Behind the scenes of a food shoot with Asda

We were tasked with the challenge of shooting and editing the journey of Hot Cross Buns for Asda's Easter Campaign recently. We were commissioned by Manchester creative Agency BJL who came up with the concepts and storyboards.

We started the production with a little recce. This is a great way to 'feel out' a location and iron out any kinks before shooting commences. We arrived on site bright and early the following day to capture the Asda bakers in action. The crew began with rigging lighting, monitors and the camera.

We started by mixing ingredients in a large steel bowl slowing adding sugar, yeast and raisins. The batch then went into a mold before being cured in an oven. The bakers added the infamous crosses which is actually a very impressive skill. It was then back into the oven for the final bake and browning of the buns.

The main challenges were that the location was quite industrial looking. After all Asda are a commercial business and need to produce their products in high volumes and high quality. We therefore covered most of the process with close ups. We needed plenty of light as we were shooting at 100fps with a shutter of 1/200. We used 2x large Aperture LED panels which kick out an equivalent of 1K of light. We diffused the light heavily to soften the shadows. We utilised the Samyang 100mm 2.8 macro lens for a larger number of shots to get that glorious 'food porn' close up.

We covered the majority of the process in about 2-3 hours. Then it was onto the edit. We edited a 30 second and 10 second version for different social media platforms.

Once we received sign off, Asda shared the video on their Facebook page. It received over 600,000 views, 1500 comments and 129 shares within 12 hours. We couldn't be more happier with the response.

You can watch the full 30 second edit here: