Happy peaches?
Since the tropical cyclone wiped-out most of Australia's banana crop the price of bananas in the supermarket is about $13 per kilogram.
During this banana drought we've been using tinned peach slices on the our brekky cereal and when I looked at a tin of them today I was reminded of an absurd tv commercial that I worked-on in Melbourne many years ago. Conrad Rothman was the grand old man of special effects in Australian film and tv world, and I had the pleasure of working with him on a variety of projects. He was asked to provide the special effects for a canned fruit commercial for a major Australian fruit canner.
Conrad organised a large clear perspex tank that we filled with about 50 gallons of tinned peach slices, and topped it off with about the same amount of sugar syrup. A high speed cine camera was mounted in front of the tank face and we young special effects assistants had to stick our arms into the peach/syrup mixture and swirl the stuff around in front of the camera. The director's concept was that the camera would be 'flying' through all these peachs. Very high art back then.
Anyway, the surrealism of the moment came to me as we were swirling the peach/syrup mixture around with the director shouting at us, 'I want happy peaches! Give me happy peaches!'
What the heck is a 'happy' peach I thought. Crazy directors...
But look at any tin of peach slices and you'll see that they are always pictured 'smiling'. No frowning peaches on our tins!
During this banana drought we've been using tinned peach slices on the our brekky cereal and when I looked at a tin of them today I was reminded of an absurd tv commercial that I worked-on in Melbourne many years ago. Conrad Rothman was the grand old man of special effects in Australian film and tv world, and I had the pleasure of working with him on a variety of projects. He was asked to provide the special effects for a canned fruit commercial for a major Australian fruit canner.
Conrad organised a large clear perspex tank that we filled with about 50 gallons of tinned peach slices, and topped it off with about the same amount of sugar syrup. A high speed cine camera was mounted in front of the tank face and we young special effects assistants had to stick our arms into the peach/syrup mixture and swirl the stuff around in front of the camera. The director's concept was that the camera would be 'flying' through all these peachs. Very high art back then.
Anyway, the surrealism of the moment came to me as we were swirling the peach/syrup mixture around with the director shouting at us, 'I want happy peaches! Give me happy peaches!'
What the heck is a 'happy' peach I thought. Crazy directors...
But look at any tin of peach slices and you'll see that they are always pictured 'smiling'. No frowning peaches on our tins!
posted by Rick's Rambles at 8:05 am
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