Movie Star Steven!

Steven was cast as the five year old version of the main star in a Canadian film they are filming locally. It seems to be the thing to film movies in North Africa, these days. This one is called "Changing Climates". I am still a little fuzzy on the actual plot, but it has a little to do with illegal immigration, and growing old - noticing how times change. Or at least that's what I've heard. The following are a series of pictures of Steven's day of "shooting". So far it is just a one day contract, but they said there is a possibility of a second day.


Steven got up at 5am (and didn't go back to sleep in the car) and we arrived on set sometime after 6am - he insisted on getting out of his jammies and into regular clothes even though they immediately changed him into his costume.




First he had to get makeup. Not much, just a touch - but it was a fun new experience. Then he got costumed, which took some doing because all the pants and shorts they had were huge on him - they ended up stealing a bootlace to use as a belt for the pair of shorts they chose. Hopefully no one will notice the "Hugo Boss" on his socks. Partway through the first shot of filming I noticed that his overshirt had come down and a very contemporary patch on his sleeve was showing, so they had to remove it and re-shoot (hooray for eagle-eye mom!)

"Mr. DeMille I'm ready for my close-up!"


Then there was a bit of time to explore the set while they readied everything for the first shot.









This is Steven with his casting agent and new best friend, Aziza. She did whatever she could to keep him happy and out of trouble - and when they needed him on the set it was her job to get him there in perfect condition within seconds of their beckoning. GREAT JOB Aziza!




There was lots of tempting equipment for Steven to keep his hands off of - but he did a great job staying away from it. One thing that helped was a piece of "set dressing" or "prop" which was a small bicycle that he rode the training wheels off about four times (the left one kept falling off no matter how many times we repaired it!)





Finally Steven got a chance to do his thing for real! Here is a shot of him in action.


Steven got to hang out with his "daddy" during most of the shots - they got along like a house on fire!





The story is set at a French Winery and there was a gigantic flatbed of beautiful grapes in many of the scenes. At first they had Steven sample them, but when he crunched on a seed (which he was not accustomed to) he made a face and seriously refused to try another... I even tried one to show him how yummy they were and to demonstrate sneaking the seeds out with your tongue so you don't have to crunch them... but in the end, they just changed the script and had the dad eat them instead.







Before each shot the director would explain to Steven just what to do and how to do it - she was very patient and understanding with him - and later told me that she had two energetic kids of her own!




There were four versions of Steven's character on the set at different times - this is the most famous of them... but I forgot his name, (if you know it, please enlighten me - Vernon something).



This star was very accomodating for a photo with the five year old version of himself - and looking at this closeup makes me wonder what they will do about the difference in eye color.... hooray for computers!


Proud Stage Mommy!