In trouble with the D.E.A.

Watching someone eat while they know you’re watching seems like an impolite thing to do. For me, watching people tasting chocolate on camera felt like an invasion of privacy during an intimate moment. A ludicrous thought for such an ordinary thing to do. 

Gazette reporter Susan Semenak mentioned that her timeline feature about chocolate would have a web component and the idea was to film people taste-testing chocolate. Right away, I thought to myself that this should be more than just a “streeter” of talking heads. And almost immediately I imagined filming people in slow motion as they experienced the taste of chocolate–great chocolate! While tasting happens inside, the expressions are what reveal the person’s opinion.

We picked up Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois at Atwater market from her kiosk. Semenak and I walked around thinking we could make the video right there. We realized this was not the right setting for the vision that I had. There wasn’t a single place in the market with a clean background and reasonable light!

We moved the operation to the next day at The Gazette building.

From then, it all flowed naturally. I set up a custom-made light that colleagues Peter McCabe and Dave Sidaway built and set the settings on my Canon 1D mk IV. From there it was just a matter of baiting people with chocolate. Not a hard sell!

I love looking at people’s faces. I find it amazing that we can recognize a person’s emotion from an expression that lasts only a fraction of a second.

Each tasting lasted less than a minute but it felt tremendously long. Maybe it was that feeling of crashing an intimate moment? Or because I knew the experience was just between them and the chocolate?

The video was filmed with the DSLR at 720p and 60fps. This would allow for a smooth conversion to slow motion. I later conformed the video using Cinema Tools to 30fps and, when placing it into the project in Final Cut Pro, reduced the speed to 70%. That is 30% slower than 50% of the original.

The result? Amazing reactions that I can’t stop looking at! An adverse result is that I can’t stop eating chocolate.

Thanks to our testers:
Christian Knudsen
Christiane Van Bolhuis
Pierre Lévesque
Chantal Allard
Michelle McQuillen
Alyaa Touila
Hanna-Joy Farooq
Daniel Iodice
Chad Scripnick

Click the photo for the soundslide! The only way to make it stop auto-playing!

This couldn’t be done with my hair.

MONTREAL, QUE.: FEBRUARY 6, 2012– A model gets her hair made for the fashion show by Marie Sainte Pierre during the Montreal Fashion Week showing styles for fall/winter 2012/13 in Montreal on Monday, February 6, 2012. (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE)

For some sports fans, their sport, their team and their idols fill the void that religion used to fill. These recent sports photos have a bit of a religious undertone, no? I fill that void with chicken.

SAINTE-ADELE, QUE.: JANUARY 15, 2012–  Australia’s Samantha Wells competes in the women’s finals for the aerials skiing competition at the Canada Post Freestyle Grand Prix held at Ski Mont Gabriel in Sainte-Adele, north of Montreal on Sunday, January 15, 2012. (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE)

SAINTE-ADELE, QUE.: JANUARY 15, 2012–  Switzerland’s Lambert Thomas practises during the men’s training session for the aerials competition at the Canada Post Freestyle Grand Prix held at Ski Mont Gabriel in Sainte-Adele, north of Montreal on Sunday, January 15, 2012. (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE)

MONTREAL, QUE.: JANUARY 16, 2012– Montreal Impact players warm-up during the first day of the Montreal Impact MLS training camp at Complexe Sportif Marie-Victorin in Montreal on Monday, January 16, 2012. (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE)