My Awesome Experience on a Food Lion Commercial!

 Now this blog will probably not top my last blog about the Jungle Book, but nonetheless this job was still pretty cool. The reason why this job was super cool was because they brought a real living lion onto the set! It was super cool and scary! Another cool thing about this was that it was a two-day shoot and they were only a half of a day long. The location of the shoot was at a school somewhere in downtown LA. The campus was pretty nice and I'm positively sure I had filmed there before. But anyway, the scenes I did were actually pretty fun and tasty. I got to sit in a cafeteria and eat real delicious food. I also sat at a table right in front of the camera. I don't know if you can see me or not because things change in an instant in this industry so all you can really do is cross your fingers and hope your scene is still in there. They also said that the commercial was going to air in the east coast so I haven't seen it on TV.  But, I got to take really cool pictures of the lion! When they were going to bring the lion on the set, they locked everybody up (especially the kids) in classrooms and told everybody to be absolutely still and quiet. It was about a 20 minute preparation of getting everybody in a safe locked area out of the lion's sight. The crew would communicate via walkie-talkie "Lion coming to set."  His wrangler was with him the whole time feeding him pieces of meat along the way.  We would all watch through the windows. When the lion wasn't on set, he was outside in this giant metal cage where it slept most of the time. He was so beautiful! It was awesome! After the lion's scene was done and I was back on set, my mom walked over to the lion cage and talked with the trainer for a little bit. It turned out that he had two other lions at home along with many other animals. Most of their animal's especially the lions worked quite often. My mom got to get pretty close to the cage and take pictures while it was sleeping. Overall that was a pretty cool day and it was really cool being on a set with a real life lion!

All these photos are of the lion being walked to set by the wrangler.

These two bottom pictures are of the lion in it's cage.

My Awesome Experience on Jungle Book!

My experience on Jon Favreau's Jungle Book Disney movie was incredibly awesome!!!  It was truly one of the coolest jobs I have ever done.  I know I say that a lot but I truly mean it.  My mom submitted a picture of me for this job.  The casting company posting the job contacted my mom and asked her to send another picture of me in my swimming trunks.  This was to see if I had the body shape of Mowgli.  We didn't hear back from them again for some time so my mom and I just assumed I didn't get the job.  Thankfully, we were wrong.  They contacted us to see if if I was available for an interview on a Thursday.  My mom said "yes" and the next day we headed to LA Center Studios in downtown LA.  This was the first time I had seen an entire soundstage in blue screen  When we walked in, Neel Sethi (AKA Mowgli) was in the middle of a scene.  Jon Favreau, the director of this film, was telling Neel little notes between takes over a microphone.  Jon Favreau was joking around with Neel a lot and made little heart noises over the microphone to be funny.  My mom tried to contain her laughter.  We sat with the puppeteers and watched Neel in action.  He was amazing!  He had so much energy and acted perfectly even though he was talking to a hand puppet or sometimes a blue wall.  Later, the PA introduced us to the set teacher Lois.  We recognized one another immediately but weren't sure from where.  We all hugged.  We remember her being super sweet and funny.  She was one of the best set teachers we'd ever had the pleasure of meeting.  Eventually through conversations, we all realized we met on the movie "Bad Words."  My mom and I were so excited when I was asked to work the following day as a stand-in for Mowgli.  On Friday, I met so many different people from the actor, to the directors, producers, puppeteers, special effects crew, simul cam crew, stunt crew, electrical and grip crew.  Even though I came during the last week of filming, everyone was very nice, warm and welcoming.  Another perk was that I ate like a king. Everything was delicious!  I had lobster with filet mignon one day.  Every hour there would be new fresh snacks at crafty.  Another day, we had an ice cream truck and a taco truck on the lot.  Jon Favreau is a real foody and made sure his entire team was fed well.  He really set the tone for a super friendly and fun environment.  He would actually DJ between takes.  I also had so much fun with all three Mowglis!  They were nice, witty, and really fun.  Every day after lunch, Neel or Seth (Neel's main body double/stand in) would play football with Travis (stunt guy) and some of the crew.  Seth's nickname was Nowgli which stands for not Mowgli.  They made me feel like a part of the team.  Mateo's (Neel's second body double/stand in) nickname was Matowgli which was a combination of Mateo and Mowgli.  They gave me the nickname Lowgli which stands for late Mowgli.  Mateo and I weren't really that good at football but we still played.  We would sometimes just hang out and play video games which was cool.  We became really close friends on set and stuck together.  Jungle Book had two sound stages on the lot.  While Neel was filming in one, the doubles/stand ins would be in the second soundstage for the setup of the next scene for Neel.  At the end of everyday, I would get a call to come to set the following day.  I was super excited!  I ended up working for six days total.  The last day, they said I could stay for the wrap party,  It was so amazing!  I didn't expect anything.  I ended up getting t-shirts from the different crew teams, hats, a Jungle Book poster signed by Neel, and a commemorative Jungle Book coin from Jon Favreau.  They had champagne for the adults and they did toasts.  Everyone hugged and it was super emotional.  All these people had worked together for the better part of a year.  Jon Favreau DJ'd and the Mowglis did a song and dance.  They gave me a line at the end of their song which was totally unexpected but super cool!  I've never had the opportunity to be a part of something so huge.  I felt so lucky and blessed!  I was only called to set to stand in a couple of times during the week I worked.  I don't think I was really needed but they kept inviting me back.  I'm not complaining because this experience was incredible.  I learned so much from different people including an Actress named Sara who was so sweet and gave me tips for future jobs.  Since the job, I go to Travis's gym called JAM for parkour.  He is a really cool and nice guy.  Just a week ago, Seth and I got called to the same job Jane the Virgin.  The PA MC from Jungle Book works this set so we saw her too.  It was so great to Seth, his dad Kirk and MC.  They all got invited to the crew the Jungle Book premiere in Hollywood.  They said the movie was great!  My mom took my siblings and I to the movie on Thursday.  It is definitely a must see!!

Me on the set with Sean (Stunt Coordinator) standing in for Neel while the cameras reset.  This isn't the completed CGI effect.  Sean was incredibly nice.  I'm sad to say I just came to find out that he recently passed away. 

From left to right: Mateo (Matowgli), Neel Sethi (Mowgli), Seth (Nowgli), and me (Lowgli).

All three Mowglis dancing at the wrap party with Jon Favreau DJing in the backround.

Sarah and I on the last day of the Jungle Book.

Me with a super nice PA at the wrap party. 

A picture of the wrap party inside the main soundstage for Jungle Book.

This is a picture of Allan (puppeteer) and I. 

This is the a picture of me and Sean without all the  cool CGI effects.

Lois and I at the wrap party.

Sarah being funny while giving me a big hug at the wrap party.

A picture of all four Mowglis and the stunt guys. The stunt guys from left to right: Travis, Curtis, and Sean.

The front side of the commemorative coin that Jon Favreau gave everyone on set.

The backside of the commemorative coin.

My Awesome Experience on House M.D.!

The TV show House was one of the earliest jobs I worked on.  House M.D. is a medical show similar to Grey's Anatomy.  It ended in 2012.  It was a pretty popular show.  It still plays in syndication.  It was really cool filming on that set.  It was the final season so that made it way cooler. The episode title was "Love is Blind".  Trust me when I say this...it took forever to find out the name of the episode.  On set, I actually got to meet Hugh Laurie many times.  He was super nice so the experience even more enjoyable. In fact, he was so nice that he actually let kids crawl all over him...literally!  They were climbing all over him like a jungle gym hanging from his neck and arm and he was totally cool with it.  The scene I did was super cool.  They lined up all the kids to see who they wanted to feature.  Luckily, they chose me!  I had to pretend to draw a sketch of House in Africa helping people.  Instead, I my character drew Transformers.  As we turned in our pictures, he gave us money for our hard work.  When I turned in my drawing, he picked it up and got angry.  He abruptly gave it back to me and said "Hey, no Transformer drawings Slick!"  He then took my dollar back.  The camera turned on my face to see my disappointment.  House was having the kids do this because he was lying to his mom.  It was really cool being featured.  It was even better when my grandparents saw me on TV and showed me the scene.  They were so excited and showed friends and family.  It also wasn't a bad work day because I got to go to work in my favorite (at the time) T-Rex pajamas.  How cool is that!  After that scene, we just had to draw while House was talking.  Pretty easy work day! My mom also had fun too.  Hugh Laurie went to the holding area and introduced himself to all the moms.  I had so much fun on this job.  It's a shame the show's over because I would've liked to have been on it again.                                                                      

^- Me after House takes away my dollar and tells that I drew the wrong picture. 

The transformer picture that my character drew.>

 A wider image of me turning my drawing into House. -v

                                                                               

       
 A more zoomed in picture of me turning my drawing into House. ->

My Awesome Experience on a UPS Commercial!

The time I was on a UPS commercial was really fun but pretty cold. When I got called for the job, they said we needed soccer gear.  The night before, my mom had to rush out to buy me soccer cleats and shin guards.  The soccer cleats were so cool.  They were silver with a cool Nike swish.  We got to set super early in the morning.  I went straight to wardrobe.  They dressed me up in a yellow soccer jersey.  There were two soccer teams.  I looked like a professional soccer player.  The catch was that instead of playing in the nice, bright and sunny day, they turned on a rain machine over and over during retakes.  Let me just say, it was freezing outside and we had nothing except for a thin jerseys that was designed for the wind to get in and a pair thin small shorts. They made it rain by putting theses giant sprinklers on top of this one huge tall black crane.  It sprayed our half of the field. The water was really cold and came down in big droplets so it actually hurt when it fell down. We ended up getting so cold that they had to set up heaters for us when they were reseting and moving cameras for shots from different angles. We did many takes for the same scene.  Trust me this wasn't like a quick thing.  It took about two hours in the rain to do the rain scenes. Some kids got so cold that they couldn't even move. Now this may sound a little unpleasant and uncomfortable.  But, I actually did have fun when I got over the initial shock of the rain. Some of the kids that were getting really wet were saying really funny stuff that made me laugh.  Plus, I new a lot of the kids there so I got to hang out with them and play soccer with them which was really cool. The field we were playing on was actually pretty nice and popular.  A lot of people stopped by our set and watched us filming which made us feel really special.  In between those scenes, we made our way over to the catering for breakfast. I was so busy playing and focusing on the rain that I didn't even realize how hungry I was. I ate like a wolf and just gorged down an omelete with other food. My mom was pretty surprised because I don't usually eat much. Another scene we did was where I was with a group of kids eating cake behind a car while a kid got his present delivered from UPS to his mom. It was fun. I got to talk to some really funny kids while eating cake and drinking punch. That scene didn't take to long to finish which was nice. But the next scene surprised us entirely. They told us it was going to be a fun and exciting one. When we got there we saw a school bus under the same dark crane that held the sprinkler earlier this morning. They told us we were going to run through the rain and onto the bus. A lot of the boys groaned including me because some of us were still drying off from this morning and some of us had finally dried off. It was hard to get used to the rain at first after it had been a while but we got through it. But at the time we were filming that scene it started to get really breezy. It was a long line of us getting on the bus so we ended spending a lot of time in the rain. One kid got so cold that he almost couldn't get up the stairs. The kid behind me was freezing.  So he decided to pick up the kid and run up the stairs with him in his arms. It was super funny but I also was grateful because I was getting pretty cold out there. We got through the scene pretty quick which was really great.  Once we finished this scene, they said we were wrapped. So I said bye to all the people that I met and already knew and my mom and I hit the road (after I had a few snacks of course).

 (Me during a soccer match during the  commercial)-^

<-(A wider image of the picture above this one)




(Me in the rain scene next to the person in the number four jersey. I'm the middle person of the yellow jerseys)-v