I was first approached by our producer, Ryan Omega to do a sketch for his series, Hurry Up & Wait. At that point, HU&W had several episodes under their belt and I’ve watched all of them. Ryan knew that my side hobby is Lolita fashion (a popular street fashion subculture in Japan). He didn’t know much about it, but we both wanted to do something with this. He came up with the idea of making a stutter skit that was quirky, cute, and randomly Japanese. (*_*);
Once we came up with a concept of what we both wanted then we started casting. I originally had the idea of either using two Asian girls OR one Asian and one Caucasian female singing + dancing to the tune of “Monkey Beat.” Immediately I found girl who was available and wanted to do this (Yay!). I originally had 2 other girls in mind for the second part, but in the end could not commit to this project due to scheduling conflicts. Adrianne Grady (one of our actresses from our HU&W group) lobbied really hard for a part in this. Now at first, I was reluctant to use her simply because she was used in a lot of previous sketches. I had originally preferred to use new faces to the show as opposed to using our regulars. But boy, did she prove me wrong! She brought an interesting and completely different side to the character that was so fun and so likeable that it was inspired for another skit (which I’ll talk about in another blog entry). Adrianne really is talented and her improv is hysterical!
Once we agreed on a day to shoot, I was able to help put a look together and style the actresses. Ryan really wanted both girls looking very similar (or in Lolita terms “twinning”). Fortunately, my friend Lee Zarate (our other actress on this) and I both owned Angelic Pretty’s Miracle Candy triple frill JSKs (that’s a mouthful)! Once both of our girls got dressed and had their hair + make up done we went to a local park near my home and shot our skit there. I got to do a lot on this skit--AD, Wardrobe, and PA. Ryan did directing and all the filming. Once we finished and went back to my place, Ryan, Adrianne, and Lee did all the remaining ADR work in my walk-in closet. In the end, it was a very fun shoot and I got inspired to create another skit with Adrianne and Lee which I'll save for another blog entry.
If you hadn't seen it already, please watch our skit here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxjxpq1xscY
Love & Peace! (^_^)V
~Mary
