Our day as TV stars

Let's Cook Competition Winners: Our day as TV stars

Earlier this year, from thousands of entrants we chose 4 lucky winners to come up to Manchester and star in one of our lets Cook TV commercials.

So how did the winners feel when they found out they had won and how did they found the experience of starring in a real TV commercial?! We spoke to them on set to find out!
 
The Lets Cook stars were Helena Federico (10) from Hampshire, Eve Challinor (9) from Lancashire, Victoria Butt (10) from Surrey and Lewis Plant (10) from Dorset.

This is their story...

Victoria– When my mum told me I had won I couldn’t believe it, I’ve always wanted to be an actress and this was going to be my chance

Lewis - I was really shocked when I had heard, it was a about 3 weeks after the closing date and so I thought I hadn’t got through - I was so happy when I found out that I had.

Eve - My mum was in the Supermarket when she was called to say I had been chosen. She told me when I got home from school; it was the best way to finish the day!

Helena– The day I heard that I had won I hadn’t been feeling well but I soon forgot about that when I was told the great news.

Many of the children had to travel a long distance to the studios in Manchester so a night in a hotel was all part of the adventure; Lewis even had to come by plane from Southampton airport followed by a taxi straight to the hotel. “I felt like a real star – it’s definitely something that I could get used to!” He said.

Victoria– The next morning we were picked up from the hotel and driven to the studios. It was called The Pie Factory... that’s a really unusual name, but we were told that the studio is quite famous and lots of TV shows have been filmed there.

Eve – I live quite close to the studios, so we went straight there from home and was first to arrive. When the others arrived I was in makeup and I was quite nervous because I had not met them before. We soon got to know each other though

Helena - Having the make up done was fun, there were loads of colours of eye-shadow and lipstick to choose from but the make up artist – Nadia - who has worked on lots of shoots before wanted a natural look. She also styled my hair and through out the day she was there with her touch up kit making sure we all looked our best.

Lewis - Being a boy my hair didn’t take a lot of styling but... don’t tell my friends... I had a little make up too.

Eve - Then came the time that were we were waiting for ...the filming. The first shot was of us all jumping up and down. This is to use at the end or the beginning of the commercials. It looks really easy when you see it on camera ... “one two three… jump”, but getting us all to jump and shout out the words at exactly the same time was really tricky.

Victoria - While the set was being changed and just like a real film set, a huge box of donuts was delivered for us to eat to keep our energy up. They were yummy!

Helena - Adam the director showed us parts of previous commercials to give us an idea of what we were going to do. This was really helpful because he broke it down into parts. It was good to think that we didn’t have to remember it all the way through.

Lewis - For the next few hours it was just hard work. There were lots of takes...and lots of waiting around whilst things were moved around. But we had been warned to bring computer games and magazines with us, and of course we were all talking to each other all of the time so we didn’t get bored. It’s amazing how much time it takes to produce just a couple of seconds of film.

Victoria - we were filming ads for three of the new products in the collection. A chocolate rotator, a crisp maker and cereal bar maker. We had different things to do for each but most of all we had to look like we were tasting what had been made. The easiest way to do this was to actually taste and not pretend. The chocolate rotator was my favourite, it was really funny to get messy with the chocolate but we also enjoyed the crisps that were being freshly made with the crisp maker as we were filming!

Eve - All the way through we were able to see how the filming was coming along. It’s weird seeing yourself in a real TV commercial but it makes you feel really special. I can’t wait to see the finished ads – and to show them to all my friends.

So would the kids want to be actors!

Eve- I’ve always wanted to be a singer/actress so this was all part of my dream. It may have been hard work but it’s just made we want to be an actress even more.

Lewis – This was a great adventure I really want to be an actor when I grow up and this was fantastic experience. The only down side is that the set does get very hot because of all the lights.

Victoria – I have always wanted to be an actress that’s why I entered and this certainly has not changed my mind. I loved it!

Helena - I loved every part of it and I think being an actress would be fun as you would get to do new things and meet new people all of the time.

Remember to watch out for our Lets Cook stars on TV next time you see one of our commercials!