The Long and the Short of this Blog...Bob Kelso Style

I'm a Scrubs fan, and I ran across a clip that says everything I want to say perfectly.
Life is hard.  Life is scary...live anyway.

Next Up for the Family...

Today starts Mariana's next project...

She is a Poppy in Matthew's Community Theatre's Production of The Wizard of Oz.  We have a cast meeting at noon where we will get details, schedules, etc and then it's straight to work next week.  This production is sort of  the year-end project of the acting class she started back in August.  I'm hoping it will get her more comfortable on the stage, since she's still a bit of a deer in the headlights with a live audience.  It could be that she ends up sticking to camera work, but I'm trying to give her a fair shot at working on stage presence.  Any experience will help build her confidence and get her more comfortable "performing".  Plus, even if she does clam up during the actual performance, she LOVES the process...practicing songs and learning choreography. June Bayless is a great director and she'll have fun, which is the whole point of any of this.

First Day of Filming and PSA

John and I did our first day of filming yesterday, and it went great!

There is a LOT of work that goes into each second of film.  For the actors, you are on set with a mic 3 inches from your head, lights in your face, camera in front of you, as well as ten other people staring at you and your first responsibility is to ACT NATURALLY.  Oh, yeah, and you probably should say your lines, too.

We went through two scenes yesterday.  Each will probably be 2-3 minutes of actual usable film, but we probably shot a couple hours worth of footage.  We started in the middle of the first scene and filmed that 2-3 times from 10 different angles.  Then, we shot the middle of the next scene from several angles. After that, we shot the beginning of the second scene.  Then it was back to shoot the beginning of the first scene.  Finally we shot the end of the second scene.  At one point, the front door opens, and it's supposed to be dark out, but it's not so they built a cave of blackout screens around the door, so when the door opened, it would be dark. So much movie magic was going on all day.

I've got a few behind-the-scenes pics from the birthday party scene:

Mike (the Editor), Charles (the Cinematographer) and Scott (Director)

 lining up a shot

John (Actor - Marcus), helps Jeremy (Actor - Dylan) pin the tail on the donkey,

as Chris (Actor - Ben), the other party-goers and of course the camera look on.

At far left, Scott (Director) watches the scene from behind the camera.

All in all, it was a great day!  We had tons of fun!  Our only downside brings me to my PSA:

People...whoever you are, whatever you do....
DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE!!


On our way home last night, we were stopped at a light on 321 getting ready to get onto 85, when a drunk driver rear-ended us, backed up, and then continued onto 85, cutting off a ton of people in the process.  Neither one of us was hurt (John slept through the whole thing), and there was only minimal damage to the muffler, but it could have been worse.  For all I know, he hit-and-ran our accident, then made it to the highway and killed someone.  There was a family in a van behind us that got his tag number and waited for the  police with me (THANKS TO THEM!  God puts angels where we need them!), so I at least have his insurance info, but there's nothing they can do about actually punishing the driver.  By the way, I know he was drunk because someone had already called him in to the police as a drunk driver and the cops had been sitting there waiting on him.  Unfortunately, he was so erratic, that they didn't get close enough to get him.

There is just no excuse in the world for drinking and driving.  It's stupid and dangerous to others as well as yourself.  My mom is a drug and alcohol counselor and I'd grown up working at her office that dealt with DUI/DWI offenders regularly, so I know this plea is falling on deaf ears, but I still had to say it.  This time everyone was ok and damage was minimal, but you don't know what will happen when you make the choice to drive drunk.

Modeling Job

So....the modeling job last Tuesday...

Interesting start to a modeling career.  It was kinda what I thought it was going to be when I first heard about the job - a training manual for Acosta Sales & Marketing's new employees.  I was a "merchandiser", which means one of Acosta's employees.  I had a nametag with my name (that was kind of weird) and everything.  Lots of pictures stocking and unstocking shelves.  I also was the "employee" to be photographed with the company big-wig, "store manager", calling in sick (yay for acting skills!), and walking in to work.  Have you ever had to stay perfectly still and yet appear to be walking at the same time?  I can now say I have.

One of the great parts about this job was getting to work with some of Carolina Talent's finest models...Bill Sykes (who is also in the movie with me), Li-Lun Chen, Nyquell Terry, Mike Cross, Stephan Soper and more.


So, what's next for me?  I've got an ITS workshop this morning.  Runway and Monologue and Commercials, oh my!  Also, sometime this weekend I'll be videoing an audition for a movie that's filming in Winston-Salem.  Cross your fingers for me on that one - it looks like a good one.