The word “food-styling”, both among insiders and in the collective imagination, is connected to the activity of enhancing aesthetics and appealing qualities of food. That was exactly what I thought, when I decided to start on this path. So, we take real food, create recipes, and arrange the mise en place. Our job can no doubt consist of this, but only in the editorial field.
When we step into the world of advertisement, especially at a high level, our tasks go beyond creativity; the job becomes extremely technical and experience, more often than not, makes all the difference.
The more so with ice-cream and chocolate, a niche in which my team (Ottavia Sardo and our mock-up artist Max) and I (Luisa Chiddo) have been specializing for years. For this type of product traditional rules are not applicable. With the exception of live action sets with very wide shots, when shooting ice-cream or chocolate, artificial or fake mock-ups are indispensable.
A mock-up is basically a copy of the original product, in various materials, that depend on the requested texture, shooting angle and action. They can be edible, in materials that the actors will be eventually able to bite and eat, or, if the screenplay does not include any biting or eating, they can be made of resin.
In the latest years the main trend is to create a perfect product, that is at the same time imperfect, in order to keep that difficult balance between reality and fiction.
But why do we use artificial products instead of real ice-cream or snacks? There are several reasons.
