Tuesday, February 20, 2007

'Tomness'

With grandparents living near and far (and when I say far, I mean 'other country' far), the pressure to film Tom (and travel to and fro) is fairly high. We forget quite lot (the filming I mean, not the travelling - we're good at remembering to do that) and Tom isn't really one for cooperating. The moment the camera comes on he usually does one of three things:

  • clams up
  • grabs the camera or
  • demands to see himself on playback.


One has to wait until he's absorbed completely in something else, like admiring his new bed for the first time for example, to capture his essential 'Tomness' - that or film him secretly as they do at AV UK.

Anyways, although this clip doesn't feature a great deal of Tom talking (you'll have to take it from me that he had been shouting incessantly about 'airplanes', tractors, mountains and heaven knows what since arriving at the airport) it does capture something of his character and demonstrates, for any movie directors out there looking for a cute kid with cochlear implants to star in your next blockbuster, that he can take direction.

It also involves me experimenting with a bit of background music, stupid titles and credits. For grandparents and other relatives I am hoping this will be seen as 'cute' rather than overly schmaltzy. Anyone else who happens on this, forgive me.

And, on reflection, he's over three feet high. Damn.







Two Feet High and Smiling on Vimeo

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jason, the link gives "Can't find the page you requested", a bespoke 404 page on Vimeo. Hope this helps

Jason said...

Thanks John - there were some problems with the site's conversion of the file. It appears to be rectified now!

Strange parallels with our old work relationship... you bringing my attention to faults...;)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for fixing it. I enjoyed watching it. I bet many Hollywood directors are envious of "Mummy's" complete control of the star. And what a star Tom is!

Anonymous said...

You're right! He is adorable. I went to grad school at the University of Indiana, where cochlear implants were a hotbed of research in the child development department of Psychology, where I took several classes.

It's awesome to see them in action in such a cute kid. The scowl, especially, was stellar.

(p.s. vimeo is still saying 0 views on the clip, but don't trust it. I watched it!)

P said...

I watched this video today.
Tom's so cute and the it is a great video too!

Now, that inspires me to do some cinematographic experiments with the rising star actress - Anasooya :-)
She used to like to pose for photos even at the age of 1, possibly because she liked the photo-flash.

Well done Tom, Nicky and Jason!

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness!

Tom is brilliant.

This and his "New Bed" video are just so wonderful!

Who knew that that the term "normal" could ever mean so much? :)

Yet, Tom is beyond "normal".

He is extraordinary.

Wendy

:D