BBQ Pulled Pork Heaven

We recently had the pleasure of shooting for our friends at the Golden Arches again. Over the years, we've shot a number of projects for them and this happened to be the second new product launch we've worked on. Back in the day, we shot a new sandwich called the jalapeno burger. It was spicy!

This recent shoot was a little different from what we'd done in the past as we were asked to capture stills and video of the new BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich. The client also wanted us to create a more relaxed, real environment for this project.

To keep the project streamlined and consistent, David chose to shoot the stills and video with the same lighting. He didn't want to change from strobes to continuous lighting, and we were able to accomplish this by using some brighter lights and a shallow depth of field.

In addition to ensuring the lighting was consistent, another challenge we were presented with was to show the product steaming hot in the video. We discussed a variety of ways to do this, but in the end, we just used real steam.  

The end results – another successful shoot and happy clients. What more could we ask for?!?

We created a Kansas City looking BBQ joint in the studio!

Shooting handheld stills to add to a more "real" feel to the imagery.

Piping steam in from the back of the sandwich.

Steam, steam, steam!

Our Food Stylist putting the final touches on the product before we start shooting video.

Using our skater to capture nice, smooth moves.

Checking the focus.

The client, Food Stylist and David examining the details on the large monitor.

Launching a New Brand – Part 3

Thanks for joining us for our final installment in this three part series on launching a new brand. If you've followed along, you know that we've discussed what it takes to prepare for a large photo and video shoot, how many people it actually takes to pull off a production, what factors are taken into consideration when planning and prepping and how decisions are made on set.

One of the components of this multifaceted project was a video to announce the launch of the brand into the marketplace. Our client challenged us to capture all of the following in a two minute video – the ease with which a number of their products could be prepared, customers in a restaurant enjoying the prepared products and multiple testimonials from actual brew pub owners talking about why they liked and used the products.

Add to that a script that was still in flux days before the shoot began, some extremely short deadlines, the logistical aspect of shooting at four locations, confirming models, extras, food recipes, props, etc...you get the idea. While it was a lot to wrangle, capture and edit, it was a challenge we were totally up for!

Shooting in the studio and on location in Kansas City, Grand Rapids, MI and Springfield, MO, we captured days of video footage. We can't say enough about how wonderful the video crew, food stylists, production coordinators, talent agency and others we're surely failing to remember were, and how they were the ones who really made this large production come together.

A special thank you to Isaac Alongi who DP'd, edited and colored this video project. Without his talent and flexibility, the end result would not be nearly as beautiful as it is.

It truly takes a village, and we've got a great one surrounding us!

Be sure to check out the final video.

Our Assistant Food Stylist making sure we have enough fries in the bowl before shooting begins.

Getting the thumbs up from talent!

Our Food Stylist putting the final touches on the hero plate of food.

The Associate Creative Director reporting back to his team at home on how the shoot's going.

Making sure everything is lookin' good on location in Grand Rapids, MI.

We used a two camera set up for the Brew Chef interview videos.

Q&A with a local Brew Chef about why he uses these products.

A fun little clip of David directing the talent...or was it him just
saying out loud what he needed his assistant to bring him?

Click on the image to play the launch video.

Commercial Food Video

I recently had the privilege to work on a food video project where we captured product falling in slow motion and hand models in action.  Had a great crew to work with that exercised a ton of patience with shooting food in action.   When you have pans, tilts, dolly action, food moving and hand models dipping product, the project can get fairly complex and tedious.

Kudos to all for a great video shoot!

Shooting Stills and Video / it's a lot about creative problem solving!

Recently we were asked to shoot a video and still campaign for one of our Awesome clients.

We have shot a number of food projects for them in the past but this time they wanted to add motion to the project.  They love the "Visual Branding"  we do for them and wanted us to continue their look in motion.

We showed them our food reels on Vimeo and it sold them on our ability to do the project. 

I love shooting both motion and still although the motion requires more time, different equipment, more staff, and many times a lot more product.  For example, if you are pouring sauce on a product, every take will require a new plate set-up.

Communication is critical when shooting motion.  Everyone has to be on the same page on the final outcome of what your shooting.  What is it going to be used for, what does your client want the focus to be on, how many shot variations are needed.   We always need to make sure there is enough footage for the final edit. 

This was just part of the team for the shoot.  Food stylist, Assistant Food stylist, Art Director, Product managers, Photo assistants, Production Coordinators, Motion Digital Tech, Executive Chef, and Myself as Director/ DP/ Still Photographer. 

One of the challenges we had to solve was making the food look steaming hot for the video.  We ended up drilling a hole in the plates and piped steam up through the table and plate to get the food to appear steaming hot. 

Steaming hot and add some toppings!

Success!

We built this sandwich around the steam piping.

We did have one casualty!

Thanks to all the crew and staff we produced some great stills and motion for our client!

Thanks to my photo assistant Calvin for the great behind the scenes photos!