Corporate video - the first one I did was for M&S when I worked there in about 2001; a spoof of various films which would probably have prompted a hefty lawsuit or two if it'd been more widely seen. It's possible I now own the sole surviving copy of my recreations of Hannibal Lecter and Renton in "Trainspotting", and trust me, that's a good thing.
By contrast, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers vid I shot this week had all the hallmarks of filmmaking - high production values, great production talent and a very tight shooting schedule.
Originally I was up for the maverick, off-message non-PwC type with a brash tie and Rolex, which is a part I tend to get seen for a lot. But when Tod called me on Tuesday, there'd been a volte-face of mammoth proportions and I was instead offered the experienced, aspirational PwC executive - basically a paragon, an archetype in a very crisply-ironed shirt. These parts worry me, because playing someone perfect is much harder than playing someone flawed. And the audience is not likely to be very forgiving in their assessment of how you're doing in the job they want.
Anyway, the whole process was made delightfully bearable by the crew, my co-actor Nina Voelker and the director Sacha Damjanovski. Like almost all video directors, he is an independent writer/director/filmmaker. Unlike most, he has just released a truly great-looking feature called "Dance With Me". This, in a gorgeous Small World way, stars Adam Napier, who I worked with on "Cornelius Crow" and "Folie a Deux" for Sean Martin - check links right.
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