When film techniques push the boundaries there’s fun to be had with mixing the banal with the cutting edge and Lurpak has taken this idea to a new level. Kitchen Odyssey is a TV ad that follows the footsteps of Scandinavian fantasy – an homage to the Nordic saga rather than Greek epic.
So where does this leave food filming? Perhaps this extreme version of clever effects, macro focus, slowmo and tiny cameras in strange places, is simply a logical progression along the continuum of innovation in food photography. Only this amazing, clever ad sits at the far end of the spectrum – right out on the edge.
The fx in the ad are to be found peppered amongst recipe videos that take their subject seriously and TV cookery programmes like The Good Cook. So there’s a lot that has already been pioneered.
But what’s interesting is the way that new film techniques and equipment allow us to look at food and kitchens in a new way. They help us to reveal the extraordinary in the everyday.