promo for resturant
 

hello

ive been asked to make a film for a local french resturant where i live. The couple have agreed on my quote. They want somthing sexy, cenematic and cool, not a standard looking pan around , local news type filming.

Im gonna use some french voice over , my glidetrack is on order

has anyone filmed anything like this before?? im struggling to find any decent videos on the net for resturant websites. Most are ....well...pretty rubbish. Anyone know of any decent promo films.




luke

I find restaurant commercials or promos one of the harder things to do. You have to decide, what is the image you want to project? Are you selling the food, the atmosphere or the clientele?

If it's a new hip spot where people go to be scene, try get some really attractive extras and and fill the restaurant with them. Use your videography and music to sell that.

If the food is the emphasis is the food, think about hiring a food stylist. I started out in the business shooting table top food for a weekly supermarket. A good food stylist is a huge asset and knows all the tricks in how to keep the food looking appetizing under hot video lights.

Look at national restaurant commercials, the spend more time selling an image than they do selling the food. A couple of tasty food shots mixed in is cool, but as you said, a bunch of wide pans of the restaurants isn't the way to go.

20 years ago we made a series of programmes promoting the Langdale Pillar, a hotel/restaurant/pub/timeshare, in the UK’s Lake District. At the time it was pretty up market; now it’s fairly middle of the road. I did a transfer of the last programme for the staff with whom we now do weddings and they enjoyed it, dated though it was.

Obviously your programme must meet the client’s brief; ours was to promote the timeshare’s very upmarket offering (without going into the financial details) and to promote their use of the hotel, pub and restaurant by them and their friends. A bit of mutual synergy if you like.

It was shot and edited on U-matic so the technical quality has severe limitations.

Capturing the mood - in this case the different moods - of the various offerings was key and involved the donation of meals for an evening to fill the restaurant with compliant diners in the background. We had four “actors” (one later became the first “Man in Black” for a well known British confectionery brand, another quite a name in children’s TV in the Midlands and who still does TV ad for a furniture company) and shot over three days and two nights.

Anyone who’s been in this position will know how sometimes one cringes when you look critically at work from a long way back. This is like that for me, but overall I have to say it’s not the worst thing we ever produced nor, if I’m honest the best - that distinction still goes to a fly-on-the-wall programme we made about and for a special school for multiply disabled children. The hotel programme includes some lovely high angle shots we brought a 70ft cherry picker up from Manchester to get, and a long, fast, staggered zoom cut to a drum feature which, because the of the limitations of the editing still amazes me that I ever tried it!

Luke, if you’re interested in seeing a PAL DVD copy let me know by PM.

Just concentrate on happy patrons, not food shots and you'll be golden.

With respect that approach is exactly what I wouldn't recommend.

By all means put the suggestion to the client but also listen to the way he wants to promote his restaurant. In our brief the range of dishes in both the pub and the restaurant were a fundamental part of the difference the client saw between his restaurant and pub and others in the area so local, rustic dishes in the pub and beautiful fillet steak in the restaurant were required by the client. Of course they had to be shown being enjoyed but it wouldn't have done to have omitted the grub.

There was one sequence which didn't make it into the final cut and that was the opening of a particularly expensive bottle of wine with red-hot pincers. I forget why - maybe some bon vivant on the forum can remind us.

It helps to "elevate" the senses involved by using a progression of shots. For example, first a closeup of a visually appealing dish that transitions to a shot of someone enjoying eating it that then transitions to a group that is obviously having fun. The more senses, desires and emotions that are stimulated, the more effective a promo will be. Take a look at some of the TV commercials for major chain restaurants and look for what makes them work. You will see this sensory and fun progression in almost every one. This is the real "promo" big time and a good place to watch and take notes.

For example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODCr_HBhJMc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mvm6KfJDE0