Typical Day
Addie Murphy wakes up to the sound of his cell phone ringing. More than a decade of experience as a commercial director has taught Addie at least one thing: A call to your cell phone in the very early hours of the morning when it's dark outside is never, ever a good thing.
Reluctantly, Addie answers the phone.
"Addie, we need you," says a voice on the other end.
Addie recognizes the voice as that of his production assistant Robert. Or was it Randy? Why was it so hard to remember these kids' names?
Jerked back to attention, Addie hears Robert/Randy saying something possibly important: "…need you right now…problem with the audio files for the…completely useless…."
Addie sighs. He gets the point. It's an emergency. (Is it still an emergency if they happen all the time? Or does Addie just live in a state of emergency?) No matter. The only thing that matters is that someone, somewhere, needs him—right now.
By driving an unsafe ninety mph on the L.A. freeway (no traffic, thank god), Addie makes it to the studio within fifteen minutes and gets the details on the emergency of the day. Apparently it's a problem with the footage they shot last week for a local attorney's office. In the footage, a wrinkly, old, "camera-unfriendly" law partner begins by asking, "Are you born before 1995 and suffering from some-disease-or-ailment?"
The commercial bored the pants off Addie. It certainly wasn't the sci-fi blockbuster with groundbreaking CGI techniques he imagined he'd be doing by now. But the job paid, and he was a little low on cash—always.
After grabbing a quick breakfast (Planter's peanuts and a bag of Fritos from a nearby vending machine), Addie grits his teeth and sets to work. It isn't a project worth assembling the whole team, and Addie knows he can get the job done quicker on his own. Along with his technical director, Robert/Randy (why can't he remember?), he works until sunrise to restore all the audio files, which seem to have gone strangely missing.
Once the audio files are restored, Addie makes his way, small carry-on in tow, to the LAX airport. Addie, along with seven other crew members, needs to make a flight to Abu Dhabi, where enticing heavy government subsidies means Addie will be able to shoot a short car commercial on the cheap.
To the uninitiated, Abu Dhabi might sound exotic, glamorous even. Camels! Sand dunes! Luxury hotels with six billion thread count sheets!
In reality, shooting on location—no matter the location—is always a headache for Addie, who usually spends his days fretting over heavy hotel costs and unforeseen technical problems. Not to mention keeping track of crew members, who tended to go a bit wild on location. On one shoot in Buenos Aires, Addie had to negotiate with the Argentinian authorities to bail one of his drunken, brawling cameramen out of jail. And then he had to fire him.
That helps explain why Addie so nervously checks over his shoulder, counting and recounting the crew members trailing behind him through airport security (which, by the way, is always a hassle with so much camera equipment).
Finally, the crew makes it to their gate with just enough time for Addie to check in with the people who matter most to him: the company who hired him for this upcoming car commercial, the law firm that hired him for the commercial he just wrapped, and, oh yeah, his wife.
With a sixteen-hour flight to the Middle East on the schedule, Addie won't get around to any actual filming today. As a small-budget commercial director, Addie actually spends more of his time in the studio editing and compiling footage than he does sitting in the almighty director's chair yelling "cut" at his actors—whom, by the way, he always helps cast.
And on heavy travel days, when going to and from different shooting locations, Addie is always sure to bring along spreadsheets and casting calls to review. There's never really a wrap for television commercial directors.