If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that the crickets have been chirping for most of the past several months. I suddenly found myself with nothing to say - or nothing I haven't already said or that someone else has said. If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all. Meanwhile...
I love my work but I'd become restless and had a yearning to change things up. Food Media has gone through a cataclysmic re-design in the past five years. Everything's changed and with change comes opportunity. I just didn't know what it could look like for me. I've functioned as a creative director but I'm not a creative director - in the traditional sense. I've designed productions and stories and shoots but I'm not a production designer - in the traditional sense. And as a food stylist, I've long gone beyond the traditional role of a food stylist, concepting stories, developing recipes, designing sets and writing words. What could 'change' look like for me? It was when I began working with the brilliant brand strategist and change guru Beth Taubner (thanks be to you, Kelly Montez). that an angel landed on my shoulder.
Becky Donahue from the production company Taste in Motion approached me with a crazy-sounding proposition: Would I be interested in directing? DIRECTING. Taste in Motion - or just Taste - is in the business of producing top-tier broadcast commercials with food as the focus. Despite the fact that I'm not and never will be a photographer, (that's what the DP is for, Becky reminded me), she believed I had everything (else) it would take to make me into a director. So for the past several months, they've tucked me under their wing and have very patiently taken me through the process of making my first film, from making storyboards and board-o-matics, meticulously designing camera angles, shot lists, schedules, sets, wardrobe and food through editing, colorizing, compositing, animation and these words you're reading now. It won't happen overnight - and I'm still as in love with what I do as ever - but now I'm only restless because I can't wait to start directing!
Here's my first spot.
Hey D.J.: Drop the Beet!
