MacTaverne
A family pub and seven-room inn in Val-David, shot so it feels like you've already been.
A brand-new place that needed to feel like an old favourite.
MacTaverne opened in June 2025 in the old Baril Roulant building: a British-style pub downstairs, seven rooms upstairs and a terrasse on the Rivière du Nord. Two brothers run it, Mike in the kitchen and Tim behind the bar, with the rest of the family in as co-owners.
New spots have one big problem. Nobody knows them yet. MacTaverne needed pictures and video that could do what a regular does: tell people it's warm in there, the food is the real thing, and the rooms are worth the drive up from Montreal.
And it all had to work everywhere, from the homepage to room bookings to Instagram.
Pull up a chair.
Show it the way it actually is.
Food you can almost taste
Mike keeps the menu short because he makes all of it. We shot every dish on it, from the scotch egg to the sticky toffee, and followed it from the prep station to the table.
Rooms that sell the stay
Every room type is covered (queen, family, twin, the Room 7 tub) plus the inn breakfast, so guests know exactly what they're booking before they book it.
The people behind it
Family and staff portraits, service on the floor, pints being pulled. A family-run pub is only as good as the people in it, so they're all over the work.
Two days on set. A month of prep.
A shoot like this lives or dies before the camera comes out. Here's how we got from a first conversation to a full library.
Concepts, together
We built the shot list side by side with Tim and Mike in one shared document. They knew which dishes sell and which rooms book first. We knew what would read on camera. Every subject on the list was picked together.
The location scout
We walked every room with a camera. We noted which bedrooms catch the morning sun and which get it in the afternoon, what needed clearing in the kitchens, and how the new dining room would look once construction wrapped.
Pre-production
A pre-production deck with the moodboard, schedule and scout photos. A props list down to the candles, white tablecloths and firewood. Wardrobe notes for the team, so the content would look like it came from many different nights.
Two days on set
Call time 6 AM in the lobby, ahead of a 6:41 sunrise. Day one was the kitchen and the menu, dish by dish. Day two was the inn, the team and the bar. Every setup was captured in both photo and video, with audio rolling the whole time.
Edit & delivery
The full photo library landed mid-November, sorted by space so the team could find anything in seconds. The reels followed in December, one per dish, cut for Instagram.
The crew
- Seb FurtadoDirector / DP
- AdamGaffer
- VeraB-cam / production assistant
The kit
- Nikon Z8A-cam · stills + video
- Nikon ZRB-cam
- Top-down rigEvery plate, overhead
- Lighting & gripRun by Adam
- Ronin RS2 ProGimbal moves
- DJI Mavic 4 ProAerial exteriors
- 14mm to 200mmSigma + Nikon glass
- Tethered to iPadClient sees every frame live
- Project
- MacTaverne content
- Date
- Mon, Nov 3, 2025
- Call
- 6:00 AM — lobby
- Sunrise
- 6:41 AM
- Location
- MacTaverne Auberge + Pub, Val-David
- Wrap
- ~6:00 PM, then dinner
- Notes
- Everything shot in photo + video
| Time | Dish | Shot | Size | Move | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Pie | Throwing flour on the board | MED | Top down | |
| 9:30 | Scotch egg | Frying the eggs | CU | Handheld | |
| 13:00 | Burger | Slap on the grill + sear (we need audio) | ECU | Handheld | |
| 13:00 | Fish & chips | Into the fryer | CU | Handheld | |
| 16:00 | Sticky toffee | Pour sauce from the saucepan | MED | Top down | |
| 17:00 | Scotch egg | Two hands grab one from each side | MED | Top down |
A crew of three, in a working kitchen.
Lights in the windows, a rig over the cutting board and the family watching every frame on the iPad. Here's the other side of the camera.
A reel for nearly every plate on the menu.
Click any reel to watch it with sound
Every plate, every pint, every corner.
The kitchen, the bar and the floor.
One shoot, a whole year of content.
Website & bookings
Homepage, menu, inn and events pages, in French and English, plus a full gallery for every room type.
Social
15 reels and a deep bank of stills, so their feed never runs dry.
Journal & newsletter
Food, drink and table shots that carry their blog posts and monthly emails.
A big first year for a small village pub.
Finalist for Best New Restaurants 2026, out of 90+ nominees across Canada.
Across 541 reviews.
Covered by La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal and Tastet in the first year.
Great food and great hosts did the heavy lifting. Our job was making sure the pictures told the truth about it.
What a project like this looks like.
Where full-service hospitality productions like this one usually land. Every project is scoped to fit: final pricing depends on shoot days, crew and what you need delivered.
- 01Creative directionConcepts and a shot list built with your team, around what you actually sell.
- 02Full pre-productionLocation scout, schedule, pre-production deck and call sheets. Nothing left to chance.
- 03A lean, senior crewDirector/DP, gaffer and second camera. Small enough to move fast in a working kitchen.
- 04Cinema and photo kitLighting, gimbal, drone, top-down rig and tethered review on set.
- 05Photo + video, togetherEvery setup captured both ways, so one shoot fills your feed and your website.
- 06An edited photo libraryYour top selects, colour graded and retouched, ready for web and print.
- 07Reels made for socialShort vertical edits cut for Instagram, with licensed music.
- 08Two-year usage licenceUse everything on your website, social channels and paid ads.
- 09Revisions includedA round of edits on the reels, so they land exactly right.
- 10Organized deliveryFiles sorted by space and dish, backed up, easy for your team to find.
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