Ah La Natural

As an actress, every two years actors need to get new headshots. It's one of those things. We got older, we change our hair, we change our routines (for better or worse) and we look different. I grew out my fringe, as well as the rest of my head of hair, and lost a few kilograms (gained them again and then lost them) in two years.  It was time for new headshots.

My cousin had shot my previous photographs. While studying photography she required a model to practice with, so I got play model for 2 hours one afternoon. We were having fun more than anything else and got some fantastic shots while we were doing it. I also learned a lot while we were shooting about posing and energy as it was the first time I was in a studio doing multiple photographs. I used the photos she gave me when trying to find an agent. Despite loving the old photographs it was time for new ones.

Photographs taken by my cousin Danielle Botha

The message from the photographer my agent uses to do our headshots said to keep my makeup natural. Something I would have done anyway as I want the photographs to show me as naturally as possible. Well, at least the best version of a natural me. I want to be able to be cast as a high-maintenance socialite and a clean faced scullery maid from the same set of photographs. When I walk through a door at a casting I want to look like my photograph. So I prepped for the session in the studio…

Once the hair was washed and conditioned, and all the places that needed to be shaved in the shower and plucked after the shower were shaved and plucked, I liberally sprayed heat protect in my hair. Then my mop was blow dried so that all my curls set properly. Otherwise half of my head looks great and the other half looks like I slept on it. Probably outside. Then the face started.

As a rule: no sunscreen or any products with zinc in them as they could make my face appear white in photos when photographed with a flash. Moisturizer, always in ample amounts, and then primer goes on to make sure that the foundation goes on smoothly. If I have a red pimple green base goes on the spot so as to camouflage the red and I end up looking like I’ve been marked to shoot a scene for special effects. Then the foundation goes on. The stuff that instantly builds confidence. I start with the shade that matches my skin. Then a shade lighter on my forehead, nose and cheekbones and shade darker beneath my cheekbones, side of my nose and temples in order to counter my face for the photographs and high light my cheekbones. Often lighting washes away one's bone structure so that your face appears flat in photographs so contouring helps to counteract that. Once the different smears of colour are all blended in to highlight my bone structure...OK, build my bone structure, the blush goes on. Just a little more cheekbone for me. Then my brow bones are highlighted, and the crease of my eye is shadowed. Close to the end I line my top line with liquid liner and put on a healthy coat of mascara which not only darkens my already black eyelashes, but thickens and extends them. Its natural, so that sets of strip and individual lashes remain at the bottom of my makeup box.

A clump!

Another brush is used to try and get rid of the blob of mascara on the end of a lash. When this proves futile I find a needle and use that to carefully separate the lashes which the waterproof mascara was attempting to weld together. The final touches include 8 hour cream for my lips and powder to set everything.

The curls need help. So I grab a curling tong and re-curl some of the hair around my face to shape it a little.

A foundation brush, blush brush, eye shadow brush, thin angle brush, mascara brush (needle) and powder brush, a blending sponge, 2 pallets for foundation and eyeshadow colour, waterproof liquid eyeliner, waterproof mascara, a hair dryer and curling iron and about an hour and a half later there I was.

Natural.

Lady natural at least. If I was a guy I would arrive at the photographer freshly showered, perhaps with a little face cream on and a freshly shaved face. Ok, a face shaved when a girlfriend complained a day or two ago. And the photographer would brush some powder on them so that they don’t shine in front of the camera and they would have a different shirt there which they would change right there.

Natural.

As I took my 6 changes of clothes home, base, mascara, powder and lip gloss required for changes and touch ups I was happy.

Photoshop will catch anything I missed.

Flying High - A Silent Film

Our director and producer Henco J, our cinematographer and co-producer Lize Jacobs and our Lighting man Nickie Jacobs.

A still from our short film.

Last year I got the amazing opportunity to spend a Saturday working with a group of friends shooting a short film for the 48 hour film festival. The genre we drew was 'Silent film' which presented a whole new set of challenges as none of us had done anything of the sort before. I got to play the part of the “seductress” in the almost film noir like short film.

I posted about it last year, but just to recap Flying High won ‘Best Directing’, ‘Best Score’ and ‘Best Choreography’. It was also nominated for for ‘Best Script’ and ‘Best Film’.

I wasn’t able to see the screening of the short film at the festival, and as our director didn’t release the film publicly, a fancy way for saying he didn’t put it up on youtube, I hadn’t seen it. Our director, Henco J, had entered the film into other short film competitions, so he had to wait before uploading the film.

Last week up uploaded it.

Flying High

We are so sorry to inform you…

I’m going to add to the wealth of information written about it. The boxing match that happened this weekend. But only in so far as this match invoked my own reflections.

I don’t follow boxing. I don’t care much for it. However there was so much hype around the match that one couldn't help getting a little involved. But the hype wasn't about the statistics of the game, or the betting odds but the people themselves. Mayweather with his faults and bravado and Pacquiao with his humility and belief. Upon hearing that Pacquiao had lost I said to my husband:

“I suppose the real test of Pacquiao’s faith will be in how he handles his loss”

After submitting my CV and headshot I was informed that I was not selected to audition for a corporate show. The reason could be almost anything. That I didn’t have the right look for the show, that I didn’t have the kind of experience they were looking for, or that I didn’t have the specific training they wanted. My agent is always upbeat an encouraging when they pass along news like this to me. In this email I got:

“Just keep swimming”

A sentiment I often hear from my parents, and which I'm always grateful for. Every time my mom sees a late night biography about an actor she’ll call me and tell me that they struggled too. That they were also told ‘no’. That they had to work really hard and face slamming doors before little by little they carved a path for themselves. So I’m carving a path for myself. It’s out of rock, but I’m doing it with every audition I go to. My faith will not be shaken, and I know that there is a purpose in everything I do.

This industry is about the downs as much as it is about the ups. Perhaps even more so as most of us have to face a lot more downs before we get a few of those ups. As long as the ups keeping making up for the downs I’ll be ok. When they don’t I might have to rethink my career. But its just a career. Being a performer is a big part of who I am. But its not everything I am. For now I can still handle the downs.

Our team post-warrior race on Saturday. Nothing makes you feel tough like doing tough things!

Starring A Call Back

It’s always good to start the week with a call back. It makes you feel like you have a foot in the door, and something you did last week is paying off this week. You’re starting at step two, and you’re not back at step one. Again. 

And so I drove off to my call back. Bright-eyed, bushy tailed and GPS free. For me that was almost a bigger achievement than call back itself.

We spent most of the three hour call back slot running lines for the scenes we would be performing. And as I sat under a tree, trying to hone the cockney accent we were later not required to do, and practicing three scenes that were later not seen, white stars started to jump across page.

And no, it wasn’t a hallucination. A friendly warning, and precursor to a migraine, the white stars blurring my vision to the point where I couldn’t read anymore is medically known as aura. Usually about half an hour after the aura a migraine which renders me helpless kicks in. Unless I medicate myself. I started digging through my handbag for my medication I usually carry with me. As my search yielded less and less in my small handbag I realised that I had used and not replaced my last dose of pills, known as a migraine cocktail. I usually only get a migraine once, at most twice a year, and as the last one had been two weeks before I still had a dose in my house I hadn't worried about replacing it too hastily. I walked to my car to see if by some miracle the cubby hole in my car would provide a solution. I did not. Although I did find a pair of sunglasses I thought I had lost, and thankfully a box of strong painkillers. A friend gave me muscle relaxants in case the pain killers didn’t work and I was back to my group to rehearse. Stars and all.

My usual cocktail to keep the migraines at bay.

Thankfully we waited so long for our turn to do our call back that the aura was gone by the time we walked into the space to start. And I was only left with shaky hands by the time I had to do my part. The roughly 15 pages of text we had to prepare was cut to about 4 in an attempt to get through all the actors auditioning for the various parts we were reading for.

About 10 minutes after we had entered the space for the call back, and three hours after we arrived, our band of actors left. And still able to see, and drive, I left the theatre, GPS free and managed to make my way home again.

From CD-Sing-A-Longs To Green Screens

It’s the nature of life that my only two auditions this past week were at the same time. At the very least, in the same time slot. So between 10 and 1 on Friday I had to make my way from an audition for a children’s theatre musical in Parktown to auditioning for a presenter at CNBC Africa in Sandton. It was quite the stretch. So I prepared the song that I was going to sing for the theatre audition, and what I was going to say for the on camera audition.

Being the modern girl that I am, and because we don’t own a CD player anymore, I practiced my song by plugging in my cellphone into our stereo and using the mp3 track stored on it. I was sure that I had the CD with the track on in my car from a previous audition.  At my planned time I hopped into my car, and just to be sure I grabbed the CD. It wasn’t the CD with my backtrack on it. And due to the recent move there was a very real chance that the required CD was still residing at what is now my brother’s flat. I ran back and grabbed all the CD’s in my reach which had backtracks on them. I found one with a track on that I knew well enough, and that the director I was auditioning for hadn’t heard me sing it before and climbed into the car. The half hour drive to the audition venue was my practice time. I arrived just before 10 and scurried into the theatre to audition. Another wide eyed blonde looked at me when I walked in at the allotted time:

“Are you from contractors too?” Contractors is another artist agency.

“No, I’m from Leads”

She explained that the agents were supposed to have let us know to come and audition at a different time. The original casting call had said we should be there at 10, but the theatre had replied to the agents giving us all individual time slots. The three of us had not received any further communication from our agents and had arrived at the original time. The director, knowing that it wasn’t our fault, and been gracious enough to see us anyway.

I walked in, as prepared as I could be all things considered, and performed my heart out. After the song the director asked while perusing my CV:

“You didn’t study musical theatre did you?”

“No”

“I see here that you studied drama. So did you take singing lessons?”

“Yes”

“You sound like you studied musical theatre”

Considering how nervous I had been walking in I was so thankful for the compliment! I was informed that I had a call back the next week and I was off to the next audition.

The GPS took me into the heart of Sandton, and through road works, until I reached the corporate building which houses the offices of CNBC Africa. I drove up to the boomed gate, and filled in the paper work. When I handed back the book the guard informed me of what I needed to do:

“Drive in, make a U-turn and come out of this gate, then enter the next boomed gate”

As I drove in and made the required U-turn I saw that a thin line of paving divided the parking lot into two sections. The section I was in and was required to leave, and the section I had to re-enter via the next boom gate. All because of the offices I would be visiting. Corporates.

As I filled in the second and third security books entering the building, and again as I entered the offices of CNBC I noticed at least three other names of girls who were auditioning despite not seeing anyone else.

I was hooked up, balanced for sound, and put into one of the fanciest green rooms I’ve ever seen. And although the man I was working with seemed to like me, and liked the fact that I write I heard that very familiar sentence:

“It all depends on what the client wants”

Clamped Wheels in Bikini Weather

Our seasons started to change this week. For the first time this year I needed a jacket when I left the house. I started wearing long pants and closed shoes. And as I snuggled in bed on cool Tuesday evening I received an email for a casting for a shampoo add. So as I left my flat with my shiny clean hair on Wednesday morning, jacket in tow, I did not expect that I was required to wear a bikini for the casting. Especially as nothing was mentioned in the casting.

As a South African, this is not swimsuit weather.

As I walked into the building I was the second to arrive. And as the model and I sat in silence waiting for our turn the casting director asked if we had our bikinis on….

“Its ok, we have some scarves here, and we can improvise”

I had been through a similar situation before and didn’t feel like a second round.

“I live about ten minutes drive away. I’ll quickly go fetch mine"

Thankfully I was there early enough for this to be an option. So I drove home, grabbed a bikini and drive back again. As I looked for a parking spot I noticed a hardware store across the street. I needed to buy a few nails and bits and pieces to secure cabling in our flat so I decided I would park there, audition, and buy what I needed upon my return. Bikini castings do not generally require any greatly skilled performance. They tend to be more about the bikini.

I walked into the building as if on cue as the 5 of us were called in to do the casting.

Myself and the first girl to arrive where bikini clad, and the others were making plans with the eclectic collection of scarves provided by the casting agent. And as we stood, bikini and otherwise clad, it felt as if the casting was never going to start. The casting director was not having a good day. In the space that I had been away a car had been stolen, so the casting director was trying to help, but not much can be done in such a situation. The memory card on the camera was full, and someone had not pitched up to help out with our casting. The casting director's day was getting worse. 

Distractions aside, we eventually did our bikini casting, and I ran into the hardware store to get what I needed. After a semi successful purchase I walked over to my car. Imagine my surprise when my wheel was clamped. Bag in hand I looked at my clamped wheel. Upon which the owner started yelling at me.

“This is private property. You can’t just stop here.”

The staff jumped in in an attempt to save me from some of the wrath by explaining to the owner that I had been in the store and had purchased items from them. He was not satiated.

“I saw you go off to the audition. Its R250 to unclamp your wheel”

“Yes. And I also needed items from your hardware store. So I went in to audition and then came to your store”

I wanted to add that perhaps if he was nicer to his customers I might not be the only person in the store. Instead I went with

“As I was a patron to the store, I assumed it wouldn’t be a problem” and as the parking belonged to shopping centre in which the store was situated. Although I could see semantics wasn’t going to win me any points.

The continued yelling just confirmed what I thought. The store assistants attempted to jump in and help again. Clearly there weren’t any other patrons in the store.

And in spite of all the yelling I held my ground relatively well, not showing that I was intimidated. The owner eventually relinquished and settled:

“If you put R50 in the charity box I’ll unclamp your wheel”

I didn’t think I can handle all that much more of the bullying, so I settled for a fifth for what he was originally hassling me for I left with my head held high.

As I drove back I thought to myself that if the poor girl whose car was stolen had stopped where I had stopped, literally across the street from where she had been, her wheel might have been clamped and her car wouldn’t have been stolen. Or if the owner wasn’t busy harassing patrons he might have noticed that a car was stolen right under his nose.  Or if I hadn't gone back to fetch my bikini it might have been mine.

Fitting The Parts

Post-audition biker-girl selfie!

My first week back home from honeymoon passed by quietly. Too quietly. As I busied myself with the laundry and trying to find the floor in our new home I soon realized that the housewife thing was not for me. Thankfully by my first weekend back home I had received emails for auditions and castings. I had something – aside from my dissertation and piles of housework – to do!

In the space of a week I auditioned for a nurse, a biker chick and a beer girl. The following week saw another three castings and auditions. Ranging from pretty dresses to jeans and leather boots to looking like I was so sick I was knocking on death’s door. At one of the auditions I arrived at a friend had seen me approaching:

“I saw that blonde hair walking in and I wondered if you were under it”. At this specific audition we saw the director in rounds of ten. You went in, did your lines with the director, and if he liked what he saw you waited. At the end of your round of ten those who were deemed worthy came in again and were recorded to be shown to the client.

I was number 11. I knew my lines, but in the scene there were 3 characters namely X, Y and Z and a therapist. I walked in, took my place and started as my line was the first line in the scene. The director read the next line of text which belonged to the therapist. I knew two more characters would speak before it was my line. The director looked at me expectantly. I looked at him blankly. 

“Do you know all the lines?”

“I know the lines for the female character.”

“I want you to know all the lines, and I’ll read the therapist. That way we can have a better back and forth”

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t know.”

As I walked out of the casting room and frantically looked for a script the director followed me out and announced that everybody needed to know all the lines for characters X,Y and Z. Not just one.

By the time that number 12 had auditioned I knew the lines. I was waiting by the door as number 12 left:

“Are you sure you know all the lines already” the director asked after spotting me at the door.

“Yes”

“Then let’s do it”

And it went smoothly. I was asked to stay to be recorded. I entered the audition room for the third time.

“Third time’s a charm!” I chirped as I walked in for my call back.

“Exactly like you did it last time”

As I finished the director looked at me seriously.

"I'm happy with what you did. Now it all depends on the client. If you look the way that they want you to look”

And it turns out that I didn’t look the right way. But its all part of what we do. And even though I didn’t get the part, its comforting to know that the director was happy with my work. And that I’m back in front of casting directors doing what I do.

And We Were Wed!

I know I have been quiet for a while, but hopefully my wedding will stand as a good excuse! I took on the part that I will be playing for the rest of my life. Although the thought of being a ‘wife’ still feels foreign to me, I get to be there for everything with my partner. And I know he will stand through all the different roles with me.

                    

On the last day of January I married my best friend. Despite a sunny summer morning afternoon clouds threatened our outdoor ceremony, but the weather held. We were married under oak trees in a garden surrounded by family and friends. A part of me thought I was going to be nervous walking down the aisle. A part of me thought I would feel like I was playing a role for a stage play or a film. But none of those things happened. As I walked barefoot through the garden towards my almost-husband I was beaming. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. 

My Mom kept on saying while we were planning the wedding that it was like another production. As I have directed a few it would be no different than putting on a stage show so there was no need to be nervous. But it didn’t feel like that at all.

I was all smiles and laughter.

Now I’m tanned, back from honeymoon and head I’ve been thrown head first into auditions!

48 Hour Film Project Winners!

I want to use this platform to say CONGRATULATIONS to our amazing team for the 48 Hour Film Project!

Our film FLYING HIGH and our team won:

Audio Network (The best use of audio network music)

Best Score

Best Director - Henco J

Runner up for Best Costume

Top 3 for
 Best Script
 Best Use of Character

And over all the Top 4 for Best Film.

Thank you to everyone in the team for all the fun and hard work!

From left to Right:
Nadia Van Den Heever (our editor), Lize Jacobs (Cinematorgraphy), Henco J (Director and writer) and Mathilda Jnr Van Eyssen (Co-Writer and over all assistant)