Romeo's Pedigree Shoot!

This is not the face of a dog only an owner can love!
The Pedigree people love it too!

Today was Romeo's Pedigree Shoot! We were told on Tuesday that Romeo's shoot would be on Friday. No problem!

Yesterday night I was dismayed to learn that Romeo's calltime was at 10AM and that his shoot location was in Pacific Palisades. I set my alarm for 7AM for an 8AM departure to the other side of LA. Today I was even more dismayed when I heard that Thursday's shoot was in South Pasadena, five minutes away from our home!

We made it, no problem, to the location, only to be bussed up to another location. To wait. For a long time. Romeo was overly stimulated and excited, and somewhat wary of the new dogs. So while we were there, we took in the view, walked Romeo, hung out in the trailer with the other "real" dogs (what one PA called the dogs they cast from various LA locations - who had much nicer digs than the studio trained dogs, I have to say), and tried to figure out what was going on.


Romeo was called to the set right before lunch, and he was asked to sit and stare at the camera. This took like five minutes altogether for three takes. And that's it. Stacy (the director) was very very interested in Romeo's eyes, and it seemed like he only wanted a shot of Romeo's face (specially his eyes) to convey excitement in a different way without movement. The theme for this commercial, by the way, is excitement. We weren't sure if Romeo was needed for anything else, and the production crew didn't seem to know either, so they called a break for lunch and said that Romeo wasn't wrapped yet.

I do have to say, the lunch was superb and totally made the experience. Joel's been raving about craft services for years, but until now I'd never experienced it. A gourmet meal came out of a lunch truck. I swear! I had NY steak, cooked medium, with some sort of wine sauce and sauteed shallots over the most tasty breaded asparagus.

So then, after lunch, we went back in the trailer where it was air conditioned. And waited.



And we kept waiting. Romeo was really tired at this point but didn't want to go to sleep, so I accompanied him to the back of the trailer where his bed was set up and sat in a chair next to his bed while he took a nap. Dena covered him with a towel so he could keep warm.

After his nap, I took him out of the trailer for another walk to pass the time. He ran in between two cast members playing catch (like with baseball and mitts) to pass the time for awhile before they had to go work. We were walking when the second assistant director (2AD for short as I learned) found us and told us that we were wrapped and could go collect our check! Sweet! In: 9:45AM, out: 3:15PM!

We're hoping they need him back for the still shots. Romeo's saving up for a yard, after all! I'm going to call the ad agency in a couple weeks to find out the airdate of the commercial, and hopefully they'll be able to tell us whether Romeo made the final edit and is still in the commercial!

Starring: _Romeo_