7 Days Preproduction Documentary Script by Natalie L.

Komitsky
Directors Notes Scene 1 Background 7 Days GM talking Could be sitting at his desk Walking through the plant Too busy to stop working VO Narration The 7 Days products you enjoy today have come to you as a gift; a gift of hard work that began years ago in the Mediterranean heartland of Greece. They came into being because of a small group of master bakers who later became the international giant Chipita. They dedicated their lives to creating exceptional quality and taste, working tirelessly to test recipies, adding or subtracting ingredients, and experimenting with texture and flavor. Their results surpassed all expectations. It was this commitment to exceptional quality and taste that Western Bakeries found enticing. As a subsidiary of Al Marai, they took a bold step forward with Chipita International which resulted in the joint venture Modern Food Industries. Today, the people of Saudi Arabia have the distinct pleasure of benefiting from this rich history and exceptional quality with 7 Days croissants, Swiss rolls and cakes. Scene 2 Traditional Entrance Fade in to old bakery old man enters and gently lights up an oil lamp and hangs it, puts on the apron Scene 3 Modern Entrance Cut into a new plant with the lights opening and punching a timeclock? Getting coffee? the spirit is livening up with workers entering the room where theyll mix the dough One thing we can be sure of, our 7 Days plant may be filled with modern automated measuring systems and temperature controls, but the master baker who is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the product still has the same look in his eye that we would have seen in that Paris bakery so long ago. How much do we really know about what it was like to be a master baker working in 18th Century Paris?

Scene 4 Traditional Mixing

Directors Notes Cut to old man brings out a rolling pin, flour, egg, yeast, a huge amount of butter in a lump, milk, sugar, and salt. He puts a small sprinkling of flour on the table and we go to a wide shot and see everything mixing the dough with his hands by folding it over and pushing it and then folding it over again and pushing it down. He needs to put it somewhere to rest now for a while (put it on the table with a towel over it?)

VO Narration At that time, a bakers ingredients were not as easy to control as they are today. The temperature of the butter or the flavor of the flour was something that had to be worked around, rather than manipulated. These bakers had to rely on local ingredients and likely had to deal with seasonal changes in availability and taste.

Scene 5 Modern Mixing

Workers tell one another to get ingredients, turn on machines, check manifest to see what the plan is for today. Review instructions. Theyll take out the big quanities of ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, salt, yeast, water, egg) to prepare for the next process.

One of the advantages that we enjoy at 7 Days is the consistently high quality of our ingredients. We also benefit from well-defined trade routes that bring in anything we need from near or far. This is one of the key elements that makes our production process run smoothly.

Scene 6 Traditional Dough

The old man goes through the process of making the croissants, ending with him putting the croissants into the oven

When you take a bite of this crescent-shaped flaky snack, you wont automatically understand what went into making it. Its really quite amazing to watch this complex process. It definitely requires a lot of patience and practice. Fortunately, at 7 Days, this process has been refined to an exact science. Our machines are programmed to apply exactly the right amount of pressure while rolling the dough, they control the temperature precisely for each part of the process while managing time to the second.

Scene 7 Modern Dough

Detail shots of computerized mixing, filling machine, selecting quantities, mixing equipment

Scene 8 GM interview

Directors Notes GM speaks about the dough and its significance

VO Narration I really belive that success does not happen by chance. You need to have a plan, and one of the main components of your plan must be a focus on quality. This is what I have found to be the secret of our success, and I cant even say it is ours because this element was entrusted to us in the form of the secret recipe of our dough. We guard the master dough recipe, or the mother dough as we call it, with life and limb. In fact, if we combined the value of all of our assets, they would be a drop in a bucket in comparison to the value of the distinctive taste of our dough. The 7 Days brand is built upon years of painstaking effort that the master bakers put into perfecting this dough. There is nothing that compares to it and for that we are forever indebted (or grateful).

Scene 9 Traditional Baking

Old style croissant in an oven puffing up and being baked until its ready to come out and we see the old man picking up the wooden stick and pulls out a tray of freshly baked croissant

Anticipation is all that remains now. How can he stand to part with such beautiful croissants? Dont you just love the aroma of toasting bread combined with the sweetness of melted butter?

Scene 10 Modern Baking

Cut to factory where we see herds of baked croissants, cake and Swiss-rolls on conveyer belts rolling out in large quantities that shows the large scale of production in the plant.

At 7 Days we take pride in the many variations of snacks we offer. My favorite is the Strawberry Swiss Rolls; they are so gorgeous. Once youve tasted them, oooohhh, you wont be able to resist.

Scene 11 Traditional Quality Control

Directors Notes The old man does something related to quality control examples could be checking how much the dough has risen in a specific time frame, cutting through the dough to check the layers, tasting the dough to ensure the salt or sugar content, fussing with the egg wash, checking that the croissants have been rolled tightly and shaped well

VO Narration Doing the same thing day after day might seem routine and boring. However, from then until now, master bakers have understood that more important than maximizing output is ensuring that the product taste and quality is consistent.

Scene 12 Modern Quality Control

Red flashing light to indicate a problem, looking at reports of temperature or ingredient insertion from the machines, tasting a sample with latex gloves on, pulling out a croissant that appears to be overcooked, show a person reviewing a poster about hand-washing

At 7 Days, although we are constantly adding new products and increasing our production capacity, we never lose sight of what matters most quality. We have multiple checks throughout the plant, making sure at every step along the way, that 7 Days products are good enough to reserve a spot on your grocery list.

Scene 13 Modern Filling

Modern filling process for the croissants, mini cakes and Swiss-rolls.

Whats better than the flowers in springtime? The rainbow that appears just after a light rain. 7 Days combines the delicious taste of croissants and cakes and adds to it a ray of sunshine with strawberry jam, chocolate and vanilla crme fillings. Just when you thought it couldnt get better.

Scene 14 Traditional Final Preparation

Directors Notes Old man smiling and looking at his croissants, he starts putting them on another tray meant for taking them away. A teenage boy helps him with picking up the croissants. We then see the teenage boy putting the tray on a carriage, putting a white cloth on it and pushes the push-cart. Selling on the street or delivering at homes? forward and walks away on a stone road that reveals the location of the old bakery just walking away

VO Narration It seems to be the end of the road, but really it is just the beginning of another story; the story of how the wholesome goodness of these croissants will become a familiar staple for the people of the town. This contribution helps preserve a sense of unity among the neighbors, symbolic of their reliance on one another.

Scene 15 Modern Packaging

Cut to the factory where we see lines of croissants, mini cakes and Swiss-rolls moving on conveyer belts and separated into single lanes for wrapping and packing, we see workers picking up crates of 7 Days products, sorting them and pushing them to the dispatch area and onto trucks labeled with 7 Days moving one by one and driving away

It seems to be creating the same type of fervor in the Arabian Peninsula. Since 7 Days products were first introduced here, they have mysteriously disappeared from the shelves at a rate that keeps the plant baking day and night, just to make you smile.

Scene 16 GM Interview

Directors Notes GM talks about the impact the success of the 7 Days has had on the team.

VO Narration When we launched 7 Days, we only offered the croissants at first. We had a plan to gradually increase our production and add more products to the line. Of course this gradual growth was projected with percentages and sales figures that we were using as a guide when hiring personnel and purchasing our initial state-of-the-art equipment for the plant. We never expected to see the phenomenal response that we got immediately after launch. In fact, we blew by the sales figures we were supposed to reach by the end of year three during the first year. And then we reached our year five goals by year three. You always expect that things will come up, but we have been overjoyed by the enthusiastic response we have gotten. We are honored to have the opportunity to keep the plant running 24 hours to keep up with the demand. It is really proof of the quality of the 7 Days products.

Scene 17 Traditional Delivery

A customer standing in the bakery enjoys a product sample and his body language shows that it is the best thing hes ever tasted.

Knowing that your hard work has a purpose, that the people around you are counting on you to keep it up, to keep producing the best way you know how and to be consistent in the quality of your workmanship and character, thats what its all about. The only question that remains is: What new 7 Days product will you find at your grocery store this week? We can hardly wait.

Scene 18 Modern Delivery

Pallettes are loaded onto the truck at the dock