learning to make videos

I went to a class on digital portfolios and realized I need to learn to make good videos.  It's not enough for me to write about what I do, although I did have a blast writing a guest post for my sister's food blog.  With all the neat tools I have available I should be able to do more than write and take pictures.  I should be able to make videos, too.

However, I have a lifetime of practice in writing and at least a few years of taking pictures under my belt.  I need to practice making good videos.  I realized that if I love to show off my cooking, a video could be a neat way to share the process of making a dish, rather than a few still photos. I downloaded Vine and started filming away.

Here is the worst food Vine I've made so far:



Other than the steam rising from the boiled potatoes, this might as well be a set of still photos.  Also, potato salad is kind of unappetizing in appearance.  You can't really tell but this is pickled bean potato salad, made with homemade pickled beans.

Here is a more recent attempt at adding more action in each shot:


It shows enough in each shot to suggest the intermediate steps. You could almost recreate this without reading a recipe, unlike the potato salad where you can't see the beans or the red wine vinegar the shallots and potatoes absorbed.

It gets tough to make each shot have action because it's hard to film and operate a knife or mandoline at the same time.  This will take some thought to make sure that the parts I film are interesting and suggestive of what happened in between.