24 Restaurants, 8 Bars, 6 Chefs, 2 Bartenders, 1 Kick-ass baker, all in 14 straight days of production. It was a whirlwind trip through Atlanta’s food scene, hosted by one of Atlanta’s best and most influential chef’s, Taria Camerino. She knows the cities food scene better than anyone else, and her access to some of the cities top restaurants gave us the insider peek we needed to tell the story.
For this production, I was inspired by the quality of content produced by shows like Chef’s Table and the last few seasons of Parts Unknown. Specifically, the cinematic approach. I convinced my producer that was the route we needed to take; to make sure lighting was a priority and time to truly set a scene was considered. So many times in production, time is constantly running out and as a director I have to make compromises to get the content. But on this production, it was our intention to steal as much time as we could toward lighting and setting the scene.
Ron Gonzalez, my director of Photography, suggested using Blackmagic Ursa mini Pro’s. We had two of them on set and a Blackmagic pocket cinema camera as a third/backup camera. Never one to be overly impressed with Blackmagic gear, I was very surprised at how easy the cameras were to use, the quality of the images, and their durability. For the last few years the Sony FS7 has been workhorse camera for travel productions because it can shoot a wide range of formats, it’s durable, and rather light when used for a run-n-gun style.
Ron also brought some new lenses he purchased; the Cinematics 50 – 100mm lens which was on his camera most of the time. We also had some Canon prime cinema lenses; 24mm, 50mm, and an 85mm. But the best lens we got to work with was the Venus Optics Laowa 24mm f/14 Probe Lens. This lens took some of our food shots to a whole other level. Some incredible imagery came from this lens.
As a production that travels extensively, gear is always a necessary evil. Lights and c-stands and grip gear are heavy and bulky. But Ron brought with him some Flexible LED bi-color lights that weigh almost nothing, are bright as hell, and can roll up so they take up very little space. Adios light panels and frennel lights! These babies are my new toys!!!
Finally, my team was fantastic. As a director, I find the majority of my job is to point the production in the right direction conceptually and stylistically. It ranges from working with the host about the content we want from a guest, to the style of lighting we need or a type of drone shot I’m hoping to get. But after that, I leave my crew to execute. I do not like to micro-manage. I don’t stand over my drone operators shoulder telling him how to fly. If I communicated properly to him what I need, then I should get what I want which frees me up to direct another aspect of the production or solve a creative problem. I’m proud of the work my team did on this production. They got some amazing footage and we recorded some amazing content. Now it’s on to post 3 episodes. For that, we will be using DaVinci Resolve for the first time. That’s out of my comfort zone, but I have no doubt 3 amazing shows will be finished by October 2019 ready for broadcast in February 2020.
Many thanks to my crew: DP: Ron Gonzalez, Audio Tech: Mike Gonzalez, 2nd Cam: Jason Boldt, and lastly the legend Producer Farook Singh. Also the assistance of the ACVB Team was on point and we could not have finished our crazy schedule without their expertise of the city. Photos of the production are below. Enjoy!
To view more images from this production, head over to wiederimagery.com