Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546176
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 25 best, or hopefully a backroom. Only a scout of the location will tell the story. In a perfect world, the venue would give us the kitchen for our food stylist to work from. If not, we'd have to create a mobile kitchen, often under an easy-up with hot plates, chafing dishes, coolers with dry ice, long tables with dishware, and microwaves that would need to be powered by the electric department. We'd also need an extra prop person to run food back-and-forth between set and wherever production finds space for us. The other battle is making sure production gives us enough time to get into the kitchen, set up, and be ready by rehearsal. Let's go over the food now. My bet is that even in 1971, they had the venue provide the food for the scene and everyone was happy, with Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo sitting behind the camera eating bowls of pasta. We first need to ask the actors if they have any food allergies, and if they do, adjust for whatever that may be, whether it is gluten-free pasta or, if McCluskey was a vegetarian, meatless veal. Experience has taught me to consult with all actors in a food scene regardless of what was scripted, just in case Al Pacino decides to take a bite of veal. Props are all about anticipating every scenario. Fortunately, this scene did not call for copious amounts of food so the resets would be fast and easy. This scene's real challenge was the meticulous opening of the wine bottle. Coppola's sublime use of a prop builds tension as the faceless waiter struggles to remove the foil, inserts the corkscrew, twists it three times, wrestles the cork free, and finally pours the glasses, all while Michael builds confidence. On the surface, it seems like an easy prop. Get a case of wine, a waiter's corkscrew, three glasses, and we are rolling camera, which is probably how it went down in Above: A very small family restaurant with a mosaic tile floor. SOLLOZZO, MICHAEL, and McCluskey sit around a small table. Below: The solitary WAITER brings a bottle of wine to the table. They watch him silently as he uncorks it and pours three glasses.