The J Man is an actor. Says so right on his Facebook
profile, so it must be true.
Thanks to my brother-in-law, Anthony, it’s an accurate
assessment of his occupation, at least as far as an 11 year-old can have an
occupation. In fact, thanks to movie-making Anthony, nearly everyone in my
family can make that claim. Everyone ‘cept me, but that’s okay. Maybe next
time.
Jake’s debut was in The
Land Between, a television documentary which told the story of the land
between the Canadian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands –essentially Ontario’s
Muskoka-Kawarthas cottage country. Part history lesson, part environmental
message and beautifully shot with gorgeous photography, The Land Between
featured stellar performances (I’m biased, of course) from my wonderful clan.
For the record, top marks go to number one son Matt and
brother-in-law Adrian for the meatiest of roles, while the J Man, who played a
child sneaking up to the campfire to hear the grownups talk, took home the
Oscar for best scene-stealing ‘look.’
Anyhow, Jake brushed off his resume and we gathered up his
lovely nieces Allison and Lauren and headed to High Park in Toronto Monday
night for another performance for the ages. This time for a scene in a
30-second spot for the Toronto International Film Festival.
This was the first time seeing Jake and the girls in action,
and the first time watching Anthony, who wore a producer hat for this gig, work
his movie magic.
The setting was the back yard of a beautiful home (owned by
a bank executive) high on a cliff overlooking Grenadier Pond. A million dollar
home (maybe $2 million: what do I know?) with a ten million dollar view, for
what it’s worth.
The shoot was for a promo for the Midnight Madness horror
section of the festival. The scene? It called for the kids – there were seven,
as I recall, with the youngest just three years old – to play summer campers
innocently roasting marshmallows on the campfire until a horror named Igor
arrived to interrupt their reverie. Jake
and his fellow actors were expected to scream in terror when Igor (actually a
nice dude named Lars, who is a stand-up
comic when he’s not scaring children) arrived, carrying the limp body of a camp
counsellor in one hand while brandishing said counsellor’s gouged-out eyes in
the other.
Scary, huh?
I’d tell you more about the shoot, except Anthony told me it
was still all hush-hush. So you didn’t hear this from me.
The scene went beautifully –it only took nine takes – and the
kids were awesome. It was also very cool to see my bro-in-law in action, though
during a coffee run to Starbucks he was asked by the barista if he was the “production
assistant.” (Maybe that was the hush-hush part. Sorry, Anthony.)
There was even a little excitement in the evening, when
immediately after the final take and the applause was awarded, one of the
neighbours started shouting obscenities about the presence of spot lights on
his lawn. Or something.
Some people just don’t appreciate movie magic.
*
While I’m handing out laurels to the kids, I would be remiss
if I didn’t give a shout-out to my friend David, son of my buddy Don and Anne,
who is also a friend from college.
David was proudly representing District 3 at the Special
Olympics Provincial Championships last week in three events – the Shot Put, the
50-metre dash and the Standing Long Jump. He ended up medalling in, let’s see,
carry the ten and...ALL THREE events, with silver in the 50 (he told his mom he was wearing his magic shoes) and a pair of
bronzes in his other disciplines.
Pretty damn special, if you ask me. Awesome job, David!
No comments:
Post a Comment