In mid February I received five messages asking whether I'd be available to take my English Angora to Los Angeles for a filming of a commercial. After a process of a background check, negotiations and signing a whole lot of papers, I drove with Jada and Brighton to Los Angeles for the filming on February 22, 2018.
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This is "my bunny room" that displays photos of Brighton and Jada. The room is inside a 6000+ square feet house that has 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, built in 1929. According to the internet estimate the market value of the house is in the range of 4 to 6 million dollars. The production rented two of these houses that are across the street from each other. Why so much space needed? There is a crew of 75 plus caterers for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Even with so many bathrooms in the house, there are porta potties lining up on the street. The entire street is closed for traffic. In the crew, there are two animal person: animal handler Mark Jackson and animal monitor Tricia Casper. It's a union rule to have two of them on site even though Brighton is to be handled by me only.
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| Before filming, both Brighton and I need to be presentable. I'm the make up and hair person for Brighton but there is a team of three working on me. Shelly on the left is the make up person, Rebecca and Jesus in the middle are the costume persons. |
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Brighton is an instant hit, here is the "Key Costumer" Rebecca holding Brighton. Rebecca brought in close to 100 sets of leisure pant suits for me to try on; I tried about 20 sets and she took photos of each for the director to decide which set for me to be filmed.
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Holding Brighton is the "Key Make-Up" Shelly Willis. She puts make up on me and does my hair.
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| After about 20 changes of the "costume", with make up and hair done, Brighton and I are ready to be filmed. |
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A red tape is marked on the ground, that is where I am standing. Any deviation from that mark, I'd hear the director's voice to send me back to the spot. The director of photography is Sebastian Pfaffenbichler. He resembles and has the similar mannerism as Jack McCoy (play by Sam Waterston) on Law and Order.
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In the commercial, Brighton appears from his back then the his face is shown. There is a guy sitting on the ground turning the table. The filming of Brighton on the table being turned around and around lasts over an hour an half! Brighton is such a good boy, he did not poop, he did not pee, he did not try to escape. He sat there for the entire hour and half.
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| People got a kick when I use a hair dryer instead of my blower on Brighton in the commercial. I had my blower with me and was filmed with my blower. Then the prop person handed me a pink hair dryer, see the hair dryer on the floor next to the stand. Then more filming was done with the hair dryer. In the final cut, the hair dryer won over the blower. The filming of me with Brighton took about 2 hours. With a lunch break in between, Brighton sat on that pink pillow for a total of 3-1/2 hours! |
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After the filming is done, director Matthew Swanson has a picture taken with me and Brighton. He is happy with our work.
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Matthew says, "you and the rabbit both took direction well."
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| Here are the three script writers for the commercial, they are from the ad agency. |
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Brighton is definitely a favorite.
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Here is the team from Quilted Northern who are also enchanted by Brighton.
The work day lasted 6 hours plus an half hour of lunch break, 2 hours in preparation and 4 hours in filming. As we know the final cut of the commercial is 16 seconds with 10 seconds on Brighton and me. It takes a very long time to make a very short film. Want to spend 16 seconds to watching it again? Here it is:
Quilted Northern is Not an Angora Show Bunny - YouTube
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