Can you believe I just had a photoshoot?
I’m on the Bravery Report!
Long story short, even though I am a voice actor, I took an on-camera class for auditioning for commercials. My reason? Besides being scared witless of seeing full body video and wanting to prove to myself that new experiences are probably not that life threatening, a respected voice acting coach said it would be great to improve my commercial VO (Voice-over).
So my friend and I took the plunge.
Class was a blast and I found out I really enjoyed myself. And once I got over the shock of HOW MUCH I LOOK LIKE MY MOM! (How did I ever age so much from my mind’s eye?), I didn’t really mind the camera’s rendition of my plus-sized senior self. Most of my classmates were young, size -2, the super desirable ethnically “ambiguous”, or California blondes. I stood out in that crowd.
But on reflection, I realized that in casting, standing out in the crowd is not such a bad thing! I’m willing to be my age and size on camera. What the heck. As part of class the teacher, who is an experienced commercial actor and who works often with casting directors, and our classmates offer up your natural commercial types. Things you might book by your looks.
Of course I got sensual vixen….
Okay, not really. Here are some of those types.
Laurie’s Commerical Looks
Say hello to quirky neighbor, friendly teacher, admin assistant in my commercial looks.
This is my hippie therapist or candle store owner kind of commercial look.
This shows some of the range of expression in every look. This is my executive, doctor, lawyer, judge look – and this is my judgmental expression LOL.
This is my barb-b-q Mom, blue-collar, straight shooting kind of commercial look.
What it takes for Laurie to be a natural beauty…
- Unruly crazy hair needs Brazilian blow-out (thankfully unrelated to waxing by the same name)
- Hair Trim
- Roots dyed
- Facial hair threaded out of existence (ouch!)
- Facial on insistence of hair threading remover – guess my furless self revealed horrible impurities.
- Professional stylist who knows what looks good on me and what looks good on camera (Hooray I have a friend who does this for a living, so I hired her. BTW, I will NEVER shop without her again! Fast, fun, painless, picks the right size in every brand. Wow!)
- Manicure (nails might show)
- Pedicure (nails won’t show, but makes me feel polished)
- Professional make-up artist
- Me learning how to IRON and STEAM clothing the day before the shoot.
- Learning how to tote many outfits without ruining said ironing and steaming to photography studio.
- Learning how to pose (to look natural means you are doing stand-up pilates).
- Learning how to love myself no matter what!
Along with wanting some professional headshots to be able to submit myself for commercials, I wanted to rebrand my voice acting business so that I can market to production houses and agents etc. And you can SEE some of this branding by checking out my new commercial voice over demo on YouTube and as a bonus, see even more expressions in these looks. BUT
Please help me with Silly YouTube…
By subscribing to my crazy URL YouTube Channel for my voice acting. I need 100 to get a custom url that would make sense to give out to potential clients. If you are in the same boat, leave me a comment and I will subscribe to yours back! Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJG5fw8ozC7yJiZHHVUmzA
I love you Mom. My shoot was actually on the anniversary of her passing. Today would have been Mom’s 86th birthday. Somehow I feel she knows about my adventures and how grateful I am to share her beauty xoxoxo
As a recovering food restrictor and exercise bulimic, these last few days have been trying. My cabinets and freezer are stocked for the next ten days. My running shoes have become my date of choice, as I have been venturing outside in solitude at least twice a day. The idea of food and my next meal, always on my mind. I have never had this much food readily available since living in college dorms.
Fears are irrational, and mine don’t fall short. First, I fear keeping more than 3 days of food in my house under normal circumstance. Second, I have no snacks because then comes my other fear of binge eating.
Finding a balance between eating, not eating too much and healthfully replenishing essential fuel my body needs, for the 10,000+ steps I have been taking daily, has not been easy. I have noticed myself making excuses if I don’t want to finish eating something I have made. I tell myself, “I will eat it later. That way it is two meals, instead of one.” I rationalize my thoughts by deducing I will have more food in the long run.
This is not a healthy relationship with food. This is not a healthy relationship with thy self. I know I am not the only one feeling this way. You are not alone. Take it one meal at a time. That’s all you can do.
That last picture is my mom in a nutshell. I love you but don’t give me grief. And stop being an a*****e. Let’s enjoy and get the hell outta here. And why isn’t anyone wearing a mask. The othe pics are just splendid realism. 95% or more of us aren’t models but you are pretty and at your age you’re truly making it look damn good!
Sorry but one more, the picture in the red cardigan, I could see you at 20 in that looking like a Queen so please never hang onto the age thing. We all have aged and hell, I’m 34 and was bald at 16 looking about 50 then, furgedaboutit.