Burma Child Soldier Relief PSA May 15, 2008: El auditioned on May 7th, along with a lot of older girls, of East Indian descent. She worked from 2:30pm to about 6pm. Not too bad. It was shot at the huge estate near the beach, that had its own little river running through the backyard, WOW. She got to hold an AK47 made out of rubber and wore authentic fatigues! Pictures will be posted up soon.
"My First Crush" November 19, 2007: El auditions for the principal role in the film, the character "Hyori." The story is about Hyori, an 11-year old girl who has a crush on a handsome uncle. The director calls a week later and says that El didn't get that part but is really interested in working with her so he decides to change a small part at the end of the film, originally for an older girl, to the "young girl" character so El can take that part.
January 20, 2008: Shoot Day, at a Gelato Shop. The story begins where a young adolescent, Hyori, meets and falls in love with her handsome uncle. But then she sees that he has a girlfriend, who is really beautiful (everyone is very beautiful in this film!). At the end of the film, we see an older Hyori, who has grown up to be a beautiful woman. She's getting ice cream at a shop and turns around to see a young girl sitting next to a handsome man. Eleanor plays this young girl, who also has feelings for this older man next to her, same as what Hyori experienced years ago. The handsome man leaves the young girl for a minute to answer a phone call and Hyori sits down next to her and shares some ice cream with her...and that's the end! They were really efficient and finished the whole shoot in less than 2 hours (about 12pm to 1:45pm).
"One LA" November 1, 2007: El has been chosen for a small part in an anti-racism public service announcement. She auditioned on Oct. 25, 2007. At the audition, they simply asked her to run across the room a couple of times. The shoot date is scheduled for Wednesday, November 28, 2007. November 28, 2007: Shoot Day, at a private residence.
El had a great time at the shoot. She just had to play tag with two other asian children the whole time, while a Hispanic family who are gardeners walk around the other side of the yard, talking about what to do to the landscape. Then a group of Caucasian boys come into the scene, holding picket signs and marching in and out among the Hispanic family. The signs have words like, "Gardener" "Illegal Immigrant" and "Iraqi Soldier" on them. The other two Asian children were older than her, and they got tired after a while, but El still had a lot more energy to burn even after the shoot was over! KozyBear & The Feefers: Children's TV Show-Pilot Click here to see the finished project! Then click on #4, the "Emotion Song" November 14, 2007: El is selected for the part! She will be part of a small group of children dancing in front of a "green screen" for a children's puppet-type TV show. El auditioned for the part the day before, on the 13th--having to leave school a bit early to make it. The audition was in the director's office. They asked her to show them a happy face, a sad face, an angry face, and an excited face. Then they played the show's theme song and asked her to dance to it, however she felt like. So she dances side to side and they asked her to do some turns and hops and that was it! The shoot date is Sunday, November 18, 2007. November 18, 2007: Shoot Day at a filming warehouse. The shoot was pretty fun for El. It went from 3 to 6:15pm.
"Memorials" September 8th, 2007: El auditions for a supporting role in a grad student short film entitled, "Memorials." I get a call the following Tuesday that she got the part!
September 22, 2007: El travels an hour away on location to start shooting! It turns out to be a cold and rainy day later on. Chet takes her. They were there from 1 to about 730pm. Long day....
September 29, 2007: El goes for a 2nd day of shooting. They had to re-shoot a few scenes because of the rainy weather last week, and also a few new scenes. She was there from 1pm to about 830pm this time. Phew! She is exhausted. She had to miss 2 birthday parties in a row to do this, but I think she's glad she did.
October 6, 2007: El attends an "ADR session" at the producer's apt, where they record the sound to match the film. El did some breathing and coughing recordings. She had to watch her own footage and try to match the coughing with her scene. It was a cool learning experience for her. October 28, 2007: El (and family) attend the screening of the film! They showed 9 student films. After they showed "Memorials," the producer invited everyone to come up and stand in front with him. So El got to be introduced to the audience. (She loved it!) He introduced her and she gave a big wave to the audience. We didn't bring a camera or a video camera because we didn't know what to expect there. Darn! Several people came up to her and said, "Good job!" afterwards. The producer and cinematographer both wrote little notes of encouragement to her too. "The Procedure" September 23, 2006: El's first job! She is an extra in a playground scene for a short film entitled, "The Procedure." It's about a young woman who decides to have an abortion. The film is to be submitted in film festivals and used for educational purposes. The casting director picked the children just from the headshots submitted. No audition or anything. We were there from about 11am to 4pm.
September 2007: We receive a DVD copy of the completed film! It turned out really great. I thought they presented their message in such a powerful way. El absolutely loved seeing her name in the credits at the end. |