Yes, nailed it fry hell yeah, that's pretty safe.

That's awesome.

Hey, I'm David Ma and I'm a director and filmmaker.

I take people behind the scenes of my shoots on Tiktok and instagram where I share movie facts and how we do food styling and special effects on my commercial sets.

Today I'm gonna take you behind the scenes of how me and my crew's pulled off some of my favorite shots from films and commercials I've directed as well as provide some tips for how to get started in the industry.

First let's start with the food styling fact I learned on set last year.

Did you know that we used fake silicone ice instead of real ice cubes on set.

This is because when we light our set, film lights would melt the ice in the drinks and we'd have to reset the drinks multiple times After a couple of takes second, if there's dialogue, real ice clinks in the glass and it makes sounds that distract from the dialogue on screen to give viewers a more interesting, intimate angle of the food we're cooking.

Sometimes they'll cut the lip off of a pan, which allows us to get up close and personal to the food.

This allows the lens to get super close, capturing all the details, slow motion moments and flavors in the pan.

We also use robotic arms, also known as motion control to program and move our camera to capture slow motion shots of products and cooking actions.

These robotic arms move really fast and are used to create dynamic sequences for both film and tv.

But before we even get to shooting it all begins with a story board.

The storyboard is a quick sketch of the vision in my head that conveys framing composition, camera movement and lightning notes to the crew.

In this pizza commercial, we built a fake oven that raised the pizza as if it was a concert stage with real smoke and haze and a mini led lighting sequence to mimic a concert.

The food stylist is holding a handheld broiler that allows the cheese and toppings sold fresh and extra bubbly as if it were cooking in a real oven.

Now if you're going to get into the industry, here are my four tips for getting started, tip one, make it till you make it.

We've all heard the phrase fake it till you make it.

I've always believed in make it till you make it with social media.

It's easy to post and get swept up in quick views.

Now there's nothing wrong with sharing your journey along the way but make sure you're advancing your craft as you do.

I started as a food stylist from my first few shoots, learning the visual language of food, the details of every plate and food styling tricks to make food look amazing on camera tip to serve up something unique since I couldn't afford film school at the time I shot my own films to build a real eye concept ID road directed and produced a food series of short films that went viral and received millions of views.

The premise was creating recipe videos and the style of iconic directors like Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Michel Bay and others.

Each of these food films had its own camera style, recipe, art direction and story around the food.

These films for my introduction to the food advertising world and showed I was bringing a new and unique perspective to food videography, tip three, assemble a small crew.

Shooting food is a complex and detail oriented process.

Try to find a friend, roommate or family member who can help you with little tasks like resets, cleaning propping or even food styling so you can focus on making your peace as creatively and conceptually interesting as possible.

Remember an idea is nothing without the execution and the more help you have to bring your vision to life, the happier you'll be with tip four eat cook taste.

Before I became a food director, I photographed dishes and became a pretty serious home cook.

I'd observe and note the techniques of different chefs, cooked recipes dined out of Syria taco trucks and tried tasting menus at Michelin star restaurants, understanding food and the narratives around it and what it means to people, helps you understand food on a deeper level and helps you create stories around for more behind the scenes.

Movie facts and film tips.

Follow me on Tiktok and instagram at David W Ma thanks for listening and feel free to DM me with any questions.