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Strawberries – forever

It was a crisp cold, but clear winter morning in Franshoek. There were whips of cloud hanging over the mountain like a scarf keeping the ridges warm. I turned off the main road and into the farm where we were doing the Woolworths strawberry promotional add. I always find it intimidating entering a shoot venue, its just trucks, cable, tents, gear and lighting everywhere and then the people, they are just buzzing in every corner.

I tried to sneak in, find a quiet corner and just get the feel of what was going on, I knew no one. But not today, I was spotted – “You must be David, I recognise you from the picture on the call sheet- please off to make up, we start the shoot at 8:30″

This is always the most uncomfortable situation in the beginning, here you are thrust into a situation with 40 people you don’t know and your intro is that you are sat down on a chair and plastered with – as I call it” Polly Filler and paint”

At last a few friendly faces as I walked onto set. Jenna the director was sitting to the one side with a little smile; it was that smile which was later going to con me into eating 53 strawberries.

“Morning David, Ready to roll” she said.

The morning just flew as we worked through the shot list, the odd re takes but things moved at a good pace. What was being created from a visual point was mind blowing, I can just imagine what the final edit is going to look like, you will probably end up eating your screen.

Lunch was called and we all headed into the field behind the set and tucked into lunch, then it was back to business.

This next sequence was me eating a strawberry, salad – no problem ,it looked really appetizing, even after a big lunch.

The cameras began to roll and roll and roll – No , Not happy – Jenna wanted me to look at the platter, smile and take a big helping of the salad. Then begin eating the strawberries with my finger. Licking them afterwards, keeping a little smile on my face. Strawberry after strawberry after strawberry we re – shot, I could not get this right.
Eventually the director came and sat just out of shot and began to joke, smile and talk me through this. I began to get it right, but just not right enough.

I must of hit my 40th strawberry by now, really feeling them up to the gills, but on we pushed – seemed a bit weird now as the whole crew had gathered in front of me and were now all witnessing this mammoth strawberry chomping session. 53 strawberries later a hear Jenna quietly say “That’s the shot, I think we should also have plenty of others” there was a lot of chatter and laughter around, finally the penny dropped as I picked up the plot.

The DOP said, “David, you should get a spit bucket next to you for the steak shoot tomorrow, you don’t have to eat everything”, He said holding up a 2kg rump steak
I think they got me this time –

But wait, It gets better a few days later. I will get back to you on this.

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