Pre-Production

Digital Storyboard / Shot Types:

Here is a digital storyboard created with storyboardTHAT.com .

The premise of the commercial is to show the viewer a very fast-paced lesson on how to make 'Bens Original Rice'.

It will follow a cinematic style, with steady camera movement and speed manipulation. A few transitional shots will be applied during Post-Production (such as tilt to next frame, image wipe).

Shots will be mostly very tight, mixing close up with extreme close up. This is to create an intimate feel that brings the flavour and texture of the food right in front of your nose.  The main goal here is to digitally simulate fluidity between shots. My plan is to use sound and digital composition manipulation to bring the audience along with the movement of the subject. All shots will be shot at a 18-24mm ultrawide but framed as a close up and stuck down by legs. This is to allow for more creative freedom in Post-Production.

Original Hand Drawn Concept

Lighting:

Before I begin location scouting, I need to ensure that I have lighting in mind first. 

With that being said, the 'intimate' style that I mentioned before will come to light here - literally. I will be positioning an overhead spotlight above the subject at about 50cm height. The light will need to be mostly backlighting the subject at a 10 degrees towards the camera. However, I know that backlighting may create lens glare. To counteract this, I will need to apply barn doors on the front edge of the spotlight to ensure that only the subject is affected by light. 

Another thought is that of using a bounce board alongside the overhead spot and under the camera. This will be used to fully cover the subject in fill light to ensure that my image will not be underexposed as I will be shooting at ISO 100. To prevent further light spill, I will cover the entire set in black cloth to create a 'void'.

Equipment List :

Panasonic AG-HMC151

My camera of choice is one that I have available to me. I will have it set to record 720p 60fps - the loss of resolution is required for the gain in frame rate. I will need the full 60 frames to make use of digital speed manipulation. An idea that I had was to shoot in 50fps rather than 60. This is so that when played in 50% speed, it will run at the rendering fps of 25 frames per second (25fps render to suit the cinematic style).

Rode LavMic+

All Foley work will be hand recorded and so, required a portable option to take around with me. The Rode LavMic+ is a low self-noise omni-directional lavalier mic. This is helpful to me because I can use it handheld without worry of handling noise. The 3.5 mm jack means that I can record directly into my smartphone without need of additional phantom power.

Audio Technica AT-2035

The audio Technica AT-2035 will also be used for Foley work. However, this cardioid condenser mic is a serious piece of kit and, although a much higher recording resolution, requires some extra care to get a professional grade sound.

As this is a professional audio sampling mic, it will require a full 48V phantom power in order to even start recording. It then needs its own dedicated preamp and shock mount in order to achieve a clear sound. 

Here were my on hand thoughts -

Focusrite Scarlett Solo

This is my go-to audio interface as it has clean preamps and the dedicated 48V phantom power switch. The downsides to this was that it had no EQ adjustment on the fly and would have to be enhanced digitally.

Behringer X1204

This was my kit of choice. It had build in EQ adjustment as well as live effects controls, such as reverb and delay. Luckily, this also outputs a 48V phantom power and samples audio at a much higher resolution. Here, i have the option of mono and stereo output as well as samples of both the dry and wet signals.

risk assessment :

Legs - trip hazard - mind your feet

Fire - burn - keep hands away from flame

power - shock - turn off power before unplugging cables

Location :

Now I can finally get a location planned out with lighting in mind.

This is my kitchen, and although very boring, will be transformed into a professional commercial set.