The Q in Color Commercial Shoot

If we were asked one time, we were asked ten times, “Is the food safe to eat?” Our answer was always, “Yes!” Now while the food was good to eat, when it was time to eat it, of course, some movie magic was used. Now the magic was not to make the food look better, but to show how the food was grilled.

For Huevos Rancerhos, a cast iron skillet was cut apart to help give a point of view of the talent cracking an egg.

For some wonderfully drool inducing bone-in ribeyes, the bottom of a Q was cut out to allow the camera to film from “inside” the grill, capturing the talent flipping steaks.

Real food, awesome shots, and not exactly something simple for any of us to capture in our own backyards!

Speaking of point of view, how exactly do you capture the talent’s point of view? Place them in a large camera helmet. I have to give them credit, it’s fairly easy to carry a Q, crack an egg, or flip a steak, but try doing it with your vision obstructed by a camera. There is a reason they are called talent and it’s not just for acting.
 

I still marvel at the amount of work that goes into making a thirty second commercial. While it takes 10 hours to film on spot, this is built on countless days of planning, writing, and developing the creative and production process. It is no simple task.

Upon looking back, there are a lot of personal takeaways from the week.

The platter of grilled ribeyes perched on the picnic table at sunset, the warm lights of downtown Austin, as seen from our “Q Deck,” and the rousing waves of applause and cheers from the Weber & Rabble teams as a shot came off “just right.” The cast and crew loved it, as when something was right, there was no guessing, they knew. 

Marsha and I spent more time in grocery stores in two days than I spent all of last month put together and I shop, a lot.

We pushed the Q to high heat, low heat, direct heat, indirect heat, and all points in between.

While we were always happy with the results, it was the oohs and aahs from talent, who would watch with anticipation as the food was shuttled to the set that really made our day. Those smiles you see when they are eating the bananas? Just like the food, they are quite real and all brought to you by the colorful letter, Q.