there was a shot in a parking lot, a couple on streets and a shot of the picture car being driven into a suburban, middle-class driveway.

The track was easy. I shot a whole bunch of polaroids, noting the direction in which I was shooting and finished by lunchtime. Then I began driving around the neighborhoods near the track looking for an appropriate driveway.

I knocked on a few doors, explained what I was doing and asked if they would allow us to use their driveway. I also mentioned that there would be a fee. One woman said they’d be glad to let us shoot but why would they have to pay a fee? That was a good lesson in communication for me.

To make a long story short, I was kept on the job for the shoot as a (sort of) location manager but I really functioned more like the line producer. So my ploy – taking the scout job – had worked. I was now somewhat in, providing that my work on the shoot was satisfactory. That was the easy part. I knew most of the crew having worked with them at Ansel and I was greeted warmly. This created a positive impression with Neil and his staff. (They hired me several times as a producer.)

I did not know the stunt driver. There weren’t any actual stunts but they had hired a so-called precision driver, commonly known as a stunt guy. As is the case with most people in that end of the business, he was a bit cocky and arrogant. We had two identical yellow VW Rabbits as picture cars and the spot was about their quickness and sports car like responsiveness, hence the racetrack setting. Neil was setting up a shot and had the driver do a pass-by coming out of one of the curves. He was going too fast and as he cleared the curve the Rabbit scraped the wall. He stopped the car, jumped out and said, “Don’t worry I had it under control.” To which I replied, “Is that why you ran into the wall?” This got a good laugh but did not endear me to the “precision” driver.

Sometimes TV commercial production is a hoot.

Click here to get Circumstances Beyond My Control.

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