Mr. García finished rolling 1,700 bagels in four hours, just over an hour ahead of schedule. (It took nine 50-pound bags of flour.) Mrs. Krishna accompanied him on his six-block walk to his next and final stop, another Tompkins Square Bagels location. She likes to get a glimpse of a person’s overall day-to-day work to really understand what the job entails.
Ms. Allen and Mr. Chow positioned themselves at the front door of the store with cameras slung over their shoulders to photograph the exit. However, as Mr. García and Ms. Krishna got off, a bus pulled up in front of the door, blocking Mr. Chow’s view.
“Can you do that again?” called Ms. Allen. “We have some bus disruptions.”
After Ms. Krishna and an amused Mr. García left the store, Ms. Allen followed them as they rushed – Mr. García knows no other pace – to the next location. Inside, he walked down the stairs to the basement, where he donned a black apron. The smell of cinnamon wafted through the room.
“New location, new energy,” he said.
Mrs. Krishna, seated on an overturned white bucket, faced the camera and gave her own assessment. “I can’t say I have the same swing in my stride,” she said as Mr. García began kneading the dough for a batch of bright yellow French toast bagels. He had already worked a whole day and still seemed just as positive as when he started.
After a shoot is complete, Ms. Allen’s team reviews the footage, mixes camera angles, and adds music, subtitles, and voice-over narration. The process can be lengthy and tedious. For example, the last 15-minute episode about Mr. Garcia took over a month to process.
“As an editor, you might hate to shoot too much,” Ms. Allen said. “But it’s worth capturing those precious moments that tell the true story of the person.”
For the third season, the team has five more episodes planned, which it plans to release about every two months. That probably means five more very early alerts.
“But it’s worth it,” said Mrs. Krishna. “This is the only way to get an insight into the process.”
