My X Factor Audition - It Was a Moooooooooving Experience
The following is an account (with a bovine twist) of LindiMoo's experiences from arrival to exit as she auditioned for Simon Cowell's television show, the X-Factor on 4-20-2011. Auditions were held at the Key Arena in Seattle. If you are a singer / vocalist or musician and are entertaining the thought of auditioning for this or any other reality music show competition like The Voice, American Idol, America's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent, or Australian Idol, this blog may be helpful. The first portion deals with what happened when LindiMoo was waiting in line to get into the audition. Be prepared to yell and scream and be silly for the cameras swooping all around you. If you are curious about LindiMoo's voice, feel free to visit her Album Page and Video Page.
LINDIMOO'S X-FACTOR AUDITION
WOW..what an adventure THAT was. There is truly no other phrase to describe this event than "cattle call"...how appropriate that I (LindiMoo) should be there. Let me tell you...nothing prepared me for what happened yesterday at the X Factor auditions. What a sea of people...screaming...dancing...and pretty much doing whatever the directors of the show asked them to do. Here's how it unfolded for Diana, Lorrie and I (Lorrie is our mutual friend and music supporter...she is amazing!). I wondered if they had this much hullabaloo at the auditions for The Voice or American Idol.
THE ARRIVAL
Since Diana won the "Front Of The Line Pass" contest from Seattle's Q13 Fox television station, she got to go to the head of the line and Lorrie and I tagged along with her as her guests and we arrived at the Key Arena in Seattle at a leisurely 6:00 a.m. instead of the 3:00 a.m. it would have taken to get a decent place in line. Holy cow!...the herd of people was already huge!. The staff started to show us where the end of the line was but Diana showed them her pass and we were moooved away from the rest of the stock. There was a large measure of satisfaction to be escorted past the massive amount of people corralled in line.
It was fun to watch them watch us and wonder who we were and why we were going to the front. Diana shouted and hooted and hollered at them like she was a rock star and they hooted and hollered right back at her, not having a clue who she was. That must be how stampedes start...one cow decides to run and the rest just blindly follow along.
At the front of the line we are directed to go even further and away from the crowds to a small line that is forming adjacent to the arena. It doesn't seem right but the bald-headed staff guy insists that where we need to be waiting is in the line for people with disabilities..true freakin' story!! We become part of the free range cattle...we are free to roam around the grounds while the rest of the herd are corralled tightly together and awaiting their fate.
THE SHOOTING OF THE HERD
Then...the filming started. The 20 or so Pepsi girls, all decked out in blue and red wigs and t-shirts and tight fitting blue leggings ran past our group and out to the corral of people and waved their pom poms and danced to loud pulsating music. An announcer gave the crowd instructions to cheer and dance and bounce in unison with the music while cameras on cranes and in a helicopter overhead shot at the massive herd. Although we were feeling pretty special about being set apart from the rest, we couldn't help but feel a twinge of being left out. I wanted to be in that crowd just so I could hold up my LindiMoo sign with the other signs that were being held up while cameras panned the crowd.
The shooting of the herd lasted a freaking hour...time after time, the announcer gave a command followed by cheers from the crowd or dancing...the cameras would swoop down and pan across the sea of faces. The helicopter circled and circled and circled. The Pepsi girls were called back 3 times to do retakes on their entrance. I remember watching the crowd shots from previous episodes of American Idol and wondering what it was like to be in that massive crowd...now I know that it takes a LOT of filming and retakes to get just a couple of seconds of final product.
THE INTERVIEW