OM Shoot

I mentioned in my last post that I have been somewhat busy lately. With good and interesting things. Two weeks ago I did this shoot for an Old Mutual ‘in-house’ ad. I’ve never done anything like this before, but it was so much fun and I got to meet some awesome people. Instead of rambling about it I have decided to write two lists. Because lists are the latest thing, ‘all the cool kids are doing it’ and because my head is so full of information, I think it could otherwise end up being an essay.

I’m not sure if I am allowed to share these photos, but I’ll try my luck.

The venue

Breakfast

I love this pic

Lunch break

Lunch

The 'view'

The Models

Which picture to choose!?

I got to play this awesome selmer for the day. Thanks Jade! <3

Things I liked about the shoot:

·         The crew were relaxed and didn’t make me feel stupid or insecure (especially for not being ‘model-like’,  I was a tad worried about that)

·         There was breakfast and lunch (very important)

·         I met some other musicians

·         I was one of the two girls who can actually play the saxophone that we were miming, so by the end of the day I had picked up most of the notes and did not feel like such a farce. The other two girls had never held an instrument before in their lives and we had to teach them how to be convincing. I realised that it’s actually more difficult than it looks to pretend you are playing an instrument if you have no concept of how the thing works. This made me realise how much I take it for granted that I have and can play instruments. I’m always looking at those people who are better than me and comparing myself, but in reality, that is quite a minority of people in the world.

·         I felt like I was in a movie scene from the 1920’s. I think that was the whole idea, but it really felt like it, especially with the smoke machine.

Things I did not like about the shoot:

·         Someone stole my lunch (I pre-ordered chicken curry and some plumb ordered crusty fish and decided to grab my curry instead, but I refused to eat the crusty fish and was finally dished out my delicious curry that I had to down really quickly)

·         No one did make-up for us and they embarrassed one of the other girls because she did not have make-up on – low budget I guess? (no one told us we would have to do our own make-up)

·         They ran WAY over time (I know it was to be expected, but I had to cancel a student at the last minute and I felt like a paw-paw and bad business woman – lesson learnt)

·         We had to mix and match each other’s clothing and so I looked weird

·         I felt really bad miming over someone else’s awesome pre-recorded solo (especially because I know who the guy is and feel it would have made so much more sense having him mime his own solo, but I think they wanted women?)

·         We used the wrong instruments to mime over a certain part and it felt soooo very odd

Even though there is one more thing in the negative list, it was overall a very positive experience and I’m so glad I did it. I would certainly do it again, but not every day. Because it had to be done all in one day, we did not have to sit around much, and I’m pretty sure that that is quite a rare thing. Being in the movie/film industry must be quite hectic.