Photos from today's shoot. Chicken and Saffron Rice Tagine with Preserved lemons or Arozz con Pollo in the Style of Oran. I plated the other dishes as kemia or mezze (small plates). Sauteed Shrimp with Preserved Lemon Mahonais (mayonnaise), Bay Scallops with Preserved Lemon Citronette and Greens and Tuna Skabetch (escabeche) with Roasted Peppers and Carmelized Shallots. The plating and manner of garnishing for the small plates is more international restaurant style, but the flavors and components are 100% Algerian. For example with the scallop dish, an Algerian home cook might serve the scallops on top of the greens or for the tuna skabetch the carmelized shallots and roasted peppers might me incorporated into the skebetch sauce.
Today's foodcast shoot had a few surprises and some learning experiences. A commercial kitchen is not the best place to shoot a foodcast. The stainless steel tables and appliances reflect light like a mirror, to make the bad lighting situation even worse the lights directly above me were set on a dimmer switch that caused them to flicker like disco lights.
Another issue was ambient noise from fans, hoods, ice machinces, etc... which I am hoping can be resolved with an external microphone placed close to me rather than relying on my camcorder's internal microphone.
"Performing" cooking in front of the camera is very different from teaching and doing demonstrations of cooking- especially shooting footage knowing that there will be no retakes and it will probably not to be edited at all. Filmed cooking has to happen in a kind of time space compression and not in real time, of course editing helps with this considerably, however I don't really have that luxury for the time being. We don't have the time or resources for retakes either, this is crucial as everything is shot for "live" viewing as it were. We're using "home user" type editing programs such as videoegg and vlog. Both are actually quite good considering their cost- free-$29.
I prepped my mise en place and had all of my ingredients for a given recipe right in front of me or within arm's reach. After today's experience I am confident that I can do concise, LIVE 2-3 minute cooking demonstrations for morning news show segments. I am also confident that I can do longer segments that don't require much if any editing.
There are a few areas I need improvement on, it's nearly impossible to realize these things before you actually see yourself on TV. For me as with everything else this is a matter of practice, practice, practice... I think I'll have it down by next weekend. *ahem*. I'd like to have a more conversational tone of voice on camera. Isn't that funny? I mean obviously my normal voice is conversational- what changes on camera? First of all I'm improvising my lines based on a loose outline and I have to do it very smoothly, while communicating something succinctly and clearly. I guess this is one of the reasons people take broadcast journalism classes. It's another skill to learn.
Another thing I know I need to work on is where to look while talking. I know it's not directly at the camera and for several of the segments we shot today I didn't have a problem with this. However, at times it was easy to forget and I would start to look down occasionally while talking. I have been on real sets before and it was much easier for me with people to give me cues. I'd really like to hone these skills just like the other skills I've practiced over the years and learned to do really well.
I'm sharing my learning experiences with my readers because I am hoping that others will learn about "behind the scenes" aspects of being a chef, teacher, and cookbook writer. This stuff doesn't get pulled out of thin air just because a big Hollywood agency comes knocking at your door. I'm always prepared to work, learn and do my best to excel.
foodcast: foodcasts food podcasts culinary podcasts food vlog gastrocast
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