Buy For Less, Sean Cumming’s Irish Pub, Vito’s and Denny’s: an update on Oklahoma City food places
Had a 7:30 am shoot at the Buy For Less on NW Expressway this morning. Todd Fraser manned the cameras as we shot Chefs Sean and Cathy Cummings in the Gourmet Grille. We taped four segments, cooking everything from tuna to dessert.
The segments will be posted online at NewsOK and the Buy For Less site over the next few weeks, one every other week. You can find them by going to NewsOK.tv and searching “Chef Sean.”
Sean reports his Sean Cummings’ Irish Pub is doing outstanding business. He’s got a hit on his hands. The place at 9610 N May seems to be picking up steam since opening in August . Cathy said likewise for Vito’s, at 7521 N. May Avenue. She said they’ve often had establishments open at the same time, but rarely have both been going great guns at the same time. Good for them, they are lots of fun to work with and good people.
Took about an hour to knock out the four segments, about 90 minutes on site for set up and take down.
I drove up to Edmond following the shoot to check out a post I saw on Twitter: that Denny’s was so packed the person went next door to I-Hop. Worked well for both businesses. Denny’s aired a Super Bowl commercial promising America free Grand Slam breakfasts today from 6 am to 2 pm. And sure enough, the parking lot on Second Street was completely packed, overflowing next door to Old Chicago.
Buy for Less videos
And they’re back! One of the most popular video series of 2008 was the Gourmet Grille at Buy For Less, hosted by local chefs and business owners Sean and Cathy Cummings.
I just posted the first video from the GG for 2009. We’re talking chili today. Cathy’s mom’s chili.
Todd Fraser and I shoot these segments about every six weeks or so at the Buy For Less on NW Expressway in OKC. 2-3 segments are taped. We spend about an hour to 90 minutes setting up, shooting and tearing down.
The food always looks great, smells great and, from what I’ve tried at home, tastes great too.
Buy 4 Less: Salad – behind the scenes
Goofy title, but hey, it’s a halfway goofy shoot too. But, thanks to the energy and friendliness of Sean and Cathy Cummings, it’s one of my favorite shoots. Last week, the Buy 4 Less – Bread video ranked highly in NewsOK.tv traffic. This week, we turn to the salads.
This one looks so easy even I could probably pull it off.
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Buy 4 Less: Bread
I mentioned last week that Todd Fraser and I shot four Buy 4 Less commercials, or advertorials. Here’s the first. And it ranks in the top five of most videos watched on NewsOK today.
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Behind the scenes of a Buy 4 Less commercial
Todd Fraser and I loaded up the gear and met the always cheerful Sean and Cathy Cummings at Buy 4 Less at 3501 NW Expressway this morning.
Along with OPUBCO account execs Alan Hicks and Chris Carpenter, we were there to shoot four, two minute advertorials. Buy 4 Less sponsors the Gourmet Grille bi-weekly segments with Sean and Cathy. In two minutes, they prepare quick and easy dishes, often using nothing more than a George Foreman grill. And some Italian dressing.
The commercials are produced for NewsOK’s food page and for the Buy 4 Less web site.
Cathy is owner of Vito’s Ristorante, a great Italian restaurant at 7521 N May. If nothing else, enjoy a glass of wine and try the house bread. It’s amazing. She also claims to have invented the panini, along with her brother while growing up.
Like Cathy, Sean has many ventures in progress. Last month, he opened Sean Cummings’ Irish Restaurant and Pub just up the street at 9610 N May. I haven’t been there yet, nor did I ever visit Boca Boca, the restaurant it replaced. Sean says last weekend the place was packed, which is good news to me. I’m all for the locally owned establishments. Nothing against the chains, I spend my share of coin there too. But the local places have a certain charm and often feature tremendous items on their menus.
So, for this shoot, we used two cameras, basically side by side. The shot is set up in the food court area of Buy 4 Less. We used an elevated table to showcase the ingredients and the actual mixing or grilling, depending on the segment. Sean and Cathy have the ingredients prepared ahead of time and in convenient little dishes for the tapings. It’s your basic three light set: two light boxes from either side with a key light for back fill. One camera remains static on the two-shot as Sean and Cathy explain what ingredients they are using and why.
Todd used the other camera to get cutaway shots of the ingredients in use. For example, a close up of the vegetables being mixed into the egg sandwich.
We shot four commercials in 90 minutes this morning, including set up and tear down. The editing process now begins, with the videos online beginning next week. Since the video editing format has been templated from our earlier shoots, edit time for each of the new commercials will be reduced.
