The Thistlewits Short Film

Ben and I had a chance to be in a short film together some time last year. It just released on Amazon!!! You should totally watch it!

Ben, Jess, and I auditioned and landed parts in a short film last summer. It was a blast to film and it was my first big role! I was actually on camera with my own speaking lines! And by speaking lines, I mean a bit more than the Lamaze breathing I did on “Young Sheldon.” Although, for someone who’s never been in a Lamaze class, I totally think I nailed it. 😉

Anyone find me yet? I’ll give you a clue… I filmed this year, so I’m definitely not in season 1 or season 2. Not much of a hint, huh? Comment below if you found me!

Back to “The Thistlewits”. Ben and I got to play lead roles opposite each other and I fulfilled my lifelong dream of kissing my hubby on camera. 😘 Jess also had quite a few lines as well. Being one of the leads is very different than being background. First of all… there’s hardly any down time like there is when you’re background. All the down time is spent up rehearsing lines, changing costumes, touching up hair and makeup, and standing in for the lights and camera.

Jess got to experience, for the first time, a night shoot. Night shoots have a call time in the evening and we work all night, usually racing the sun to finish before the sunrise. The reason for night shoots are for *drum roll please* …. night scenes! Which this show had a few of.

Now, night scenes, for adults who are used to being awake during the day and sleeping at night, are rather difficult. As tired as you are at three a.m, you still need to look and sound awake. Night scenes for kids… are so tough! Children don’t fake being awake well. When they’re falling on their face… they are literally falling on their face. And we had several kiddos on set.

Now, typically when I have a night shoot, I try to take a nap during the day, or go to bed super early the night before. Trying to convince a little person to be sensible and take a nap before heading to set is another thing entirely.

There came a time when the littles started dropping off one by one but we still had shots to get. We had them all jumping up and down, eating candy, and having races to get their hearts pumping a bit. It was tricky. Hats off to our amazing directors and camera crew for making the shots work with little ones who were very obviously sleepy.

We had an amazing few days (and a few nights) of filming. On our last film day we had a surprise visit from the script writer, Jenni James and her husband Jason. It turns out, the story we were bringing to life on film, was actually based on a true story. Ben and I got to meet the real people who we were portraying. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. It’s not every day you get to portray a character who you actually get to meet. I got a good chuckle when Jenni James, who is a beautiful light-skinned red-head reacted to seeing me with, “Yay! I’m ethnic!” More than anything I hope that our acting did justice to the actual people who we were trying to capture in film.

A few months later we were flown out to Utah to do a couple pick up shots. That was another first for us. Jess had never flown in an airplane before, and she loved it. We were there for just a few hours to shoot some scenes and then headed back home. Once finished, “The Thistlewits” was submitted for film festivals and received several awards.

I loved the whole experience. Filming with people we already knew and love working with was a blast. The director and producer are friends of ours that we have worked with before and hope to work with again. We also met many more amazing new friends. They are all truly salt of the earth people.

I hope you make the time to watch this film. If you do, please consider leaving a rating and review on Amazon. It would truly help. So, let’s pop some corn and have a movie night! (Link here: The Thistlewits)