This past week “The Chefs Plate” T.V. show headed down to Burlington, Mass to shoot our most recent episode, stopping to visit some amazing restaurants in the area. Now, lets just address the elephant in the room shall we? We all know that there are 2 other food T.V. shows in Massachusetts, T.V. Diner and The Phantom Gourmet. Our show is vastly different than both of those, the biggest difference is the way we shoo t our show as opposed to the “big two”. As the producer, editor, sound recordist, cameraman, and director of “The Chefs Plate” I do it all using Earl Studios equipment, so my budget is small and so is my gear. I shoot this tv show not with a huge pana shoulder mountain back breaking cannon. I shoot this broadcast television program with two little Canon 6D HD DSLR cameras. This makes people do a double take, wondering where the huge camera crews are, and I take that as a compliment. The truth is I do not like the look or image that comes from those huge cameras, no depth of field, everything in focus. Sure its a high bitrate, 4.4.4 codec blah blah, but to me, the image quality is paramount, and our show, our footage just looks better. Look at the photos above, thats what our footage looks like, because the same camera that took that photo is the one used to shoot the show.
Another difference in how we shoot the show is pace, we don’t do alot of fast zoom in’s and outs, quick cuts, fast paced music, plate spinning type shots. Its much slower paced, slower cuts, crossfades, inspired by my youth watching the “Great Chefs” tv program, which I loved. The response from restaurant owners and viewers alike has been outstanding, they like the format, but more importantly, they love the footage of the food because it has that dramatic look and feel of a great food photograph but in video. I have absolutely loved these Massachusetts shows, the restaurants have been just amazing and the personalities of some of the people we have had on the show have been perfect for good tv.
Shooting the show has defiantly increased my knowledge and ability of shooting food in natural light. To light food for video requires three things, time, time, and more time. You can’t just point two kino flow lights on each side of a dish without diffusion and hope for the best. Food needs specific, deliberate light, and due to my limited budget, I don’t have the lighting gear needed for video, but even more so I lack the time needed to light the dishes properly. Normally i’ll have 10 minutes to shoot 5 dishes, both photo and video, so I’ve become very comfortable in shooting with natural light. My system has done me pretty good, I take out my iPhone, open up the compass app, find a northern window and set up there. Depending on the intensity of the sun I will break out a diffusion screen and put it between the food and the window to lighten up the shadows a bit. To save time and keep things consistent, I’ve developed some signature camera moves but always do things in a uniform order, a pan, a flyby, an over head, a tilt down, and a top spin.
For this episode we made 4 stops, but I only had time to grab photos at the last location. I’m kicking myself because our 3rd stop, Cafe Escadrille was simple one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been too with one of the most interesting and genuine general managers I’ve ever met. Stephane is a sommelier with a passion for both food and his customers that is refreshing. He prepared veal oscar tableside for the show and it was like a culinary cirque du soleil, in addition to deboneing a fish dish for the camera that is sure to be some of the best footage we’ve shot to date, very “Great Chefs”-esk. I’m just sorry I didn’t’ get to shoot any photos of the food as well, those would have been beautiful.
The photos above our from our last stop L’Andana and just the beauty of the dishes with the simple diffused window light really inspired me to grab my second Canon 6D body and shoot some food photos of the dishes. Now I’m sure your all looking at these photos and thinking to yourself, “Those must have tasted delicious?!”, but the sad truth is I have no idea. You see, I rarely get to eat on the show. Yes, we visit some of the most amazing restaurants in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and they prepare for us their best dishes and most incredible drinks, but it takes so much time for me to produce the show and shoot it, that by the time I have all of my gear packed up, the food is cold having sat there for over and hour and has been picked over by at least three people.
So I guess if you want to know how great the food is, you’ll have to tune in to The Chefs Plate, on WBIN Saturdays at 3!
