A modern marvel
Film crew for the History Channel visits Ore-Ida plant
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Sunday, September 21, 2008 12:39 AM PDT
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| Actuality Productions field producer Mary Courtney (center) with camera operator Andy Lawless in the background, interviews Stephanie Monterross about the quality assurance process used at Ontario’s Ore-Ida plant. Monterross checks color, size and texture in order to make sure tater tots are properly made. The tater tot, which was invented at the plant, is slated to be the introduction to the History Channel’s ‘Modern Marvels’ program, which is planned to air at 9 p.m. Nov. 8. |
Ontario — Ever wonder how a tater becomes a tot?
The History Channel’s “Modern Marvels”did.
So “Modern Marvels” decided to go to one place where the tot is king.
Actuality Productions, consisting of a three-person crew led by field producer Mary Courtney, toured Ontario’s Heinz Frozen Food Company plant Friday, hot on the trail of the tater tot.
The subsequent film work is scheduled to be the lead-in for a “Modern Marvels” show about potatoes, which will also include other potato uses, such as potato vodka and research about growing potatoes in outerspace.
“We went to see how Kettle-chips were made in Salem,” Courtney said. “We spoke to Larry Zuckerman, the author of ‘How the Humble Spud Changed the Western World,’ and Chuck Brown, a potato geneticist.”
In her three years with Actuality Productions, an 80-person third-party production company that produces “Modern Marvels” for the History Channel, Courtney said she has also visited pinball factories, vending machine factories and whiskey distilleries.
Friday, Courtney’s gaze was fixated firmly on the Ontario plant, as curly fries, crinkle cut fries and tater tots zoomed across the factory on conveyor belts.
“They are focused on the tater tot, which was invented by Ore-Ida,” Heinz Senior Manager of Public Relations Jessica Jackson said.
Senior Manager of Operations Mark Ratcliffe said the idea for the tater tot was formed in 1953 in order to utilize the small pieces of potato remaining after French fries were made.
“People put their heads together and decided to push the pieces into a similar size and fry it,” Ore-Ida Senior Principal Research Scientist Dwane Benson said.
The original mold for the tot was made out of wood, with the product pieces, which Benson called swartz and silvers, pressed into the tiny holes.
Early in the tots’ history, he said, they were put on the plates of upscale diners in New York and Chicago in order to better gauge the tot’s appeal.
“Nephi Grigg (one of two brothers who originally owned the company) took it upon himself to go to high-class restaurants in New York and put it on the plates of diners,” Benson said.
As a camera, operated by Boise-based WideEye Productions’ Andy Lawless, rolled, with Brandon Hull as sound and light operator, Benson spoke about one of his latest inventions, the ABC tot, which features tots in the shapes of the letters of the alphabet.
“This is a very fun product for the kids,” he said. “They really think it’s fun to spell their name with them.”
Lawless zoomed in as Benson touched the various potato products laid on a table in front of him, before Courtney interviewed him further.
“It’s stuff you really don’t think about when you’re watching a show on television,” Courtney said of the production process.
Courtney said coming up with an idea for the show, such as the upcoming potato feature, is a collaborative effort between herself and producer Phil Kruener, with the History Channel picking and choosing the ideas they like and submitting their own ideas to the company.
“We did a project called ‘The States’ for the History Channel,” Courtney said. “We did all 50 states. It was 10 hours total. About 10 minutes a state.”
Courtney said she normally uses 30 to 40 hours of footage, which is edited into a one-hour program. At the Heinz Frozen Food Company plant, she said she used two hours of tape, which will boil down to a four-and-a-half minute segment at the beginning of the show, tentatively slated to air at 9 p.m. Nov. 8 on the History Channel. This is not the first time Heinz has been in the spotlight on the program.
“The last ‘Modern Marvels’ program contained a segment about Heinz vinegar,” Jackson said. “It was shot last August and focused on acids and the many uses of acid.”
The program aired Oct. 1, 2007. The History Channel, airs 40 “Modern Marvels” programs a year, according to Courtney.
“It normally takes about three and a half months from start to finish,” she said of a program’s creation.
