We leave for Orlando in 32 days. Showcases are set and paid for, as is ALL of Shine, plus the plane tickets. I am so very amazed and grateful at how God has worked through our finances in the last seven months. We just have to pay the hotel bill and get through the week with our food and we're done. I've contacted the Gaylord and they're allowing us to bring a griddle and toaster oven and hot pot so we can cook meals in our room. I'm very excited. I had feared not being able to find anything close by that we could grab to eat. No hot meals for a week would have been very disheartening- even the best salad bar gets tiring after a few days. This way I can pack our pancake mix for breakfasts and we can make grilled cheese and whatever else comes to mind.
We went to dress rehearsal a couple weeks ago and it was amazing as usual. We got the flash drive with all the pictures from her photo shoot and I am staggered by them. My daughter is beautiful. She doesn't look nine years old at all. Yet they still look innocent and sweet and age-appropriate. Thankfully, I am not the one who had to decide among the 253 shots they took and figure out which to use. They've chosen the shots for us- one for her commercial acting headshot, and then a small collection that they'll use as her modeling profile. We'll get 25 copies of 2 of the shots, don't know which ones, when we get to Shine. We then staple her resume to the back of them so we can give them to the VIPs and they'll have all her info in one spot.
Here are the ones they picked:
They gave us ALL the shots on a flash drive. I've almost dreaded going through them. Lots of people want copies for Christmas presents and I am having terrible trouble picking. I could stick to these, because they're awesome, but there are so many more good ones too, that for whatever reason didn't strike their fancy.
She is going to perform in five showcases at Shine. Photography, On Camera, Kids' Runway, Group Improv, and TV Presenter. That list is pretty different from what we had tentatively planned before we went. She had zero desire to do any kind of improv, and thought she might do cold read and scene read. When we got there she practiced scene read and didn't like it, and decided not to do either one of the acting reads. And even though I made props for her original commercial, that didn't go over well either so we scrapped it also.
She's not old enough to do individual improv, and we thought she had to be ten to do group. An eleven year old boy really wanted to practice, so they asked if she'd get up in a group just to help him practice even though she didn't plan to do it. The four of them totally rocked it. After she got done, the acting coach called her over and asked why on earth she wasn't planning to do group improv, because she's good at it and SHOULD. We checked the rules and you have to be nine, not ten. She was super encouraged by Chey telling her she did so well, so she signed up for it. And she was told she was the best kid all day at TV presenter. She loves the teleprompting practice we do. She's getting pretty great at it, actually. This is the practice they did- they filmed in the other room and then we got to watch on the screen afterwards. I think at Shine we'll watch live, but it'll be the same way, where she is alone in the filming room and her performance is projected to the audience.
It's kind of hard to see and hear. My phone won't zoom while it's taking video.
This is her runway practice. Doesn't she look good? She has such a fun walk. You can tell she's enjoying herself. It makes me laugh when there are people walking the runway who are primarily singers and HATE the idea of modeling. It's obvious and painful. But AMTC wants rounded performers and tries to ready them for everything. Anyway this is definitely her favorite. Then for Photography, they'll show two of those pictures up on the big screen over her while she walks the runway and does her slate. "Gillian P, nine years old, and one interesting thing you should know about me is that I'm the catcher on my softball team."
I was extra super proud of myself because I chose all the outfits she wore all day, and not once did she get called out for wardrobe questions. Ms Philipa loved her socks, liked all the looks, and all her clothes were approved. Score one for mama paying attention, because I was way sweating the fact that her outfits weren't chosen at photo shoot like they should have been.
Oh, and sweet friend Emma got her shots back too, of course. She's the one who owns the pink and navy shirts G is wearing in her photo look, and these are G's pink shoes here. Don't know where they came up with the umbrella, but I LOVE this shot. So fun.
So that's it! We don't have any more official practices or workshops or anything until it's real. She's practicing her monologue and her model stance and making sure her behavior is good. It's almost here!!
