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| Millennium Hotel bathroom-day of shooting. |
On October 14th, 2011 my dearest friend Tommy Hoaglund and I got the privilege to film an episode for the new web mini-series called Style Rules put together by fashion icon Rachel Zoe. The shows main focus is to put two best friends, head to head in a style show down, to see who can create the best look. You are given a mission, $200 to spend, and only 90 minutes to get it all done.
This offer was one that completely fell into our lap. No searching was done for this project, at least not on our behalf. On October 4th, Tommy and I got a facebook message from a good friend of ours Rachel DeYoung (whom we met in Vegas this past summer for our friend Mitchell's birthday), telling us that her friend is doing a casting for two gay best friends who love fashion! Uhh- totally a gig made for us, right?! Not really taking that much interest into it right away, both Tommy and I discussed the possibilities that could come from such an experience. I've been offered for a few different shows, went on a couple of casting calls, and never really made the cut. Not feeling discouraged or anything, but I kind of saw this as a waste of time. There was no way that we could make them want to travel all the way from Los Angeles and New York, to come to Minneapolis to film a couple of gay best friends...but then, I thought to myself and said..."Why the hell not?!"
I sent Rachel's friend who was doing the search a nice, detailed email about who I am, what I do, and why I feel that Tommy and I would be great for such an episode. I added in 3 pictures of myself and 3 of me and Tom, and from there...it was on.
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| Taken by: Kyle Heger |
It didn't take long for me to here back from the lady. She emailed me the next day saying "Hi Ricky!! Thanks so much for sending this over, it's perfect!" Now I was extremely excited!
I was at work two days after I got that email and had received a voicemail from her asking if we were available that following Friday. Which luckily, we both were. As pumped as ever that we booked such a thing, I immediately called and notified Thomas of our next adventure!
He didn't know what to say or think, and my biggest struggle was to think about what to wear.
That whole week and a few days went by, with me emailing back and forth with multiple producers. Trying to figure out where a good meeting place would be, where good shopping locations are, what we should be expecting, etc. It was fun! Just knowing that I was literally communicating with these people for something that to me, came out of nowhere!
Friday finally came, and we were super stoked. We met with the production team at the Millennium Hotel downtown Minneapolis, and from there we were going to be filming our intros, and interviews on the Nicollet Mall strip. It was great just being super styled out, with a crew of cameras following you. It doesn't happen everyday. Not gonna lie, it did get a little distracting and kind of annoying when people would be standing right by me, asking what I was filming for...as I was filming.
Separated for most of that time, when we finally got back together, we filmed the shot for when we actually got to talk and hear from Rachel Zoe. Patiently awaiting the phone call on the new LG Marquee phones [which we used the whole day of filming] we didn't know how to react when we heard her voice over the speaker phone! We lit-erally died.
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| Rachel Zoe |
From there, we drove to Uptown in a race against time...and each other.
It was mandatory for us to check out VState Boutique located in the Calhoun Square area. We also got to venture off to the other stores in the area including Everyday People, Heartbreaker, Urban Outfitters, Ragstock and American Apparel.
We shopped for 90 minutes, running into each other on the streets creating fun and entertaining drama, our mission was accomplished. We had to take pictures of ourselves, using the phones given to us, and send them to Rachel and her team.
They judged us based on our outfits we picked out---they picked a Winner---
What happens next, will only be known once the episode airs online hopefully the 1st week of November.
All in all, I cannot express enough how amazing it was to film such an episode! Doing things for a t.v. show can be a lot of fun, and I of course would love to get into it. Have my own little fashion show on Bravo or something! That'd be a dream come true.
I also have to say a big Thank You to Rachel DeYoung, for being soo sweet and even keeping us in mind to suggest us for such a thing! It honestly means so much!
We're just two fashionable gay best friends, who love fashion. I can't wait for everyone to see the episode! <3 STAY TUNED!!!
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| Taken by: Melissa Hesse |
Til next time,
<3 The Rick.
CHECK OUT THE LATEST EPISODES RIGHT HERE!
Episode 2
Episode 3
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