Kyle x Miele
Stories from Our Only Home
Director's Write-up by Pete LeeAn Intimate Portrait of What We Do and How We Live
I’ve shot on the Sonoma Coast quite a few times (the video above was from a project I’d done a few years back). I’m in awe of the way it stubbornly holds onto its beauty even as climate change, drought, and wildfires try to take it away every year. I feel the same about Singlethread - it’s tempting to take their perfection for granted - until you see the dirt-covered, home-grown, punk rock approach behind everything they do. It’ll be fun to layer in some of those dimension in our piece, as a way to elevate the message.
It’s easy to admire a chef like Kyle or a brand like Miele - put on a nice 50mm lens, keep the focus shallow, and keep the light single directional - then bam! the talent and products can do the rest.
But that’s not what we’ve come here to do.
Our challenge is to inspire; to convey the excitement of pulling off this impossible project, and to witness the heartbreak they feel for communities impacted by the climate change. We are here to capture a very, very human experience. That means we’ve got to stay curious and nimble, more on that in a second.
Our General Game Plan:
Finding an experienced, dependable crew that knows how to work in a hot kitchen. Our footprint needs to be small.
The camera has to always be ready to capture the intimate, unguarded moments: this is a secret sauce to ensure our film feels alive.
As such, the lighting needs to be minimal. We will prioritize directions of the sun and lighting conditions when planning our days. We’ll be ready to capture the farm during the magic hours and we’ll figure out elegant single-source lighting setups for the kitchen and indoor portrait scenes.
In giving the handheld camerawork a sense of lyricism, we will be playing with different speed and frame rates.
While it’s always fascinating to witness the Singlethread staff do their work, I’ll also be curious to see the meals that Kyle and Katina make outside of the kitchen. Their lives are a very interesting blend between rustic and formal, and we’ll be paying extra attention to those contrasts: the tattoos, the dirt-covered hands, the casual interactions, along with Singlethread’s impeccable food and atmosphere.
Somehow through all of these demands, I will make sure the talents feel relaxed and everyone is having a good time. This is how we capture magic. This is how we find warmth inside a very serious, media-savvy restaurant, and this is how we can make the audience feel like they’re right there.
1.
Each day we’ll rise up bright an early to capture the fog, the breeze, and the landscape in magic hour.
2.
We capture action shots on the farm, and as the magic hour comes and goes, we’ll start moving in for close-up and detailed shots.
While we want to tailor each day to the needs of the talent, this will be a sample of our day.
3.
While on the farm, we can see if Kyle can whip up something simple and delicious using Miele products. This is also a great opportunity to capture a lot of interactions, - with Katina, the community, the staff…etc. before the madness sets in.
4.
Then we dash over to the restaurant in the afternoon - after the staff has finished prepping and cleaning, this is where we get our the fascinating process shots, as well as dishes for the lineup. This is where the crew has to be kept the smallest - we will bring in one LED panel into the kitchen, just to give us a nice, beautiful kick on the action.
5.
As the kitchen service revs up, we can grab Katina for additional shots and scenes, maybe even look for moments that can mirror shots that we grabbed from earlier. We have plenty of options: close ups of her tattoo, or taking food waste into the farm for compost, or meeting more characters in the community.
MOOD BOARD
I’ve also tacked on a little teaser for the doc “A Dashi Journey” below. Chef Kyle Connaughton was heavily involved in the production. I made it in collaboration with chef Namae Shinobu and photographer Eric Wolfinger. The meticulous approach to food, culture and ecology was blended with a lively, spontaneous shoot. I want to bring that same spirit to our production, where we pay the utmost respect to our planet and story by telling it with joy. We want the audience to understand exactly what we are fighting for - not just an abstract concept of “the planet” - but a more lively, more worthwhile, more inspiring way of living and doing things.
Additional ideas:
For the cinematic portraits, we can try filming at either 30 or 36 frames per second - creating an effect that doesn't READ as slow motion, but feels dreamy all the same.
Using dapples of lights and shallow focus to connect food on the plate with the landscape.
Go close on our action shots. Make the viewers smell the scent, see the colors, and feel the mist in every little action (also a great opportunity to give our talents a break.)
The landscape should feature lots of moving elements - the water, the fog, and Sonoma mist - to better connect the stories together.
Would love to find interesting, playful wides for the farm scenes, to better illustrate how Kyle and Katina co-exist with nature
Should try to grab lovely little inserts of their tattoos and using them to tie the film together too.