How to Make a Good Cooking Video for YouTube
A VideoLane.com subscriber posed a question about making cooking videos for YouTube…
“How do you suggest I make a good decent video for YouTube – cooking segment.
Not interested in showing myself really just the food.”
Here’s my response…
Let me make some assumptions:
- You are the one cooking.
- You are the one shooting.
- The location is a home kitchen.
- You don’t want to be seen in the video.
- Final video is for Youtube.
Three things you need:
- A video camera.
- A tripod.
- Lights.
Procedure before the shoot:
- Plan and visualize the sequence of cooking in steps.
- Ask yourself “What do I want my audience to see?”.
- Clear a table space with all background distractions removed. Plastic bags and table rags look terrible in a cooking video.
- Clean up your stove and hide anything that is not relevant to cooking. We don’t need to see a bin or a broom.
- Arrange your ingredients and utensils visibly recognizable.
- Wear a good looking apron or neutral-colored clothes. Your body will still be seen on camera together with your hands.
- Remove jewelry from your hands and arms. They may be more attractive to look at than your food.
During the shoot:
- Position your camera and tripod so that the ingredients and utensils are immediately recognizable on screen. Some things are just not identifiable from a certain angle.
- For every step in the cooking sequence change the position of the camera raise or lower the tripod. Sometimes we need to shoot from above looking into a cooking pot. Sometimes we need to shoot from the side to show clearly an ingredient label.
- Most shots will be close-ups. Show the audience the food and not the whole kitchen.
- Shine lots of lights generously to remove shadows. Don’t shoot if somehow a shadow is cast on the very thing you want to show. Use standing lamps and turn on all the lights in the kitchen.
- You may speak while demonstrating. Since the camera will always be very near you the voice quality should be acceptable. Optionally using an external microphone will make you sound more professional.
What if:
- What if you cannot hold the camera while using two hands to cook? After positioning the camera on the tripod flip the camera screen around to face you on the cooking side. Keep your movements small so that you will safely stay within the frame.
- What if your items are very small? You need to bring them closer to camera or the camera closer to the item. It may be a seed in a fruit or it may be a dial on the oven. Just remember that every scene must make the audience understand what you are doing.
- What if you realized you missed a shot but the food is already cooked? Prepare extra ingredients to standby for another shoot OR just explain verbally to the audience what happened.
These are some experiences I gathered from years of shooting cooking videos professionally.
At home I attempted to make a cooking video entirely with my iPhone 4 from shooting to editing to uploading on YouTube.
I hope the above information can help you get started in making a good cooking video for YouTube. I can go on into details but that will be moving into professional video production.
Adrian Lee
http://VideoLane.com
PS:
Would you like to author your own DVDs and publish video to the Web? Are you interested in saving time and money by learning how to produce your own videos in-house? This 2-day basic videography course is definitely for you!
You may view the latest post at
http://videolane.com/2012/03/how-to-make-a-good-cooking-video-for-youtube/
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