Lights, Camera.....Action

Yesterday, Bill, the boys, and I headed to the Chedun Film Studio, just outside of downtown Shanghai. Over the weekend, we were offered the opportunity to be western extras in a movie, and I thought it would be a fun experience for the kids. We portrayed a British family in the 1890's, on holiday in Yokohama, Japan. 

The day started at the insane hour of 3:00am. Yuan-Yuan arrived at 3:30am to watch Carleigh for the day, and Mr. Tao arrived at 3:45am. Once at the studio we were "fitted" for costumes. I use this term loosely, as this process was much like what I would do with my kids while out shopping. "Turn around, honey. Let me put this up to your back."  "Try on these shoes. They're too big? Can you walk in them? Okay, they're fine, you'll grow into them." Of course, we were dressed in clothing which was appropriate for the time period, and unfortunately for the boys, this consisted of ruffled shirts (about a year ago, Carleigh was calling Brennan a new nickname;"Ruffles." She must have known that this was in his future.)

After putting our costumes on, over our street clothes (good thing it was a cool day), we were sent to "makeup." This consisted of Ethan's hair being slicked back with mousse and hairspray, much to his distaste. Bill, Brennan, and I were given hats, and I was the lucky recipient of bright red lipstick and nails, and I mean BRIGHT red. When completely costumed, Bill looked dashing, Brennan looked adorable, Ethan looked like a pre-teen who would rather be shot, than be seen by a friend, and I looked completely hideous.

Once filming began, we were put into key positions and told to act as if we were choosing a restaurant, walking down the street, watching a fight, etc. The day consisted of lots of sitting around, a really bad Chinese breakfast and lunch, nothing to drink but water, and one instant coffee packet (with nothing to stir it with), bathrooms with no toilet paper or soap, and a lot of blowing dirt from the streets on the set. From what Bill tells me from his experiences in the past, this is nothing like how they do it the the states, but from our experiences in China; par for the course.

Brennan, as usual attracted a lot of attention. His gregarious personality is always a hit here, and at one point he had a line of the men and women of "makeup", waiting to have their picture taken with him. The hat and ruffled shirt made him look especially adorable, which didn't help his chances of survival when it came to the Chinese camera, as he was targeted for photos all day. They also liked to watch him play his game system, and were often looking over his shoulder. 

It was a long day, and we didn't arrive home until 7:00pm. I made sure the kids took showers and ate, then took a shower myself, and went to bed. It was 8:26pm. 

It was an experience, and I can't really say it was "fun," but I can say it was "interesting."I don't think it is something we will do again, but I am glad we did it.