When you live overseas and especially a place like India, you never know what can happen on any given day. For example, when you meet a director of a film company that does advertising for local businesses and he asks you to do some work with him and you suddenly find yourself acting as an agent for all the foreigners you know in the city. Not really...but sort of :) So my coworker happened to meet this director and agreed to act in one of his commercials for a local hospital and then shortly after that, I met a French tourist that was in India for a month working on short documentary films and she was also excited to spend a few days on set with this production company. Now, I have very little knowledge of film or commercial making so it was sort of a fun new hobby to explore for my last month in India. However, one thing I learned along the way was that it takes forever to get that "one perfect shot" and that there's a lot of waiting around while the scene is set.
The most fun I had was one day when I tagged along while a scene was being shot in an old traditional home and there were a bunch of child actors on set. They had little to do for most of the day and they all spoke some English so I sat outside playing and chatting with them. They were the most adorable children and it was a treat for me as most Indian children I interacted with seemed a bit fearful of the strange foreigner.
As I continued to get to know the director and his team of staff, I was eventually asked to do some voice over work on a couple parts of the advertising pieces. I had never done anything like that but agreed to try. We spent a few hours in a small studio one day and I had about 8 different lines to deliver. It was much harder than you think actually. I thought I was saying the lines perfectly fine but the director wanted more emotion, or more dramatic pausing or louder or with more sorrow or laughter in the tone. I had a hard time not cracking up as the script was "cheesy" by American standards but would be well received by a Bollywood loving Indian audience. lol Just as a small taste of what's to come...here's one of my lines. "Thank you Baby Memorial Hospital for helping me to fly over stones and obstacles that challenged my daily life." hahaha
As soon as I get the finished result, I'll be sure to post the link. Can't wait to add this new skill to my resume! I have now been in the newspaper, a documentary, a TV program and a commercial this year which I find hilarious but love when new experiences drop into my lap. Here are some pictures from my time at the set and the studio. :)
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