today- only two takes for one scene for tova today. and best part- shannon and mania' came over to visit the set! they got to meet the people i talked about in this blog. mania' bought her lovely camera and was able to snap some pictures going on the set. all tova did was get in the car with jessica, drive over to the driveway, get out with jessica, walk past the big rig truck parking in the driveway. two takes. that s it. then off to go home. it was sooo good seeing shannon and mania'! i have missed my columbus girlfriends! Tova was beyond thrilled to see her sister shannon and grandma mania'!

Yesterday was a full day of work for Tova. the first scene- she was with Michael looking at the truck engine and then she notices something over there and walks towards whatever was over the. so, she got to stand on the street 'looking' at the birds flying towards her- those birds will be added with the special effects during the editing progress. Cosmo told her 'this is the ONLY time you can stand on the street!' :) the street was blocked both directions during the filming. anyhow- i noticed there were MANY tennis balls out on the front yard in a perfect pattern. i eventually realized that it was for the special effects when they will add the flying birds to help them measure where to put the birds. funny, once, they were filming when Michael had Tova in his arms and looking up at the "birds", in the distance back, we could see an neighbor- elderly man walking slowly to his mailbox.. the director had to say CUT and wait until that neighbor walks back to his house to completely disappear from the set. it s amazing how detail oriented everything has to be on the film. even the grass where Tova and Michael walk over- it was still wet after the storm the day before. the prop person had to rake the leaves to make them stand up after we walked all over the grass.

during the hot sunny days, Tova would have her own mary poppins next to her. yep Cosmo again. :)


the next big scene was of tova and michael again. this time, tova is seeing something thru the window- i wont tell you what that is. :) it freaks michael out and he grabs tova, then the 'schorizpic episode' strikes. michael was believable and we are amazed by how much tova trusts him that he wont hurt her while holding tova. he had to be screaming, falling down, hitting the wall, shaking etc. tova just hung on him, trusting him that she wont get hurt. such an amazing kid.
during the break, tova discovered a worm, wanted to bring the worm to sit besides us during lunch. YEOW! i told her no. leave the worm on the ground where the worm can eat. then she found a caterpillar. wanted to bring it into the house. no. so she freed it in the field behind the house. saw a bird nest in a tree behind the house- on our eye level. it was so cool seeing the nest. no eggs in there of course. im serious... this movie experience for Tova is way better than sending her to a camp. this feels like a camp with movie making experience!

Tova and Michael getting their hair dried for the retake of the scene with the fake rain. As you may notice, Tova has a sucker candy... she has the access to unlimited amount of sucker candies. :)

It was RAINING so hard today, the fake and real ones... we had to use the fake rain for the first four scenes.. then of course, the real rain came when we were done with those scenes. murphy law! anyhow..one of the characters in the movie is a dog. :D He came to the set today. Tova enjoyed meeting Kenny, the name of the dog. he is a mixed of german shepard and Beligum Malinois. kenny was soooo sweet and very well trained- he can become vicious on cue. the scene that was being filmed- required the fake rain to be turned on, and that dog had to bark bark brak then run to michael to attack, then as soon as the trainer called him off, he became such a sweet dog. it was amazing to watch the scene. We agreed that Tova cant watch the set while the dog's attacking michael in fear Tova will freak out for the next scene with the dog. She would have other scenes with Kenny as her pet so we wanted her to keep the image of the sweet dog.

when we were working on the scenes before the dinner break, we had to use the fake rain with Tova and Michael seeing the storms coming. then dinner break and as soon as the dinner break was over, the REAL rain came along with maybe 30mph wind and lightening. it was shocking to see that- we were in the living room watching the storm and i admit i did get confused.. was that the real rain or are they setting up the fake rain again? and crazy part was that the cameramen and Jeff came out running with the camera (waterproofed of course) to film the storm out on the field along with about 20 people scattered around picking up things around in the backyard to clear the way for the filming the field during the storm. they all came back in SOAKED! but they were happy to have filmed the storm! and the sound guy recorded the thunders, lightening, and the raining for the background sounds, while we all stood around in silence for about 4 minutes. they were so excited to record the real stuff! :)

two days worth of blogging to do.. :)

yesterday, Thursday the 24th was a good day. the film location is now at the house of the family in the movie. we will be there for the next week or so. which is real nice beacuse we get to eat outside, enjoy the big land the house is on, and the sun porch when there s no filming done in there. and a bedroom if tova needs to rest.
everyone continues to be such a great group to work with! Tova finally has someone her age to play with after two weeks! her movie cousin was there- so they played and played and played.. a nice break for some of us who got sucked into Tova's imaginary games for the past two weeks. :D
it was a day for easy work for Tova so she enjoyed herself.
today- another perfect day to be outside. no humidity at all! and MOM/NONNA came to visit!! she joined us to the film location. she was amazed at how busy everyone was and what it takes to make a movie. today we did the rain scenes- there was two guys who bought the rain to us.. a big water tank on the trailer, hooking up several big hoses to the metal poles that will be spurting out water, along with an engine for the pressure. it did look like raining when they turned on the water! toooo coool! they also had to spray the water on the cars and the driveway before turning on the rain. we had lunch outside...they set up tables and chairs under the two big trees. the food continues to be so yummy! we had chicken legs, lentil salad, potato salad, talboah, salad and cranberry apple crisp for desert.
tomorrow we are off- will be taking it easy and enjoying having nonna with us! and oh yes LAUNDRY!

INTENSE day yesterday. we got called at 330pm. saw Jessica and Michael in the dressing room. Tova was happy to see them after four days off. Tova got into her favorite green dress (yes, Jenn, it s the green dress from Carter :)) and her brown platform shoes, hair all set up and ready to go. the scene scheduled to be filmed is one of the biggest scenes in the movie. this scene is when everyone realizes there s something wrong with michael's character. it also requires tova to act scared, cry, upset- whatever will happen. jeff and i have been preparing her for that scene. also there s a fight between michael and shea (Dewart character- a friend of michael's character) happening right in front of everyone, including tova. we warned tova that there will be a fight and it s not real, no one will get hurt. she was prepared for that. she did a beautiful beautiful job. everyone in the room (the extras, tech crew) clapped for her. :) THEN, the intense part was michael's monologue. he was sooo good- he has to lose it during the monologue. and i could feel everyone tense up watching him doing his monologue. i forgot to breath for about ten minutes after the scene was over. whew. tova became nervous and worried about michael. when it was time for tova to go home, jessica and michael checked in with tova to be sure she was okay and letting her know that michael is okay. they communicated primary in signs. it was such a beautiful thing to watch! it all ended with jessica and michael signing 'sweet dreams' to tova. awww. that calmed tova down knowing michael is okay and it was just his acting part. just you wait until you see the scene. oh wow.

ten cosmos.... cosmo is the second of second assistant director. he is a gem. Melissa and i teased him that there is ten cosmos... he is practically everywhere helping out, making sure everyone is safe and okay, knowing what to do, get the info to everyone, etcetc... he s there right next to us, 15 seconds later, he s 500 feet away, 30 seconds later he s in other blg, a minute later he s besides us. thus- ten cosmos. our favorite favorite moment of yesterday was about cosmo. picture this- melissa and I are under the tent with the camera crew. tova, michael and jessica are walking from the car. it was raining a bit. cosmo s standing next to us. 4 seconds later we notice he is by the blg telling people to keep the doors closed to be ready to lock in (stand in your place during shooting). then 3 seconds after that, where s cosmo? just as soon as jeff said cut when jessica, michael and tova walk towards the open door into the blog, pops up cosmo with two umbrellas by the car besides the three of them walking to the door, ready to hand them the umbrellas, all looking like Mary Poppins. seriously, could there really be ten cosmos!? tova adores him! if i ever need a manny for tova, i know who to look for. :)

mother of the year award goes to me for getting tova in be at the 'decent time'. what was the time? cant tell you because i fear i ll lose the mother of the year award.. *ahem* tova got out of bed at 10am. yep, mother of the year award but hey! this is once in a life time experience for us all!
calltime is 145 and i promised tova first watch for bruch. :)

oxox

we have been off since Saturday. did some retail therapy, saw Toy Story 3, dinners, celebrated father's day, celebrated our 13th anniversary, made paper mache- they arent completed so we dont know what they will turn out to be :), Cleveland Botanical Gardens... Tova returns to work tomorrow.
hope yall had a nice weekend! :D

Tova's close up shot in the adminstration office. Pretty girl, eh? you can see the joy smile on her face!

Tova and Jessica playing around!

Tova's VERY first autograph to give out! A cute kid came up to Jessica and Tova asking for their autograph. :)

Last Thursday, the scenes were shot mostly at the school- where the sign language classes are given in the movie, and the meeting with the adminstrator. Im trying not to give out storyline too much! :D We waited often, so we had Uno games going on, playing with the bubbles, Tova and Melissa came up with a game called "Tiger and Lizard"- im not sure of what the rules are because Tova keeps on changing the rules. We were supposed to do the driving scene but it got too late so hold that other time.
Yesterday was the scenes at the Flea Market. It went really well! we had about 50 extras to be in the background scene. the film people are SO good! got everyone to do excatly what they wanted them to do! when to move, where to go, when to stop, when to be loud, when to be very very quiet for the enviorment sound.
Tova and Jessica continues to bond really well! Tova totally loves Jessica! Always say Jessica is so cool and fun! That ought to show up in the film!

I don't know if this picture is able to show what was happening. Just wait until I get the iPhone with better picture quality. :)

I was sitting in the back of a truck in front of that blue truck. let me back up.. that scene is taken while Michael is driving to the food store with Tova. Tova is just sitting in her chair reading the dino book. how did that shooting work... that blue truck is on a trailer being pulled by a huge truck which its bed i was on. then there s two cars- one in front, other one in the back of the blue truck to clear the road for the filming. in that blue truck- there s Tova sitting reading the book, two guys sitting together in the driver seat to hold the big ass camera (in place of Michael) , and the director Jeff sitting in the back. they had to be in those positions for about 20 minutes filming the scene. Tova just sat there quietly reading the book, while Jeff and those two cameramen were SWEATING. It was SO cool seeing that! It makes us appreciate the film making even more!
then we did the food shopping scene- Tova was able to follow the directions beautifully- they only had to do four takes then other of close up- three takes then they were done. Michael asked her if she gets nervous when she sees the camera- she said a little bit. :)
interesting thing- When Tova got in the truck, i think she was having a mild anxiety attack- saying her stomach hurts.. I asked her what was wrong- she was ready to cry- Then she finally said it s because it is big truck and scary. I told her that the truck is VERY safe and they wont let her get hurt at all. Then Cosmo- the second second director was fantastic- he suggested that I get on the other truck so Tova can see me and knowing I'm right there. that pretty much calmed her down.
tomorrow is going to be a long day- several scenes to be filmed with the parents- at the doc office, at the school, and in the back of the car.

We woke up breathing the lake air- SO NICE! thanks Laura, Steve, Maggie and Hannah for being a WONDERFUL host to us! You did make a good cup of coffee, Hannah! I had TWO cups. :) that says alot!
Anyhow, after riding on the golf cart to the beach, collecting treasures- rocks, beach glass, old army guy toy, beautiful crooked tree braches-, picking up the van from uncle steve's garage, visiting my brother Tim and Courtney to meet TIMOTHY, my three months old nephew- SO CUTE, we got back to the film set by 4pm to do a short scene at the insurance office. Tova had her first close up scene with just her in it. it was in a medium shot. I had to contain my heart from bursting into zillions of pieces! Despite the huge light boards, camera, 30 people behind the camera, the interpreter on the ground next to Tova so she could see when Jeff says ACTION, Tova did so beautifully. just all calm, playing with the blocks while "waiting" for her mom to finish talking with the insurance person. about three minutes long of taping her playing. we were only on the set for two hours so it breezed by real quick.
I was intrigued by how people are always thinking about the sounds. They had to turn off the AC ten minutes before starting filming because of the noises it make, making sure all the computers are off so the mic doesn't pick up the humming from the machines, everyone SO QUIET and still during the filming, even stopped filming when the train was going by which the interpreter said she barely could hear it. The sound people were wearing headphones hooked up with the mic and that mic can pick up ALL of the sounds- so that s how they heard pretty much everything what hearing people wouldn't normally hear at first. Yesterday at the library- i was talking with Melissa- the interpreter- then all of sudden, i sensed the stillness in the air and i turned around and found everyone standing so still making me think i had the clicker remote control to stop everyone from moving. I asked Melissa what was going on. she said they are listening to the recording of the sounds from the scene they were working on. wow- EVERYONE was so still and visually quiet! as soon as listening to the recording of the sound was done, *BOOM* everyone started to move around. it s like when u press the play button after pausing the movie.

Tomorrow Tova is not called until 4pm. If Sun Goddess comes out, it's beach time!

Wow- first day of filming and Tova did SO well! it was like she was natural. VERY patience while they spent hours and hours setting up the lights to make it look like a morning in the library. Funny thing was that she was SO disappointed that she doesnt have much of lines in the movie! :)
Her first filming scene was in the library- walking into the library, getting settled in the children room. before starting the scene- we had breakfast served by the catering company. ALL of the food were organic- woooo!! after grabbing some breakfast- fruits, coffee of course, we went to the costume room to get Tova into a costume for the library scene. when we walked into the library- keep that in mind- it s a small town library. the film crew pretty much took over the entire blg! wires, wires and wires, cameras, lights, people running around meanwhile the library went on its usual business serving the people's library needs. we found the costume room and got tova in her Hannah outfit. she had a bit of make up on- just a tab of colors on the inside part of her eyes by nose. her hair got brushed, got a cool purse to go with her outfit- made out of a real coconut. then we wait and waited and waited for the lightings to be set up as 1045am. It was really an amazing thing- watching everyone getting the scene ready- set up the lights, the art dept getting all of the props in the right places all those details! they even moved the books around on the shelf- all i could think of "poor librarians! gotta put them back in the right place!". one thing i noticed was that the art dept kept on taking pictures of things with their digital camera. i eventually realized that it was to help them put things back in place when they reshoot the scenes. same with the hair and costume folks- took pictures of tovas hair.. then when do reshooting after a period of waiting- check the picture to be sure her hair is back in what it looked like before. I teased the art dept that it looks like they have OCD- the need of putting things in the right place over and over again. Then off Tova went with Michael to outside to be filmed as they enter the library.
Nice thing was that Michael asked Tova if she was nervous before walking into the library on the camera- she told him yes she was. he said he has been in many movies and he still does get nervous so it is a normal feeling. Terry and I got to stand behind a TV that will show what is happening on the cameras. it was SO exciting to see our lil girl being on TV!

Everyone was SO NICE! We all made the effort to have conversations going on while waiting for the 'action'... got to meet new people. Kathy Baker stopped by for her costume fitting. After Terry mentioned which movie she was in- AH YES! the scene with Edward Scissorhands- first person to get her haircut by Edward. :) Terry had to head back home to columbus- real world, to do the real world duties such as cut the grass, check mails, make sure everything s in order- make the LAST payment for our van etc. Im glad to be here in the movie world with Tova. :) he ll be back on friday.

lunch was super! again, organic and mostly vegan! even the bread ot make sandwich with was vegan! during lunch, Tova and Michael played games- hangman and connect the dots.

I have learned to use my bag of tricks to help Tova with her waiting and waiting- we ll have to bring some games for her to play with so she doesnt touch the props to drive the art dept crazy :D, bring books, positive encouragement from us all- Jeff the director was so wonderful to her. I did my trick "Tova, i know you have been waiting and waiting for the reshooting- but keep in mind, when this is over for the day, we are gonna jump on the trampoline at uncle steve n aunt laura's!" that brightened the moment for her and she kept on going. :) but man, that girl has so much patience and good attitude for a 6 years old. Im so proud of her! So, we actually went to uncle steve n aunt laura's house, jumped on the trampoline with my cousins, went down to the beach- threw the flat stones in the water.. nice way to end the day!

we return tomorrow to meet the dog who will be her pet in the movie. That ought to be fun!

I will post pictures when I do get them.. i m bit afraid to take pictures during the preparing, shooting, etc. I ll have to ask about that. :)

It has been almost two years since i made any post on this blog. Time just flew by fast. I have decided to get it up and running to record Tova's adventures with the movie making. It all started when Tyler (the producer) and Jeff (the director) contacted Tova's school asking to see deaf girls for the part in the movie. the part is a daughter of the two leading characters. I got in touch with them and they came to school. I asked some questions about the movie, the storyline, the production dates, etc. Then I bought them over to meet Tova. Tova was her charming self. :D She was asked to come back for the screening test. We went up to Chagrin Falls- south of Cleveland. She did a wonderful wonderful job- followed the directions, and for once, she wasnt so shy! :)
Then the waiting part- oh man, that was horrible, waiting to see if she got offered the part. I then got the email from Tyler with the offer of the part to Tova. Yippie hooray! We were so excited!

sooo speed forward to June 10th, we came up to Grafton, Ohio where the movie will be mostly be filmed. We arrived at the production office. Many people there preparing for the film- costumes, props, set, etc. Tova had the costume fitting. she had so much fun trying on the clothes! a serious clothes horse! We found out that Tova's character, Hannah, has two bunnies as pet in the movie along with a dog which we knew already. Tova got to meet Jessica, her movie mom. Jessica is SO nice! she has already taken up some ASL classes. Tova and Jessica bonded so well! they played with the bunnies, did a puzzle, and played with the toys at the set.

Friday- day off- we went to Lakeview beach park. played in the sand before running back to van due to rain.

yesterday, we went to meet with Jessica again and met with Michael, Tova's movie dad. we all went to the house which is theirs in the movie with Jeff. There, Tova, Jessica and Michael hung out to get comforty with each other before the filming. that went very well. Tova didnt get so shy at all! had them play "go up to the moon" imaginary game, played Mouse Trap board game, did the puzzle, and had Michael climb the tree. :D

Today was the day off- we went to the Cleveland Science Museum, met up with Poppa Lou for dinner at Crocker Park- like Easton center in Columbus but in smaller scale.

Tomorrow is the first day of filming for Tova with Michael. Her calltime is 9am. It should be an easy scene- at the library.