Independent research: filming food

When doing independent research on our idea, I had to keep in mind that we wanted to film a tea-party, and therefore the scene required a lot of food. While we don't plan on having the actors eat the majority of the food on set, I thought it would be important to research how to best film and create appetizing food. Color and perfection play a huge part in whether or not the food looks appetizing, so I decided to attempt some of these film food hacks to make food last and look good on camera.

First, I attempted to shine and "freshen" strawberries, after many hours with no refrigeration, fruit and vegetables often become dull and stale, in order to make the food look appealing for longer, spraying hairspray on the fruit makes it appear fresh and clean, although the actors can't eat it.

   

I also tried to create fake cream or icing using shaving foam. Normal whipped cream and icing melt under light and don't hold their shape. Whipped cream also moulds and rots very quickly, and when melting creates "moisture marks" on the pie, cake or pastry it's placed on. In order to compare, I put whipped cream in a bowl and left it for ten minutes, by the end it had completely melted and become liquid. So instead, studios use shaving cream to look like cream, it's less yellow and easier to clean and manipulate, it also holds stiff peaks for long periods of time without drooping.

Studios find a similar problem with ice cream, if the actors don't plan on eating much of it quickly, it can become a sticky mess in seconds. So instead, studios will dye mashed potatoes different colors and use those instead, it looks virtually identical, but mashed potatoes are still edible and don't melt at all, they also hold the shape of a scoop much better when in a cone because they can't begin to drip. I tried to re create it by buying some ready-made mashed potatoes and dying half pink and half white, they looked delicious, and incredibly realistic.




Some other tactics I will keep in mind:

Studios will pin or stick their garnished to their dished to keep them looking perfect. This is often done with blue-berries on a stack of pancakes, for instance, or a cherry it the top of a milkshake. By pinning them down, they then look the same in every shot. 

By placing cardboard in between layers of cake, it gives the cake more structure, so it's less likely to topple or slouch. They also do this with individual slices of cake, and cover the cardboard with "icing", really shaving foam.

When cooking meat, studios use a "browning liquid" to make it appear to have that perfectly golden brown look that appears so appetizing on screen. They also use engine oil to thicken sauces or syrups and make them appear heavier and get the "perfect pour".

Here are some of the youtube videos I watched:

My production group

 

My group and I have set up a groupchat where we can Face- time at least once a week and talk about meetings and ideas, it has been a great way to stay in communication over lockdown.

The people in my group are Tegan, Anna, Fin and me.

We talk regularly and keep each other updated on what we have done and what still needs completing, so everyone has some idea of what to do, and were all on the same page.

Feedback for Opening scene idea

I presented my Western Opening Scene idea and here was the feedback I received:

The majority if not the entirety of the feedback I received was positive and constructive. My presentation was “well presented” and the “layout (for my presentation) worked effectively” according to my peers. I think I was a little ambitious, however, in what we could shoot in a day.

My oversight was less due to plot and storyline and more to do with the genre itself. Because of the setting of this Western scene “late at night” and “in a different time period,” it would have been incredibly difficult for us to film effectively. The entire scene was meant to take place in a sheriff’s office in a Western town, this would've meant we only had one location. But since Western Sheriffs Offices are commonplace in rural England, it would've been extremely difficult to build and make them look authentic. This is the same as costume and props which we would’ve had to think about for the scene. In the future when I am writing a scene like this, I will take into consideration that I should “elaborate further on details''. I will also think about the logistics of filming at night, during the day. Ideally, this scene was filmed during the sunset or dusk hours, which are “very quick and incredibly hard to film'' so I understand how we could’ve run into a few problems because this wouldn't have been the most effective use of our time.

 
I believe, however, I had a good grasp on the length of the concepts we could introduce in an opening scene “(this scene) fits well into 3 minutes”, and maintained an “interesting storyline” by introducing a genre within a genre or a “thriller within a western”. I was told the scene was something you could “continue watching”, and “leaves an impactful cliffhanger”. I think My idea wasn’t something that had been done or suggested much before and was relatively unique in concept. My storyline included only two characters, minimal dialogue, and no special effects, which were advantages in making it easier to film and edit. It also benefited us due to the restrictions of Covid-19, and possible government guidelines. My idea was clear and concise, and therefore easy to follow without having to establish character. Part of the benefits of using a Western genre was the fact that I had the ability to play off of the tropes we expect from these characters, the sheriffs are the good guys, and the elderly are more experienced. By using these archetypes, we the first-time filmmakers could spend less time establishing the context surrounding these characters.

While we won’t be filming this scene, I think this constructive criticism helped myself and my team think realistically while choosing our final product, because we acknowledged our limitations.

Idea for opening title sequence 3: Action

 

Idea for opening title sequence 2: Thriller

 

Idea for opening title sequence 1: Western

Genre opening scenes: Conclusion

In conclusion, all the opening scenes did a good job establishing characters and their role in the movie and set an acute and accurate tone for the rest of the film they were introducing. The war film, however, Saving private Ryan was much longer than the others, which ran for an estimated 4-6 minutes, while this one was much longer, reaching past 20 minutes in the original film. I think this was necessary to shock and mesmerize its audience and speaks to how well the director told the narrative, and personally, I believe it was necessary for the people in the audience to grasp the horrific idea that was presented to them, and perfectly suited the genre. Therefore I think that scene was the most successful. however, the introductory scene to Ready Player one achieved something similar, introducing an entirely new plane of reality clearly and concisely in much less time while still establishing characters and motive. The least successful in my opinion was the western, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which I think was done well, and the mystery of the "cowboy" character deserves recognition, however, to create more tone and depth, during the intense shootout scene, in the beginning, I feel the tone could have been set more accurately with a soundtrack playing over the scene, while still including the classic musical motif of the characters. I think it would have also been beneficial to perhaps even exaggerate the angles of the characters more, so the superiority of the "good guys" is more clearly displayed.