Day 6 - Final Day of Shooting

Andrea flew in to LAX and drove to Ventura, CA to arrive a 1:30am. The boys were very excited to see her when they woke up for the final day of shooting. I left at 8:00am with Grant since he had to sit in on the set for pre-shoot set up. Andrea and Hunter left at 9:00am. After breakfast on set, Grant and Daniel had to sit in on the first shoot scene. The scene was set in an old red barn where Tim and Richard are playing checkers on two stools with fruit surrounding them. After a while on set Andrea showed up to see Grant in action. Grant has done a great job this week and has been very disciplined. Not 5 minutes after Andrea shows up Grant decides to plant his hands in between his thighs on the stool and raise himself up and go into a split. Yep...you guessed it...he falls backwards off the stool and knocks over a pale that dominos into some boots. I have never seen him move so fast to recover. Andrea and I had a good laugh...he is 7 years old and is a spitting imagine of his cut up father!!! After they had set the scene it was Hunter's turn to do his thing. He really amazes me with his ability to memorize his lines and deliver over and over without messing up. He had to recite 16 of his favorite flavors of Jam. The Smuckers executives changed the arrangement 3 times and Hunter handled it like a pro. I didn't count how many takes they did but they usually do around 30. They try different things like changing the speed of the lines or facial expressions to make sure the executives like it. The Smuckers executives and the Grey agency executives sit in a nearby tent with head phones and flat screen televisions to monitor every take and give feed back. The day consisted of multiple scenes that finished at sunset with the famous words "That's a wrap". Everyone cheered and hugged. This was bitter sweet because as far as we know this is the final shoot. We never expected this campaign to end up being 10 national commercials so we are very thankful. Hunter went around and thanked everyone involved. It was an emotional moment because after 2 years and 10 commercial we have gained many new friends. Hunter took a picture with the director Leslie Dector and thanked him for his direction. Leslie is a legend in the commercial word and is one of the most respected directors in the business. After the picture with Leslie, Hunter broke down crying which was very touching to see all of the executives get teary eyed as well. They said not to be too sad and hinted that this was not the end of the campaign which was very exciting to hear. After a long day we celebrated by going out to Hunter's favorite...Sushi. After Sushi, we hit the sack. We are off to Anaheim tomorrow.