Kitchen on film

A few days ago, a work colleague asked my husband if she could hire our kitchen to shoot a small sequence for a corporate video that she was making for the Post Office. They needed an open family style kitchen and she'd once visited our house and thought it might be just right. "It will be very disruptive," warned my husband. "But they offered to pay for the inconvenience." My kitchen would be earning its own keep? I decided that I really liked the sound of that. So, after giving it the clean of its life, helped by my lovely mum, I was all ready for the crew to arrive yesterday morning.
Spick and span! New door mat. Backs of cupboards and fridge zapped. Linens washed and ironed. Accessories artfully arranged....

Fluff up the rest of the downstairs, just in case they'd like to film anywhere else ;) A few vintage vistas maybe? Pan the camera across the car boot finds?

You can probably guess what's coming next...the scene in the film was supposed to be happening at night, so the first thing the crew did was to swathe all of our downstairs windows in thick black plastic sheeting. They then drew all the curtains and blinds, so it was really gloomy (and hot) inside. I would love to know what our neighbours thought was happening when they saw the blacked out windows and then a lot of cameras being carried into the house. Scandal in the Close!

An actress arrived, and then this chap, the star of the scene:

The story was that the actress was having a really bad day. She arrives home at night, the dishwasher has flooded, she drops her bag, a milk carton explodes all over the floor, and the cat promptly licks it all up.
So, within minutes, that pristine kitchen was awash with soapy water, spilt milk, a slightly temperamental marmalade cat, his handler and a fraught crew, wires, cables, cameras and microphones.

According to the director, the best thing about the location was....our big kitchen floor.
It was a fun day, and very interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes. All that effort for 20 seconds of footage! The actress, Christine, was partial to a bit of vintage, so at least someone appreciated my special effects :)