Has anyone done any film set catering? What has been your experience. I have been told its the most poorly catering gigs out there.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Saturday, August 30, 2003 - 08:08 pm: Edit

what do you mean ....poorly catering gigs ?

By Corey (Corey) on Sunday, August 31, 2003 - 01:06 am: Edit

cheap I think,
like 3 dead cows and 5 loafs of bread?

By Monique (Monique) on Monday, September 01, 2003 - 09:01 pm: Edit

I mean that they pay poorly compared to catering gigs like weddings, or corporate functions.

By Mbw (Mbw) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 02:20 pm: Edit

Craft services! They call it.

I have fed The 49ers, Global Van lines, etc but in MY experience NOBODY EATS LIKE MEDIA PEOPLE!!!!! A special warning if you will have press there too. The press is the biggest bunch of tire biters I have met. Tire biters meaning the will eat everything NOT nailed down.

So to knowingly take on a "Craft Services" job is very brave or very foolish. More like combat, or working for a non profit.

My information comes not only from first hand experiance but thru a good friend in the movie industry. As he says it there are three different levles of movie set catering.

#1 VIP no budget restrictions pleanty of room to create. This is close to "Normal" catering.

#2 Meals. Movie people eat big! You will not be on the job long if you run out of food with these people. Not not only do these items need to be hearty thet will need to be quick. Even dressing a salad may seem like too much work for this crew. Boxes work best.

#3 Craft services COSTCO HERE WE COME!!!! Movie people require munchies the whole time they are working. Since they need to adjust to the shooting schedule then so will you. It may seem silly but bags of chips, cookies, fruit, powerbars, granola bars, juice, waters, sodas are what they want to see. 25% of all movie catering could be done by a mobile vending machine.

I am also told that different caterers are hired for all three levels. Just go for the top two and provide for #3 if it gets you the contract.

So they are more work than corporate events, but certainly less than weddings. For the money that is.

GL

MBW

By Steve9389 (Steve9389) on Tuesday, September 02, 2003 - 09:17 pm: Edit

As a reporter I can tell you MBW is right -- for what they make they develop quite a tendency to mooch free food. But sportswriters are the worst. That's why they're all 300 pounds. I covered the 1992 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, and it was a blur of corporate sponsors trying (successfully) to lure reporters to their "media events" with food and booze. I didn't pay for a meal or a drink for two weeks, and I ate like a king. I promise you I would never have showed up at the Bud Bowl press conference if not for the shrimp cocktail, even if I had to wash it down with Bud Light.

I also spent two weeks once working as a "featured extra" in a movie (Little Big League with Timothy Busfield from Thirtysomething -- I show up in the movie as a blur for less than one second). For those two weeks I got paid $100 per day to work a grand total of about five hours; there is more sitting around in movie making than you could ever imagine. Since the flick was shot at the Metrodome, everybody brought their mitts and Nerf footballs and we wound up having a pretty good time. I can now say I spent every day for a week playing pepper with Ken Griffey, Jr.

As for the food, it was awesome, but it all came from a specialized movie caterer that pulls its kitchen trailer from location to location. The regular extras in the stands got box lunches (and only 50 bucks a day), but since I was on the field I got to eat at the trailer with the rest of the cast and crew. Cornish hens one day, delmonicos the next, grilled lobster tail the day after that. And on it went.