Category Archives: short film

by | February 10, 2011 · 7:44 am

Waffle Sammiches and ADR!

     Have you ever tried a sandwich where waffles are used as the bread? You have? Oh. 
Well anyway, I never had before today. 
I. AM. IN. LOVE.
Drool over that for a minute. I’ll post this same picture gratuitously at the end again for emphasis.
I drove down to Orange today for some ADR work on a short film I did last August.
Fancy sound booth!
We had to re-record a few lines that had background noises that were drowning them out: aka AIRPLANES!!!
So much technology!
Co-star David, Vogue-ing for the camera.
After a little over three hours of ADR, the director, producer and I went for lunch at a typical sandwich shop.
OR SO I THOUGHT!!!
Bruxie, a little corner restaurant in Orange.
They have a savory selection and a sweet selection. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so as loudly as the S’Mores sandwich with rich Belgian chocolate, graham cracker and toasted marshmallow was calling me, I went for the sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese sandwich with fresh basil, arugula and balsamic reduction.
There are no words.
The waffle that encased this happiness-stuffed filling was light and fluffy with a slight hint of sweetness. With the first bite, you get a tangy yet fresh taste of goat cheese infused with basil, the crisp crunch of arugula, the chewy sweetness of the sun-dried tomatoes and to top it off, a whisper of sweet balsamic reduction that swirls around your taste buds, dancing a happy waltz.
Okay, maybe there are a few words…

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Filed under ADR, Bruxie, I am in love, Orange, sammich, sandwich of Heaven, short film, Summer Campbell, Vogue, waffle sandwiches

by | August 25, 2010 · 9:01 am

Summer Filming: Day 8

     Yesterday was my last day on set. So sad!!! We had a 9am call, had to wait while camera got set up and after shooting a few scenes in a musty basement, had lunch.

Spinach salad with strawberries, corn with zucchini, linguini mac and cheese and some kind of chicken.
     It’s been a long haul, but we wrapped around 7pm. Crew had to clean up and get everything packed away in the truck, then we all went out to Haven Gastropub in Orange.
Pulled pork sandwich with pommes frites and housemade ketchup!
Warm apple-cabbage slaw on top of the pulled pork. Happiness!
Chelsea and Coco.
Scott (with his awesome new haircut ala Jenny) and the Chelsmeister.
Boa, Jenny and Ryan.
Malachi, deep in thought after some deep, introspective film talk.
     The past nine days have been some of the most incredible of my life. I’ve made amazing friendships that WILL continue, and I have fallen in love with these people. 
     For now, I’m back to work and taping auditions, but I’ll be keeping these people and memories in my heart and mind to keep myself going through my retail days. Either way, I’m LOVING my life!
Best nine days. EVER!

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Filed under friends, happiness, Haven Gastropub, short film, Summer Campbell

by | August 23, 2010 · 11:53 am

Summer Filming: Day 7

     One more day left of this craziness! I will be incredibly sad to see it all go. These past 9 days have been the most fun I’ve ever had on set. Sniff.

     We filmed in Toluca Lake today, in the kitchen of one of the houses. There was nothing too crazy, except for all the stunts I had to do. My elbow and knee are a little banged up, and I am proud! Lunch was from one of my all-time favorite restaurants, Porto’s!

Ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce sandwich on their freshly made bread, a chicken empanada and some kind of pastry filled with ground beef. Guess whose appetite is back!
I asked for a quarter of a cupcake, but Jenny MADE me eat the entire half!
     We filmed a few slow motion bike sequences, which look AMAZING, then headed out for dinner before we had to meet up for some night pickups. I headed over to my costar’s house and we got all chef-y!
Ahhh, I’ve missed chopping things!
We made a stir-fry with onions, yellow squash, mushrooms, steak and white wine with LOTS of HdP 🙂
And since the wine was opened, we figured we shouldn’t let it go bad!
     After dinner, we headed back for our pickups and walked down dark streets in the middle of Burbank. Thankfully, we wrapped and I headed down to Orange, where we’ll be filming our final day tomorrey. 
Time to crash!

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Filed under chocolate cupcake, on set, Porto's, short film, stir-fry, Summer Campbell, white wine

by | August 22, 2010 · 7:06 pm

Summer Filming: Day 6

     Good morning! I woke up before my alarm today, checked out yesterday’s pictures and discover I only have three usable ones, so I’ll recap yesterday very quickly.

     I slept on the most amazing couch in the entire universe, and woke up slightly more refreshed, but still completely sleep deprived from the past week. I wound up being ridiculously early to set, so I swung by Starbucks to start my day.

A grande soy chai and oatmeal. This oatmeal has been my lifesaver! It kept me full for over five hours yesterday!
     We filmed about 16 shots over the course of the day. I met, worked with, and said goodbye to my on-screen mother, spent about an hour filming under covers in a bed (while it was about 90 degrees in the house we were using, thank you very much), and rode my bike off into the sunset. 
     Lunch was a crapload of Quiznos sandwiches. I regained my appetite, finally, and had…
A quarter of a tuna melt, which I did not used to like, but craved yesterday…
and a turkey sub on the most amazing herbed bread ever. I’m drooling remembering it.
     We wrapped early and all headed off to Robano’s in Toluca Lake for dinner. Sadly, I left my camera in a separate bag and was unable to document this amazing night. We had a group of about sixteen people, and spent a good two hours talking, making fun of the solo artist who was playing, and laughing our asses off. I sipped my glass of merlot (I’m sticking to this no beer thing! So weird!) and had one of the best nights of my life. I am completely in love with this crew. 
     I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I’ll be taking tons today to make up for it! As for now…
Off to set! I love saying that 🙂

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Filed under filming, Quiznos, Robano's, short film, Summer Cambell

by | · 10:55 am

Summer Filming: Day 5

     I’m terribly sorry about being so behind on this! I’m recapping yesterday tonight, then I’ll try to find tomorrey to do two blogs and catch you all up on filming.

     Yesterday started off in Orange. We were filming in the backyard of a local house.

Gorgeous yard! Perfect for a party 🙂
The lovely Jenny made peanut butter, nutella and banana sandwiches for crafty. We are all indebted to her awesome chef-ing.
     This was the day known around set as, “the makeout day”. It seriously consisted of me attacking my costar for about two hours and mauling his face off. I didn’t mind. Neither did he.
     Lunch was the most amazing that we’ve had on set to date (at least in my opinion). As you all should know by now, I enjoy having food in cups. It’s more compact, easier to balance, and contains just about the perfect size serving for me.
Chicken in a cup!
This had about 1/2 of a cup of kale (!!!) salad, 1/8 of a cup of wild rice, and a roasted chicken drumstick. After going through life without kale, it’s suddenly begun to rain upon my head! It really does taste like a very leafy broccoli. I dig it.
     After some more making out, we all wrapped for the day and headed up to Burbank where we began filming today. We made a stop at a thai restaurant for a ridiculously late dinner at 11:30pm. 
Arunee House in Burbank.
Jocelyn, our on-set photographer, and Chelsea, set decorator/designer.
Malachi, dolly grip extraordinaire, and Dan, who should be editing our film.
Coco, our key grip, Jenny, our producer/makeup artist/on set mother, and Boa, our DP.
Scott, the writer/director of our film. He doesn’t like any food except for cheese pizza, and was bitter that we’d taken him here.
I got the panang curry with chicken and brown rice. Their recipe was very heavy on the peanuts, and ridiculously creamy, which I LOVED. Plus, brown rice makes everything healthy in my mind.
I enjoy blackmailing Malachi. It makes my day.
We were the last people in the restaurant after they closed, and they were still kind enough to give us all free ice cream! LOVE this place!
At first we couldn’t understand why they gave us free dolls. These are the most random pens ever!
     That sums up yesterday! I got back to the apartment I’m staying at around 12:30am, and found out that my show, “Left at the Altar” had been airing all evening. Luckily I got my parents to DVR it since I don’t have access to a television now. Too bad production didn’t let my costar or me know it was going to be on! Rawr! If you want to see it, it should be doing a few reruns for awhile. My character is “Valerie”, and I believe we’re the last 15 minute segment of the hour on TLC.
     Today was an amazing day, but you’ll just have to wait until tomorrey for me to catch you up, because I’m exhausted and have another early call in the morning. Have I mentioned how much I love my life?
I LOVE MY CREW!

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Filed under filming, makeout, on set, short film, Summer Cambell, thai food

by | August 20, 2010 · 8:28 am

Summer Filming: Day 4.5

     I slept SO much last night. I crashed around 9pm and didn’t wake up once until 8:30am. My body is slowly forgiving me for the past few days. I woke up this morning and had an amazing, lovely, cleansing Monsta.

Don’t know exactly what’s in here, but there was TONS of spinach and lots of frozen cherries.
     For lunch I had a slice of pesto pizza from Trader Joe’s. 
It was difficult for me to finish this piece. My stomach has shrunk from being on set, and not in a good way. I’ve dropped five pounds since beginning filming. Five pounds in four days is very, very bad. I’m trying to even out my diet and eat regularly while on set.
     I headed out for some pickups around 1pm, and got to set around 3pm. I had some time to kill before the crew arrived, so I read my latest book, Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, next to the lake.
Cormorant? Duck? Mutated chicken?
     When the crew arrived (the crew consisted of 5 people, because we were shooting guerilla style in desperation to catch the light), we first sat down for a picnic, provided by the lovely producer, Jenny.
Spinach salad with avocado and cherry tomatoes, turkey, lettuce, light muenster cheese and cherry tomato sandwiches, and pomegranate juice mixed with sparkling water. She is the best on-set mother ever 🙂
     We reshot the last scene of the film from a few different angles, this time not fighting the sun, and it turned out really well. David and I happened upon some awesome bloopers.
     For all of you who asked, here’s what I can tell you about the movie and my role in it. “A teenage girl plots revenge on the guy she likes after he humiliates her.” The movie is called “Summer Campbell”. I play the teenage girl, June Campbell, whose two best friends (who are twins) help her wreak havoc and revenge on the popular guy who humiliates her. It’s a short film that is written and directed by the incredibly talented Scott Sullivan. I’m telling you all, this guy is going BIG! I’ve never read such a hilarious, insightful script. If you have more specific questions, please ask in comments! I’ll answer with more detail :).

     On the way to my car, I got attacked by a wild peacock.
Not really. It saw me whip out the camera and booked it. Peacocks do not appreciate paparazzi.

     We wrapped for the short day, then headed over to a liquor store to pick up some supplies for the night. I found and bought some Concannon Merlot, which I first tried at JJ Brewsky, and am now having a glass while hanging with the amazing crew.
Malachi likes to share with me. 
Now, we’re all hanging out, prepping callsheets for tomorrey and enjoying each others’ company. I love these people.

     Tomorrow will involve a lot of making out. That’s about it… My life is so, so difficult :-D. I’m off to eat a slice of pizza and hang out with these amazing people.

Ask me anything. I’ll answer, now that I know how much I can share :).

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Filed under filming, green monster, on set, pesto, picnic, pizza, sandwiches, short film, Summer Cambell

by | August 19, 2010 · 6:07 am

Summer Filming: Day 4

     I can’t believe filming is already halfway over! Sadness :(. These always seem to fly by too quickly. So to recap…

I got to go home on Monday night, and woke up Tuesday morning to this! My roommate is amazing.
     I was hoping to sleep in on Tuesday, but got a last minute audition for 10am, so I was up at 7:30am to prep. Yay. The audition went really well: I had to play a 15 year-old (!!!), and afterwards I met up with my friend, Tanya at Lemonade!
I haven’t seen this girl since March! Missed you!!!
I got 1 portion, split in half, with sweet potatoes and pistachio, and watermelon radish, ahi tuna, snap peas and sesame seeds, with a blueberry-mint lemonade. YUM!
     After a lovely, long lunch filled with delicious food and a LOT of catching up, we parted ways. I headed over to Barnes and Noble to kill some time before I met my carpool to head to set.
I bought a book of crossword puzzles from the bargain shelf.
Ahhh, the Grove. My old stomping grounds.
     I met up with my carpool buddy and we headed out to Dockweiler Beach for filming. 
It was crowded! Lots of bonfires.
Yaaaaaah macro! My camera is my hero!
David running lines. Or being obsessed with his iPhone. One of the two… 😛
Aw, I love us :).
We were right next to LAX. We had at least 100 flights going out and flying in throughout the night.
Artsy!
Sunset. Happiness.
One of my favorites of the night.
We started filming around 7:30pm, and spent the entire night/morning out there.
This is a shot the the on-set photographer Jocelyn took. Check out her amazing photography here!
     Everything was going amazingly well, and we were all hyped up and wired until about 3am. Then this happened:
Poor, sleepy Madi!
     So, we started when the sun set, and ended the day with the sunrise.
Double happiness.
     It was a really, really long day. I had been awake for 29 hours and desperately needed to crash. Over the entire course of today, I slept for 3 hours. Tonight, I shall sleep incredibly well :).
     I’m off to check out more of Jocelyn’s pictures from last night’s shoot, and to enjoy a glass of Syrah, sit on the couch and not move until I go to bed.
I have never been so exhausted, or so happy in my life. I love being on set, I love my costars, and I love my crew. 
HAPPINESS

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Filed under Dockweiler Beach, filming, green monster, LAX, on set, short film

by | August 15, 2010 · 8:19 am

Summer Filming: Day 1

     Tired. So tired. I went to bed around 11pm last night, and woke up at 5am this morning to get to set. I set up all my Monsta stuff so I could wake, blend and go, but that didn’t happen. Breakfast was a banana and a big mug of coffee on the road.

I arrived to set, which was cloaked in thick fog and wonderfully chilly.
I gulped down another cup of coffee and ate an Oats ‘N Honey bar while getting my makeup DID.
     We shot the master of one of the first scenes as well as a few close-ups which took a few hours, then broke for lunch.
Yay, catering! Thanks Jenny (our amazing producer)!
Check out how artsy this photo is! Oh yeah, I’m that good. I had a spinach and strawberry salad, a small scoop of chicken divan and a big old slice of garlic bread. Then I had another big old slice of garlic bread.
Hi-jinks were had. I took a walk around the park and checked out some of the trails.
We shot at O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon. For those of you who don’t know, that’s FAR. I’m down in Orange for the remainder of the weekend.
Lots of gorgeous trails and buildings to see.
The interior of that car was HOT! Our awesome co-star/stunt driver Jordan kept stalling the stick shift. It was pretty epic – but to be fair, he did learn to use a stick over the course of 15 minutes this very morning!
Cookies were had. Multiple cookies.
     Now I’m chilling in my room, realizing that I didn’t have dinner and I’m pretty frikkin’ hungry, but too tired to go out and eat. I think tomorrey I’ll be raiding the craft services table for the first few hours. Now I’m going to go pass out! Call time for tomorrow (yes, we’re shooting on a Sunday :-/) is 7am. I will most definitely be sleeping on set, and taking pictures of co-stars. 
When’s the last time you spent an entire Saturday in a national park?
🙂

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Filed under banana, Chicken Divan, coffee, cookies, filming, set, short film, stick shift

by | August 14, 2010 · 8:18 am

Here and Now

     Exercise of the day: Squatting down, lifting heavy boxes, and speed walking at work. That counts!

     I have nothing to enthrall you with for today. My camera was kidnapped by my roommate for the day, and nothing out of the ordinary happened except for a lovely visit from my mum who took me to a wonderful lunch at Lazy Dog Cafe. Thanks, mom!!! I had half of the chicken walnut salad sandwich and a cup of the tortilla soup.

     This is my here. This is my now.

Paul Newman’s Cabernet Sauvignon and a script.
Side note: Paul Newman is one of my all-time favorite actors. And those EYES!!!
     Tomorrey begins day one of eight on set of the short film I’m starring in. I’ll be leaving the house at 5:30am tomorrow morning with a large mug of coffee and a Monster on hand! Right now I’m running laundry, charging cell phones and cameras, and packing up my car for the long haul. The next time I’ll be home will be Monday night (if I’m lucky), but I’ll have all my blogging materials with me to do some quick posts, if nothing else.
     I’ll also be tweeting from set! Follow me here!
Happy weekend!

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Filed under Lazy Dog Cafe, Paul Newman, red wine, script, short film