Starlet

A Magical Filming Experience

  

We had planned to be in Hawaii all of June and July because, frankly, we own a place there that was sitting empty and Charlotte loves to sail...as much time as she can spend in Waikiki Yacht Club Sailing Camp, the better....but, surprise...she landed the role of one of the "campers" in GospelLight's summer bible school videos....while it may seem trivial, 200 kids went out for the roles of four very different twelve year olds that meet at camp and learn lessons about understanding, acceptance and forgiveness.

And, Christianity being big business, the shoot actally paid well!

But, it was quite different from other shoots....and more fun than we could imagine!  First, we had to toally rearrange our travel and spent five fabulous days in a camp in lovely Ojai, California.  The cabins were comfortable and the mess hall food was pretty good, but the best part was that four kids who didn't know each other before arriving at camp became GREAT friends, had long conversations, sang and played together and... we all really left Ojai with some wonderful memories.

This will be a multi-part blog, starting with some shots of the shoot.  It was fairly complex with three cameras, a sound engineer, a director, a few producers and a lot of production assistants.

One of my favorite shots from the shoot is that of Charlotte (who played the athletic, nature girl) and Colton(who played the athletic, cool boy) checking their "look" in the camera lenses!  So darn cute.

Another memory is that of the four kids (Charlotte, Scottie (who played the nerd), Colton, and Francesca (who played the prissy girl)) sitting on the bunks (with Francesca's little brother) where they would sit every day after shooting and talk into the night....about everything from the shoot to families to God to issues (even sex) facing tweens today....

 

Voiceover for Disney....recorded anywhere, anytime..

In one of those crazy heart-pounding days that only plague those of us attempting to break into this crazy business of show, we were filming in Ojai for five days when I got a call from Charlotte's agent that she needed to be recorded for a very juicy, potential Disney voiceover.

Well, everyone knows that Disney says jump and, yes, we jump.  But, we were 90 miles from LA,  in Ojai...our first day there and I didn't know where the Rite Aid was, let alone a recording studio.  Charlotte's agent wanted her to come to their sound booth, but that was back in LA, an hour and a half away, and the tight shooting schedule meant this was impossible.

So, I set out to on a true impossible mission.  Having three hours until 5:00 PM, how do I get a recording of Charlotte emailed to Disney????  First stop, Ojai Chamber of Commerce....closed.  But, a handy map in the basket outside their door had the first clue.  The map had a Radio Shack, which was as close as I was going to get to technology.  A very handy staff at Radio Shack, as well as several customers, tried to figure how I would do this.  Would it involve buying an MP3 system and a microphone, as well as downloading software and learning how to record,then recording, then sending....and praying it worked...uhhhhh....no!

Several phone calls to local recording studios and tech experts got me nowhere....until we called Zircon Skye...and, guess what, they could record Charlotte in a half hour and get the MP3 file off via email to the powers that be.  Normally, they record rock stars and important people...but they made time for us.

Can you imagine, a major recording studio among the grapevines, horses and crops that make up Ojai?  Jeff was so nice, we got it done and now sit back and wait for Disney to call....after that adventure (frankly I can't believe we got it done and she continued filming without a hitch...except maybe a bit of an evil eye frim the director!) I earned a nice glass (or three) of local wine...