Behind the Scenes – Truffle Hunters (II)
‘Fake Breadsticks & Plastic Fruits’
Gone are the days of boring corporate branding, where the use of fake breadsticks, plastic fruits filled up the fruit bowls, and well varnished bits of bread were okay to use. With the rise in social media content, and the competitive nature of chefs now infiltrating our mobile screens with #foodporn #foodphotography #feedfeedfeed and vlogger trends now an everyday part of our lives, creating marketing for food brands gets harder by the day. The videos that we work on at Curious Crab Productions have to be unique and stand out. Good quality food videos need to evoke a consistent message and provide a feast for the eyes. Sometimes even a simple board of cheese, and charcuterie takes a load of time to setup, and if, like me, you hate seeing food go to waste, and you’d rather not buy 10 blocks of cheese to reset the board each time you miss read the timing of the perfect pour of honey or don’t quite get the ‘ooze’ that you want, then this job ain’t for you honey…
But the team here just love the ooze-factor and keep striving for more. We love a ‘probe’ shot (Laowa 24mm F14 2x Macro Probe Lens - Canon EF – in English - a long snooker cue like camera lens, that allows you to weave in between the contours of food, or other stuff of course, as if walking through a platter or surface like an ant), which would’ve been perfect for this shot, however our old camera slider couldn’t quite take the weight of our new Black Magic URSA MINI 4.6K G1, so we stuck with a ‘pan’ shot from right to left, with a count down from Chris, our steady hand on the camera, ready for me to drip the honey onto the block of cheese just at the right time. For the camera geeks out there, I bet you can’t wait to see the new probe lens shots now that we have a smoother and more robust slider!
You’d think that something as opulent and luxurious as a bottle of Truffle oil or Truffle honey would be an easy product to just sit by itself, pour in front of a high-quality lens, wrap a logo around and then whack onto the website to help it sell. But long-term content production isn’t about that, it’s about understanding the brand, where they are now and where they want to be in future, and quite often, brands are looking to video production agencies like ourselves to help them develop their own, unique visual identity through video and animation. We’re loving being on that journey with Truffle Hunter, who are one of our first long-term clients, who understand that we need time to learn about their brand, to then in turn, help to develop their own style within this clouded social media whirlwind of a world. Brands like Truffle Hunter have allowed us to slow that whirlwind down, and look to appreciate the beauty of luxury foods once more, albeit through the same old social media platforms, but perhaps sitting for a moment at the centre of the eye of the storm.
What have I learnt from this BTS video? To enjoy ‘THAT’ moment of creativity and see how my team and I can learn from every shoot to make it more and more enjoyable, and get closer to the ooze factor every new shot we take. Curiosity never killed the crab… let’s keep learning… We see your world in 360° and now you get to see a snippet of ours.
