Tag: cameraobscura

Miles, superstar

It’s time for updates on Miles’s fledgling acting career!

First, I got to see his movie, Camera Obscura in a theater while we were in Austin! It was extremely exciting. I squealed quietly every time he was on screen or there was a mention of his character. Which amounted to approximately 45 seconds all told throughout the course of the movie.

(Yes. I do realize I am being ridiculous, considering he was literally an extra. I mean, a featured extra, but an extra nonetheless.)

I went with my friends Deborah and Elizabeth to the show, so I owe them many thanks for putting up with me. Also it was at the Alamo Drafthouse, which is the best cinema chain ever. PLEASE COME TO NEW ORLEANS, ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE. Unlimited bowls of popcorn! Free giant cups of ice water! Also booze! And pizza! Honestly, what more could you want? I actually went to three different Alamos while in Austin, and each was a delight.

Anyway, back to Miles’s movie. You can watch it, you know! It’s available on demand now!

Links to various places to watch it can be found here.

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Pre-movie cocktail with Deborah and Elizabeth
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Look how official! The movie poster above the theater! So exciting! I am a dork!
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Fuzzy pic of the Q&A after. I resisted the urge to ask “who was your favorite extra?” and other leading questions. 

I don’t want to give anything away, so I shall only share one screen cap from the movie. But it’s my favorite part that Miles was in.

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My other favorite part was seeing Miles’s name in the credits as “Drowned Child.” And then, weirdly, my own name under the Extras. That’s a fun mistake I can live with!

Okay, so that’s cool BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

Back in the spring, Miles filmed another featured extra bit for a TV show! And it’s pretty exciting because the show, Claws, just debuted, and it’s been getting a good amount of press. He’s going to be in the fourth episode, which airs on July 2. Don’t worry, I’ll remind everyone 1000 times before then.

I can’t really go into any detail about that just yet, but I’ll post more after it airs.

Goings on

It’s been a while since I wrote a regular old boring blog post, so here goes.

The boys had their third guitar lesson yesterday. They still like it! Ha! They’d better, at what it’s costing me. There’s still some frustration about getting chords right and finger placement and finger (it hurts to press on the strings!) but no one has given up yet. Ha.

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I say “boys” but really it was just Oliver and Miles. Linus is still sick from whooping cough. Even though they had all of last week off, he’s still getting sent home from school every day because of the cough. It doesn’t sound good, that’s for sure. I’m so ready for this to be over. I’m so ready for him to complete a whole day of school. Especially because the nurse said she’d bake us a cake when all three made it through a full day. I’m thinking yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles? Yes?

img_9429-2Also next week is the big standardized testing week so he has to stay in school all day. I can’t have one triplet repeating third grade! (Don’t worry, that won’t actually happen.)

On Sunday, I accidentally signed up for two Orangetheory classes in a row. I figured, why not just do it? (The alternative being to pay a $12 cancellation fee.) Everything was going swimmingly until the point when my back seized up and was like “nope.” So now I am in pain but got a massage yesterday which helped but thank goodness for leftover painkillers from surgery is all I can say.

I’m excited for this summer. The boys and I are spending a couple of weeks at the beginning in Austin, housesitting with Deborah and her kids. It will be fun! We’ll be able to work together and the kids can all play and we can go swimming and all sorts of fun stuff.

And then there will be a work trip to Orlando, and some Kiki visiting, and possibly a trip at the end of the summer to DC to see Aunt Jenny’s giant house finally. We’ll see.

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Scary!
We’re really enjoying the patio. The giant piles of dirt are finally diminishing, and once my back is better I hope we can get some hedges in. I’m also dreaming of a hydrangea bush, but I’m not known for my green thumb so it might not be the best idea. But maybe.

Ooh, this is exciting! The movie Miles filmed last year finally has a release date! It’ll be in theaters in June and then it also have a VOD (video on demand) release date a few days later. I’m really hoping it will be playing in a theater in Austin while we’re there. The production company that made the movie is based there, so I’m hopeful. We’ll see. Fingers crossed! (I won’t be taking the kids to the theater, but at least we can show them Miles’s parts on demand a few days later.) I also hope his part wasn’t left on the cutting room floor. Hmm.

Anyway, I’m not such a huge fan of horror movies, but hopefully this one won’t give me nightmares. Sure, why would seeing my kid play dead give me nightmares?

IMG_0176In happier news, two of my baby cousins are having babies! I mean, they’re not exactly babies anymore, they’re grown women, but they’ll always be my baby cousins. They’re due a month apart, and neither know what flavor baby they’re having. How is it that I had no problem not knowing the sex of my babies, but when other people do it I get wildly impatient?

Anyway, they’re adorable, and I can’t wait to take lots of pictures of their squishy babies! (I’m convinced both are boys. Well, at least one is a boy I’ll bet.)

Quick rundown of other things…Ziggy is free of heartworms, we got a new fancy thermostat (not Nest, but like Nest), sno-balls are yummy, I got to drive a fancy Corolla for a week, Miles and I had a streetcar/beignet adventure last week, and we played Monopoly.)

 

 

Miles’s movie star adventures, take 2

Yesterday Miles had his second day of filming. I was not super excited when I got our call time of 7:30 am, especially since it meant driving to Baton Rouge beforehand. The movie biz isn’t all glamour, y’all.

We were about 20 minutes away from the set when I got a call from a PA asking if we could get there sooner, because they wanted to get Miles’s scene done first. Fortunately, we were on track to get there about 15 minutes early.

Once we got there, of course, there was a little waiting around. Miles had a snack and after not too long, we were called to the set. (Man, I sound so knowledgeable with all my movie lingo, eh?)

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In the library stairwell. Can you tell he’s excited and a bit nervous?

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A bit more waiting.

Finally, it was time for Miles! His scene involved an elevator. The director had him practice a few times.

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Remember, his last scene was at the pool, so he had to wear the same bathing suit, and get wet down. They used water and baby oil so it would bead up and look shiny, I guess.

Action!

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Gotta keep the talent warm between takes.

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Rehearsing for another part of the scene.

Soon, he was all done! The crew all cheered for him when they said, “this is Miles’s picture wrap” or “Miles is picture wrapped” or “wrap picture for Miles.” I dunno, some kind of lingo I didn’t quite pick up about him being done with his scenes. I also heard someone say he has a bright future ahead of him, so I am pretty much assuming he is going to be taking me to the Oscars one day.

But in all seriousness, I don’t know if this is the beginning or end of his acting career, but I’m glad he had the opportunity. It’s kind of tricky when filming involves missing a day of school, but hopefully there will more chances coming up.

Miles is a movie star, part 1

IMG_9887Today Miles and I went to Baton Rouge so he could be in a movie!

A while back, Miles said he wanted to be an actor. So I added him to an extras casting website, and every so often, if I saw something he was qualified for, I’d submit him. Recently one came up for kids in a pool scene, and it was for today, which is a school holiday, so I figured, why not?

Lo and behold, I got a call on Wednesday saying the director wanted him to be a featured extra! Which, I don’t know, means he was just a little bit more of a special extra.

When the casting person said, “he’ll be playing a drowned child. Is that okay with you?” the amazing mother that I am said, “SUUUURE of course that’s cool!” I didn’t actually tell Miles he’d be playing a dead kid until we were on our way today.

We got to the set at about 9 this morning. I was doing everything I could to pretend I knew what I was doing, but I did not. I think I managed not to look like a complete idiot, at least.

When we arrived, the makeup person said they were going to cover his body in blue dead-looking paint, but in the end, since he was freshly drowned, it wasn’t necessary. Bummer. That would’ve been even cooler. Miles was v jealous of the other kid who got to be covered in blood. Maybe next time.

IMG_9725Anyway, after much waiting and watching them film some scenes by the pool, it was Miles’s turn! The director said, “okay, just get in the pool and hold your breath and float face down.”

I was skeptical. It was 56 degrees when we got there, so I’m sure the water was frigid. But Miles was game. He got in the pool, and turns out, while he can swim, he can’t really do the dead man’s float. After a bit of sputtering, the director was like, “oh hey, that’s fine, Miles, we’ll just have you dead on the side of the pool.”

(Everyone was v nice.)

So Miles climbed out, laid on the ground, and they took a bunch of pics. (He’s only dead in a photograph in the movie, in this scene.)

After that was done, he was in the background of some scenes, playing by the pool, apparently freaking out the main character, who I guess is thinking he’s seeing a dead kid? I’m not completely clear on the plot of this movie. I suspect it’s a thriller or a horror movie or something. It’s not in IMDb yet.

So after they did a zillion takes of that scene, from different angles, Miles was done! Except we didn’t find out we were done for about three hours, wherein Miles got very bored. Eventually, we were told we could leave.

But we’ll be going back in a few weeks to film another creepy scene (the casting people sent me that part of the script.) Should be interesting!