The kitchen scene puts Jonas, Otto, and Amber in the spotlight. It lays the groundwork for these characters. The tension between Jonas and Otto is a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse.
Then “The Man in the Mask” enters to drop in a keg of dynamite igniting the action.
On paper and in the cut, the kitchen scene is chopped up. But in “real” time the kitchen scene is one moment in the timeline.
Planning The Kitchen Scene
To nail the kitchen showdown we needed an island countertop. The room is a powder keg. Every major player is locked and loaded. Otto and his crew hold steady on one side. On the other is “The Man in the Mask” ready to unleash his fury. The island is the battle line.
Scoring this location took work. The homeowner had to agree to hand over their kitchen for three straight days. We needed to take over the main level of the house to capture every shot.
I blasted out emails to everyone I knew. One friend offered her house as ground zero for the film. The home had a nice layout connecting the kitchen with a dining room.
This photo captures the view through the eyes of “The Man in the Mask”. We are mapping out the scene where Jessica grabs the fridge as her shield in the heat of the action.
With more time and cash, this moment would land like a sledgehammer. Instead we planned one bullet slamming into Jessica’s knee.
Picture this: Bullets rip through the fridge door. Condiments explode in a mess of color and chaos. Then flip to Jessica’s eyes. Bullets punch holes into the door inches from her face. Bang! Then her knee is shot. Blood splatters around as she slides into the nearby hallway for cover.
Production Staging Area – The Basement
The blessing of using a house for a production was access to the basement. This space became the production staging area for crew, gear, food, and the makeup area.
We had full access to the basement. This became our greenroom and production staging area. We packed with crew, snacks, and a makeshift makeup station. Everything we needed for the kitchen scene above was ready to go.
Sara Smudzinski, our ace makeup artist, worked her magic in the basement. She turned actors into battle-scarred warriors with every brushstroke.
We fueled the cast and crew with bottom-shelf snacks. Chips, cookies, and overly processed cheese slices. There was plenty to go around. Quality was lacking.
I was a broke student director trying to stretch every dollar. Rookie move. This was a mistake. I should have chosen real food. The cast and crew deserved it.
The cheese slices remained sealed for me to take home after the production. I tasted them. They were nasty. One toss into the trashcan for processed junk
The Shooting Days
The production moved at breakneck speed. We tore through the kitchen script in two days flat.
We even squeezed in a reshoot on day two. Director of Photography Dirk van Sloten spotted shadows he hated from one camera angle. We nailed those shots first before finishing our day strong.
The only bottleneck in this house was the weak central AC. It barely made a dent against the heat. We kept it off while rolling the camera to get clean audio. We also blacked out every window to fake the dead of night. Zero air flowed while we filmed.
The air inside got thick and heavy. Sweat beading on every brow of the cast and crew. Between takes the cast and crew took a breather outside.
I skipped the outside breaks to keep the production running.
I was focused on coordinating the actors, crew, and Dirk’s camera setup. Dirk and I mapped out each angle with Co-director Christopher Kuiper.
Dirk is blocking the camera shot for the shootout.
While I spent the bulk of my time in the kitchen Christopher spent a good portion managing the basement. He acted as the 1st AD after we picked each shot. Chris laid out the next move for the actors and Sara.
Chris captured the “behind the scenes” photos. He only appeared in a handful of photos.
The Kitchen Scene Script
The most pivotal scene in the film became the most challenging to edit.
The kitchen scene is paper thin–barely any dialogue to fuel the tension.
I would rip up the kitchen script pages. Then add more hard-hitting lines for the key players. This would save the story. More dialogue means more ammo for the plot to thicken.
Final Kitchen Scene Recap
I still love the adrenaline action filled experience of the kitchen scenes.
We were rookie “student” filmmakers. No budget. Wild ambitions. We were blessed with a talented cast and crew.
We pushed every limit to create a fun action scene out of nothing. The cramped space was a wonderful cinema battleground.
Our smartest move was to double down on the chases. We scheduled more scenes to hunt “The Man in the Mask”.
Next we spliced those high-octane chase scenes alongside the kitchen showdown. Every cut from the foot chase cut back to the tight quarters of the kitchen.
The tension kept the audience guessing.
Filming those kitchen scenes is one of my proudest moments. Everyone brought their A-game on those sweat-soaked days.
Thank you all for a blast of an experience.
