By Antony Teofilo
Drink Beer: Make Money
An Interview With Shannon Stewart
One hundred and fifty cranky adults are on their way to your house. They have just spent five hours stuffed into a high school auditorium in eighty-degree heat, watching the same school play performed over and over. And over. And. Over.
It's your job to feed them all.
You may have no assistance from anyone.
You have one hour to plan a menu and prepare the food.
Okay...go.
No, this isn't a nightmare episode of THE IRON CHEF, it's just another day in the life of craft services provider Shannon Stewart. Seems someone on JERSEY GIRL's set neglected to inform
Ms. Stewart of the 150 extras that were to perform that day. Accepting the news with stoic resolve, she immediately calls for backup from a small group of friends who assist her in times
of need. Alas, no one is available. With a bleep of her cell-phone, Shannon is off like a shot, refusing a bystander's offer of help ('I'd love to take you up on that, but the Union would kill me!, she says). She disappears into the jungle of trailers in search of nourishment for the herd. An hour later, an expansive spread of snacks and sodas appears as if out of the ether. One wonders what she could do with a stadium-sized crowd, a few loaves of bread, and some fish.
Craft services is an oasis of sorts. It's a snack table on gourmet steroids that makes its home quite literally on the set. One finds standard fare here: candy bars and cookies for a quick sugar fix, as well as whole fruit and Power Bars for the health conscious. Of course, the constant presence of strong, hot coffee cannot be understated. Good food and drink are important commodities on location. Any member of the crew expends a lot of energy, working twelve hours a day, for three to four months at a time. But Shannon's table is also a subtle morale builder. Little touches of class and warmth show up here and there; on a particularly chilly set inside the naval shipyards, a pot of savory seafood bisque warms the innards, reminds one that he or she is still a human being, and that film sets, while brutal, are still one of the coolest places on the planet to be.
Antony Teofilo: Can you describe the basic duties of a craft services technician?
Shannon Stewart: The craft services "technician" [Laughs] basically comes in the morning, sets up the coolers, coffee, tea, bagels, donuts, and keeping everything stocked. Of course, pain relievers, Advil...
AT: I noticed two big bottles of vitamins on the table. We've got vitamin B and vitamin C. Are these specified by the production company, or is that your touch?
ST: That's my touch, and I have eyedropper versions of those as well.
AT: I imagine the vitamin C is there to help ward off colds and flu and such...but I'm not up on my vitamins. What purpose does vitamin B serve on a film set?
ST: You don't know what vitamin B does? Oh, come on!
AT: I really don't.
ST: It cures hangovers. [Laughs].
AT: Is this your own business, or do you work with some sort of agency?
ST: This is my own business. It's called "The Set Table." I do catering and craft services.
AT: Do you do more catering or craft services?
ST: I do catering for commercials and small films. On larger films I do craft services because it's a Union position in Philadelphia.
AT: How long have you been working craft services?
ST: Fourteen months.
AT: So this is a new business for you.
ST: Very new.
AT: What made you want to get started in this line of work?
ST: I've always been in [the] food and beverage [field]. I was a beer taster before this. But it was still a corporate job. I wanted to get out of corporate America and do my own thing, and I like food.
AT: Wait a minute. I know quite a few people who do that kind of thing for free...my readers would string me up if I don't ask you how one gets a job drinking beer.
ST: You need to have a "face with a map of Ireland" on it, and a lot of Irish friends. I used to work for Guinness.
AT: You're not a very big gal. You'll forgive me saying so, but when you left work you must have been completely rocked off your gourd. Did you have a designated driver for each day's commute?
ST: No, you just taste the beer, you don't actually drink it. You don't seatbelt yourself to a barstool or anything [Laughs]. You sip the beer at the proper temperature, and [you know] how it should taste. I'm an idiot savant when it comes to beer...ales, lagers, how they're all made.
AT: What's the best beer in the world?
ST: Well, I was paid to say that it was Guinness, and Guinness is a very good beer.
AT: But you're not paid to say that any more.
ST: No. I prefer brown ales like Newcastle.
[Author's Note: In the interests of unbiased journalism, I have since tasted Newcastle beer.
I can report the experience something akin to swallowing a room temperature swamp silt/malted hops/tarpaper puree'. But she's the beer expert. Not me.]
AT: Ok. We were talking about your duties within the realm of craft services. Do you have specific career goals within the next five years, or are you happy doing what you're doing?
ST: I have very specific career goals. My last name is Stewart. I want to be Martha Stewart, but without the insider trading [Laughs]. I want a cooking show, and my own food empire.
AT: Is doing what you do a good opportunity to approach producers and try to gauge their interest in your projects?
ST: I usually don't approach anyone. I tend to hang back and observe and kind of check it out. I work with a lot of the same people over and over again. A lot of television food shows are produced in Philadelphia, so I'm hopeful I'll meet the right people.
AT: Do you have any advice for someone who'd like to get into craft services?
ST: It's a pretty rarified profession. Craft services is a thankless job. The rules of craft services change depending on where you are. Expectations are different in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia or whatnot.
Basically, if you're into it, go for it.
For any of you movie moguls or commercial production companies out there reading, give "The Set Table" a try. And insist on sampling the bisque. You won't be disappointed.
