[VIDEO] Sauce Day

[Revolution.]

Here's a short film I shot and edited this past weekend of what is a bit of an Italian cultural tradition - the annual sauce day, where the whole family gets together to make the traditional red tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, lasagne, etc.

I'm still very much an amateur at the whole videography thing, so any feedback/constructive criticism is welcome

both HD and SD versions below:
enjoy!

720p:



SD:



Shot on my Sony NEX-5 with kit 18-55 lens.
Edited in iMovie '11.

[lothloriel]

Fascinating bit of culture, i enjoyed it

[Goobers]

I remember watching them do sauce day on the tv show "The Cake Boss". I found your video just as enjoyable to watch as theirs. result looks delicious.

[bendyclickr]

I found it very enjoyable to watch.

Just a quick question, when they were laying down the bottles and covering with Hessian did they then heat them with the fire underneath?

[Revolution.]

Thanks guys! I know it's a little lengthy but I was hoping it was interesting enough to hold your attention

@bendyclickr - Yeah, to properly cook the sauce so that it'll last for over a year, the bottles are stacked inside that big cauldron style thing with the hessian in between the layers. It's then filled up with water and boiled with the fire for a good while and left to sit for 24 hours. I would have liked to film a little more of the finishing off process but my camera battery ran flat!

[broccoli]

Very interesting. Good pace, kept it interesting. I'd like the mincer/puree machine.

[MR CHILLED]

Wow, now that makes me hungry for home made pasta and sauce. Good work.

[dlcx]

Ah reminds me of our sauce days...

Interesting, we don't cook the tomatoes before juicing them... for us its:

1) cut tomatoes into halves by hand
2) add salt
3) juice them
4) juice the skins again to get last bit of sauce
5) fill bottles (with leaf of basil) and seal
6) boil bottles in large firepit with big 2 meter x .5 meter x 1.5 meter rectangle cauldron

Some pics from a few years back...

[Squeezer]

Intersting Film, watched the whole thing although I think it wouldnt have lost anything if it was shorter. Lots of similar frames ( ie many captures of the fire ) and you had the decanting of the tomatoes out of the cauldron in 2 seperate shots. You should be able to easily edit it down to 4-5 mins.

A few of the focus pulls are a bit dodgy. They are too fast and you go past the focus point and then pull back ?

Would be good to see more of the faces of the people working. The only time you really see faces is when the cake is being cut and Coffee poured for afternoon tea.

Look forward to seeing more of your videos

[Revolution.]

Thanks guys!

@dlcx - Haha, looks familiar! Every family has their own slightly different way of doing things for sure. I'm told we boil the tomatoes first because it makes them easier to put through the machine. We do put the skins through another two times to thicken up the sauce a bit, I just didn't include that part because the skins don't look as nice as the tomatoes going into the machine.

Nice photos also

@Squeezer - Thanks for the feedback! As I was making it I did feel that it was a bit long. For the focus pulls... they were all done with autofocus which would explain that issue. I'll have a go at doing it manually next time.

I'll keep in mind the faces thing too - it was partly because a couple of my family members were a bit wary of being seen on Youtube.

Thanks for the tips though, it's helpful

[broccoli]

Yes about the faces, I liked it when it showed the lady serving out the coffee and fruitcake.

[disci]

Nice work Revolution - I enjoyed it. (I remember this tradition being covered on "Foodlovers' Guide to Australia" a few years ago, as well.)

Sorry for sounding a bit basic, but regarding your discussion with Squeezer re focussing - the other solution is to just edit out the bits where the camera is focussing, and then start the 'finished' scene after the focussing is complete.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards

Des

[onrelas]

Nice work with the video. I made sauce with my grandparents last Monday actually. Was thinking of filming it too but only managed to take a few photos. I was too busy, we did 14 cases this year, it's not the easiest work in the world that's for sure. Up until a few years ago we still used a hand machine not electric. We also use two really old copper boilers for the tomatoes and the bottles after. For the record we cook the tomatoes first too. Every family and part of Italy has their own process I'm sure.
You've inspires me to film it next year

[Revolution.]

Thanks guys

@disci - Good point! I was trying to get the focus slide effect into the film a bit - I didn't want to cut it entirely! I shall try and improve it for next time though :P
@onrelas - Aah, hehe, I've heard stories from my mum about the times many years ago when they had to use the hand-cranked machine, sounds much harder work than just using the electric one! Glad you liked the video

[Tomee]

nice one!
we did our sauce day yesterday so reminded me of this thread
sorry to bring this up lol