Ting Hun food celebration
For our second project with Sandra’s Specialties, she commissioned us to do promotional work for her Tinghun meal set.
Remaining consistent in her value for family, and grounded in her philosophy that food is meant to promote and represent togetherness, she started offering sets to be ordered specifically in celebration of Tinghun— a tradition most typically done amongst Filipino-Chinese couples upon their engagement. Ako Sandra emphasized how she found it personally important to keep this tradition alive, and so she found an avenue through which families can come together with good food.
There was less focus on her process and the story behind her brand this time around, as the intent of the video was to remain centered on the food itself and the Tinghun as a practice. It was significant that the video had to effectively promote and encourage customers to have Sandra’s Specialties be a part of such a joyous occasion, without it being too lengthy nor cut-throat. The attention still had to remain on the food, and so the team avoided injecting too much of a narrative or story into it.
The shotlist was kept pretty simple and straightforward, containing mostly cinematic beauty shots of the dishes, prepped and laid out to simulate how it might be enjoyed by a family. There was more particularity in how the dishes were presented, and much of the time taken up during the shoot was used for framing and composition. Photo outputs were more significant this time around as well, so there was greater emphasis on being able to produce still outputs that made the dishes look as appetizing as possible. With this, the team had to practice better and conscious food styling for this specific shoot.
The challenge was to be able to integrate the theme of Tinghun without taking practically any focus away from the food itself. It was imperative that the team was able to showcase that the set meal was curated for a specific occasion, while veering away from having it point too much to the celebration rather than the product. With that, the overall mood of the output was set thematically through coloring and music choice, and with the use of subtle props alluding to an engagement.
Though quite simpler than most of the studio’s other shoots, this project with Sandra’s Specialties was an opportunity for the team to showcase how much they’ve grown— and more importantly, how they do so alongside partners that have been with them since the beginning.
This long-standing collaboration between Araw One Studios and Sandra’s Specialties is a testament to how both parties value connections that matter, and work that extends beyond transactions.
