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Mastering the Madness: 8 Shooting Days, 346 Deliverables, and 1 Perfectly Executed Plan

When it comes to preproduction, some projects demand strategic finesse like our project with The Food Group, where we created content for Hellmann’s and Best Foods brands. The scale and complexity of this project were enough to put the most seasoned teams to the test.

The Scope:

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we were up against:

  • 23 Recipes Needing both Videos & Still Images
    For each recipe, we needed to produce:
    • Coverage for two brands (Hellmann’s & Best Foods)
    • A unique set for every recipe
    • Props and ingredients tailored to each dish
  • 8 Business Days to Shoot
  • Video Deliverables for Each Recipe (per brand)
    • 16×9 (60 sec, 30 sec, 15 sec, 6 sec)
    • 9×16 (60 sec, 30 sec, 15 sec, 6 sec)
    • 1×1 (6 sec)
  • Still Deliverables
    • Vertical and horizontal formats with and w/o packaging for each recipe

If you’re keeping track, that’s a staggering amount of content in just 8 days— roughly over a total of 100 hours of shooting. How did we do it? We got our team focused, fast.

The Plan:

When you’re facing a logistical challenge of this magnitude, there’s only one thing to do: organize, organize, organize. The key to success was creating a seamless workflow that would allow us to move efficiently through each phase of production, without sacrificing quality.

Two Sets: One for Video, One for Stills

The first critical step was setting up two distinct sets—one dedicated to video and the other to still photography. The sets had to look nearly identical to ensure visual consistency, especially since the footage and stills would appear side-by-side in some advertisements.

The Video Crew

On the video side, we assembled a highly skilled and experienced team to bring each recipe to life with precision and creativity. The process began in the kitchen with the talented food styling duo, Amy Wardle and Amy Fritch, who expertly prepped ingredients and crafted the final presentation of each dish. Their attention to detail in both styling and food preparation was essential for making each recipe look as mouthwatering on camera as it would on the plate.

Once the dishes were perfectly styled, the crew took over. The team included: 

Our approach was methodical yet dynamic, ensuring that every angle and shot from the storyboards was meticulously captured. Using the RED Raptor and Komodo cameras paired with SIGMA Cine Prime lenses, we focused on every detail, ensuring the flexibility to pull framing for all required formats – whether it was the 60-second video for the website or a quick 6-second social clip. This attention to detail in the video phase was essential for meeting the demands of the multiple deliverable aspect ratios for both brands.

The Still Set

Once the video portion was complete, we moved seamlessly into the still photography set, expertly managed by photographer Pammi Sheaffer and Vicki Simpson. Having both sets side-by-side minimized the time food spent traveling between them, ensuring that all ingredients retained freshness and were visually appealing .

However, this setup presented a challenge: the potential for interference between the video and stills sets. For example, if Pammi used flash for stills, the burst of light would be visible in the background of the video shots. To mitigate this, both sets used continuous lighting from Aputure and PROLYCHT, which not only solved the issue of lighting interference but also allowed us to keep things moving without losing time. Plus, the superior ISO capabilities of the FUJIFILM GFX  made this workflow not only feasible but also created still images that looked absolutely delicious.

Prop Stylist and Cohesion

Moving between the two sets were Michele Clagett, our prop stylist, and Hannah Kohr, our assistant prop stylist, who ensured that everything from the food to the props, to the overall aesthetic was cohesive across both video and stills. Their role was crucial in maintaining visual continuity while keeping the pace of production fast and efficient.

The Workflow: Kitchen, Video, Stills, Repeat

With everything in place, we went into a rapid-fire cycle: kitchen prep, video shoot, stills shoot, and repeat. We worked masterfully for 8 days, constantly shifting between the sets to capture each recipe in both brands and all formats. The result was a smooth, efficient operation that produced stunning content while meeting an incredibly tight timeline.

The Results:

At the end of the project, we had successfully captured content for all 346 assets, thanks to meticulous preplanning, a dedicated crew, and a carefully structured workflow. The success of this shoot wasn’t just about how much we produced—it was about how we executed it with passion, precision and efficiency. In the world of high-stakes production, it’s the planning and preparation that truly make or break a project. The collaborative plan worked like a charm.