Filmmakers Ryan and Alec Balas have launched a first-of-its-kind showcase dedicated to food as cinema. Going by the cheeky name of TheFoodPornHub, the new site celebrates the sensual pleasures and visual splendors of the culinary arts. There are no pedestrian cooking videos or reviews of trendy eateries here. Rather, the site serves up a cornucopia of gorgeously composed, lit and photographed cuisine designed to send foodies into paroxysms of ecstasy.
Ryan Balas, who directs food-related advertising and branded content through Derby, New York, says that he and his brother, editor Alec Balas, developed TheFoodPornHub as a way to refine their craft unconstrained by deadlines and without being tied to a specific brand. “We wanted to put the art back into food cinema,” he says. “Our aim is to produce food imagery worthy of hanging on a gallery wall.”
The site features scores of short video clips produced, directed and edited by the Balas brothers. A section titled “Yum Shots” includes clips of eggs sizzling in frying pans, silky ribbons of caramel flowing over ice cream, slow-motion cocktail pours, and lots of chocolate. “Quickies” features artfully-designed tabletop imagery cut into bubbly montages. Another section features short, engaging documentaries about the Balas’ personal food adventures, shot in a loose, off-the-cuff manner.
“We have some kitchen experience from our filmmaking work, but we’re not chefs,” Ryan explains. “We chose foods, like ice cream, that were easy to execute and, because we didn’t have a kitchen, we used a glossy black tabletop or something similar to create neutral backgrounds. So, it became less about chasing a recipe or chasing a chef, and more about creating interesting shots. As a result, they present point-of-views you don’t typically see in recipe videos.”
Although all the imagery currently on the site was produced entirely by the Balas brothers, they are eager to work with others who share their passion. “We’d love to collaborate with other chefs and filmmakers,” Ryan notes. “What separates TheFoodPornHub from other video sharing sites is that it’s not random content collected from the internet. It’s work that we produced directly for the site. It would be amazing if other filmmakers want to do the same and share delicious work they produced for fun.”
For Ryan Balas, the site’s biggest benefit is its effect on the advertising work he directs through Derby. “The site allows us to experiment freely with style and develop looks and approaches that can be applied to branded work,” he says. “It keeps our skills sharp and our perspective fresh, and we bring that energy into modern food commercials.”
About Derby
Derby is a production company representing storytellers and directing talent known for its collaborations with top ad agencies, brands and broadcast networks in executing flawless, full-service productions across both traditional advertising and emerging experiential media. The company has built a solid reputation for diverse creative work, thanks to a roster of uniquely talented, multi-hyphenate, contemporary directors whose skills extend to a variety of roles.
