A few weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested to consult on a baby wearing scene for an episode of a popular Quebecois television series called “La Galère” . I jumped at the opportunity! Not because I know the show, I actually had never heard of it, but because it sounded like fun 🙂

I needed to get there at 7:30am. That alone was my biggest stressor…. My mom decided at last minute last Friday that she would take the boys to the cabin for the weekend so they were with her while Simon and I caught up with some things in the house. It also made it easier to figure out what I would do to get to Montreal on time. The location was just a few minutes from our friend Jody’s house who is currently travelling, so we were able to get the keys and sleep there on Sunday night.

I got up bright and early and headed to the old 26 room manor called the Mary Dorothy Molson House that they are using as the set. The house itself was amazing to see.

I met with the costume ladies and was shown the bit of african cloth they wanted to use for the character and was told what the director was looking for. I also met with the mom and two beautiful 3 month old twin girls who play the role of the baby in the show.

Then it as the hard part. To explain that what the director wanted was not realistic with such small babies who are not used to be worn and to try to find an alternative. After many trials we ended up using the babies’ silicone twin double.

Watching the shootings of the scenes were quite interesting.

Everyone had a job to do and the director was very stereotypical and you did not want to get in her way. I was able to watch the screen seeing the scene come to life, take after take… and once they got what they wanted in one position, they needed to go the next one in a different angle or with the close-up on one one actor instead of the others… Literally hours of saying the same thing over and over again… I could never be an actor! As I watched on the screen I payed attention to little details and made sure that the carrier was placed the same way each take and enough of the babies head was showing to show that there was a baby on her back but made sure that there was not too much because the silicone jiggled too much each time the actress moved…

The next scene that was shot was actually what was happening right before the first scene and the actress is trying to get the baby on her back while reading instructions… it was actually quite hilarious because I have the exact same instruction booklet and was as confused at reading the instructions myself as the actress was in the scene. This time I had to make sure that the acctress was starting out with the baby on her back in the right position each time and had to show another actress how to help her wrap the baby while making sure that it looked like it did before…(or actually just after in the show) After another hour or so, that scene was finally done and I was able to leave and get back to Simon and Wilhelmina who were waiting for me back at Jody’s house…

The opportunity was so much fun and I am looking forward to be called again if needed 🙂

It also felt great getting paid a reasonable price for just a few hours of work!

Oh… the material we were using was an African Khanga, or actually 2 Khanga’s sewn together. The original position that was wanted was an african carry which was not going to work out as it was not complicated enough for the scene and could not work with the tiny babies. The carry that I ended up showing was an improvised kangaroo back cross carry…