ABSTRACT

It must have been Take 30, but we weren’t quite sure because we were no longer using a slate, nor did we stop tape in between takes, for fear of losing the little momentum we had gained. The talent was a beautiful young woman who had volunteered for the part. She was well cast by the bank’s producer. Her considerable knowledge of the subject matter meant that she had her lines down, but her lack of experience in front of the camera made this training video laborious to capture. Even worse: The experience was completely humiliating for her, the performance was indeed embarrassing and she would very likely never again volunteer for a shoot. It can be diffi cult to coax an agreeable performance out of an amateur, but it can be done.