Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Winter concert 2014

 3 kindergarten classes

Weston and his classmates


Ashton and the second grade classes




Ashton was Joseph for the performance




The boys did a great job at their winter concert this year. I am always impressed with how professional and awesome Nishimachi's concerts are!
The kindergarteners went first, then were dismissed to sit with their parents. Ashton and his classes came on next. Ashton was Joseph during one of the songs and did a great job doing the actions and walking around the stage :)

Sunday, January 4, 2015

We are in a major motion picture!


On the bus on our way to the location
Hair and make-up


One of the dresses I wore

The boys sitting in the front of the location bus

I had a nice warm coat this day



Me, Ashton and Weston on a break

Selfie of my hair :)

Me and Monica 

Different dress and hair this day

This was Richard. We sat by him our first day of shooting. The boys constantly asked if Richard was shooting every day after that. He was so nice and always had a treat in his pocket for the boys. 
Fun fact--I am also in the movie 'Equals' (starring Kristen Stewart) with Richard and his daughter Meg. That movie comes out this spring!


This was lunch and the boys were so tired :)

You can see the cast, crew and set behind me. We were right by the dugout here

More of the set 



And this is at the end of our last day of shooting. On the train home and oh so tired!!

Last March, the boys and I were extras in the movie 'Vancouver no Asahi'. I had heard about this "big movie" that people were getting asked to do, but my boys weren't registered for the agencies that had the offers. Then, I got an email from our agency asking if we would like to be put in for a photo selection (even asking if I could do it too). And they were paying more than the other agencies yay!! Our agent was concerned that the boys' hair might be too long (they wanted very short 1920's boy haircuts) but she asked if we at least wanted to try. The first shoot that we were asked about was on a Friday (luckily Ashton had school off) so I told her if both boys got the job, then we would for sure do it. A few days later we got the email saying all 3 of us got the job, and our call time was EARLY! 
We ended up being asked back for 8 more days of shooting after that. We would have done more but I left for the states for 10 days. The movie wrapped while I was gone. 
I never imagined that we would ever be in a huge movie! It is an experience I will never forget and so happy that I got to do it with Ashton and Weston. On our first day shooting, the director decided to give Ashton a line. The team ran over and put makeup on me and Ashton, sewed a button onto Ashtons coat, and then put a mic on him. The person with the script even wrote in what he said. He asks me a question and I just shrug my shoulders haha! I'm excited to see if it made it in the movie! 

Our shooting days basically went like this. 
Woke up at 4:30, got dressed and headed to shinjuku to meet the location bus. We then had a 2 hour drive to the location. Once we were there they began on hair and make-up. Then it was wardrobe. Basically transforming us into characters from the 1920's.
Then, we would take another bus to the set. You can see in some of my pictures that it was basically a town and a baseball field. There were old shops, cars, market stands etc. It was really, really cool. 
We would shoot all day just getting instructions from the director and his assistants. Sometimes we would cheer, sometimes we would just mingle other times we would move around. Every day was a little different. It was suppose to be summer in the movie so we all have short sleeves, dresses and only light cardigans. Some days were very cold. 
After a long (cold) day we would take the location bus back to wardrobe, get undressed (the hair people would take the million bobby pins out of my hair) and then we would take the bus back to tokyo. We would get back home between 10 and 11 pm. Long days, but a really fun experience.
The movie is in theaters now. We are looking forward to seeing it!!