Save the red

SO WHAT WENT ON BEHIND THE SCENES?...
DID FILMING AN AD LIVE UP TO MY DREAMS?.....
I LEARNT LOTS OF THINGS, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY.....
TURN OFF YOUR MICROPHONE WHEN YOU NEED A WEE!!

Hello again,

Last week I mentioned my fear of flying, and this week when I had to fly to Manchester and back again for the second time so I was determined I would be much better. Unfortunately this time when I got to the airport an announcement came over the tanoy saying “We apologise to all our passengers that due to an electrical storm overhead all planes will be grounded until further notice”

The fear came rushing back. I dreaded the storm following us once we finally took off and the plane being struck by lightning! I must admit to having a little “why me?” moment but in the end got through it all by putting on my iPod and reading one of the new books I had picked up at the airport shop for Sam. I don’t know what anyone watching must have thought about seeing a 39 year old woman bopping away whilst reading ‘Beast Quest’ a fantasy adventure book obviously made for children. By this point I didn’t really care though, I just wanted the journey over with, and have to say, I did actually quite enjoy the book!

Soon I was at the hotel, meeting up with Sue, Amira, Eve and Alissa, the other ‘Iceland mums’ in this particular advert. For me it is exciting enough just to have a night away in a hotel with other nice people, even if we hadn’t been filming an advert. When people ask me what is the best bit of winning the New Face of Iceland competition it really involves so many different things, I think I have to sum the whole experience up by saying I just get to do lots of new things I wouldn’t normally do! Staying in hotels with new friends falls into that category.

We were picked up from the hotel at 6.00am and driven to the studio. The attention to detail was the first thing I noticed. You would not believe how long it takes to film 30 seconds worth of television. The ‘soaps’ people must be much quicker or they would never get all those episodes out in a week. On this particular day we finished filming at 9.45pm; imagine doing that long a day, every day, for a career. After we had all had our makeup done the food had to have its make up done too! Under the heat of stage lights obviously food slowly loses its just cooked appearance as the day wears on. Everyone on set worked tirelessly all day to make sure that neither the actors, nor the food looked tired.

We were all wired up with microphones and I felt sorry for the sound man who had to listen to our constant chat all day between filming. It was actually surprising how quickly you forget they were there. On one occasion Alissa and I had rushed off to the toilet and only realised once we got there we were still switched on. The studios are huge and it was too far big to go back so we used our initiative and got over the problem by singing very loudly!

So, this week I have learnt a whole new language. The language of filmmakers! “Save the red” is now my favourite of all the filmmaker terms as this seems to mean that particular shot is finished with, and it’s time to move onto the next one. After ‘Take 13’ this is what you look forward to hearing! It did take me a while to work out that the sound man was actually fine, and just doing his job when he kept shouting out “we’re speeding”. This seems to simply mean the sound is now being recorded!

I have a mild Bristol accent, which is unnoticeable to the people of Bristol who all say I sound posh, (I’m not!) but it is instantly picked up on everywhere else I go in the country. The director noticed it and we started discussing where we grew up and then found out we had attended the same primary school! In fact he even remembered the little hill on the playing field where I fell over aged 7 and broke my arm playing kiss catch! (It taught me never to chase boys!). It really is a small world.

Everyone was very friendly, and although we must have given the production team a longer than usual day, as none of us are actors, they were all very patient. I’m really not sure what the finished result will look like until it comes onto TV later in September. Scenes and shots are filmed in a different order to how the end result will run so it’s hard to keep up.

Really can’t wait to see now though and am planning an advert party for the first screening with friends and family, at which it will be great to see their reactions to me being a TV star at last!

Overall I would have to say it’s a once in a lifetime experience and now I’m really looking forward to filming the Christmas Adverts. I will be staying with ALL the “Iceland mums” for this one, not sure the production team are ready for us all together but time will tell!

Although I had fun at the filming, I was so happy to get home to my family and friends and tell them all about it. I think sometimes it’s good for everyone to go away for a while as it really makes you appreciate all the more what you have at home. I came to the conclusion I really am a very lucky person.

The next exciting Iceland mission involves all the family and some friends too. I have been sent a list of Iceland products to test and send our results back to Iceland to help other shoppers decide what they might like. The boys are already taking it very seriously as I am paying them 20p per test product as long as they write down a score out of 10 and a comment about what they liked or didn’t like. I have invited friends round for a big barbeque and food testing session and will expect them all to do the same.

Please come back next week to see how we are getting on and also look out for our ‘official food reviews’ coming soon to the Iceland facebook page.

Thanks for reading
Ellie x