Ready, Camera, Action, Meltdown!

It's official: Griffin is a star (in my eyes at least), and he was one of the breadwinners of the family today as he had his very first baby model job! He auditioned last week and landed the part of the "Asian Baby". So we went on an adventure this morning to Quixote Studios in Boston, where Griff was photographed for a national print ad for Oreck Vacuums. The part of Griff's Fake Asian Mom was played by the lovely Michelle, who ironically looked more like his Mom than me. Tara, the wardrobe lady dressed Griff in a striped blue long sleeve shirt and some blue PJ bottoms with stars. Griff was shot (eek, that sounds so violent.. restart: Griff was 'photographed'...) being held by his Fake Mom who was told to smile and act like she "loves her baby and her vacuum". Poor Michelle- I could only imagine the pain she must have felt in her arm, as she had to hold our 25 lb(?) sack of potatoes on her right side for about 10 minutes straight while they shot some pics (a vacuum would be pictured in her left hand). Once Griff started melting down, we took a break while Michaela, the backup Asian baby did shots as well. We played and did our thing until we were up again. It was then time to shoot some video, which by the way I was only told we were doing still photos, so this came as a surprise. Funny story.. P.S. Did I mention that Griffin is terrified of vacuums (when they're on)? So, the intended video was to consist of the Fake Asian Mom putting Griff into a high chair, where he'd get excited as he had 2 big bowls of Cheerios to play with/eat and spill everywhere; then the Mom would let him continue to snack while she happily vacuumed the floor. Remember I said Griff was scared of vacuums? Well, here's the video they actually got... (Ready, Camera, Action) Fake Asian Mom put Griff into the high chair, and instead of immediately digging into the majestic piles of free Cheerios in front of him, Griff gave the bowls his classic furrowed brow stare. Even the "baby wranglers" couldn't get him to smile. He eventually picked up a single Cheerio and put it into his mouth. The director then instructed the Mom to just spill the Cheerios onto the ground so they could continue on to shoot the vacuuming part. Disaster ensued! As soon as Griff heard the vacuum turn on, his lower lip trembled, he started miserably crying, and he just lost it. (End Scene) All in all, it was quite hilarious to watch, though I felt bad that Griff got scared, and the crew didn't get the shot they were going for (hopefully the backup baby nailed it). I'm not sure if advertising vacuums that frighten little babes would help the Oreck business prosper.

The day was long but it was good overall. We'll find out if the client chooses Griff or the backup baby's shots to end up in the ads (not feelin' too confident at this point:) ), but it was a fun experience, good to make a few bucks for Griff's college fund, and interesting getting a peek into the advertising/production world. This was definitely a first, for both of us!