What does a restaurant really sell?

Not the food. The night

A restaurant and live music venue in Sherman Oaks wanted a thirty second TV commercial that puts you at a table on a good evening

I produced and directed it

Kitchen to table

It follows the plates out of the kitchen to the table, warm low light, close on the dishes, wine pouring, cocktails at the bar

Food on camera is like fashion on camera, it has to look like you could reach out and touch it, right now

Then the room

Then wide. The dining room full of guests, live music on stage, friends raising a toast

Here is the deal, nobody books a table for a plate of pasta they've seen online. They book for the feeling of a full room and a band playing

Faces in the kitchen

It closes on the chefs in their whites with the logo and the website, real people behind the food

A guest who's seen the chef's face trusts the plate a little more before it ever arrives

And the live music matters more than people think. A restaurant with a stage isn't competing with the place down the street on price, it's competing with staying home and watching TV

Low light is a skill

Restaurants at night are dark on purpose, that's the mood, and a camera hates it

Ever looked at a phone photo of a great dinner? brown, blurry, sad. Same room, same plate, it's all in the light

Light it too much and it looks like a cafeteria, light it too little and the food turns brown and muddy. The trick is adding light nobody notices, keeping the candles and the bar glow as the main event

Producer and camera

When the producer is the one in the viewfinder, a waiter crossing the shot or a plate turned the wrong way gets fixed right then, quietly, without stopping the restaurant

More commercials in the Commercial gallery, and my product lighting in the Products Advertising gallery

Thirty seconds, then dinner

Length: 0 min 30 s · Producer & director: David Victory, VRSET video production, Los Angeles & Orange County

Key moments

See the matching photography in the Commercial gallery.

More videos

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Also on our YouTube channel.

Planning a video or a fashion shoot? Contact David Victory or call (310) 988-6575 in Los Angeles, (949) 873-4551 in Orange County. Free consultation and quote for first-time clients.