Alumni News

 

Chatham Restaurant Uses Video, Web To Stay On The Edge

by Tim Wood

17 March 2011 -- Who better to capture the essence of a local business than someone who worked there for years?

That’s why Jamie Gallant was hanging around the Corner Store last Friday with a camera rig strapped around his shoulders.

Gallant, a Brewster native who graduated from Columbia College in Chicago in December, worked at the store through his years at Cape Cod Technical High School, and has known co-owners Steve DeLeonardis and Chuck Konnor since he was a kid. The owners knew that Gallant had received his degree in documentary film, and one of his recent visits home, “we just started talking,” said DeLeonardis.

The conversation led to the idea of producing a short film about the popular eatery on Old Queen Anne Road at the Chatham-Harwich line, in order to get across their “fresh, fast and fun” philosophy in an appealing way.

DeLeonardis said he tries to stay current on “what’s cool” with his younger employees and customers, and this seemed like the way to go.

“He gets it,” DeLeonardis said of Gallant, referring both to what they hope to capture with the video as well as the Corner Store’s approach to food, particularly the burritos it specializes in. “We were looking for someone who knew the place inside and out, and who had the same values as far as quirkiness and edginess goes.”

Gallant, who will be screening two of his films in Chicago over the next few weeks, wanted to capture the Corner Store in a 90-second to two-minute film without “spoon-feeding it to people” or relying on commercial clichés. The video will be broken up into three segments: Fresh, focusing on the ingredients and the preparation; fast, on the efficiency of the operation; and the essence of fun that the owners inject --- no, make that demand --- of their staff.

“That’s going to be the most fun for me,” Gallant said about the latter.

“Fun here is not an extra,” DeLeonardis said. “It is a requirement,” both of the 25 or so staff members and the clientele. “We want our customers to leave happier than when they came in.”

The collaborators mapped out their ideas with storyboards to capture the ebb and flow of the store’s day. Because of Gallant’s familiarity with the business, the collaboration was easy, DeLeonardis said.

“When somebody gets what you’re trying to convey, that makes the job a whole lot easier,” he said.

DeLeonardis announced last Friday’s filming on the store’s Facebook page, and a sign posted on the doors warned customers that if they entered the store, they could end up in the video. Customers were enthusiastic, he said, and the event drew not only regulars but some others who hadn’t stopped in for a while.

Gallant will take the hours of video shot Friday back to Chicago for editing, eventually culling the material down into a form that can be posted on the store’s website, as well as YouTube. As a freelancer, he’s looking at just this type of opportunity, a melding of art and commerce that gives businesses something fresh and new and helps him hone his craft.

Gallant initially fell in love with photography at CapeTech; when it came time for college, he had to decide between his interest in the art form and international relations and foreign policy. Becoming a documentary filmmaker was his way of combining the two.

He pretty much learned the craft by making films. “I kind of carved my teeth learning as I went along,” he said. Being a documentary filmmaker is “a mix of being a masochist and a detective,” he said. “You put yourself through a lot of pain; there’s a bit of Murphy’s Law in every effort. It’s your ability to build off that and create something out of all that chaos that kind of makes it or breaks it.”

The Corner Store film isn’t his first for a business. That came in Chicago, with the film “The Brothers Brew,” the story of brothers who own a micro brewery outside of the city. “I was really conscious about not making it a commercial piece,” he said. “I wanted it to be about the brother’s relationship and the sense of the process of getting to the product and how it was unique.” Just like there’s a story behind every person, Gallant believes there’s a story behind every business, and it doesn’t have to be told as an obvious advertisement or promotion.

Learning all about a subject is one of the aspects of making documentaries that attracted Gallant. “You get to come out the other end as a sort of mini expert,” he said.

“The Brothers Brew” film will be screened at the brewery in April. Through April, another of Gallant’s films, “Chess Pavilion,” about a wellknown homeless chess hustler. It will be screened as part “Two Cities,” a national art project that pairs artists in two major U.S. cities. He’s one of six filmmakers chosen to represent Chicago, which is being paired with Detroit. Galleries in the two cities will screen films through April. The film, as well as a teaser for “The Brothers Brew,” can be seen at www.vimeo.com/jamiegallant; his own website, gallantfilm.com, will be up and running in a week or so.

Gallant, who shot the Corner Store footage on a Canon 60D, has also signed on as a cameraman with Hit and Run History, and will travel with the rest of the crew to the Falkland Islands to continue pursing the story of the Columbia Expedition.

“To be right out of college and doing that is awesome,” Gallant said.

Contact Tim Wood at twood@capecodchronicle.com.

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21 November 2010 -- A crowd of more than 50 spectators turned out on Friday, November 19th at Cape Cod Tech to see school alumni take each other on in a friendly game of basketball. The teams played well, providing the crowd with a great evening of entertainment. This game was the first of several alumni events being planned.