Photo Frenzy tip

This year, I’ve “done” a lot of red carpets. Not that anyone has cared….

A short film I star in, called Docket 32357 has been doing really well in film festivals around the country and so I have dutifully gone along to represent and help promote the film.

My castmate and I have done a lot of standing in front of step-and-repeats, walking slowly down red carpets smiling and mingled around press corrals, poised and ready to answer questions.

But usually, the journalists were not too interested… waiting instead to photograph and interview the “stars” of the festivals (usually the well-known actors in the opening and closing night feature films.)

I’m not complaining though! It’s been a fun ride and a great learning experience.

But it finally happened…the film won a big award last month, and I found myself at an event in Tribeca, set up just for us and our film! All of a sudden, people wanted to take our picture.

So we stood, and were photographed, alone, together, holding the statue alone, holding it as a group, with the event host, with the event sponsors, with other actors there from other films, with people whom I still have no idea who they were….flash, flash, flash…it was a photo frenzy.

I can’t say it was “fun” but because I am so proud of the film, I was happy to pose for as many pictures as they wanted.

But after the frenzy was over I had an unsettled feeling, that I really didn’t know what I was doing. Luckily the event host, an experienced filmmaker from LA, did know. He is more used to these kinds of photo frenzies, partly because his films have been doing well and partly because he is so darn photogenic that I imagine people always want to snap him.

Luckily, he is also a nice guy and happy to give advice. I asked him, how does one handle photo frenzies like that?

And here is his advice: He said, “think of something or someone that truly makes you happy, and hold that person or that image in your mind. That way your smile will come naturally and it will look that way in all those photos.”

I loved it! It makes so much sense and I’ll definitely be using this trick for all my upcoming red carpet moments. In fact I have a few lovely people in mind right now, and my smile is very big.