The shoot was in Montclair, NJ, not too far from home. The day was grey, cold and rainy. Scene 1 was a mother and two kids leave the porch and go into their minivan. The kids would hold birthday presents. Ariel's mom's real name was Carol, and her brother's name was Spencer. All three were half Chinese, and Carol exclaimed the first time she saw Ariel that she looked exactly like Ariel when she was her age. After a few practice takes and a number of real takes, Ariel admitted to me that "this is hard work!". She was getting cold and tired. I let her hold my cup of hot chocolate and put her freezing hands under my sweater. But despite that, she continued to run out of that porch over and over again without complaining and kept smiling. I was so proud of her! She was very professional, considering she's only 4 years old!
According to the storyboard they had left around, the other 2 scenes had a couple of teenage girls in their bedroom on the computer (they were excited to see Ariel there, they recognized her from the audition when she played with them in the hallway), and an older gentleman in the sunroom with a laptop. Everything in the house had been moved around, and all floors covered and walls padded. Two of the rooms inside the house would be used for the shoot. Other rooms were cleared for dressing rooms, technical stuff, etc...
When the shoot was almost over, the kids were happy to be kids and dance around the kitchen for my camera, drink hot chocolate, and eat crossaints and jelly beans.
The commercial just started to air the week of February 18th, seen by my mother on New York City major NBC (4) and ABC (7) stations, and local WB station (11). Ariel's grandmother (my mom) is in the hospital and has been watching the TV all day - saw the commercial 5 times in 1 week. The agency is supposed to get a video copy of it for us. It is supposed to be a national campaign, targeted at specific regions where Verizon DSL is available. Since it's a SAG union job, Ariel will get a nice fat paycheck as well as residuals every time the commercial airs.
Ariel plans to save her money so she can buy a car when she's a teenager.
For the first 15 seconds of the commercial, check out this MPG. I held my digital camera in front of the TV to capture it, so it's not perfect, but you can get an idea of her role. The commercial!