Hey man, Jack Nicholson IS Boo Boo in our commercial for the new “Yogi Bear” movie! Plus! When doing different voices in a scene, should you do all of one character’s lines at a time, then swap, or do one long take and switch as you go along? Can you guess how I did it in our stories “Just Add Walter” and “The New Norm L”? WILLIAMSON’S WAY is brought to you by Specstacular Opticians.
Show Excerpt: Just Add Walter
Everyone stood up. Will did the introductions. “Ginny Wood, New Project Manager, and Walter Davis, New Advertising Guy, I’d like to introduce you to your new colleagues; NICE’s top business analysts…”
“I’m Bob Bell,” said Bob Bell.
“I’m Barb Ball,” said Barb Ball.
“I’m Bob Ball,” said Bob Ball.
“I’m Bill Bell,” said Bill Bell.
“I’m Belle Ball,” said Belle Ball.
“I’m Bo Ball,” said Bo Ball.
“And I’m Beau Bell,” said Beau Bell.
Will continued. “These are the folks who will be working closely with you and Ginny on the speak-slowly campaign.”
Help, thought Walter. Seriously, Help!
“Go ahead, Walt,” encouraged Ginny. “I’ll take notes.”
Walter cleared his throat a little too theatrically. “Harrumph! All right, er…I wanted to ask…Belle…?”
“Yes?” said Bob Bell.
“No, Belle,” said Walter.
“Me?” said Bill Bell.
“No, Belle.”
“Correction, too many Bells!” said Belle. “You mean me, right?”
“Yes,” said Walter gratefully, “Now, to get the ball rolling…”
“The what?” said Belle.
“Ball,” said Walter.
“What?” said Barb Ball.
“Turn the page,” muttered Walter to Ginny. Then, louder, “Let’s begin, shall we?”
“Yes, I agree,” said Ginny. “Now, top of the bill…”
“QUIET!!” screamed Walter, understandably (given how the meeting was going so far). But of course this being Ginny he was instantly, profusely sorry.
“Sorry. I’m sorry everyone. I guess I’m just a little anxious. Now…before we discuss the creative, perhaps you could just tell me what sort of medium you were thinking of and why. Let’s just go around the table…?”
“Outdoor,” said Bob Bell. “It gets attention.”
“Outdoor,” said Barb Bell. “That’s where everybody is anyway.”
“Outdoor,” said Bob Ball. “It’s the fabric of American life.”
“Outdoor,” said Bill Bell. “It’s something to look forward to when you’re driving along.”
“Outdoor,” said Belle Ball. “It sticks in the memory.”
“Outdoor,” said Bo Ball. “It inspires you to compete with all this scenery.”
“I see,” said Walter. “You mean to tell me nobody likes radio?”
“I like radio,” said Beau.
“Oh! Good!” said Walter.
“For tunes, I mean,” explained Beau. “Radio commercials suck.”
Walter had a look that said “Kill”. He had one, but here he altered it to his “Kill by Shattering Explosion” look. “We’d already chosen to do radio,” he said, quietly.
“Whyn’t ya say so? Geez!! Whose brainwave was that?” scoffed Bob Bell.
“Mine,” said Will. Scarily, he hadn’t actually left.
Bob Bell gave this new revelation some serious thought.
“Radio,” said Bob Bell. “It gets attention.”
“Radio,” said Barb Bell. “That’s what everybody listens to, anyway.”
“Radio,” said Bob Ball. “It’s the fabric of American life.”
“Radio,” said Bill Bell. “It’s something to look forward to when you’re driving along.”
“No it isn’t,” said Bob Ball. “You look forward to the windshield. You hear the radio out the sides as you’re driving along.”
“Okay,” said Belle Ball, “But radio sticks in the memory.”
“No it doesn’t,” said Barb Bell. “You forget it the moment you hear it.”
“I think it inspires you to compete with all this scenery”, said Bo Ball.
“No it doesn’t,” said Barb Bell. “That’s outdoor. We were talking about radio.”
“I forgot that the moment I heard it,” said Bo Ball.
“I have that same problem,” said Beau Bell.
“Well that settles it,” said Bob Bell. “We’ll forget about doing outdoor.” He turned and looked expectantly to Walter. Thrown, Walter leaned over and threw Ginny’s pad back a few pages to figure out where in the world they were.
“Oh! Good!” said Walter. “So, we’re back where we started with radio. Er, apart from the fact that, admittedly, the occasional radio commercial, er, sucks.”
“I’m not saying ours would suck,” explained Beau Bell. “But you’ve gotta admit, it’s an uphill battle with other messages.”
“We respect your opinion, Beau,” said Ginny. Walter shot her an envious look. How did she manage to learn everybody’s names so fast? Gin caught the look and explained further while at the same time giving Walter a tremendous, but subtle, ego-boost at the exact moment he needed it. (Oh, he needed her all right!) “But, as Walter, says, we’re already committed to radio, so what this meeting is really about is getting your ideas on what you’d like to see.”
“You don’t see radio,” said Belle.
“No, but you see a radio script, first, before anything happens.” said Gin. (Man, she was good!)
Bob Ball came to his sister’s defence. “Yeah, but we were talking sorta before about clutter, right? Whether it’s radio or outdoor there’s still a whole lotta crap out there, you know. In fact one of the chief criticisms of Oahu from tourists is ‘Oooh, Hawaii’s so commercial.’ Well, that’s Oahu and not Maui. We like a little restraint here.”
“Okay, you’re right, Bob,” agreed Belle Ball, “but we’ve still got a responsibility to put out a message here.”
“That’s my point,” said Bob Ball. “If you can’t see it, why pay attention to it?”
Walter lowered his head, frowning at Gin’s notes. Wasn’t this the guy who just called radio the fabric of American life??
“Let me explain,” said Walter, “Let me explain the Walter Davis Theory of Relativity. Simply put, radio has got to be relevant to the listener the moment he hears it.”
“Oh now that’s just sexist,” said Barb Bell.
“Yeah, sexist,” agreed Belle Ball. “We can’t have that in the ad.”
“How is it sexist?” asked Walter.
Ginny checked her notes. “Uh… you started by saying ‘Let me explain the Walter Davis Theory of Relativity…’”
“Et tu, Ginny?” thought Walter, although what he actually said was “That’s not in the script, Gin. I was merely trying to make a point.”
“You said,” began Barb Bell, “Radio has got to be relevant to the listener the moment he hears it.”
“That’s right, you did,” said Ginny again checking her notes.
“But it’s not in the script,” repeated Walter. “And anyway we just agreed about the relevance to the listener.”
“Yeah, the moment he hears it,” said Barb Bell.
“Yes. SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT?” Walter was fast losing any concern with his frequently rising tone.
“The moment HE hears it,” said Belle Ball. “You’re suggesting that men hear things differently than women.”
“WHAT?” cried Walter, to Barb Bell and Belle Ball.
“Case in point,” muttered Gin, to no-one in particular.
“WHAT?” cried Walter, to Gin.
“It’s a joke,” explained Belle Ball. “Just don’t suggest that men can hear things differently than women.”
“FINE,” replied Walter, very definitely not amused. “I’ll take it out of the script!”
“You can’t do that,” said Bob Ball.
“What, are you guys telling me my job now? Eh? I mean, ‘Huh’??” snapped Walter, warming, no, boiling to his new role of advertising thug.
“Chill, kid,” said Bob Ball. “I meant you can’t do it because we haven’t written a script yet.”
Walter rubbed his eyes and tried to think of an excuse to slip out to a gun store, if only he could be absolutely sure that everbody’d be sitting in the exact same spots when he returned. Oh, and that he could be absolutely sure that there would be no repercussions to him personally.
Featuring: “Jack Nicholson’s Yogi Bear Movie Spot”, “Storytelling – Just Add Walter, Part 6”, “Specstacular Opticians Spot”, “Storytelling – The New Norm L, Part 5”.
