MEALS ON REELS
1 ROBERT YEOMAN
WES ANDERSON’S LONG-TERM CINEMATOGRAPHER EXPLAINS HOW TO MAKE FOOD LOOK GOOD ON FILM.
"The French Dispatch is a compilation of different short stories, and one of them deals with a chef, so food was quite an important part of that. We had a food prep person on the film who’s there to make sure everything looks fresh and good. I typically work very closely with those people – they’re constantly in there noodling around, fixing little things to make it even more delicious-looking. That whole sequence was shot in black and white, which gives it a different dynamic because you have to use light to separate the colours. We shot a lot of tests beforehand, particularly in wardrobe – if you want to show someone wearing a white shirt you don’t put them in a white shirt, it has to be light blue or light yellow. The same rules apply for food. I hadn’t shot anything using black-and-white film since film school, so it was a real lesson for me.
“When it comes to actually shooting food, a lot of it has to do with continuity and basic logistics: if someone’s sat at a table and they’re eating, and you have to do multiple
