Episode 68: The One Where Coffee Turned Into Cinema
COVE — Jubilee Hills’ café temple. Menu reads like a European passport: Italian, Spanish, Continental. Their specialty? V20 brews engineered with laboratory precision and latte art so sharp it belongs in a gallery.
I didn’t just film coffee; I staged a war. Steam like battlefield smoke. Milk swirling into espresso like galaxies colliding. Every pour, every froth, every drip turned into a scene. The baristas weren’t making drinks — they were actors on a set.
Tech Specs (for the gear-heads):
Camera: Sony A7IV, locked at 4K 24fps, S-Log3 for 14+ stops of latitude. No gimbal, all handheld — gun-and-run chaos for organic movement.
Lenses: 85mm f/1.4 for crema close-ups with compression that melts backgrounds. 35mm f/1.4 for wide ambience, depth separation on the café floor. Both wide open, f/1.4, drowning in bokeh.
Audio: Captured raw café ambience on wireless lavs, isolated the hiss of steam wands, the crack of milk froth, the pour of espresso. Cleaned with RX10 until every sound hit like ASMR on steroids.
Lighting: Lived off café practicals, shaped contrast with negative fill, experimented with backlight through steam for that ethereal glow (scrapped some, because I don’t let tricks overshadow story).
Editing: DaVinci Resolve 18. S-Log3 → Rec.709 CST, film emulation LUTs as a base. Curves and power windows to highlight crema sheen and reflections off cups. 35mm scanned grain overlay at 20% for cinematic grit. Audio EQ’d for warmth, layered for punch.
Final Master: 4K DCI, 10-bit, 100Mbps. Runtime 42 seconds.
The Grind:
3 hours on location. 5 hours of surgical editing. One camera. One insane director. Infinite caffeine.
What you’re seeing here? Just a summarized cut of the final edit — the short version. The full reel hits harder.
Episode 68 isn’t a café vlog. It’s coffee as cinema. It’s Jubilee Hills reimagined as Italy. It’s latte art shot like a fight scene.
