One of my first commercials was this year’s Vöslauer ad – fitting for an Austrian actress to start with an Austrian Mineral Water Brand. It also featured Lily James, and – in the director’s cut only – me.
Title: Vöslauer Commercial – “The Chase” with Lily James
Location: Austria, Vienna
Date: Spring 2017
Production: PPM Production
Crew: Anthony Mandler and more
Cast: Lily James & extras
So, you have probably seen the Vöslauer commercial online or on Austrian television. You probably haven’t seen me. (I have found the director’s cut version online and uploaded it to my YouTube channel if you want to take a look.) But it was great fun and I got to shoot my close-up scene for about an hour.
It all started like every other project I’ve done so far; you get a call for an audition, you show up, you audition, you leave and later on you see someone else on TV playing that part. Normal stuff. This time I got a call back to save the date – yeah. A few days later they called and told me that part was cut – nay. Well, a friend of mine does a lot of extra work so when he got a call to work on that day I just had to go too – I like to be part of projects even if its a tiny part.
So all of us extras arrived at 7 am and had to show the wardrobe we’ve brought with us. Well, I like to be prepared, I have to admit it XD. So I usually go to any kind of shooting with a broad selection of dresses, shoes and accessories. Lucky me, the key costumer (aka wardrobe guy) liked my selection and told me to wear my pink dress and my high heels (please no walking! *fingers crossed*). I was ushered to the make-up table and they made me look pretty – make-up and hair looked so much better after getting up at 5am!
I was finished just in time to hurry after the other extras (stupid high heels ^^) and arrived with them in front of a cute Viennese Café which has an outdoor seating with white chairs and stone tables. The tables were already prepared for the shoot with delicious sweets, coffee and – of course – Vöslauer mineral water bottles. It all looked nice, but all I wanted to do was sit done (I’m not a fan of high heels in the morning, I have to admit).
Anyway, I’m standing around, looking lost in my dress and high heels (I wanna sit down!). So as I was looking for a place to sit when the director pointed to me and told me to sit in the front seat (nice 😉 ). After that they started looking for a date partner for me – why can’t it be that easy in real life; I usually get a new boyfriend or husband appointed with every new project XD. Though it felt a bit like speed dating because they kept changing my partner. In the end I got to keep my “date” for 3hrs instead of 3min. It was really fun to work with him because we immediately connected and talked about everything – until the camera started rolling, then it was all about Miley Cyrus and Teletubbies to make us appear happy and easy going.
I also got to do some close-ups – which you can only see in the director’s cut, but we shot for about one hour. It was fun to work with Anthony Mandler, because he was a patient director who knew how to work with inexperienced actors as well. I think he figured out I knew what I was doing in the end XD It was mostly technical stuff, turning my head in the right moment to make the camera focus on me and give some movement to the scene. I actually like doing stuff like that – maybe because I’m a control freak ^^ Though, the make-up artist came over to our table after every take, checked my make-up, pulled my hair back and told me not to move as much between takes (oops!).
Anyway, he told me that I did “amazing” and put me in the director’s cut version 😉 I think it was meant to establish that it’s not normal that a celebrity runs by with a group of paparazzi chasing her. (Therefore my somehow puzzled look XD) And in case you are wondering – no, this is not normal, you are quite safe in Vienna 😉
After the café scene we shot two more scenes in some streets close by. I had to change my outfit (no more heels!) and my job was simply to walk when the girl on the other side started walking. I also got another boyfriend walking down another street – like I said; a new guy everytime XD That was fun, mainly because I had to wait with Lily James and we exchanged a few words. She was a nice person, who was concentrated on her work – even if it was “just” for a commercial and she had to keep running around all day.
I had a great time with that shooting; I got to work with a great cast & crew, I got a close-up and I got to drink as many different flavored mineral waters by Vöslauer as I wanted 😉
BTW; after this shooting, Vöslauer seemed to follow me everywhere – I also got this cool bottle string-thingy at another job (picture coming soon)
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Setlife with Annalena 