Making the best of film catering

Most people probably don’t. After all we watch the magic of cinema on the big screen or increasingly on the small TV screen and don’t think about what goes into giving us that entertainment.  It takes a long time to shoot a feature film – weeks of 14 hour days, getting up early and sleeping late.  In Harare crew are scattered and transport is a logistical nightmare.  This is an occasion public transport won’t work, so people get picked up at home to ensure they get to set on time. Harare is a spread out city. Imagine a driver starting in Hatfield at 4am – to pick someone in Chitungwiza, another in Glen Norah, a couple in Highfield, an actress from Mbare – to be on a location in Marlborough by 7am.
By the time they get there they are hungry and demanding. And the caterers should be there first – ready to welcome the crew and cast with water boiling for hot drinks and food ready to serve.  That’s the ideal anyway.  And I have enjoyed it on big film productions – real coffee, a choice of teas, hot fried egg rolls, and in some rare cases a full hotel type breakfast with proper plates and cutlery and eggs to order – but there hasn’t been a big film production with that kind of budget in Zimbabwe for over a decade.
In the USA, UK and probably even South Africa you get custom built mobile kitchens – fully equipped vans with loads of stainless steel surfaces, gas cookers and hot and cold running water on tap.  I’ve only seen those on Masterchef challenges – close to the final – when the three top survivors take on extreme cooking situations – like cooking in the field for a platoon of soldiers. Cooking for a large professional crew is a tough challenge for the inexperienced.  Up to 100 people needing to pass though your kitchen, and be satisfied, in a short space of time.
Film catering in Zimbabwe, like so many other things, is about making a plan. There are no mobile kitchens or custom built stoves and servers. Usually no electricity either! Big productions can be like safari camps, complete with large transport trucks, portable toilets, tents for dining with tables and chairs and white linen, a hotel style buffet with a choice of hot dishes (including a vegetarian option), mounds of sadza and/or rice for the guys doing the hard physical labour, and delicate salads for the figure conscious stars.
These days local films are made on a shoestring but in a spirit of deep camaraderie, co-operation and creativity. For this production – Playing Warriors directed by Rumbi Katedza – the producer was getting up at dawn to boil eggs, make sandwiches and bring thermoses filled with hot water and coffee. The make-up artist doled out sweet biscuits. There was no tea and coffee all day on tap, no muffins or biscuits in between takes – but the runner went off for fruit and sweets. Lunch was from a local, efficient takeaway which produced chicken or T bone and rice, chips and vegetables for the vegetarian, extra soup and side salads and some soft drinks. Phone in the order and collect it downtown half an hour later. The down side was the enormous amount of garbage generated – polystyrene containers, plastic cutlery, cans and drink bottles – in just two days the rubbish bin was overflowing.
The film is expected to launch at ZIFFT this year.  Look out for this innovative, social comedy in October.

– g.jeke@yahoo.com