Marguerite
Active Member
I get the craziest ideas...
difficult child 3 is a very photogenic kid. He also looks a great deal like a younger Harry Potter. Total strangers call him "Harry Potter", it's so obvious. difficult child 3 deliberately chose his last pair of specs to be more square, less round, to reduce the resemblance.
So when I saw an ad on TV, a 'competition' of sorts, looking for a boy and a girl aged 12 to 18 for a big Aussie soapie, I thought, "let's give it a go for difficult child 3."
Then I thought, "Hang on - he's very dark, wears glasses - they will be looking for the classic sun-bronzed surfer dude Aussie, not a nerdy looking kid, however good-looking."
Then I thought, "What if they like what they see and go beyond the scope of the competition, and just see if they can use him in something, somewhere, anyway?"
Then I thought, "Unlikely."
Then I thought, "well, it's fun and good experience with getting organised."
I asked him what he thought of the idea. "Yeah, I'd like to have a go."
So I bought the girlie magazine ("girlie" as in "for teenage girls") and we checked out the conditions.
I didn't push it, I left it up to him. But the weeks have gone past and time is running out. Entries have to be sent by post and arrive Tuesday afternoon, interstate. The entry has to be on DVD, which means it needed to be rehearsed, memorised, filmed, then burnt to a DVD.
difficult child 3 decided he wanted to do it. NOW. So we did a deal - he could postpone his schoolwork for today (holidays begin this afternoon for two weeks) and do schoolwork over the break. A couple of hours, every other day.
I was amazed at his persistence, as I watched him rehearse. He typed the script out (it was printed in the magazine) then taught himself how to use the camera and movie software on our very new computer. He asked my opinion of how it looked and sounded, so I talked him through parts of the script. He did it again, making some changes. And again.
Some of the time he would ask my opinion but a lot of the time he would just stop and re-do it on his own decision. All the time, he was watching the clock and hoping to catch this afternoon's mail.
Then we found we didn't have any blank DVDs, so we re-thought. I rang husband - he said he would bring some home. So I worked on difficult child 3's CV, we went outside and took a photo for a head shot (I'm very pleased with how it turned out - I've watched enough head shots being taken, with easy child 2/difficult child 2 over the years). difficult child 3 even helped me with the camera settings!
Tonight, husband has burnt the film to DVD and I finally got onto the website and checked the conditions of entry. They want the headshots on photographic paper. We're out of photographic paper. Blast!
So tomorrow morning, I have to HOPE that our small village shops have photographic paper in stock. If they don't, I either have to beg some from our neighbour who is a photographer (but a ratbag - and I don't want to have to explain why I want it) or drive "to the mainland" and back, to buy photographic paper, bring it home again to print, then get the lot to the post office before they shut at midday.
The lad has come a long way, from the kid who didn't want to act in front of a small group and certainly didn't want to be in a film - then went on to have a small speaking role in a feature film and absolutely nailed his scene for every take.
I don't think he has much chance of getting past the first round. They'll be looking for more typical Aussie teens - the "After" in a Clearasil ad, not a Harry Potter lookalike nerd.
But you never know... and watching him today, going over and over the scene, making his own decisions, working the technical stuff efficiently - I was impressed AND I learnt even more about my lad.
If it goes nowhere, I don't think it will ruffle his feathers much.
But he gave me good leverage to get him to do work in the holidays! Yay!
Marg
difficult child 3 is a very photogenic kid. He also looks a great deal like a younger Harry Potter. Total strangers call him "Harry Potter", it's so obvious. difficult child 3 deliberately chose his last pair of specs to be more square, less round, to reduce the resemblance.
So when I saw an ad on TV, a 'competition' of sorts, looking for a boy and a girl aged 12 to 18 for a big Aussie soapie, I thought, "let's give it a go for difficult child 3."
Then I thought, "Hang on - he's very dark, wears glasses - they will be looking for the classic sun-bronzed surfer dude Aussie, not a nerdy looking kid, however good-looking."
Then I thought, "What if they like what they see and go beyond the scope of the competition, and just see if they can use him in something, somewhere, anyway?"
Then I thought, "Unlikely."
Then I thought, "well, it's fun and good experience with getting organised."
I asked him what he thought of the idea. "Yeah, I'd like to have a go."
So I bought the girlie magazine ("girlie" as in "for teenage girls") and we checked out the conditions.
I didn't push it, I left it up to him. But the weeks have gone past and time is running out. Entries have to be sent by post and arrive Tuesday afternoon, interstate. The entry has to be on DVD, which means it needed to be rehearsed, memorised, filmed, then burnt to a DVD.
difficult child 3 decided he wanted to do it. NOW. So we did a deal - he could postpone his schoolwork for today (holidays begin this afternoon for two weeks) and do schoolwork over the break. A couple of hours, every other day.
I was amazed at his persistence, as I watched him rehearse. He typed the script out (it was printed in the magazine) then taught himself how to use the camera and movie software on our very new computer. He asked my opinion of how it looked and sounded, so I talked him through parts of the script. He did it again, making some changes. And again.
Some of the time he would ask my opinion but a lot of the time he would just stop and re-do it on his own decision. All the time, he was watching the clock and hoping to catch this afternoon's mail.
Then we found we didn't have any blank DVDs, so we re-thought. I rang husband - he said he would bring some home. So I worked on difficult child 3's CV, we went outside and took a photo for a head shot (I'm very pleased with how it turned out - I've watched enough head shots being taken, with easy child 2/difficult child 2 over the years). difficult child 3 even helped me with the camera settings!
Tonight, husband has burnt the film to DVD and I finally got onto the website and checked the conditions of entry. They want the headshots on photographic paper. We're out of photographic paper. Blast!
So tomorrow morning, I have to HOPE that our small village shops have photographic paper in stock. If they don't, I either have to beg some from our neighbour who is a photographer (but a ratbag - and I don't want to have to explain why I want it) or drive "to the mainland" and back, to buy photographic paper, bring it home again to print, then get the lot to the post office before they shut at midday.
The lad has come a long way, from the kid who didn't want to act in front of a small group and certainly didn't want to be in a film - then went on to have a small speaking role in a feature film and absolutely nailed his scene for every take.
I don't think he has much chance of getting past the first round. They'll be looking for more typical Aussie teens - the "After" in a Clearasil ad, not a Harry Potter lookalike nerd.
But you never know... and watching him today, going over and over the scene, making his own decisions, working the technical stuff efficiently - I was impressed AND I learnt even more about my lad.
If it goes nowhere, I don't think it will ruffle his feathers much.
But he gave me good leverage to get him to do work in the holidays! Yay!
Marg