Set This Party Off

Another update after only a couple days - yay! Don't get used to it LOL. I just have more things going on lately and thought to type it up now. I'll have more updates coming soon (hopefully) but first JONAS :)

Some exciting news!! You may remember that I worked on the Disney Channel TV show "Jonas L.A." a little while back. We shot 8 songs at the beach and I had a blast! Anyway, I just came across a music video of one of the songs and was happy to find that I have a close up in it. So I wanted to share it with you all. The song is called "Set This Party Off" and it's a fun upbeat summer song. Below is a picture of me during the close up in the video (I am the girl in the middle) as well as the actual music video. If you watch the video the close up is around the 2:30 time mark. Enjoy!

Chillin' in the Summertime

Alyssa, me & Ashley at the beach bonfire

Hey everyone! Sorry its been awhile since my last update. I feel like I say that every time I write a new entry - but it's always true lol. Since my last update I have been up to a few things. Mainly just enjoying the summer! But here are a couple of more detailed updates. Enjoy :)

GREEK
After working on "Pretty Little Liars" twice - I worked on another ABC Family TV show called "Greek". I was a little nervous working on this one mostly due to the fact that I have heard horror stories about the set and people from other background actors. However, my experience on the show was a good one. I was a Zeta Beta Zeta sorority girl which was pretty fun. I got to get all dressed up as well because the scenes we shot were at a party type event at the sorority house for the pledging of the new sisters into the sorority. We shot at CBS Studios. It was my first time at the studio but its really nice there. Over all my experience was a good one on the show. The episode is #4 of the 4th season (the new season). I'm not sure when the season will begin showing on ABC Family. But keep an eye out.

HARVEST
I have developed a close friendship with Ashley (a co-worker from the movie theater) and have started going to her church Harvest with her. I LOVE it there! It's bigger than my church back home but I love it. The people are really great and I am learning a lot. It's actually the home church that puts on the Harvest Crusades (which I went to last year). Greg Laurie is the pastor and he's great. They also have special guests that come in and sing fairly often. Revive just played tonight and they were so great! I feel like I've found my church home here now. I've also been going to the college age group 'The Well' that meets on Friday nights whenever I can (due to work). Saturday night The Well had a get together at the beach. We ate, hung out, had a bonfire, had a little devotional, and sung worship songs. It was so much fun! Anyway, I'm really loving it there! I wish I could get more involved at the church but I never know what my schedule is going to be.

ACTING
I am still taking my acting class every week, but other than that I haven't had much going on in the acting world lately. There are a couple open calls that I am going to make videos for and submit with in the next couple weeks - so I'll keep you updated if anything happens with them. I am also getting together some reference letters from teachers and am writing a letter myself that I am going to send to some people at Disney to try and get an audition. Disney would be my ideal employer and I am really hoping something will come from my submission. We'll see - it's all in God's hands.

BIRTHDAYS
My birthday was good. Pretty low-key but fun all the same. I relaxed and enjoyed it. My parents sent me a computer camera and so we had a video chat. It was my first time doing it and it was a little weird, but cool too. So I know have a Skype account so that I can have these fun video chats with my friends and family - so excited! After that I hung out with my friend Ashley. We went to church and then hung out and watched Disney Channel together after wards. So it was fun. Then Ashley's bday was the 23rd -- so we went to breakfast with a couple other girls, saw "Ramona & Beezus" (which is really cute and I highly recommend it), went to The Well and then hung out afterward and got frozen yogurt. So now I have a birthday buddy :)

SUMMERTIME
I really haven't been doing much so far this summer. But I do have some fun things coming up. On Tuesday Ashley and I are going to spend the day in LA and then watch a live taping of a brand new Disney Channel TV show "Shake It Up" (it hasn't come out yet - they just started filming it). So I am very excited about that! The Harvest Crusade is coming up in the beginning of August. I'm hoping to be able to go at least one day - we'll see when it gets closer if work will allow, etc. And then on September 19th Ashley and I are going to see the Jonas Brothers in concert!! I am also hoping to catch some baseball games before the season ends. So I do have some plans coming up. I would also like to just hang out at the beach some. The bonfire was the first time I have been all summer so far - crazy! So I'd like to go more. I'm just enjoying the summer and relaxing.

OTHER
With acting, work and church I have been staying pretty busy. I've been writing a lot lately. I'm working on a couple different TV show and movie ideas right now. I'm really excited about them and hope that one day they will be made into a reality. I'm getting antsy about getting acting going. I'm just ready to get something. But then I think about how God is in control and how His timing is best. So I'm just trying to be patient (which is hard) and wait on Him. I'm just ready to do what I love and make a difference in lives. I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me, my acting and just my future in general!

Pretty Little Liars

I was able to work on the new hit ABC Family TV Show "Pretty Little Liars" twice, so far. It is so much fun on the set. The cast and crew are all great and down to earth. We shot at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, CA. I love working at studios - its just a different dynamic than shooting on locations. It's hard to put into words, I just love the feel of the studio atmosphere.

The first day I worked on the show, we shot scenes from the Rosewood homecoming dance. I was on set for 15 hours and had a blast. Minus the pain from wearing heels that long lol. I was literally limping for the next two days straight that is how bad my feet hurt. But it was fun getting to get all dressed up. It was cool seeing how real the set looked and how cool it was (it was fake, all built and inside a studio sound stage). It was cool seeing some actors who I have seen on other shows on the set. The ones I recognized were Lucy Hale (who I have seen on Wizards of Waverley Place and in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2), Janel Parrish (who I had seen in Bratz: The Movie) & Torrey Devitto (who I knew as crazy nanny Carrie from One Tree Hill). I also got to dance with Chuck Hittinger (he plays Sean on the show, for those of you who have seen it). For those who haven't seen the show or read the books, he is the boyfriend of one of the main girls on the show. And I got to dance with him for a little bit. That was awesome I can't wait to see the episode when it airs. Fingers are crossed that our dancing makes the final cut :). The homecoming episode comes out in two weeks! It is #6 "There is No Place Like Homecoming" and will be airing on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 @ 8pm on ABC Family.

The second time I worked on the show it turned out to be a short day. I was there for about 6 hours and only shot one scene. It was in the school hallway - I was just a student walking by while two of the main characters on the show (Lucy Hale who plays Aria and Ashley Benson who plays Hannah) are having a conversation. But it was still a blast. The set is so much fun to work on. All of the cast and crew are great. I hope to be able to guest star on the show one day. This episode is #8 "Friends ForNeva" and as of now will be airing on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 8pm on ABC Family. So watch, keep an eye out for me and let me know what you think!

This picture I took walking from the parking structure to the entrance at Warner Bros. Studios, getting ready to work on the show.

JONAS L.A.

May 5th & 6th I worked on the second season of the Disney Channel TV show Jonas titled "Jonas L.A." starring the Jonas Brothers. When I called and submitted for the job they said it was for a show under a different name. I had never heard of it before so I figured it must be a new show. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I showed up on set to find out it was actually for "Jonas". I had heard that for some big shows and movies they use fake names when casting extras so that the word doesn't get out but I had never had that happen to me until this job.

We filmed on location at Will Rogers State Beach off of the Pacific Coast Highway. And we filmed concert scenes on the beach for two days. It was such a blast! Anyone who knows me knows I love the Jonas Brothers. I have seen them twice in concert back in VA and so I was so happy to be working on their show.

The first day we filmed some scenes with the actresses on the show Nicole Gale Anderson (she plays Macy) and Chelsea Staub (she plays Stella). Big Rob (the Jonas Brothers' body guard), the littlest Jonas, Frankie and another young female actress was there and filmed a short scene. The Jonas Brothers came at the end of the day and we filmed one song with them. Then it was a wrap for the night.

The second day we filmed all concert scenes all day. There were 7 brand new songs for the show that we filmed. The songs were really good. And it was cool to be one of the firsts to hear them. This also happened to be the last day of filming for the shows second season. The crew gave each of the Jonas Brothers a guitar they had signed for them saying "You're always giving out autographs so we thought we'd give you ours instead." It was so sweet. And in between filming the JoBros gave us a live acoustic performance of a couple of their songs to thank us for coming. We filmed one song that Nicole Gale Anderson starts in the audience beside me and then goes up on stage and Nick Jonas sings to her. So that was cool. She's really nice.

The first day there were a few fans that came to the beach to watch the filming, but not a lot. On the second day however, there were a lot of people who found out about it and came to watch. I also saw my first paparazzi. They weren't aloud on the set obviously but they were there. It was so weird. There were about 20 of them up in the parking lot watching with their cameras for most of the day. Anyway, I had a blast filming and am very thankful to have been a part of it. Below are some pictures from the set. Enjoy!

Will Rogers State Beach. Isn't it beautiful?

The set where we filmed.


JONAS :)

The Jonas Brothers accepting their guitars from the crew.

Nicole Gale Anderson (Macy) getting wrapped for season 2.

Nick Jonas in between takes of the song "Critical" from the show.

Jonas Brothers performing a couple acoustic songs for us.

Acting General

On Monday, May 3rd, me and my friend Ashley (from my acting class) had a very special acting opportunity. My acting teacher, Shelene arranged for us to have an acting general. Basically it's when you meet with some industry people, perform monologues, show your acting and get honest feedback. Anyway, Shelene set one up for us. On the first Monday of every month Shelene has a meeting with her board for her charity Skip 1. She happens to have many entertainment industry professionals on her board. So she arranged for us to come and after her meeting got out, then we could have our general.

We had been working hard in acting class and preparing for this general for the last couple of months. We were finally to the point where Shelene thought we were ready to have our general. So we drove to Orange County (where they have their meeting) and practiced while we waited.

We had our general with a producer named Shannon Macintosh. She is a big producer who is high up with The Weinstein Company. She works on all of the movies by director Quentin Tarantino - because he specially requests her. So she's a big name out here. And we also performed with a lady who does commercials, Shelene, and a friend of theirs.

I did two monologues. One I found online about a sorority girl who is Elle Woods-y (from Legally Blonde) and one from the movie "Serendipity". I found out afterward that "Serendipity" was one of the movies Shannon Macintosh produced. That was kind of intimidating. I'm hoping she liked it. After monolgues, me and Ashley performed a scene together from the movie "John Tucker Must Die". Then we each did a commercial and an inprov exercise, where we had to pretend to be a person on one of those entertainment news shows and report on 3 different stories that were currently in the headlines. After that we left.

We didn't get much feedback from them, but you won't in real life on auditions either. Shelene seemed really proud of us, which was good. I did my best and had fun. Its a good opportunity - you never know what might come up in the future. We are taking the month of May off of class and will begin again in June. I'll find out all the 411 on their complete honest opinion next class. Shelene is going on a mission trip to Haiti for Skip 1 this week. So keep her and her team in your prayers! If you wish to find out more about Skip 1 you can do so here www.skip1.org. It's a really good organization that raises money to help feed children across the world. And 100% of your proceeds go directly to do so!