While many people are busy scrubbing their homes for Pesach and enlisting their children to work with them, instead three of my boys recently participated in the filming of an ad for a hat company.
Our neighbor was responsible for casting and that’s how we were contacted – it’s not the kind of thing we would have gone out of our way to be part of. The boys were paid a token amount but the real gain was to be part of an interesting learning opportunity and it was with that intention that I agreed they could be part of it.
The video briefly showcases three major life events: the bris of a newborn baby boy, a bar mitzva celebration and a wedding.
Ds11 and ds9 are hard to find unless you’re looking for them but they’re there in the background scenes of the bris. They were considering casting ds11 as the bar mitzva boy but the filming for the bar mitzva portion was done at the end of the day – it was a verrrry long day – and ds11 and ds9 came home before that so they only participated in the bris portion.
A fun surprise was that ds18 was cast as the bridegroom at the last minute so he ended up with a main part. Initially they said they wanted someone with a lighter complexion, but once he was there they decided he was more suitable than the person they had chosen. So he’s the easiest of our three boys to find.
Here’s the video:
Enjoy!
Avivah
Beautiful ad–not something I’d see in the US. My homeschooled daughter got great experience working as an extra and actor in paid and non-paid short films. She’s now in film school. 🙂
Definitely made for the Israeli market! 🙂
Beautiful! K’ah!! How is life going with a newborn? 🙂
BH, we love having a new baby around again, even though my sleep schedule has been disrupted. Pictures coming in the next post!
tried replying yesterday but didn’t go thru.
very nice that the boys had a learning experience!
chag kasher v’samaech!
Wow, I hope you got to keep the hats!
That would have been very nice but no!
Very moving! But I don’t know quite enough to tell exactly what was happening. Could you explain the ad for those of us untutored in Jewish tradition? It seemed like it kept cutting back & forth between each scene?
I can see how confusing this must be if you’re not familiar with traditional celebrations! There were three celebrations, starting with a father and his newborn son, then a boy becoming bar mitzva (age 13), then a man on his wedding day. Different parts of the three celebrations were flashing back and forth. For example in the wedding scenes, the groom signed the marriage contract and hugged his friends, ashes were placed on the forehead of the groom (reminder of the destruction of the Holy Temple), he was then walked to the chuppa (canopy under which marriage ceremony takes place) and then the final part of the marriage ceremony is when the groom steps on a glass to break it (this is a reminder that our sadness is never complete while the Temple isn’t rebuilt), then later hugs family members and friends who congratulate him when the marriage ceremony is complete.
The man with the tallis (prayer shawl) over his head was the father of a baby having his bris (circumcision); the young boy wearing a hat was bar mitzva and was shown at the ceremonial head table at the celebration and with guests dancing.
If there’s a specific scene you’re wondering about that I didn’t mention, please ask!