This is my space to share my quest to collect as many broken branches as I can in my fractured family tree which resembles a bramble bush more then a proper tree.As I go forward in this blogging journey I hope to share how I have searched far & wide for family - with no regard for where they come from or if I should really want them. You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
For the next several weeks I will post a photo and a brief description.
This new style of posting is due to CMC Arthroplasty surgery on my left thumb.
I will continue with this style until my thumb has sufficiently recovered.
~
In 2004 our oldest found an ad in the newspaper for Model & Talent Search.
He really wanted to go.
I had reservations about the field of acting, and was reluctant to take him.
Additionally I thought it was scammy.
Chris convinced me we needed to support our child in what they wanted to do reminding me he had wanted to be a pilot as a child and his family didn't support him.
He also told me that nothing would come of it because it was scammy, but our child would know we supported him.
The only concern Chris had was the event was during CSI, and he would be missing the episode (this was pre-pvrs so he really did miss that episode).
We went off to that convention with no expectations beyond enjoying a family visit in the city with fantastic hotel discounts.
Our oldest left that convention signed to an agent.
In the weeks after he received 3 callbacks he didn't attend due to already being represented by an agency.
Turns out belief that nothing would come of this venture was mistaken, and now we were committed to supporting however we could.
This led to 3 years of multiple trips a week into Vancouver for auditions where he memorized pages of script to compete with others.
He decided he wanted to have more time for school & friends so left the acting business.
He joined a local youth theatre group where he performed in many productions.
AND continued to receive random cheques in the mail years later.
Head Shot (1 of 4 different ones used that year)
He has a page on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), and was an apprentice with The Union of British Columbia Performers (UBCP/ACTRA).
Not all of his projects are listed on IMDB.
There was this short filming about bullying he was cast as the popular boy who bullied the not so popular boys.
back row right in the classroom scene
On set I had to be within sight & sound of our son due to his age. As I watched all the goings on I realized 'this is where all those school films come from".
He was also a model for an author's illustrations for a fantasy adventure children's novel.
The short film, Shadows, below he was a voice actor in.
His younger brother Child Voice 2.
He wasn't an actor, but the the Director heard him talk while we were waiting for his brother and asked him to join his film.
In another project our son played a child soldier named Daniel in a project with with Matilda Aslizadeh. The film was called Hero of Our Time
Matilda Aslizadeh explained the film:
"Hero of Our Time” (2009), tells the story of a child soldier in a fictional and unmentioned country. In it, the fictional sequences are combined with video games, a miniature model city, an operatic aria, documentary images from the internet, and footage of the location where the fictional sequences were shot, which happens to be the site of a residential school in Mission BC. This varied and layered approach attempts to turn the well-meaning documentary about unspeakable violence happening somewhere else in the “third-world” on its head."1
During our son's emotional death scene I inhaled a mosquito.
The mosquitos were so bad that day. The actors were being bitten so many times that day because crew members had to stop waving them off while the cameras were running.
If memory serves correctly Reace had more than 50 bites that day.
BUT back to my inhaled mosquito ... there are times over the past many years I have seriously pondered what exactly that mosquito is doing in my lungs.
I hope when he thinks about his acting years he remembers the fun & that his parents supported him in pursuing his dreams.
Our oldest had a fan club that included his parents!!!
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***
