Behind the Scenes - Truffle Hunters
No Such Thing as a One-Shot Wonder
I used to think I was great at shooting cooking videos in one go or at least standing in front of the camera and presenting with, no stopping, no stuttering, quick, simple and easy recipes. But then I look back at some of my older videos from School of Wok and beyond and realise that I was just young, naïve, a little over-confident and perhaps just so hungry I wouldn’t let myself wait. But the more we strive to get that moment of ooze on every shoot, or the perfect bubble when shooting for our foodie clients, the more we realise that the title of this blog (of which, I’m still unsure if the right name for this, is it a blog about a video, or a vlog i.e. video blog with a bloggy bit of prose?), is right: There’s no such thing as a one-shot wonder.
This beautifully put together video of a truffle and asparagus salad, has been viewed 1500 times and I’m not sure how long I was standing in front of that fish tank for, but let’s just say we learnt a lot about blanched asparagus that day. Asparagus becomes shy if the water is too cold (well, the camera lens couldn’t see it due to condensation), sometimes if asparagus gets thrown too hard, the water can splash the lens, the gentle touch just makes them plop, which isn’t that appetising and lastly, if you’re very hungry, asparagus is easily eaten with a good dip of Truffle Hunter mayo.
To make a video like this, we usually factor in at least ½ a day per recipe, but we cannot forget the recipe writing, the thought-process that is involved in creating a storyboard that we can all imagine before we’ve even shot it and then there’s always an anomaly on the day – for example with the soft boiled egg, how soft is the egg and will it just break when it lands on the board, or how much wobble can we get without it breaking, but if the egg does break, and we have to use another one, is it’s replacement going to be pretty enough to sit in it’s brother or sisters place?
Video production for food isn’t easy! But it’s creative and fun to make and each splash of water and badly peeled egg is worth the effort in the end… but just remember, there’s no such thing as a one-shot wonder.
