Kids

After holding three casting sessions and auditioning roughly 40 teenagers, I have made my final selections and am preparing for a rehearsal tomorrow. One major problem, however, is that teenagers terrify me! They're so unpredictable and whenever I'm around them, I suddenly feel like the plump, awkward 13-year-old girl I once was. I hope they don't throw oranges at me.

The film I'm working on is a comedy about the extraordinary lengths one 11-year-old goes to in order to secure her first kiss. The character is supposed to be chubby but no overweight girls auditioned. Who knew finding a fat kid in America would be so difficult. I thought childhood obesity was supposed to be a big problem here. Apparently not in New York. Instead, I've chosen a young actress who could easily pass as a dork with the right costuming.

I've asked my performers to bring along five different outfits each so I can begin thinking about production design. Patterns look really terrific in black and white. I'm thinking about dressing the lead actress in a striped t-shirt and heart shaped glasses. The story takes place in summertime but New York is unseasonably cold at the moment and people have already begun wearing their winter coats. At this stage, I don't know how we're going to overcome this problem.

I'm very homesick at the moment but the long hours of work make it easier to be away from everyone. My new friends here are great and we spend so much time together that we've grown extremely close already.