Our view of Taichung

Our view of Taichung

Friday, February 11, 2011

Random Opportunities

I have found that the best way to click in within an expatriate community is to be a "yes person".  Essentially, say yes to anything that comes up... no matter how strange, far away, scary, or just plain out of my comfort zone.  As a result, I've been to some amazing places, have discovered so many things that I wouldn't have imagined seeing and have had a lot of FUN!  Random things come up all the time.  I never know what a week will have in store for me.  For example, this past week.

When you live in a place where only a small part of the population speak your language you tend to become fast friends with anyone who can easily communicate with you.  Case in point:  In December Chris and I took the kids to a Christmas display and were approached by a man moving his family to Taichung from Canada.  He asked if his wife could e-mail me because she had questions about moving.  She and I proceeded to e-mail each other for a couple of months and just met face-to-face last week.  It turns out that her husband is in town working on a Fox movie, The Life of Pi, filming in Taichung.  He and I started talking about the film and he mentioned that I should try out for an extra role as they were in need of European looking individuals.  So, being the "yes person" that I vowed to be I called the casting director and went in the next day for a fitting.  They measured me, took pictures of me, and showed me the costumes for the set.  Two days later they called me to be an extra in a scene that is supposed to take place in Paris in 1959.  And bonus... I get to wear a swimsuit (every woman's dread!!) at a pool party and extra bonus... the film will be filmed in 3D (internal scream!!).  So, again, being the "yes person" that I've become I smiled and said, "Sounds great!" 

Final bonus... they asked me to take pictures of myself in my swimsuit and send them over right away.  If you've ever intentionally taken a picture of yourself in your swimsuit, let me tell you, it is very eye opening!  Next vow, hit the gym every day until March 2nd when we start shooting the pool party scene.  Now, the experience takes a slight turn for the better (in my opinion) because I'm told that they will be sending the pictures I've taken of myself to India where costume designers will design a 1950's style swimsuit to best flatter my figure.  THANK GOD!  I'm still not sure what that will mean so until then my fingers are crossed... and my toes!  Another fun bit of information is that we will be filming the pool party and a tiger that is in the movie will be on set with us.

Bottom line, if I would have said "no" at any point... didn't feel comfortable giving my e-mail address to a stranger, felt too busy to meet said stranger for lunch, was too afraid to call the casting director, felt the drive to the fitting was too far, or said "no" to being in a swimsuit on TV I wouldn't be adding another adventure to my list and the ability to say I'm going to be on an Ang Lee film set. 

I have a feeling I'm going to be so glad I said "yes"!  It hasn't back-fired yet.




As a follow up: I did end up going to the filming for the swimsuit scene and it ended up being an entertaining day. Unfortunately, I had to sign an agreement that I would not post pictures of the set or anything (including myself) on the set until the movie has been released to the public.
We arrived on set (a friend went with me) at 5:00am and were fitted into our swimsuits, had wigs placed on our heads, makeup (including fake eye lashes) done, and finger nails and toes painted in red. My swimsuit was a 1950's style, olive green with an off white flower print, one piece.  It looked great!  We filmed the scene outside around a huge empty pool and set created for blue screen. During editing they will add the water and props. Much to my disappointment there was not a tiger on set.  They also did a 3D scan of each extra to be able to add more people to the scene during editing if necessary.  So, who knows... maybe I'll see myself walking along the pool (even though I never shot that scene).  It was very cold so we had to act warm... somewhat difficult with chattering teeth. Ang Lee was there and hand placed every extra (about 80 of us) along the set. I would do it all again in a heart beat. I'm sure the scene will only be a few seconds in the entire film and the parts where they scan past me will be cut but it was worth it! The experience was awesome!



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