Dress Rehearsal

Okay!  Clap hands briskly and settle in for the long summary!  So much to see and so little time!

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:

 This is the commercial headshot- the one that will be on the wall in the AMTC lobby next to all the other big success stories.  :)  Maybe.  At the very least it will be in the program book for Shine.

 I love this one so much I have no words.

 Full-length, playful, etc.

I like this one too.

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.

 I never really noticed that she has one dimple like my mom.

 This whole series is the one they took outside in the gazebo, in the pouring rain.  The light is a little funny in some of them, but overall I really like the effect.

 I like that this one shows off her booboo knee.  Still a real girl under all the artistry.

And although it's weird, this one reminds me of meerkats, the way they stand up all alert.  She loves those critters so I think it's okay to say.

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!!

Launch, Take Two, Day One

This past weekend we got to go to another launch weekend.  I'm so blessed that we live so close to an AMTC office.  Two more whirlwind days of training and learning and practicing, and now we've got some time off from classes.  Dress rehearsal is November 17 and we'll finalize everything then, and then December 31 we leave!  It's kinda surreal that it's getting so close after all the work we've been doing. 

Saturday we had a session with Jenn Gotzon, who was amazing.  We learned a lot of really good tips both for AMTC and for film and TV audtitions out in the real world.  She's so encouraging and always finds really positive things to say about what Gilly's doing, while at the same time telling you in clear terms how to get better.  I really liked her a lot. 

Session two was modeling- best tip David gave us was about professionalism.  "walk in and out with confidence no matter WHAT happens in between those two times.  Agents are looking for reasons you  might be difficult to work with, so don't give them any!"  They don't care as much if you mess up- what matters is how you deal with it.  Pick it up and keep going and finish.  Great advice for all situations!

The other thing he said was that for photo shoot, you should go home with specific outfits chosen for showcases.  Oh.  Fail.  I asked specifically and I didn't feel like I could repeat myself more without being a pushy stage mom.  I'm kind of annoyed about that, because they made me feel like it was no big deal and now it's like, no.  That's on you, you should have known better and now it's your fault that you don't have outfits picked.  The good thing is that we have dress rehearsal next month and we're supposed to bring outfits for every showcase and change into them, so if we pick ones that don't work, I'm certain they will let us know.

I really, REALLY loved the networking sessions this time.  Our team leader gave us some practical tips for Shine that are going to be super useful.  Writing them down for E & L, our roommates.  :)  It costs $5 each way to take a taxi to the grocery store, so we can get a week's worth of perishables and stuff for only the $10 extra in transportation fees.  There's a fridge and a coffeepot in our room, and downstairs in the coffeeshop there's a community microwave that we can use if we're willing to wait if necessary.  They recommend packing a whole suitcase of food if needed- instant oatmeal, ramen, mac and cheese, stuff like that so we can use the hot water from the coffee pot, and then protein bars and whatever else.  She said a cheeseburger in the hotel restaurant is $17, so if you're worried about paying for extra baggage fees, just weigh that one fee against how much those meals would cost if we had to buy them onsite.

Also buy blister blocker and bandaids, and don't wear new shoes that might be uncomfortable.  We'll be on our feet a lot. 

And there was tons of good info about how to write a resume and how to present and print and bring it. 

One of the acting coaches said something that really resonated with me.  She was talking about being a vessel used by God, and how we tend to think that means we have to be Noah or Joshua or Moses- one of the big guys.  She said, "yeah, but think about how it feels to be the bush.  Everybody remembers Moses, but that bush had the remnants of having been used mightily by God for a short time, to further Moses along on God's mission.  If you're the bush, your flame burns brightly for a short season, but you have the memories your entire life and you're just as important."

That made me teary.  

Here's some scene read practice with some good stage blocking advice from Andrea.  I like that G is learning so many different facets of acting.

More about day two later.

Photo Shoot

We're here right now!  It's very exciting. I'm taking lots of pictures but I'm not sure if I can upload them from here.  We brought a crazy amount of clothes and the team has been picking them over and choosing her first outfit. She just got back from hair and makeup and now we are waiting for the photographer to be ready for us. We sat waiting for two and a half hours before it was our turn with the style team. G did really well just reading books and hanging out.

I think the big holdup right now is the fact that it's pouring rain. Her first location is the gazebo and the photos there are taking longer and she has to be escorted over there by umbrella. But hey!  She made it! And now I'm being the appropriate fade into the background mom that I'm supposed to be. I can't wait to see these pictures.

Sunday Night:
So I tried to real-time it, but it's a pain to type on the phone and there was so much going on that it was really hard to keep up!  Plus I knew I'd want to upload pictures and all that jazz as well.

Anyway.  Back to the beginning!  We hit a consignment sale last week and scored 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of black pants, 3 skirts, 11 shirts, 6 sweaters, 7 dresses, and a pair of pajamas with slippers, all for $80.  I was quite pleased with that, and it made me feel a lot better about having enough choices for them to pick from.  I've been getting emails on updated packing lists that were making me nervous and kind of contradicted what the website said in terms of what colors were okay, whether or not to bring patterns, what kind of accessories, all that.  With the new clothes I felt better, and then we stopped at Target on the way to the shoot and got four new pairs of shoes off the clearance racks, for a total of under $20 for all of them.  (The biggest problem I have now is working all these new clothes into the tiny closet she shares with her brother, when she already was taking up the lion's share of it.)

Here we are upon arrival, in our assigned row, with all the clothes we brought laid out for inspection:

We got there at 11:15, 15 minutes early as always, and we waited until about 1:40.  We talked and ate and she read for awhile and colored for awhile and walked around and looked at everyone else's clothes and talked to them.  It went pretty fast, but at the same time it was a really long wait, if that makes any sense.  I was glad I packed a LOT of snacks and a LOT of books plus the iPad.

Finally, our turn!  Here is Maegan Bruce from the style team starting to go over all our stuff.  I didn't get a picture of the first outfit she had Gilly try on, but it was those purple jeans in her lap, plus the aqua t-shirt that's hanging over the back of the chair, with the hot pink ballerina flats on the floor.  Um.  Okay.  I would never in a million years have thought those colors all went together, but G just smiled and said yes Ms Maegan and went off to the bathroom to change.  So proud.  There's a LOT of stuff in the modules about how you don't know fashion trends but the team does, and how your job is to have a positive attitude and say yes ma'am and LOVE anything they ask you to wear.  She did.  I was glad.  I was also glad she had her change out of that outfit.  Not my favorite.

Outfit possibility #2, untucking the shirt, tucking the shirt, rolling the sweater sleeves, checking layer lengths... the pink shoes again...

Or maybe with the black shoes instead...

She wore that for awhile and I thought they were set on it, but then she had Bryson come over and they decided that shade of purple wasn't perfect.  They rifled through our selection of shirts and then decided that one of Emma's shirts was better.  Emma was the girl in the row behind us.  No matter.  Here's G in not one, but two of Emma's shirts.

I think I got the pictures out of order.  Looks like she just got back from hair and makeup in this one.  It's only chapstick, a bit of mascara, and some eyebrow gel.  So pretty though!

Trying it out with the black shoes again

And then the gray shoes, which is where we settled.  This is the outfit she ended up in for the first look.  And yes, Look One on the packing list says it should be black, gray, and denim.  Smile and say yes!  I love pink!  I love that I bought all those black and gray shirts we're not using!  She's not even wearing her own shirt at all!

And the hot pink ballerina flats?  Emma wore those for her shoot.  At least it was a fair trade.  :)

She went off to the gazebo in the downpour and from what I could see peeking through the windows, they had all kinds of cool poses and fun stuff going on.  I am dying to see how they turned out.

When she got back they started looking for her second shot outfit.  They had her in a dark blue top for awhile and then went with the aqua instead.  She's still got on the same skirt and shoes because this is for headshots so it didn't matter what was on the bottom half.  Then back to hair and makeup.  It took a lot longer this time and I was beginning to wonder what was going on when she came out.  Oh my.

That is my nine year old child.  I texted her dad this picture and then said, "I want everyone to lock up their sons."  His reply was "Wow.  Worried."

And she still doesn't have much makeup on at all.  Something shiny on the lips, not even any color added, and a little blush.  I don't know if I'm going to have to recreate that hair for Shine but it's super intimidating if I do.  I asked her what they used and she said, "um... not the one that looks like a stapler.  The fatter one."  Which made me fall down laughing.  Can you tell I don't own a flatiron?  She has no frame of reference for the word.  I do have a curling iron somewhere.  I hope it's fat enough.

So then she got her headshots taken in a different room with a different photographer, just for a varied experience, and after that we did showcase outfits.  I kind of wanted more specific directions than we got.  It was sort of, oh, acting showcases are easy, just wear something like this or this or this, with some good denim.  I wanted to be able to pick Exact Outfits That I Could Take Pictures Of And Know For Sure I Was Doing It Right.  But I think it will be okay.  I have a brain, and I watched the kinds of things they were putting together and the colors they liked.  At least they didn't say that what I have doesn't work.  They did tell some other people no, this isn't so great, you should go buy x or y.

But it's done!!  I'm ridiculously excited to see the pictures.  We'll get a flash drive with all the shots when we go to dress rehearsal in November, and they will pick the ones that they're going to use for promo and all that.  So much fun!!

TV Presenter

So here's the scoop on the TV presenter (AKA teleprompter) showcase.  She'll be given a script and have ten minutes to look it over and get familiar with it.  Then it will show up on the teleprompter, which will be in a small room with a camera right behind it, and her performance will be broadcast into the audience room on a big screen.  So the ten minutes should alleviate some of the "is it a question or a statement" and the "I can't pronounce that word" kind of problem.  I don't get to go in there with her for any of these- I'll just be sitting in the audience and it's all her.  Fun but scary.

There's a website called Cue Prompter where you can cut and paste scripts and it will roll it for practice, so that's what we're doing here.  There's a list of approved scripts on the AMTC site that we put in there.

So here's her first practice, after setting the timer for ten minutes and looking over the script.  We're working on stage presence next, as there is far much too arm flailing going on.  Also she needs to be looking into the camera more and work on her timing, since there are times when you can tell she's read too fast and is waiting for the next line to scroll up.  But doesn't it look FUN?  She thinks it would be cool to host the Cupcake Wars.  :)

Launch Weekend! Part 1

We just finished our first Launch weekend and we are wiped out!  It was from 10-7 on Saturday and 1-7 on Saturday, also throwing homework and church in between there too.  SO much to learn and do!  I feel like I've got about eight separate topics I want to write about now, so I'll just jump in and stop when it gets too long.

So first of all, there are a lot of different showcases you can sign up to perform at Shine.  The first three you choose are included, and then each additional one is $75.  We started out thinking well good grief, we're paying quite a bit as it is, and she's young and inexperienced, so three will be plenty.  She'll do runway and photography since that's her focus, and then on-camera for acting.  Done.

Now that she's seen and gotten to practice all of them, she also is really interested in, and pretty good at, scene read, cold read, product endorsement, and tv presenter.  And you know really, this is why we're going.  She feels called to do this, and it only makes sense to get her out in view of the VIPs as much as possible.  What's the point of doing the minimum if we're going to be there a week?  So now we're looking at doing six or seven showcases instead of three, which means more practice work and also more wardrobe.  I need to do several more shopping excursions to get the proper pieces before photo shoot.

Photo shoot is scheduled!!  It will be September 29.  That means I have only three weeks to get everything bought and ready.  Our team leader says it's not at all uncommon to bring two or even three suitcases to the shoot.  Then you lay out all your shoes in a row, all the shirts and jeans and pants and skirts.... and they go through all your stuff and mix and match and layer and tell you what to wear for the shoot, but also for every showcase you're planning to sign up for, so that you're dressed properly for the week.  I can take pictures of each outfit they plan for us and just pack according to that.  So I'm bringing as many things as I can possibly find that I think maybe might work.

And now my girl needs the computer to do teleprompting practice.  She's kicking me off.  :)  So more later.

Fabulous Fundraising Opportunity!

My friend Gwen sells 31.  Have you seen 31 bags?  I'm in love with them.  It's a home party business and they have tons of different purses and tote bags and baskets.  And you can monogram or personalize them.  Have I mentioned I love them?

So.  I'm hosting a 31 party, and Gwen offered to let me do it as a fundraiser for G's AMTC expenses.  So she is keeping all the free bags and hostess benefits I would ordinarily get from having this party, and I am getting the cash she would normally earn.  It's an amazing trade!! 

The party is at my place on September 22 at 2pm and I'd love to have you!  Bring a friend!  Eat yummy food and win prizes and shop like a fiend!  Or if you're far away or busy that day, please go through the online catalog and see if anything jumps out at you.  It's great gift stuff too. 

Order through this site so G gets credit!

I hope to update the ticker with lots of new funds!  :)  And by the way, I'm only putting extra money that was specifically marked for AMTC on that site.  I'm not including all the buckling down and extra work we've been doing.  We've made four payments already that total a lot more than that amount pictured.  YAY TEAM.

Paw Paw

My husband's father passed away in May of 2006, a few months before Gilly turned three.  She doesn't really remember him now, although we show her lots of pictures and tell her as many stories as we can.  Every now and then she'll have a vague memory of playing with him, but for the most part her memories come in the form of the anecdotes she's heard and the snapshots we show her.  It makes me sad.

 I wanted more of this.

And definitely more of this.

 And good grief, the man put on bunny ears for his baby girl.  More of this.  Look at her cheesy face.  She just ate him up.  Loved him so much.

We got a check from Gigi today to help with Shine.  Paw Paw had some specialized shoes still in the closet that she was able to sell and wanted Gilly to know that her Paw Paw loves her and would be so proud of her and would want to help. 

I cry while I type.  We miss him.  I'm so glad that she's got one more concrete thing to remember him by, since she didn't have time to make very many memories.  I think I'm going to use part of the money on the packing list, so that when she puts on those special shoes or that favorite sweater, she can think of Paw Paw.