DJ Steve Aoki Music Video

Tuesday morning and I am shooting the new DJ Steve Aoki music video. I love this artist’s work and when I met with the director and the producer at the casting I had a really good feeling about the project.

However, the past few days I have been feeling under the weather. Food poisoning slash an allergic reaction, which I usually never have, and my doctor gave me some medicine and told me to get some rest and let the body heal. Right. Today I look fine. But from Saturday and until yesterday my face was swollen like nobody’s business. And what do you do when you have an important shoot and look like shit?

Honestly, I thought about calling in sick. I looked and felt sick. But, I was so excited about this job and since I was not contagious I went to the film set anyways wearing big sunglasses and feeling very uncomfortable. However, and to my luck we were shooting underwater and not the new beauty campaign for DIOR. So, between the director, the makeup artist and I we sort of concealed the puffiness and I got in the couture dress and worked it.

By now, one of my specialities (if you can call it that) is aquatic modeling/acting. I have done so much underwater work this year that I could start a class. No really. Movies, fashion, music videos. Getting on set yesterday I soon realized that the challenge with this shoot would not be the actual acting. The couture dress was stunning and the setup and story was cool and professional so it would be a ride in the park. But the water in the pool was extremely cold. Colder than the ocean is right now. Aside from almost negative temperature,  being tight up in a huge and heavy dress with a corset limits your breathing. And when working in circumstances where your body almost panics, a calm and full breath is important. The 2 DPs looked like navy seals in dry suits and scuba gear filming me while I was getting in wearing a corsage white wedding dress and my skimpy La Perla lingerie.

Since I am a believer of the fact, that you can do what you set your mind to, I was not once worried about being in the water and I was sort of surprised when the director said it was a wrap. But once I was up and the team got me out of the wet couture my body was shivering uncontrollably. It was a pretty interesting physical reaction. However, after 15 minutes in a really hot shower I was as good as new. It’s all in the breath and in the mind.

Sorry for this long story, but I like being challenged in my work and yesterday was a challenge physically and mentally on a few levels. Today I had a meeting about another movie I might get involved in.

Now I’m about to call it a night. I’m off to NYC early Saturday morning. I’m super excited about it and can’t wait to show you pictures from my trip. Also, I watched some behind the scenes footage from yesterday’s shoot and it looked sooooo good! I asked the DP to send it to me so I can share it with you. Underwater stuff in slow motion just looks like a million dollars. Also when you have a very puffy face 😉