San Jose, California
Brand Awareness / Zagat & The Infatuation
David Kinch of Manresa
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THE GOAL
“Drive awareness of Zagat as the best destination for personal stories from the restaurant industry.”
Before starting anything, we wanted to understand the purpose of the video to give us a sole guiding principle for everything we did.
We kept the crew small to keep to our client's budget, and to ensure an efficient production amidst a fully operational three Michelin-starred restaurant.
In total, we captured 24 hours of footage that was distilled into the final 3:30 piece.
THE SET UP
With two weeks notice, we were asked to shoot inside one of the world's best restaurants, Manresa, in San Jose, California.
Working with our client The Infatuation / Zagat, we created a short documentary to help launch the new video brand series Zagat Stories.
Here's how we did it.
THE STORY
“To understand the man behind the chef.”
Before coming up with the video concept, we worked to understand the heart of Zagat Stories.
We conducted background research of the restaurant the chef and the team. We had a virtual meeting with the Manresa team.
This leg work helped us form our questions for the interview. The final product was a compelling story about the man behind the chef and what drives him in business and life.
Day 1
Day 1 was spent on location in the restaurant with a 45-minute interview with the chef. The remaining time was spent capturing the restaurant. This was during a normal working day for the restaurant so we had to ensure our crew did not impact any of the operations. It was important that no customers saw what was happening, but that we created a high quality production with all the necessary equipment.
We had a shot list that we knew we wanted to capture, but kept a high level of flexibility in the plan to capture footage which told the story of what the chef had brought to light in our interview at the start of the day. Our client didn't want this to feel like a food show, it was a personal story and so lots of footage of high-end food would look beautiful, it wouldn't help tell our story. The chef spoke in depth about striving for perfection and focusing on 'every little detail'. You can see in the final piece the type of shots we used to bring this component to life; chef's creating intricate pieces with tweezers, careful selection of individual flowers and placed by hand into arrangements on the plate.
Day 2
Day 2 was spent capturing footage which didn't require anyone at the restaurant to be with us, or to be filming at the restaurant. Our background research indicated that the chef was a keen surfer, he placed great emphasis on work/life balance and the restaurant was influenced heavily by the local area. With this in mind, we created an outline plan for shooting on Day 2 to capture footage which supported our story, but with the focus being on delving into areas uncovered from the interview on day 1. The chef wouldn't reveal his favorite place to surf but our background research had uncovered a place we felt was the right location. We set off before dawn to be set up to capture a sunrise with surfers catching the first waves. We were incredibly lucky that we had the most beautiful sunrise. We also found during the edit that this shot of surfers, they were surrounded by three sharks (likely great whites).
The rest of the day was spent talking to locals to research further places to shoot which captured the beauty and nature of the area. We found several forests and captured beautiful footage.
Crew
Pre-production: Producer and Assistant Producer. Planning, producing and research.
During production: 3 man crew: DP, Director/Producer, Grip/Gaffer (hired locally) + Assistant Producer/Editor in NY office helping co-ordinate and prepare footage once we downloaded.
Post production: Director/Producer, Editor, Assistant Editor, Colorist.