How Food Commercials Are Made

Narrator: Ever wonder how food commercials look so 1. ______________ and 2. ______________? These
food shoots can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, all so you'll buy more of these. Visual 3.
______________, Steve Giralt, 4. ______________ photos and videos for food and product-based
commercials in New York City and around the world. I bring technology and kind of traditional image-
making processes together in what I call visual engineering.

Narrator: One piece of that technology: robots. Or, as they call them, 5. ______________ controls. Steve's
long list of 6. ______________ include big 7. ______________, like Hershey's, Budweiser, Pepsi, and
Starbucks. Of course making food look so good comes with a 8. ______________. A single-day TV shoot
can cost between $50,000 to $100,000.

Steve: In these food shoots that we create, we have a lot of moving parts. Basically, you'll have, let's say,
one item that's moving, something else that's flashing and running into it, something else that it's gonna land
on. We have to use a lot of different technologies and synchronizing 9. ______________ to basically allow
those things all to happen at the 10. ______________ moment we need them to happen. We love it, here we
go. Comes out pretty low.

Narrator: It also takes a 11. ______________ of people to make the products look the best they can be.
Various 12. ______________, engineers, and 13. ______________ work together to create the perfect shot.

My name is Michelle Gatton, and I am a food stylist. When I get 14. ______________, I read over the recipe
so I know what I'm gonna be doing. So, in the back of my head, I start thinking about how I'd like to do it. It
could change once we get on set with the different 15. ______________, what the art director wants could
change, but I start trying to create the recipe in my head, 'cause I'm only making it pretty much the first time
on set. I made these brownies yesterday, just so we're not waiting on me making brownies. And, to make
them look like I just made them, I just 16. ______________ up the chocolate with a heat gun, and I'm
adding a little bit of 17. ______________ chocolate to the cut side.

Steve: So here we've got our motorized slider, which is moving a pump that's gonna have caramel on it
that'll be pumping down onto our brownies. So, in the end, we'll have this shot of this beautiful
18. ______________ of caramel kind of draping and curling on top of the brownie.

Narrator: There's a lot of 19. ______________ and 20. ______________.

Steve: Are you ready? And here we go. Yeah! Nailed it!

Narrator: Every 21. ______________ moment captured is nailed down to the millisecond. This is the
22. ______________ to using robots. Human hands are also used on commercials when timing is not a
23. ______________ factor.
Steve: We put a lot of 24. ______________ into these visuals. It's really cool to see your vision kinda come
to life and be 25. ______________ with the world. I think you have to have a really great understanding of
what is appetizing. Everybody speaks the 26. ______________ of food.