Film Production Design Chat: Fake Food on Set
With the holiday dinners approaching, it seems like a good time to deliver on my earlier promise of a “Production Designer chat” about creating the fake food for the dinner party scene of our film, Werewolf Serenade, a romantic comedy.
First, a film synopsis for anyone new here: When burnt-out college professor Peter MacTire accidentally becomes a werewolf, he and his concert cellist wife Julia embrace the change to hopefully thwart an evil occultist plot, save the college, and their marriage.
The film stars Emily Keyishian, Mark Robinson, Alia Beeton, and Daedalus Howell, was produced by me, and written and directed by Daedalus Howell. It’s a werewolf-comedy for the art-house crowd.
Besides producing, I’m also the production designer for Werewolf Serenade, and as such, created the sets, props, costumes, etc. The movie has a Rocky Horror- and The Offer-inspired dinner party scene (at least visually) that was shot over two days at the Petaluma Woman’s Club. Since we couldn’t leave real food out overnight, I had to think of something else.
Sculpting a Dinner Party
I went to the craft store and bought a tub of terra cotta clay and some white and green modeling compound. Then I took out my acrylic paints and the silver serving dishes from an estate sale, and began “making dinner”.
First, I roped my then fourteen-year-old kiddo into rolling dozens of peas from the green modeling compound, which we then dipped into a thin wash of burnt sienna acrylic paint to give them some dimension. A handful of these ended up on each plate. As you can see below, we experimented with making carrots too but they were too time-consuming.
For mashed potatoes, a puffy mass of white modeling compound went into a silver serving dish. When it was dry, I painted it with cream colored paint so it wasn’t so bright, and added a bit of yellow for butter in the middle, and a silver serving spoon. The same treatment was done for the dollops of mashed potatoes on the plates.
Next, the meat. The terra cotta clay was in a cylinder, so first, I sliced it into roundish slices of “roast beef”. Then I painted the edges brown, and added some magenta and burnt sienna paint throughout and let it dry.
Additionally, I made a few “bites” to scatter on the individual plates to look as if they are mid-dinner. A silver tray full of meat slices for the table, and a slice or two on each plate, and we have a passable “fake dinner”.
The first day of the shoot, I assembled the “food” on the plates and serving dishes, and bought a real baguette. I added a piece of bread to each plate so people could actually eat something off the plate if they felt like it.
For wine, we mainly used cranberry juice poured into Waterford crystal glasses passed down to me from my grandmother. The silverware was passed down from my other grandmother.
Assembling this kind of stuff is one of my favorite parts of filmmaking, even though there are also many other joys that might be more expected, relating to organizing locations, shot lists, and actors, and working with our talented team of professionals on everything ranging from editing to sound design and music.
Fun, Artistic, Holiday Gifts!
Looking for fun, artistic holiday gifts? Purchase my SparkTarot® deck or my poetry book, 1912: Poems of Time, Place & Memory (also available on Amazon) for those people-who-have-everything on your list.
BONUS: I’m adding in a Living Tarot Zine “Return of the Light” edition to any Tarot Deck order in December.