4 HOUR CHEF Trailer:
Treatment by Adam Patch 10/03/2012
Approach:
Stylistically, I'm picturing this trailer taking a fairly different approach from the 4HB. I'd describe 4HB as being grungy, heavy, masculine and action-packed. With 4HC, I think the approach should take a cue from the book and be much more design-driven. I picture this one being much cleaner and polished feeling- using less hand-held and contrasty lighting. Shots would be more static and deliberate, always nicely composed. Using more bold, flat colors, strait-on angles, and symmetry. Lighting is generally more high key and glossy. Think Wes Anderson (http://vimeo.com/35870502) meets Everynone (http://www.everynone.com/). As we discussed, the trailer will be constant flood of images- cleverly strung together in a powerful edit. We'll match-cut or draw a visual compassion between as many images as possible so that the whole thing feels very choreographed and purposeful. The trailer will consist of essentially 3 parts: 1. Cooking footage from a kitchen 2. Non-Cooking Footage (featuring the non-kitchen related elements from the book). 3. Title Cards.
The Cooking:
And so, about 1/3 of the video will be nice looking shots of you (or another chef I supposed) cooking in a kitchen. We'll see all the action that's happening in the process of making a meal- knife work, mixing, whisking, turning knobs, sprinkle seasoning, and so-on. Instead of shooting this in a cluttered kitchen, or squeezing our production into a existing kitchen, I think we should create a kitchen set-up in a studio. I need to look into this more, but I'm picturing shooting on a clean, white, modern, photo studio. In the middle of the white void, will be a small, stylized, kitchen set-up that we'll create for you. I feel like this is something we could put together for relatively cheap (although I do need to look further to make sure this is possible with the budget). All of the cooking shots will take place on this stage- mostly in closeups.
As an added bit of visual style, we'll use different colored rolls of seamless photo paper that we can drop behind you at different points. So that each shot has a different solid colored background. A closeup of a knife chopping an onion over a blue background- then close up of you smelling something with green in the background. Additionally, we'd shoot a bunch of strait-down countertop type stuff- almost just showing portraits of the stuff your using or referencing in the book. The colored paper would also be used in some of these counter-top shots by actually laying it down on the counter and placing the items on top of it. So we would see a knife on a black background, a collection of herbs on a yellow background, etc… Sometimes they could even be labeled with some subtle typography. This this site for inspiration: (a lot of the stuff in your book looks just like this) http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com
The Non Cooking:
Some of the non-cooking elements could still take place in a studio. (counting cards, hunting knifes, starter pistols, types of knots, etc… But a lot of them would take place outdoors (basketball, building fires, juggling, etc…) In these outdoor scenarios, I'd keep a consistent look- still shooting in a very composed, minimal style.
Transitioning and Match Cuts:
I still need to work on mapping out exactly how some of this stuff would transition. This would be a good for me to do once we've talked this thru and I have a more precise idea on which elements you want to include. Some prelim ideas though… - Spreading out the slices of a cucumber CUT-TO: spreading out a deck of cards. - Circle shape of a pot onto of the stove TO Circle shape, looking down at a basketball. - Creating a pretty plate brushed on CUT-TO: paint brush, painting Japanese Characters. - Demonstrating Rare, Medium, Done on hand CUT-TO: Hands making Sign Language - Lighting the fire on a stove top CUT-TO: Lighting a campfire. - Kitchen Knives on countertop CUT-TO: Hunting Knifes on the ground outside.
Titles:
I like your idea of starting out with some kind of title that says: You thought this was all about cooking? I think we'll need a few MAIN title cards that really tell what the book is. Perhaps just A guide to Cooking like a pro Learning Any Skill and Living the good Life But also think it could be cool to intermix some super fast (almost subliminal) titles in there. Stuff that helps to tell the story of what the book is, but isn't 100% necessary. Jay-Z's on to the next one does a good job at these fast-cut subliminal shots. It's just a quick flash of some image that you see, but don't really need to dissect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM1RChZk1EU (around 2:12 and 2:47 you can see some example of these fast title cards too). Ours could just be WORDS that are important to the book. SIMPLIFY LEARN ANYTHING DECONSTRUCT MIMIC etc.
A note on music:
Although I do like the Fort Minor song (and also the extra publicity it may bring), I wonder if it's the right choice for this trailer. Remember the Name feels a little bit in the same vein as the FHB trailer. This could be good consistency, but it could also feel tired. After looking thru the new book, I don't know that this song peronally feels like the audio counterpart to it… I also feel like the tempo might be a little too slow for the edit. I could see doing something more quick- maybe something more upbeat and fun. Fort Minor is rather dark, and I feel like the book is super fun and bright and playful. Maybe something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sN49nNdE58 Anyways, I'm not totally against Fort Minor, just putting that thought out there. This could be something that we just experiment with in the edit. Let's discuss.