Recipe Demonstration Video

S

Sam Lebo

Member
I filmed this cooking demonstration with my wife as the main talent. The recipe is far from exact, and even has wrong information for substituted items.

This was filmed with my cheap Canon ZR70 and edited in Sony Vegas 7.0 .

Since I'm filming with my DVX100 in a few weeks, it's important that you guys give me as much criticism as possible. Especially since my product will be purchased by the public.

Please comment about the following:

Lighting:
Audio/Music:
Cinematography:
Editing:
Anything Else:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6322239423500813023
 
OK you said you wanted criticism... :)

Please comment about the following:

Lighting: What lights did you use? All I can see is an overhead flo and the vent hood incandescent. I'd kill both. Maybe leave the vent hood on, but probably not. What lights do you have access too? I'd want 3 or four softboxes and a few smaller somethings with barn doors for hair lights perhaps. Mount those up and behind and use the soft boxes to create a nice even fill across the front. Flourescents would also work for the main key and fill but wont throw as far as incandescents. Whats your lighting budget for this? Is renting an option? That will determine alot of how to fix your lighting. There was way too much being thrown on the background and your wifes face had no light on it at all. She needs to be well lit and stand out from the background. The mix of color temps was also not good. The side of the kitchen near the vent hood was all warm, and the other side was cold and blue. I'd err on the warm side for cooking. Watch rachel ray - they always have the set very warm and friendly - makes me want to watch even though I never like what she makes. Better lighting will give better color to the food too - everything looked very drab and boring. The DVX will probably help a bit but wont fix it by any means.


Audio/Music:
Somewhat hard to judge because of compression but it sounded like the built in mic on the camera. I would avoid using that at all costs. Too tinny and home movie sounding. My vote would be wired lav if you can rig it so she wont trip over the wire. Countryman EMW gets good reviews as an inexpensive lav. Wireless would be costlier but also work. Booming would be great but needs a sound guy and of course a boom and mic and shockmount etc. and its something else to keep out of the shot.

I wasnt a big fan of the little musical cuts - perhaps just me though.

Cinematography/editing:
Get a tripod. Do multiple runs and use cutaway shots of close ups and wides. Chasing and zooming and getting close up and then wide all in one camera move is nauseating. I will give you that doing handheld work on a small cam like that canon is not easy. The DVX isnt much easier to run handheld without some grips though. Here's what I would do - Have your wife tell you the exact steps to making the dish. Write them down. Make her promise to follow them when she makes the dish. record one take of her making the dish from a tripod. Do the second take handheld but dont move alot and get some MCUs of her doing the required tasks. Just pretend you are a mobile tripod. Dont tilt up when she talks just watch the food. Third take again on the tripod. Dont worry about audio on the third take, you've got plenty of it from the first and second takes by now. Have your wife do each specific task and get really close in so its just her hands and the food in the frame. Get each task from cutting to putting things in pots. Use these three takes to keep it interesting. I got really bored following along and watching... Keep the edits tight and dont let me get bored at all. Cooking in itself is really boring to watch, but so are lots of other things and a good editor can keep the pace moving so the viewer doesnt doze off.

Anything Else: Talent - are you using your wife for the real thing or is she just a stand in? Either way, tell her or whoever it is to hurry. Dont skip any steps but dont take your time. I really think that meal could be compressed to a 3-4 minute video. Rachel Ray (yeah I watch her alot, ok) is fantastic at doing 50 things at once and talking at the same time. She screws up and laughs about it and its funny - good tv. She also carries 20 things from the fridge at once and has 3 or 4 things going on the range while she is prepping next to them. She has some great effeciency techniques like having a bowl just to put your trash in that work well in the kitchen and on video. And having every ingredient in its own prep bowl ready to roll helps speed things up too.


That's all I've got for now. And I dont mean anything personal towards anyone in this, just hope that this gives you some ideas for improvement. If Kosher Cooking is the concept though - Thats cool! I dont know why there isnt already a show specializing in kosher to be honest. Seems like lots of italian cooking, so at least you dont have lots of mainstream competition. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
thank you for your input. i appreciate it more than all the advice i've gotten here on the board. most members hype me up into thinking that i'm some awesome director which im not. at least you've got the guts to say it.

here are some responses to what you wrote:

lighting: i didnt use anything other than the kitchen light. i'm thinking about purchasing something from that coollights.biz place (maybe 5500K) but not sure what i'm doing.

audio: i used the integrated audio, but with my DVX i have a wirless lav from lectrosonics which i hope will capture everything i need for this entire production.

cinematography/editing: i was using the cheap mans steady cam to see if it'll do better than me just holding the camera. the editing was also cheap, but much better than just watching the entire clip from beginning to end. i don't know what style im going to use when i do my production. but i imagine im gonna have to with a real videographer and have to script out every camera angle (which finding to be really hard) and also a real editor. all this is beyond my budget since these guys cost 1000/day for production plus 3000 for the entire editing and authoring.

talent: i'm getting chefs who are in the business of cooking and will be rehearsing the script 1-2 times with them the week before the shoots. then the actual shooting will be 2 cameras with 2 takes. the first take will be all the close ups and the 2nd take will be the actual talking and what not. this way, when they go to put the food in the oven, they can take the one from the first take out. i think we can cover everything in two takes (unless mistakes are made).

there isn't anything out there regarding kosher food at all (except cookbooks). thats why im hoping this will go over well and i can move on to a second production and do it all on HD :)

thanks for your REAL input.
 
Hey no problem - I'm all for real. And I'm not some awesome director either but I edit enough to have a feel for what does and doesnt work.

I think something from coollights would work really well here. I'd PM him and see what he reccomends, I'm not that familiar with his fixture models. They look like a better built kino (and cheaper), so they should work well. I just hated to suggest a full kinoflo setup if your budget was worklights :)

Yay for lectros! That will be 20x better than the normal audio. Never used the lectro mics but they cant be worse than on camera sound. Might want to consider upgrading the mic in the future to a countryman or sanken or something of that caliber, but I wouldnt hesitate to use this mic for the first run. The transmitters/receivers kick butt though.

The steadycam device may work better with the heavier dvx, (or maybe worse). Either way I'd get a tripod and do some if not all shots that way. 2 cameras and 2 takes will get you plenty of shots you can use I would think. My only thoughts on the food in the oven is how pretty will it be when it comes out? If it was ME trying to cook on camera they wouldnt be that great. I might use a dish that was prepared with care and time. Then again most everything I cook looks ugly. You know the cooks better than I do, so trust your gut on that one. And FYI - "Good Eats" began its life as a show shot in the producer's kitchen. Apparently the homeowners association kicked them out after a few years (too many trucks in and out, comm use of the property) and now they are in a studio replica of that kitchen. So I say go big and come up with a catchy title. Keep us posted and keep asking questions. And keep shooting. Too bad you are way up in NY I really like cooking shows :(
 
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