Making the Movie Part 2

Important Note: Please read yesterday’s entry, entitled “Making the Movie Part 1“, before delving into this one. It should go a long way in explaining what’s been happening with the ALS Boy crew lately.

All caught up? Cool. Read on.

Day One of Filming (continued)

5:00 PM, Backyard. Fehmeen arrives home from school just in time for her close-up. Alaa directs us to walk hand in hand around our backyard. We comply with his request in our new tandem walking technique: A face to face and arms distance apart method we refer to as ‘The Seventh Grade Dance’. Fehmeen and I even manage to steal an eskimo kiss on film while the director is inside the house. Sorry, Alaa.

6:15 PM, Dining Room. The crew captures the family sitting around the table enjoying a delicious penne pasta and salad dinner. Emma ends up wearing half as much red sauce on her face as she actually gets in her mouth.

7:00 PM, Living Room. Alaa decides that he wants to film Fehmeen and I playing with Emma. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Emma’s cuteness and subsequent filmability peaks sometime in the middle of the guys’ heated conversation about f-stops and light meter readings. The Bug does her best to cowgirl up but it is hard to be adorable when you’re wearing a pair of cranky pants.

Day 2 of Filming

9:00 AM, Stanford University, Computer Lab. My valet and I meet the fellas in a dimly lit sub-basement room on campus in order to film me typing on a keyboard while sitting in front of an enormous wall-sized projection of my blog. It was beyond cool looking. At one point during the morning when they were filming something on the screen and I noticed that the silhouette of my head was in the frame, I discovered that I could make my ears move up and down. Look for that little easter egg in the finished product.

11:45 AM, Chili’s Restaurant. Lunch Break. I am pleased to report that my Italian man-servant and I did not witness any vomiting children during the course of our meal.

2:00 PM, Parking Lot, Menlo Park. Alaa, David, and Anthony attach the camera to a four three-wheeled aparatus to better film me as I wheel around the surprisingly busy parking lot. Much love to the Menlo Park PD for cordoning off the fans and the paparazzi while we finish our work.

3:30 PM, Tobias Physical Therapy. The entire shoot wraps on a somewhat physical note as Alaa captures me getting my sweat on. A big thank you goes out to Robin for allowing us into her workplace.

Final Thoughts

While the experience as a whole was well worth the time and energy I personally invested in it, I had no idea how intrusive and contrived the whole process was. I incorrectly assumed a certain level of spontaneity.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

Alaa tells me that the film will screen around June 10 on the Stanford campus. I promise to post details when I confirm them.

Oh yeah, btw, Emma survived her shots. She was originally scheduled to receive a whopping seven of them but we were able to delay four of them for next time.

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