Fact: if more people would use Blue Apron, the world would waste less food. That’s good for all of us. And if you’re into more self-serving reasons to satisfy the moment, they always send good food and often things I would never think to buy from a grocery store, like these fresh pasta sheets to make this stellar Pappardelle in Tomato Sauce dish.
Ok. Let’s break down what I like about the video. The new hats were a nice touch. There’s also a good amount of silliness to this piece. It’s safe to say I thoroughly entertained myself. I attribute this extra dose of fun to a few things: it was a sort of chain reaction of having time and creating the freedom to improvise, playing music on the “set” and dancing — dancing is always a great idea.
Waiting for the Blue Apron box to arrive in the morning provided me with the luxury of too much time, and instead of sitting around cursing the delivery service, I used the gap to create extra bits for the edit.
I also tried to break out of capturing the same angles in each shoot and becoming too comfortable, here I added in some extra camera perspectives on the stovetop shots. It made for a cramped cooking space, but it kept the sequence dynamic. I’m officially come up with a gripe about my tripod being too clunky — and I might be due for something more lightweight and flexible. Otherwise, I’ve come quite familiar with the equipment and I’m getting consistent with the lighting, sound, and mobile gimbal that I use for some handheld shots with my iPhone. Editing with Premiere Pro and music sourcing with Epidemic Sound is also helping me get these done is a timely routine fashion.
When editing I try to capture what makes me laugh. As strange as it sounds, I have a really fun time watching these clips and laughing at myself. If it’s something that cracks me up, it’s usually a good gauge that I need to keep it in the cut. To prepare for each shoot I create a Google Slide as a rough guide and outline. Here’s where I write up and script out some of the on-camera lines and build a shot list along with ideas. For instance, the hat match cut at the beginning, was an idea thought of beforehand and then set out to capture it. To get the on-camera lines right and to feel natural, I usually riff off several different variations of what I want to say and then choose the most natural one in the edit. To combine cinematography and photography practice, I also made a note and remembered to take this photo for my Shutterstock. Hoping to make some quarters off that beauty.
As for gripes, I felt the :30-second music choice and cut was a little offbeat, for some reason I didn’t take the cut into Audition like I did for the last one. Not sure if I just got lazy on that or what my deal was. I also feel like I should call out that there’s some Indian flair to the track, it’s a great tune, but not sure why I chose that for an Italian pasta dish.
As always there’s room to improve, I need to work on mastering Premiere Pro even more. In the full-length video, you’ll notice I kick off with some hilarious yet amateur attempts at creating effects. The absurd amount of lens flare and strobe lighting is very funny to me, but I also want to be able to use effects beyond a cheesy comical way — to be able to make something look awesome. This here is the pinnacle of my effects skills and it’s apparent I’m just not quite there yet. Understanding effects and mastering some custom animated type will help boost the production value 10-fold. Furthermore, I’m also looking to figure out how I can enhance the shoot. I still have yet to graduate to a full-frame camera and I’m saving my Shutterstock money up for something sexy. Well, that’s a wrap. I’ll be spending some time back on Skillshare this week to earn a few more stripes. Stay tuned for more.