“Let’s see how this goes.” Those are the first words I ever heard Aisha Hinds say in person. Margot and I had just walked onto our first set after a very long day. Aisha and Tracie Thoms were standing in the living room of this small house in Pasadena, CA, in a conversation clearly anticipating the upcoming scene with this new, tiny (Tracie would later refer to Margot as “fun-sized”) tot that was to play their foster daughter, Nia Wilson. Suffice it to say that I was also curious how this was going to go. As I said, we had never been on a set, but we had also been waiting a long time since arriving at base camp and Margot had missed her nap. But, let’s rewind a bit.
When did we get the request for the video?
The DINOSAUR
Hit her head episode 7. Paul: You guys can take a few minutes if you need … walk around outside, just whatever…
Rainy day on Episode 10.
Real tears Episode 9 and 10.
Episode 9: “Tell me you guys had a camera on her!”
Episode 3: “You guys are missing out on some great stuff.” “You should just have a camera on her the whole time.”
Episode 10: Tracie:”I’ve never wanted to do a scene less.” Tracie:”I don’t want to do this scene anymore.” Aisha:”I thought she had a big movie deal or something.” (She was serious)
Sharat: Daughter roughly same age. Sharing pics. I just thought that people were being nice … no, you’d know.
Michael: “She’s good” Margot screaming out the door … does her lines the same way in rehearsal as in live shoot. “The baby was the right choice” … “She’s burning”… No cue needed on the porch.
Episode 8: Squeezed in after Episode 9 wrapped. Back to trailer, change of clothes, back to set. No context switch. Rehearsal was literally immediately after 9 wrapped.
Big cheers after Episode 10. Tiny, shy courtsey.
“Coming to my birthday party?”
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY”: Episode 14
“FLY ME”: Episode 9
Hopping in front of the elevator. The volume increased when I introduced the purse 🙂
Masks … fanny pack … purse (ep 9) … stuff to carry ep 10 … No matter how small you think she is, she’s smaller.
Ep 3: Resetting props. “Where are we starting?” … Aisha engages …turns to me … “I’m having this conversation with a 3-year old” … “Yep, and she’s getting it.”
Ep 2: Hair done … met Lydia “Miss Aisha is going to want to take you home with her…she’s going to LOVE your curls…” and so forth. She was right. No makeup. Disappointed. Kept checking. Eventually went to set. Miss Julie touched up her lips and made her very happy. Would put “blush” on her (just powder). Margot LOVED it.
“Nia Ends”: Episode 10
“What’s a Grammy?”: Episode 7
“Breakthrough”: Episode 3
Breakthrough b/c I began to believe what I was being told … literally as I left the room. Joaquín, (someone) and (someone else) stopped us to say how great she was. Dinosaur in hand, we boarded the shuttle back to basecamp.
“What made you decide …” Tracie — I think this was during shooting of episode 7 … yeah, definitely was.
“That’s a real voice … coming out of an actual person”
“ACTION” Margot starts talking.
LONG wait at the trailer (pics). No fork 🙂 No pen 🙂
LONG wait in the room (pic)
Bouncy & explanation on one knee prior to rehearsal. No idea what Rehearsal is.
Hits her lines.
“She’s great” from camera operators.
EPISODE 3
EARLY start. Straight to the set in her PJs.
Director [get name]: She has a gift.
“Anyone else an actor? In the business?”
“You guys couldn’t keep this to yourself in the living room. This needed to be shared.”
“Okay Miss Margot, I need you on your mark” “I not Margot; I Nia. Call me Nia” “Okay, NIa, please go to your mark” “Okay”
“She’s METHOD!”
Ad-libbing. Playfulness. “It’s the variations” on the “Bad Mama Hen” scene.
Confidence marching down the hallway.
Swinging her leg to match Declan. Note in the scene where they enter the room that she’s eyeing how he’s walking.
Me learning to just let her do what she does.
If you want to read, I might suggest a good book, perhaps Hemingway or Melville. That’s why they call it, the dummy copy. This, of course, is not the real copy for this entry. Rest assured, the words will expand the concept. With clarity. Conviction. And a little wit.
In today’s competitive market environment, the body copy of your entry must lead the reader through a series of disarmingly simple thoughts.
All your supporting arguments must be communicated with simplicity and charm. And in such a way that the reader will read on. (After all, that’s a reader’s job: to read, isn’t it?) And by the time your readers have reached this point in the finished copy, you will have convinced them that you not only respect their intelligence, but you also understand their needs as consumers.
As a result of which, your entry will repay your efforts. Take your sales; simply put, they will rise. Likewise your credibility. There’s every chance your competitors will wish they’d placed this entry, not you. While your customers will have probably forgotten that your competitors even exist. Which brings us, by a somewhat circuitous route, to another small point, but one which we feel should be raised.
Long copy or short – You decide
As a marketer, you probably don’t even believe in body copy. Let alone long body copy. (Unless you have a long body yourself.) Well, truth is, who‘s to blame you? Fact is, too much long body copy is dotted with such indulgent little phrases like truth is, fact is, and who’s to blame you. Trust us: we guarantee, with a hand over our heart, that no such indulgent rubbish will appear in your entry. That’s why God gave us big blue pencils. So we can expunge every example of witted waffle.
For you, the skies will be blue, the birds will sing, and your copy will be crafted by a dedicated little man whose wife will be sitting at home, knitting, wondering why your entry demands more of her husband‘s time than it should.
But you will know why, won‘t you? You will have given her husband a chance to immortalize himself in print, writing some of the most persuasive prose on behalf of a truly enlightened purveyor of widgets. And so, while your dedicated reader, enslaved to each mellifluous paragraph, clutches his newspaper with increasing interest and intention to purchase, you can count all your increased profits and take pots of money to your bank. Sadly, this is not the real copy for this entry. But it could well be. All you have to do is look at the account executive sitting across your desk (the fellow with the lugubrious face and the calf-like eyes), and say ”Yes! Yes! Yes!“ And anything you want, body copy, dinners, women, will be yours. Couldn’t be fairer than that, could we?
