The following case study article was written by Pablo Korona, a Rockford, IL based video producer and FreshDV contributor. You can learn more about Pablo’s work at www.pablokorona.com.

Basic Art Direction Primer / Production Design for a Tabletop Product Shoot
Among the many crew departments working a production set, audio and art are often overlooked or ignored. Both are usually an afterthought. But hey, at least all the audio guy has to do is point a microphone and unplug the refrigerator! Easy money. I overgeneralize of course, but I say this to simply illustrate the focus of audio, and how having some one dedicated to it on set produces a better outcome. This also applies to the production design, but is even more reinforced because “art” is not a narrow focus.

Typically, the art department coordinates with all departments, interacting with talent in regards to wardrobe, food stylists to decorate the surroundings, with the grip department on set construction and deciding finer details of the set/scene or special effects, and the camera department in reference to angle of view and visible focus. In an all encompassing sense, the art director is responsible for anything that the camera sees. It is difficult to list what this may entail without going into specifics and that’s what I intend to do, dropping a couple tips and tricks as well.

I was hired by Sargento’s marketing agency to direct a video for one of their newest products, Portionables, which are small portion controlled frozen sauces. These are unique because they are not large packets of frozen sauce, but smaller frozen pieces on average the size of a standard ice cube, or cigarette lighter. Here’s a look into how I prepared for the shoot from an art and set-dressing standpoint. It is important for me to preface that this is from the perspective of Director wearing the Art Director hat. The thought process would be no different for an Art Director, but lets face it, when there’s no budget, we have to do this ourselves. So that’s why this article illustrates the overall process the director as art department goes through.

When I received the script, I requested photos of the location, images of the talent, promotional materials for Sargento’s brand, sample advertisements featuring the product and lastly the requirements from the agency in terms of how to shoot the product. Using these references, I ask myself the same questions before a shoot with any type of product shots.

1. Does the company have a brand image I can look toward for influence?
2. Are there cues from the script that I can take for the surroundings?
3. Does the talent’s look require a specific mood?
4. What does the tabletop subject need around it to convey the desired mood?
5. Does the tabletop subject require any specific shooting conditions?

These questions allowed me to tailor a specific look for this piece.

1. Sargento’s brand is more European. For example, the website has an Italian flavor, featuring a stucco background in a Tuscan yellow.
2. The script was calling for the making of a Putenesca sauce, reinforcing the Italian feel. The first things that came to mind were Italian paintings, old world clay bottles, and classic utensils you would find in any Nonna’s kitchen. I sought out items with rich, warm earth tones.
3. Our talent was a middle-aged blonde with short hair. She has nice smooth skin, and glasses. There were no issues in dealing with extreme wrinkles, so mood lighting on location was not going to be an issue.
4. I’ll reference flavor cues later.
5. I’ll touch on what we did to overcome shooting frozen items.

I wanted the video to have a fresh new look that set it apart from the other videos on the website. I always start by surveying the possibilities of the location. We were required to shoot in a Sargento work kitchen. Although it was featured in the previous videos, there was never a lighting budget so previous videos were shot very flat and didn’t make better use of the surroundings. A quick analysis of the space showed attractive wooden cabinents, a nice-looking granite counter top, the surrounding walls have avocado green tile, and finally the most problematic elements were a large stainless steel stove and matching cooking hood directly behind where our talent would be cooking. Two things bothered me about the current background. First, the stainless steel would certainly reflect any lights around our talent, and secondly these large stainless steel objects are cold, lifeless distractions.

My first instinct to bring in character and life into a space is to hang a framed photo or a painting. An inherent problem I find shooting on locations is that you cannot hammer in a nail to hang a frame to help break up a flat space. However the tile in the background is is perfect for my secret weapon, 3M Command Strip Hooks. 3M’s Command strips have been a staple on my shoots for years. They allow you to hang an object and then remove the hook without damaging the surface below. They are fantastic on wood panelling, tile, and painted walls; typically working the best on anything with a hard glossy surface. As research for the possibility for a framed solution, I went to a local hobby & craft store in hopes of finding warm photos or paintings of Italian hillsides, or some kind of still life. Taking photos with my iPhone, i emailed three choices to the agency’s creative director - we selected one and had a winner. With the painting selected, the space was instantly transformed. Because we were cleared to have moodier lighting, bringing the ambient light level down reduced the visibility of the stainless steel exhaust hood, and allowed us to shine a light on the painting, spotlighting it, making it that much more effective.

In tabletop shooting, the subject tends to absorb the environment and its surroundings. Great care must be taken to what’s around your “hero,” the product. Often your subject needs to be dressed up to help sell the image and feeling you’re trying to convey. For example, the agency I worked with refers to elements surrounding the food ingredient hero, as “flavor cues.” These are essentially visual representations of what taste the specific subjects elicit. For example, a marinara sauce might have tomato, garlic, and onion surrounding it. A creamy pepperjack cheese sauce would have cheese, peppers, butter and milk. Specific sauces were chosen by the agency, and were assigned general flavor cues for art department to choose from.

Now we turn towards the subjects themselves. In this case we’re shooting frozen sauce portions. We researched food styling products, and purchased a faux ice crystal mix to help sell the ice because we were concerned with our ability to keep the product frozen while under the lights. When shooting frozen items, your window of time for shooting them is very limited. Having a dedicated food stylist when you’re shooting frozen items is invaluable because they can set up a scene and be prepared with a new arrangement when the one you’re shooting melts. Aside from the faux ice and frost products, keeping the product in dry ice, lowering the overall temperature to colder than its normal freezing point easily doubles the shooting window.

There’s a quite a bit to write when it comes to how to art direct a scene, however these are just a few takeaways from this experience. I’ve just completed another project with Sargento where the same room was repurposed as a test kitchen, and then repurposed again as a shipping warehouse. The extra effort put through on the Portionables project not only helped produce a high-quality production but allowed for easily understanding the brand for future productions. A well decorated and art directed set is easier to light, and typically saves production time on set. Often on small budget production art direction can be the role played by the agency, however if you approach your project with an agency mindset, you’ll earn the trust of the agency and form a strong relationship with them, making for a much more pleasant set.

We all find ourselves asking how to get bigger budgets, how can we improve our production quality, and how do we grow? These are just some quick tips and thought processes that when researched before you get on location, can help raise the bar on your production quality and raise the inherent value of you being attached to a project. I do hope this helps, thanks for reading!

You can learn more about Pablo Korona at www.pablokorona.com.