One Day as a (Fake) Movie Star

This morning, we met up with the filming crew around 7:45 am in the hotel lobby and headed to the suite where we'd be filming the interviews with me and my dad. We had our breakfast in the room as we discussed the plan for the day.

After a quick breakfast, we drove a short ways away to a small park that the film crew had already scouted out the day before for our outdoor shots of me doing stuff (or "b-roll" if you want to use filmmaking speak). Since they had already asked about my interests and hobbies, they had ideas in mind already. So up first was shooting hoops.

I shot hoops by myself for maybe 30 minutes. I felt bad for the crew 'cause I missed a ton of shots. But with the few shots I did swish, they will be able to make me look like Michael Jordan. Ah, the magic of filming. We did also play P-I-G afterwards with me and Annabel from Medtronic. We tied 'cause we had to move on. Haha.

Next up, they wanted to get a shot of me walking along (like in my world travels) and taking pictures. You can see pictures of the reflectors they had up. They would adjust those as I walked along so it was as if I had a spotlight on me the whole time, whether I was in the shadows or in the sun. But being pros, they knew how to make it look completely natural. Amazing.

After a few more shots outside, we went back to the hotel, had lunch, and then got ready for our interviews. When I had looked at my hour-by-hour itinerary, the line of "makeup" caught my eye, since I obviously don't use make up. So I thought it was funny. But Kris, our makeup artist, did a phenomenal job (wouldn't even have known I had any on), and she definitely made me feel better when she told me she'd put makeup on Matt Damon too. Woo! (Sisters, there is your picture...:P)

Look! Got a picture of Dad getting makeup too. Haha.

By the time we were ready, the room had been transformed into a full set. There were lights from all over, and you can see the special effects they did in this picture. Check out the light reflecting behind me. It looks like the light from the sun setting and shining through the window...except we were filming around 1 PM, and you can see how bright it is outside. But you can see what's framed on the monitor to the left. Absolutely brilliant, Blue Moon Innovative Media Company!

After my turn on the hot seat, it was Dad's turn. But first, another touch up with the makeup.

Jeannie, our interviewer, and Will, who directed the filming.

After the interviews, we did a few shots of me working on my computer, and they even helped me get a plug in for Scholarship Junkies! How cool! Then we went downstairs to the hotel lobby, where they set up for shooting a scene with us playing Scrabble.

After our game, they had me play a bit of piano, and I was somewhat embarrassed to play my songs, so I played one my sister, Grace, wrote. I played a version of her Improvisations in D and added my own little changes to it. Haha. Thanks, Grace! :)

It was such a great day of working with an amazing team from Medtronic, from Blue Moon, Kris, and of course, my dad too. So I made sure to ask one of the people at the front desk to take a picture for us. It turned out alright, but I'm glad they got pictures on their nice SLR cameras too.

Immediately after, I headed straight to the BART station to get to Berkeley to meet up with friends. Amy, who's one of the folks from Medtronic, was kind enough to drive me down to the BART station, since the hotel's shuttle had stopped running (strangely) at 6 PM.

But I finally made it to Berkeley and met up with Grant (who was in Palo Alto for UW Admissions outreach) and Brukab (who's now in grad school at Cal). We met up at a Greek restaurant and waited for Kevin (from BetterGrads) and Alex (from Dream Project and UW/UW tennis team) to join us. Alex ended up not being able to join us, but Kevin arrived soon enough.

I was quite excited with all the Greek stuff around, and I ordered my favorites—cheese saganaki (fried cheese) and dolmathes (grape leaf wraps with rice and meat). Delicious!

The dolmathes came with tzatziki and pita too. Yum.

And here's the cheese saganaki.

Besides the appetizers, we each had a gigantic "Spartan sandwich," which was sooooo big and filling. It was like the size of two gyros one would find on the street in Athens.

We had a great dinner and had a fantastic chat about all sorts of education-related stuff. I am so glad I got to spend some time with great friends. And actually, Kevin and I had never gotten to meet in person until today, since we've been chatting via phone or Skype over the past two years or so.

The BART was easy to get back to Lafayette, and I got home much earlier than I had expected. Two hours earlier, in fact. Which then gave me time to upload my pictures and write this blog.

Tomorrow morning (in six hours actually), my dad and I are headed back to SFO to fly off to our respective destinations. I will be back in Seattle by noon. All in all, this short but packed trip was a fantastic learning experience, and I am so glad to have met all these amazing people. Not sure when my next trip will be, but let's hope it's soon!

Till then,

Sam

Filming in the Bay Area

It's been a while. But I suppose it's time to revive the blog briefly as I'm on the road again. This time, I'm in the Bay Area to film an educational video for Medtronic. Since I owe my ability to walk now to Medtronic's medical therapies, they asked if I would be willing to share my story with other potential patients who are considering those therapies too. In exchange, they flew me and my dad down to San Francisco, where my doctors are, to shoot this film. 

The educational film itself is actually focusing on the work of my doctors at UCSF. Where I come in is the patient stories as they have three patients from around the country to share their experiences with Medtronic's therapies. I met one of the other patients, a sixteen year old girl from Nevada. She's only the third person I've ever met with dystonia, so that's pretty neat.

Since they didn't call me till late August, they've been working like mad to organize everything. From their headquarters in Minnesota, they booked our flights, the hotel, and arranged an hour-by-hour itinerary for us. Organized itineraries can be wonderful things.

This morning, I woke up at 3:30 AM, and my sister, Grace, kindly drove me (and my friend, Luca, who was flying early this morning as well to Cornell for a med school interview) to the airport. I suppose I could've left later since I had checked-in online, printed my boarding pass, and walked through a relatively empty security line in less than 10 minutes. So I waited around for an hour and ten minutes before we finally took off.

After a rather uneventful flight (and one annoying child, wailing in the row in front and across from me), I arrived at SFO and found my dad waiting at baggage claim already, since he'd arrived ten minutes before me from Spokane. A driver with my name on a sign picked us up and helped us load our bags into a nice black sedan.

My itinerary had said "limo pick-up," so I was expecting a long, black limo. But apparently a large, chauffeured sedan can also be considered a limo. In any case, it was comfortable and had perks you don't normally get in the back of the car.

I snuck some pictures, and I was rather chuffed to bits about this one of my dad, reading his newspaper in style. (If you don't know what "chuffed to bits" means, check out the video; it's such a fun little phrase).

Our driver brought us first to UCSF, where I had a quick appointment with my doctor. I hadn't seen her in a few years, so it was really nice catching up. It's also the first time I've ever visited the doctor's office in a suit. Haha.

We were actually well ahead of schedule, so when our driver picked us up and took us to the hotel, we had plenty of time before the next item on my itinerary. The drive from downtown San Francisco to Lafayette (where the hotel is) was rather long. Funny how they wanted to film this thing in SF and then put us all up in a hotel way over in East Bay. But hey, it's a nice hotel, so I'm not complaining. :)

The driver had given me his business card so I could call him, and I noticed his name was the same as one of my Ethiopian friends in Seattle. So when we were driving to the hotel, I asked him, "Are you Habesha?"

He was pleasantly surprised and probably somewhat shocked that I even knew the word, but he said yes, he was from Ethiopia. We chatted and laughed about several things, and he told me he was fully expecting that I would know more words in Amharic (I can only say, "Hello, my name is Sam"), since I pronounced "Habesha" correctly. Sadly, I didn't.

He dropped us off at the hotel though, and we went to see if we could check in. It was only 11 AM or so when we arrived, so unfortunately, we were not able to check in just yet. I did get to meet most of the team though, so that was nice. Then my dad and I just chilled by the pool outside to do work.

My laptop's battery was nearly dead though, so I went and took pictures of the hotel instead. I brought my swimming trunks and goggles, so I plan to hit the pool later on.

There's my dad working away by the pool.

We had lunch downstairs in the hotel's bistro. I had a grilled Reuben sandwich, while my dad had a gigantic plate of clams. I wish I could've taken a picture, but I didn't want to since we were having lunch with all the Medtronic folks and the other patient and her mom. We had a really nice conversation, and I have had many opportunities to push Scholarship Junkies today already. If you didn't know, we launched a new site (www.scholarshipjunkies.com) a few weeks ago. Let me know what you think!

Tomorrow's a very busy day with all the filming and what-not. I even have to go to make up first! Really not sure what to think about that, but I met the make-up lady today. She was really nice, so I'm sure it'll be fine. Then at night, I'll head up to Berkeley to have dinner with friends from UW and SF. Should be fun!

I'll try and blog again tomorrow, but we'll see if I still have internet since we have to pay for it here. Lame. How come luxurious hotels always charge for internet service but the cheapest places (like the Super 8 I stayed at in Shelton, WA) offered free internet? I will never understand it. Speaking of extravagance, if you haven't seen how ridiculously out of touch some employees of the federal government are (well, not only federal government employees, but specifically some of them in this case), check out how much the Department of Justice paid for 250 muffins...

Cheerio!

Sam