EXPLORATION OF

Making a hot chocolate

VISUAL PRODUCTION

IDEA Summary

The process of a hot chocolate being made, in all it's artistic glory.

Opening

INT KITCHEN - NIGHT

Someone is in the kitchen, deep within the process of making a hot drink. We hear them moving about. There are recipe books scattered across the kitchen worktops. Sugar, flower and chocolate dusted on top of the books. Failed previous attempts line up along the side. We hear the sounds of cups clinking, bags being torn open. It's dark outside but cozy inside. A warm orange glow from the lamps and the oven. Inside is baking cookies. Then:

A tall fancy hot chocolate glass is placed onto the table.

A figure holds a recipe book in front of themselves. They lower it down to reveal our hero. They have a worn, but determined look on their face.

We then cut through a montage of how the hot chocolate is made.

THE PROCESS (from memory)

In as much detail as possible, to get as many shots as possible:

Grab a glass
Place on the table
Grab the milk
Unscrew the cap
Pour half into the glass
Open the microwave
Put into the microwave
Heat
Remove
Grab the cocoa powder
Tear open
Scoop
Pour into glass
Stir
Grab whipped cream
Squirt on top
Grab the cocoa powder again
Dust on top
Sprinkle marshmallows
Toast with a torch

INGREDIENTS

Added, not necessarily in this order:

Cocoa powder
Chocolate squares / chunks
Milk
Whipped cream
Sugar
Salt
Marshmallows
Cold winter night to enjoy it on

Observing other's methods

How the professionals do it:

Hot chocolate in a saucepan? What?

Okay, this might be the most visually appealing to replicate on camera - make the recipe in a pan and then pour into a cup / mug / glass.

Finely chopping chocolate seems cool. Seeing clips from these videos has shown me there's a lot more to making a hot chocoalte than simply pouring a pre-mix sachet into a glass and boiling up some milk.

We should create our own process based on these recipies and explore ways to present this on camera.

VISUAL INSPIRATION

Photos from unsplash.com (free to use, even commercially under the Unsplash free license)

I imagine the scene at night, shown warm and cozy. Maybe lit with candles. This could be faked with portable lights set to a flicker.

We use an open aperture for a shallow depth of field, shown with the bokeh on the left.

TECH SPECS

if we were to cut between all twenty of these steps, we would more than cover the process. Is it necessary to? If we want something artistic, we could have a lot of fun with repeating and varying shots.

Any physical light within the scene (from the fridge, microwave or oven etc) could be accentuated by lamps we borrow from Media Loans.

Sound: lots of swishes, sliding, tearing, placing a bit of torching!

THE macro IDEA

A lot of modern product advertisements show the product connected to the camera following along via a rig.

In replicating this for a bag of flour, for example, let's place a camera inside the cupboard and have the camera follow the bag on it's journey to being placed on the counter top.

NEXT STEPS

Recce different kitchens to evaluate best location
Create our own process based on these reaseach
Think about what we want to say through the story
Plan for lighting, available space and movement

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