The burger drop shot, where the ingredients of the world’s most perfect food appear to fall from the sky and perfectly stack themselves upon landing, pops up a lot in fast food commercials. But seeing what it takes to realize this footage without computer graphics makes you wonder if it’s worth all the effort.


Steve Giralt, a talented videographer, hacker, and frustration enthusiast, wanted to try his hand at creating a shot like this without the use of CGI or extensive post-production. So he built a rig, with an Arduino-based timing control system, which triggers the perfect camera move, as well as the drop of the burger’s ingredients, so that everything falls in perfect synchronization.

Here’s what the final shot looks like:


And here’s a behind-the-scenes making-of video showing the high-speed camera, as well as the complicated rig Steve designed and built:

Watching all of the release mechanisms work perfectly as the camera does its swoop, is impossibly satisfying—almost as satisfying as the burger itself. Do you think this is how they prepare food in fancy restaurants? I hope so.

[Vimeo - Steve Giralt via PetaPixel]