But, since my last post, a lot has happened. Or, at least, it feels that way. lol.
Filming the Shentel commercial that I got through Erica Arvold Casting was a LOT of fun! It was a different experience than anything else I'd done too. The director was the camera-man and was filming most of the time. There weren't super specific directions, and no "Action" or "Cut," but it was more like he would tell us (the 4 other actors and me) a general sense of what he wanted us to do and then would just start filming. We started in a red Jeep and acted like we were driving to the swimming hole. We had music blasting and were just jamming out and having a blast - like college kids would do. :P I was the oldest of the group of us, 3 of them were still in college and one girl had just graduated. lol.
 |
| The director filming us! |
Anyways, after filming in the Jeep we went to the swimming hole, which really was more of a rock/island thing right next to the road. We drove up the main road, pulled off onto the side, then walked down the drop-off on the other side of the guardrails to get to the river.
 |
| The big rock at the bottom of the screen is the one we jumped off of. |
I was the second one to jump off of the rock - and it was so much fun! It was about a 12 foot drop, but the climb up to the top of the rock was the hardest - it was almost straight up and there weren't very many hand or footholds. I slipped once - the first time, and a couple of the others slipped too. One girl even sliced her wrist unknowingly.
Well, the director, Allan Vajda - for part of the time - was in the water below us with a little mini waterproof camera filming us. There were maybe 10 other people standing on the ground behind/next to the rock, some filming, some just watching (I'm still unsure as to who they were/their purpose for being there) - it was probably the biggest "crew" of any of the shoots I've been too, except maybe for the House of Cards shoot, though it probably comes close. Which is weird, because House of Cards is a BIG production, and this was just a commercial - not even a National one. haha.
Well, after jumping off of the rock for a few hours, we went back to our "base" (a firehall) and changed into dry clothes. Like an idiot, I forgot to bring a bra and underwear but brought like 4 different bathing suits. So I had to wear a dry bathing suit under my clothes the rest of the night - and the 2.5 hour drive home. lol. After changing, we went to another location by the river where they had built a bonfire. We roasted marshmallows and goofed off and stuff for a couple of hours. I think by this point everyone was getting a little frustrated and tired - a lot of the crew (and some of those random people who I think may have been from Shentel) were not in a very good mood and I could feel some tension between the director and some of them, and they even snapped at some of us actors too sometimes. For example, we were handed a guitar at the beginning of this portion of the shoot, and since I was the only one that had ANY experience with guitar - albeit, my experience was about 6 years ago - I was the one holding it. I was trying to "teach" one guy how to play (keep in mind they're filming this whole time) and one girl (for the life of me, I cannot remember her name!) started teaching us a song - everyone else was clapping their hands in time, and since I didn't have any hands free, I was VERY lightly drumming/tapping my fingers on the guitar. One of the "random" guys (I don't like using that word, but I don't know what his title/purpose was. He didn't have a camera and wasn't involved with any directing, I guess he was the owner of the guitar?) came up to me and snapped "Give me the guitar" and ripped it out of my hands. Lol. Similar things happened to other actors, but I don't remember what they were.
Anyways, the fire was SUPER hot and uncomfortable and they would film for minutes on end - sometimes I felt like my skin would blister lol.
Well, after about a 9 hour day, we wrapped up, got paid $500, and I went home, took a shower, and went to bed.
Here is the completed commercial! I can be seen in the opening (blue/green sweater), at 0:02-0:04, 0:34 (far right on the rock), 0:35 (and in the thumbnail picture), as well as 0:45 (on the tv, but I am not the one in focus, though I thought it was me at first lol).
Well, after filming that, I had one more shoot before I moved back to Cali. It was a running shoot with Photography by GregD, who runs the Studio at Dulles, near Mount Vernon. Basically, I ran for about an hour and a half almost non-stop. I took little walking breaks here and there, and there were fitness "stations" on the running trail, so I did a couple pull-ups, but pretty much it was the longest I have ever run. I got paid $100 for that (yay, that paid for one day's worth of gas on the drive cross country! lol). I just saw a couple of the photos online, and am just waiting for my CD to come in the mail.
Speaking of CDs, I also received my CD of images from the mock engagement shoot I did for Boston University in Georgetown. I will be posting some of those photos soon.
Well, now I'm in CA and am just trying to get settled in and unpack and stuff before I submit to auditions. I am supposed to start working at Macaroni Grill next week, and I do think I have one modeling shoot coming up soon with Brianna Noelle Photography. It's a Vampire themed shoot (for Halloween, I'm assuming) with two other models. One of whom, Tinisha Portillo, I know is another Marine wife like myself (the photographer is as well, not sure about the third model, though I would assume so. We tend to stick together lol) but Tinisha and I have talked some online and she has been very helpful and given me lots of great advice about modeling.
Anyways, I hope to stay on the ball with my posts, but if nothing new happens, then it's hard to find stuff to write about. lol. Gotta get back to unpacking! Yippee. =/
Thanks!
