The End of October

This month is wrapping up, which means we need to wrap up our shooting. We have 2 locations left to shoot-- Glenwood Pines and possibly State Street Diner.

I'm ready to give up on the Kickstarter account. It's been ready for weeks, but creating a "business account" for the site through Amazon is not working. I tried and tried until they blocked me from trying any more. Chrissy tried and the site was giving her errors. If we have to pay for food at the last two places, OK. Kickstarter has been such a source of stress and aggravation for me that I'm either going to have to twist someone else's arm into trying to get it up or let the dream die.

I've reviewed the footage from our shoots. There seemed to be some slip ups at Rogan's with the 100 camera. While we're watching the owner make the calzone, there is clearly a light with an umbrella on it in the background. I'm going to work around that footage by using a two shot most of the time, and using the zoom in FCP to try to eliminate it from the shot.

Shoots 1 & 2

This weekend, we had our first two eating challenges. HUZZAH!

Saturday was Purity ice cream day, which started at 9am. Our crew was small, just the 4 team members and Alayna, our scriptwriter. We began with our outside shots, watching Sean approaching Purity and giving a little background about the establishment. While he was being shot outside, the other half of the group was setting up inside Purity, to have the space lit and ready for the eating challenge. One of the co-owners, Heather, actually came into the store while we were there and we were able to have an interview with her while she created the Expedition Sundaes our contestants would be eating. Both our contestants put up a valiant effort, though neither one could finish the 8 scoop sundae with sauces, candy toppings, whipped cream, and by far the toughest part, the fudge brownie and cookie.

Sunday morning we arrived at Rogan's before 8am to make quick work of the shoot that lay ahead of us. We had a larger crew coming to help us, so we wanted to get the equipment inside, and give everyone a job to do. Jessica Van Dousen, Kelsey Snelling, and Alayna Gervais were to lend a helping hand. Jake Lifschultz was there to take production stills for us, which is especially important as they are one of the rewards we’re offering to those who donate through our Kickstarter account. The lighting was harder to do at Rgoan’s because of their shiny wall menus causing glare and because the eating area was so small that in order to eliminate shadows we used quite a few lights and they all seemed too powerful. With a few diffusions and a little bouncing of light, it seemed to work out. My favorite part was watching the owner, Mike, make the calzone on the counter so that we could have a better shot of it. Sean’s challenger hardly ate any food, which was disappointing, but I felt that was better than a production error.

I'm looking to get the editing for these two shoots started over fall break and am generally very excited to make this a final product. All in all, I felt we had a successful weekend and I’m really looking forward to our next shoot at Glenwood Pines!

Location, Location, Location

The biggest news for Platter Pushers this week is the closing of Crespella Cafe. Apparently there is a sign on their door saying they will not be reopening... ever. Lisa sent an email to Jess to let her know that they would not be in business and are no longer going to be a part of our show. The next move we're looking to pursue is creating our own breakfast competition at State Street Diner.

The Kickstarter account has a graphic and a video, but setting up a business account with Amazon to receive any donations has proved to take longer than expected. Chrissy is working to set up the bank account and then we're ready to launch!

Over the weekend the group went out to take advantage of the weather to get exterior shots of our restaurants as well as footage from around Ithaca to use as b-roll. This upcoming weekend, we will have our first shoot. We will be shooting at Rogan's from 8am-11am on Sunday. They are creating a special food challenge item for us and I'm excited to see what their pizza size Bomber calzone will look like. Also, we're waiting on confirmation from Purity to shoot that competition on Saturday morning before noon. Our eaters and host are ready for both days. We have some of our crew working on getting our scripts together for this weekend with our host, Sean, meeting with them as well to add his own quirky sense of humor and one liners.

Our equipment is reserved and we're ready to roll!

Kickstarter

Ok, so we really need to have the Kickstarter account actually launched so we can start getting donations. In order to do that, we need a picture and a video. I was working on using photoshop to create a photo for the group but I hated the way it came out and want to take an actual photograph myself. I planned on doing the video this weekend, but the cold weather gave me a cold, so I postponed that too. It's my goal for the beginning of this week to have both of these completed. Once the Kickstarter group is up and running, we can create flyers and send them to Crespella to better advertise.

It looks like we have all of our eating competitors. The next step is to work on scripts for our host, since we're looking to begin shooting next week. We're meeting with Pete tomorrow afternoon to discuss new updates with the project.

Platter Pushers

We held our cast and crew meeting this afternoon. It seems like we have all of our crew positions and our entire cast, except one challenger.

I've registered our project on the Kickstarter website to raise money for the expenses for our project. With the cost of food, prizes, and various shooting accessories (SD cards, gaff tape, etc;), the four of us felt it would be a big help to try and raise money from those interested in our project. Once we add a video and a picture, we will be accepting donations.

I met with Lisa, the chef at Crespella Cafe, on Friday and she seemed to be welcoming to our project. Although they have not been in Ithaca for very long, it seems like we will still have an interesting story because their business is located in the "cursed location." She was very willing to advertise our KickStarter account at the cafe and also at a car dealership where the co-owner works. One person has attempted the challenge and "failed miserably," so it should be interesting to see how our contestants do.

Today, we decided on the name "Platter Pushers" for our program. Woot!

Getting Closer

I'm really getting excited for our project after our last group meeting on Monday. Although we are still waiting to hear back from 3 of our 4 locations, Rogan's has agreed to be a part of the project and we are setting up a meeting with them (hopefully Thursday at 3pm). We have also received quite a big response of people who are interested in either being crew for the project or being a contestant.

We have finalized our host, as well as our contestant for the ice cream challenge portion. We are trying to type cast our show by either choosing a competitor who looks like he could eat anything you put in front of him OR doing the exact opposite. Our host, Sean, isn't really either one of those types. In my opinion, he looks like the average guy, but truth be told he can eat a LOT of food. I think this will work for the show, since our audience won't necessarily expect him to win eating contests (and sometimes, he probably won't) and will also be a good contrast between having huge-football player guys and skinny girls challenge him.

We're holding a meeting on Saturday, Sept. 24th in the pub to make our cast and crew lists official. As of right now, our schedule is to try and begin shooting October 6th at Rogan's as well as October 8th (opening sequences or another location if it works out).

Meeting with Pete tomorrow... I hope you're as excited as I am.

Teamo Supremo

After our second group meeting that took place yesterday, I feel like our group has a much better sense of the direction of our show. Instead of a News Magazine type show featuring food, we've decided to take a more game-show like approach. Along the line of Man vs. Food, our host will visit different restaurants in Ithaca which feature some type of food challenge (Purity, Glen Pines, etc;). The host will go head to head with a special guest (differing per location) to see who can complete the challenge first (if at all). Before we get to the challenge, the host will interview a chef of the restaurant, talk about the dishes they make, ingredients they use (local produce), and the contest.

So the main idea is food challenges (college edition... featuring wings, pizza, "collegey foods"), but specifically feature local, Ithaca restaurants.

We have started to divide the jobs among the team members, with Chris in charge of the production book and lighting, and myself in charge of editing. Dave from "Eating Ithaca" has also replied to us and we're working on setting up a meeting with him very soon. Finally, we're looking to audition students for the role of the host. We need someone charismatic and comfortable in front of the camera, who is also a contender in the food challenges.