Interview with SIDECAR:
Natalie recently directed a series of commercials for another food and lifestyle client, La Brea Bakery. She only had two days to shoot three spots, including 6 unique scenes. Most scenes were residential, yet a bakery scene needed to be designed in one of the homes. That bakery also needed to resemble the founder's original bakery window, a specific and fun ask to solve.
"I knew the bakery scene was going to need some special planning. The rising bread and starter can be impacted by transporting and environmental factors, and we’d of course be tending to our special little dough babies in the middle of crazy set. Additionally, since our talent would be handling the dough, we needed experienced hands. So we made our casting call with this in mind, and we found our perfect talent: an actress who also owns her own baking company on the side. It all came together beautifully.
“There is always a fine line to walk when shooting a lifestyle spot for a food brand. There is a desire for a strong narrative element, and I often get hired for my knack of creating and finding the authentic moments with talent. However, at the end of the day, it’s not just about great lifestyle moments. We are still selling a product that needs to be featured, and, in a very specific way that aligns with the client’s particulars for that brand. It takes both careful pre-planning and adaptability during the shoot to bring the story & the logistics together.
“To make sure food looks great on camera, it takes a team. Great lighting is one required element, to best highlight food and packaging. Besides partnering with a fabulous DP and production team, a great food stylist is a must! The shopping list is often long, and things move fast on set. It’s important the styling team is clear on what role a food item plays within the narrative--be it a product hero, background element, or a prop the talent will interact with--as they they each have their own need.
"It's a lot of fun bringing the people and creative asks together in projects like this. I feel very honored to keep coming back to food and lifestyle shoots.”
