A short film about the reality of running a coffee shop in Salzburg. Created as a part of the “Storytelling: Writing and Directing Documentaries and Visual Non-Fiction” course in Salzburg University.
Team members:
Ekaterina Kartseva
Luvy
Sevara
Yena Kwon
We all know why we order coffee, but why do people choose to make it for life? The film will answer this question through interviews.
Logline
The film is about the coffee shop culture, with a focus on the industry workers. It tells a story of the two coffee shops, located at the same street corner of Salzburg: the older one with a fixed audience and a new one, which is still gaining its community. The owners will share how they started, how easy or hard it is to run a cafe business.
This topic matters, because more and more people are becoming interested in opening a small business. Some get drawn to the romanticised life of a barista, while not knowing all the nuances that are typically hidden from.
The film will show coffee shops from the perspective of its owners and workers, what normal customers do not see. These people will narrate, what is it like to be a business owner, or a worker, what complications they face and how they overcome them.
Context / Background
Over the last several months, a new coffee shop opened at the Kaigasse: the White Horse. The coffee shop nearby: das Kaffeehaus bei Hotel Melanie has diversified their drinks menu instantaneously (as of March 2026).
They both offer quality goods, but have different market positioning, suppliers and service approaches. Nevertheless, what unites them is that they tailor their products to younger generations and there are more such places each year.
Urban sociologists frequently comment on “third places,” and how they are important for society. Ray Oldenburg described it in his book The Great Good Place. He argued that beyond the home (the first place) and the workplace (the second place), societies benefit from accessible, low-threshold environments where people can have informal gatherings, have casual conversations, and get a sense of belonging to the community. Over time, what these environments represent has changed. Cafes have become the new “third place” for generation Z. Some want to create such communities themselves.
Nevertheless, a café is a business in gastronomy. This is a very frugal business, where long working hours, burnouts, as well as the need to be precise and fast, are the norm. Coffee culture gets a lot of media attention nowadays. However, not many consider how hard it is to plan workers’ shifts, choose a good supplier, ensure food safety and reduce ingredient wastage in the kitchen. It takes real effort, and this film aims to show it.
Interviewees
This film will interview cafe business owners and workers (waiters, cooks). The possible interviewees are the owners of two neighbouring cafes: White Horse Cafe and Das Kaffehaus bei Hotel Melanie, and their workers. Their role would be to share what it is like to solve big operational processes, sustainability, supply chain questions and interpersonal conflicts. The regular workers will share their impressions on teamwork, daily tasks and how they manage rush hours.
This is interesting because every cafe solves these questions differently, depending on the product. The viewers will find out how to open their own café business, how many logistical, personal and skill-related problems need to be solved to get a cup of coffee as a result.
Location: Salzburg, Austria
The White Horse Cafe and Das Kaffehaus Bei Melanie and nearby. The possible shots are as follows: LS, MS, MCU inside of the cafes; MCU, CU of the kitchen and storage rooms (if allowed), WS of the street views of Salzburg, Kaigasse. Intended shooting times are early morning, during the prep times and after the shifts for convenience.
Style and Approach
The film would employ an interview-based approach. The main editing techniques would be an overlay of narration and B-roll. Possibly, the film can include animated infographics to explain the logistics. Warm color grading will be a stylistic choice to highlight cafes’ warm ambience.
The viewer will follow two stories in parallel: an older cafe with a fixed audience and a new one.The scenes will be connected with interview questions. Each question will be answered by both business owners. The last ⅓ part of the film will interview the workers and ask blitz-type of questions about their jobs.
The audience will learn about the logistics and supply of cafes; how much stress it really is; what it is like to train someone for a job; what is a typical day of a cafe owner and how to run a cafe in general.
Teaser
Short Film
1. Our Team and Roles
Ekaterina Kartseva – directing, VFX, communications, on-set coordination
Luvy – Interview Questions, Camera Work, Direction, Editing
Sevara & Yena – Camera and Sound work, technical decisions
Topic
The film is about coffee shop culture, with a focus on the industry workers. It tells a story of a café which is also an art gallery, located in a quiet corner in Salzburg: Kaffee [Kunst]. The owner will share how they started and how easy or hard it is to run a cafe business. This topic matters because more and more people are becoming interested in opening a small business. Some get drawn to the romanticised life of a barista, without knowing all the nuances that are typically hidden.
The film will show coffee shops from the perspective of an owner and its workers, which normal customers do not see. These people will narrate what it is like to be a business owner or a worker, what complications they face, and how they overcome them. Owner’s creative side will also be explored. She will narrate, how she balances between leading a cafe and an art gallery and how do these two concepts come together.
To find it out, the café owner will be interviewed to find the answers for the following questions:
Motivation: What brought you to opening a café and an art gallery?
Hardships: What is the hardest daily task that customers never see?
Balancing: Is it hard to be two things at the same time: an art gallery and a café?
Sourcing: How hard is it to source? Both: sourcing regional products and finding local artists for your exhibitions?
Managing communication: How do you ensure that the quality of your employees’ work is high and processes run smoothly? How do you ensure art you choose to exhibit is good/suitable?
A note for the future: Why would you still continue this business, despite all the hardships? Any tips fpr beginners?
The workers, artists and visitors (possibly, if they give their permission) will answer generic questions of their experience working at a café, visiting it or exhibiting there. This will show another side of the story, demonstrating how owner’s efforts come into life.
2. History and Context
Urban sociologists frequently comment on “third places”, and how they are important for society. Ray Oldenburg described it in his book The Great Good Place. He argued that beyond the home (the first place) and the workplace (the second place), societies benefit from accessible, low-threshold environments where people can have informal gatherings, have casual conversations, and get a sense of belonging to the community. Over time, what these environments represent has changed. Cafes have become the new “third place” for Generation Z. Some want to create such communities themselves. Nevertheless, a café is a business in gastronomy. This is a very frugal business where long working hours, burnouts, and the need to be precise and fast are normalised. Coffee culture gets a lot of media attention nowadays. However, not many consider how hard it is to plan workers’ shifts, choose a good supplier, ensure food safety and reduce ingredient wastage in the kitchen. It takes real effort, and this film aims to show it. If a café is not just a cafe, but a gallery, or pop-up store –– it adds more work, coordination and planning to the main work tasks. While it can be fulfilling and exciting, there are layers to making it all run smoothly.
3. Protagonists/ experts and Location
Location: Kaffee [Kunst], Pfeifergasse 8, 5020 Salzburg
Narrator: A person from out team.Will narrate the introduction and “filler moments”. Narrator’s voice will give more clarity to the ordinary viewer, where the explanations will become too technical.
Kaffee [Kunst] owner, Lisa-Alessandra Kutzelnig: will answer our main questions, taking the expert role
(Possibly) Workers of the café and artists: their role is to give short answers to our questions and show the atmosphere of the place, demonstrating its community
4. Implementation and Filmmaking Style
As a team, we want this documentary to be filmed in a way that captures the entire journey of a single day—from the very start of the morning to the end of the day. This will be accompanied by an interview with the owner, answering our questions.
Narrative approach: We will let the interviewees tell their answers without showing the question, as if they are telling the story. The narrator’s voice will guide the story, setting the scene where needed.
Continuity approach: Either to ask people to wear the same clothes / film in 3 different days, but signify it clearly.
Introduction: the film begins with the introductory animation, made by Ekaterina. The animation will be similar in terms of tone and style, but slightly changed to suit the topic of art+cafés+sustainability more.
Between the key narrative arcs a.k.a. B-roll:
We will capture both the positive and negative moments that occur during a typical day in the coffee shop. This includes situations like someone spilling a drink, confusing the orders, paperwork and kitchen stress. We might portray a situation, when one would run out of an ingredient and has to go to the closest store to buy it ungently, to save the kitchen.
The B-roll will also include people having coffee any time of the day. Since we are collaborating the ideas as students, we’ll also try to show how these cafes give opportunity to the music artists and give them a stage to perform, which was the theme of Luvy’s street artist documentary. We will show artworks in the café and explain how important art is for such “third places”. The footage, related to the artists and visitors, will be recorded sponte in memento in order to make the film feel more alive and less staged.
We will also capture the morning in Salzburg, bus stops and empty public spaces to showcase that cafés are not about the nightlife. We aim to show how early the shift of a café worker starts –– before the city has awakened.
Narrative Arc – “1 day at the office”
Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 |
After the animated intro, we will begin by filming the early morning preparation. We want to show how workers are doing the heavy lifting, setting up the café and making sure everything in the coffee shop is order. Upon the possibility, kitchen prep will se also shown, in order to document how fast-paced the work is. After that, the results of their prep will be shown. Narrator will explain the topic and set the scene. The question of how hard the work really is will be asked. | Following this, we will introduce the audience to the owner. Through this, the owner will talk about how they opened the café, how they run it, their workers, their expenses, and how they manage the economics and logistics of the business. They will also share what makes their café unique and what they try to offer. In addition to the owner, we will interview workers, customers and artists to understand their point of view and experiences while working in the café. These questions will be in a blitz format, with the main focus on the bigger processes, run by the owner. | The 3rd act will focus on the positive aspects. It will show, why and how, despite all the hardships, the owner and workers still keep on running this business. They will give tips and tell us why it is exciting to run a café. The film ends with the end of the day, people prepping for the next day. The narrator will end the film with concluding remarks and an animated outro with titles will follow. |
5. Technical approach
We will use our own cameras, sound and microphones, alternating between the portrait and wide lenses, depending on the shot types. We will also use phone footage upon the need to capture something quickly and dynamically, in cases where we would not want to be intrusive to the work processes and the light is ought to be good.
The master-interview will be static and will use a tripod. Establishing shots will use pan/zoom in and outs. The handheld method will also be used to capture the chaos and stress with more “voluminous” camera movements. The sound will include classic coffee shop ambience and a possible intro/outro music.
Our editing style will employ classic documentary-style editing: smooth cuts, no extreme VFX, but we will also include modern elements inspired by Ekaterina’s animations. These animations will help explain certain aspects in a more engaging and visually interesting way. Infographics, drawings and charts will help in telling the story in a visually engaging way.
Overall, our goal is to present an authentic and complete picture of a coffee house, showing not just how it operates, but also the real experiences and moments that happen within it throughout the day.
Why do you make my coffee?
[ANIMATED INTRO – 0:00-0:15]
Shows a romantic setting of a coffee shop, a lovely barista pouring a coffee with a smile in an art gallery / coffee shop, and a chill setting.
TITLE CARD: It must be so easy to run a coffee shop, right?
Fast-paced animation, showing the life and reality of a café owner:
Person swamped by the bills
Lots of cheques from the cheque machine
An art exhibition
Barista at the counter and the clock is moving 24/7, people change from coffee drinkers to art lovers. Barista looks more tired as the clock hits 10PM
A sink full of dishes, and there is more coming up
TITLE CARD: Well, there is a nuance to that…
Shows even more fast-paced work. Shows how it is like to juggle between being a café and an art gallery.
TITLE CARD: Well, if it’s so hard, then…
TITLE CARD: Why do you make my coffee?
ACT I
EXT. SALZBURG STREETS – EARLY MORNING
[Shot: WS, Pan] Blue sky, golden hour. Empty bus stops and streets. The silence of the Pfeifergasse.
JAZZY MUSIC PLAYING QUIETLY (V.O.)
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Besides the home (the first place) and the workplace (the second place), societies benefit from accessible, low-threshold environments where people can have informal gatherings, have casual conversations, and get a sense of belonging to the community. Over time, what these environments represent has changed.
EXPERT (V.O.) (optionally)
Explains how cafes have become the new “third place” for Generation Z; how some want to create such communities themselves
INT. KAFFEE [KUNST] – MORNING
Sequence of different shots from the café; employees doing the prep, owner offloading the grocery bags on her “day off”
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Nevertheless, a café is a business in gastronomy. This is a very frugal business where long working hours, burnouts, and the need to be precise and fast are normalised.
Long before the city wakes, while most are still sleeping, some people are already working. Those very people are those who make our coffee.
We often romanticise the life of a coffee shop owner. We see the latte art and hear the calm music, smell the inviting aroma of freshly ground beans. But the reality is built on heavy lifting, long shifts, and meticulous work.
In a quiet corner of Salzburg’s Preiffergasse, Kaffee [Kunst] takes this challenge a step further. As it follows from the name, isn’t just a café; it’s also an art gallery!
The owner, Lisa-Alessandra Kutzelnig balances between the fast pace of gastronomy and the creativity of an exhibition space. But what makes her love her business?
INT. KAFFEE [KUNST] – MORNING
Sequence of the morning prep shots
LISA-ALESSANDRA (Owner)is in her café/office and doing misc. tasks: paperwork, prep, restocking, offloading the groceries
CAFE WORKERS making coffee, cleaning, managing the café.
LISA-ALESSANDRA (Off-camera)
Answers the question about Motivation: What brought you to opening a café and an art gallery?
ACT II
INT. KAFFEE [KUNST] – DAY to EVENING
[Shot: Master Interview, Static Tripod and Dynamic shots when Lisa is to show something] Lisa is in a well-lit corner, we can see her workplace.
LISA-ALESSANDRA
Answers the questions on
Hardships: What is the hardest
daily task that customers
never see?
Balancing: Is it hard to be two
things at the same time: an art
gallery and a café?
* Other questions and follow-ups
can be inserted in between
or in the end
[B-ROLL – Shot: Stable shots, fast-paced cutting] Café workers during the daytime, solving operational questions, cleaning, and working; artists and exhibitions during Vernissages
LISA-ALESSANDRA (V.O.)
Answers the questions on
Sourcing: How hard is it to source?
Both: sourcing regional products and
finding local artists for your
exhibitions?
Managing communication: How do you
ensure that the quality of your
employees’ work is high and processes
run smoothly? How do you ensure art
you choose to exhibit is
good/suitable?
INT. CAFÉ
[Shot: Portrait Lens, Macro] Detail shots of coffee, artworks and other interesting details.
[MS: Blitz Interview – Workers and Artists]
WORKERS AND ARTISTS: answer the questions on what it is like to work here, to collaborate artistically, etc
ACT III:
EXT. SALZBURG STREET – EVENING
The sun sets over Pfeifergasse.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
It is now evening time.
INT. KAFFEE [KUNST] – EVENING
[Shot: WS, Warm and Lighting] An artist’s vernissage; low light, party setting. Close detail shots of the drinks, such as champagne and snacks, paintings and art to show the change of time.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Lisa-Alessandra is inviting us to see the artist’s vernissage to end her long day of work. This night, Patrick, also known as “Prettybadportraits” on Instagram is exhibiting their work.
PATRICK (ON AND OFF-CAMERA)
Patrick answers our questions about how he came up with his art ideas, how did he create his art, how was it like to organise an exhibition. On the background, one can see a B-roll of Patrick’s exhibition.
LISA-ALESSANDRA (ON AND OFF-CAMERA)
Appears briefly to add something to Patrick’s speech.
LISA-ALESSANDRA (ON AND OFF-CAMERA)
Answers the last question on
the note for the future: Why would
You still continue this business,
despite all the hardships?
Any tips for beginners?
She shares the very last tips and final words.
[Shot: WS, Warm and Lighting] Artist Vernissage, people partying, drinking; Evening noisy atmosphere.
[Shot: MS, CU, Interior] Kaffee [Kunst] wraps the day up and prepares to close the café.
[Shot: MS, CU, Interior-to-Exterior] The prep and cleaning for tomorrow are done, and the café owner closes down the place. The door locks. The final frame should show an emotional moment of finishing a hard day of work; she is tired and locking the place at night, while in the background, we can hear her last positive words.
FADE TO BLACK.
ANIMATED CREDITS ROLL.
The animation shows different work processes in the life of a coffee shop in a calmer pace, while the names and roles roll:
The barista is pouring a coffee. This time, slower. On the other side, credits roll.
END.
Animated Intro
Drawn & animated by me in Krita and Adobe AE. The assets were brought to life with rigging tools and basic keyframing.