Cooking With Peppe feedback thread at DVinfo.net
DV Info Net

Go Back   DV Info Net > And Now, For Something Completely Different... > The Archives > The DV Challenge > The DVC / UWOL Charity Challenge

The DVC / UWOL Charity Challenge
Our contest series unites for a common cause...

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old December 21st, 2011, 12:09 PM   #1
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Posts: 408
Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

I shot this with head chef Peppe Fontana and sound engineer Graham C Williams. They were an absolute pleasure to work with and, just in case anyone's wondering, the pizza tasted amazing! I could get used to doubling up the talent and the catering department.


We were going for something that felt fast paced and upbeat like a lot of contemporary cookery shows.

All done in one take with a couple of brief pauses to reposition equipment. Shot with an NEX-5 w/ e-mount 16mm pancake lens, Sony VG10 w/ Helios 58mm lens, three HD Sony Handycams, one with wide angle lens and an XH-A1. We used a head mic and a few different shotgun/omni mics run into a mixing desk for the sound.

Edited in FCP 6 and graded w/Magic Bullet. Music taken from Soundtrack Pro library and used as per purchase agreement.

Last edited by Henry Williams; December 22nd, 2011 at 03:24 AM. Reason: forgot a link!
Henry Williams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 21st, 2011, 06:33 PM   #2
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Elk Grove CA
Posts: 6,838
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

I'm hungry now.......that looked to good...
__________________
Chris J. Barcellos
Chris Barcellos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 21st, 2011, 09:25 PM   #3
Major Player
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 690
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Nice camera work. You really could follow all the steps as the pizza gets made. The mussels were alive? Didn't know that. Reminds me of the first time I saw lobsters boiling. I couldn't eat any.
Very well shot, educational video. I'm like Chris, it made me hungry.
Dick Mays is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 21st, 2011, 10:04 PM   #4
Major Player
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Brainerd, MN
Posts: 287
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Count me in as hungry too! I liked all the camera angles. Especially the high wide one. It was cut at a brisk pace which really helped it move along. There were a few edits that moved a little too quick for me actually.

This is good, strong piece.
Jeremy Doyle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 22nd, 2011, 03:14 AM   #5
Major Player
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Entebbe Uganda
Posts: 768
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Nice solid entry Henry; probably this one could be made into a genuine web series the easiest of all the entries we have seen so far.

Interesting to note that you filmed it all in one go using multiple cameras; if I had tried to do a cooking show I'm sure I would have tried to set up each scene separately (at the expense of increasing the workload and antagonizing the chef)!

As it is you capture the spontaneity of the chef in his element, and working at his own pace. Nice one!
Simon Wood is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 22nd, 2011, 03:50 AM   #6
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Bergen, Norway
Posts: 3,375
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Henry, now I'm hungry!
I agree with Simon, this one could easily be turned into a series. Go for it!
Trond Saetre is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 22nd, 2011, 08:10 AM   #7
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Posts: 408
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Thanks so much everyone for taking the time to watch and leave feedback. It's much appreciated and I'm really glad you liked the video.

Chris, Dick, Jeremy, Trond - you have no idea how hungry I was making this video. It was a rather early morning shoot as it was a working kitchen and we had a couple of hours to set up, shoot the vid and break everything down again before their day started - I'd foolishly missed breakfast and only got more famished as we went through each stage of the pizza's preparation. It had been completely consumed within five seconds of the final shot going in the can!

Simon, Jeremy, Dick, we were actually running all six cameras throughout - I did a best guess estimate of where they'd need to be in the various different areas before we started, set them up, pressed record and then adjusted on the fly. The ceiling wide was my little NEX-5 mounted on an SLR gorillapod hanging off the ceiling with a 16mm lens. It's a nice backup and also helps add context to the action - use it a lot for the same purpose when undertaking paid work, although it never stops being odd setting focus on an upside down image!

The biggest challenge with this project was in post where I had to shorten down a 10 minute sequence whilst preserving all the information. Took a couple of days but I think it worked okay in the end. We came in a whole frame under the time limit!

Trond and Simon, It'd be a lot of fun to do a series of webisodes in the same vein but I'm not sure my waistline would stand it! Definitely food for thought though. Will have to give this some consideration...

Henry

Last edited by Henry Williams; December 22nd, 2011 at 08:12 AM. Reason: spelling
Henry Williams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 22nd, 2011, 03:35 PM   #8
Major Player
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Porsgrunn Norway
Posts: 280
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

This was a good solution of the task. It is nearly impossible to understand how you managed operating all the cameras alone. I like the result.
Finn-Erik Faale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 23rd, 2011, 07:25 AM   #9
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Posts: 408
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Thanks Finn-Erik!

I'm kind of used to juggling cameras as I film a lot of one time events this way - for me at least it's mostly about making sure you have decent overlapping coverage so if one camera needs repositioning/adjusting mid shot a couple of others will pick up the slack. It still gives me a headache sometimes though!

Henry
Henry Williams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 23rd, 2011, 11:22 AM   #10
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Johannesburg South Africa
Posts: 768
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Hi Henry

I will definitely try this out - your chef Peppe explains the process of making a genuine Italian pizza very clearly and is quite inspiring. The props and process are well organized and the instructions are easy to follow.

I must say your cooking show has an interesting and rather different style and ambiance to most with its deep shadows and de-saturated colour due to the minimal spot lighting and creative camera angles. The flames bursting out of the gas cooker seem to accentuate this rather dark, shadowy look. While it is interesting, I experienced a little difficulty with this as there is not enough light to see exactly what the chef is doing and I must confess I found the cast shadows a little distracting.

Good, clear sound here is a big plus. I think this was well done.
Marj Atkins is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 23rd, 2011, 12:02 PM   #11
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Posts: 408
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Hi Marj,

Many thanks for your comments. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. Peppe (the chef) and Graham (sound) really did both do an excellent job, especially considering it was Peppe's first time on camera.

RE: the look of the piece I don't think the grade was particularly dark - I'll have to check it on a couple of different monitors to see if there's any variation. Good to know for next time.

Henry
Henry Williams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 24th, 2011, 10:55 AM   #12
Wrangler
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Southwest Idaho, USA
Posts: 3,066
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Very nice, Henry! You've proven what I've been thinking for some time now, that cooking shows don't all have to be lit the same and don't have to be in the same kitchen! I've considered doing a "for fun" series featuring local cooks in their own home kitchens. This is inspiration. Of course, not many people I know have cooking areas like that. :) Great camera placement. And with the panning I noticed on at least one shot it made it feel like you had a large crew.
__________________
Lorinda
Lorinda Norton is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 24th, 2011, 11:41 AM   #13
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Posts: 408
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Thanks, Lorinda! You should so do one yourself - they're great fun to shoot and edit, plus you get to eat the lovely food afterwards :)

It's a shame I don't have the reverse angle of me and Graham (the sound engineer) running round like madmen on tiptoes between cameras/mics as we were filming. Would make for quite entertaining viewing!

Henry
Henry Williams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 25th, 2011, 08:32 AM   #14
Major Player
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Tavares Fla
Posts: 541
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Great job, thanks for sharing.

Me personally, I would prefer the better lighting, it would highlight the foods better and keep shadows from destracting. A brighter work area would highlight the food and give greater clarity and meaning and provide cleaner video. I would also add some very close shots and maybe a few stills, but that is just my opinion. I would also prefer a LAV mic over the facial mic, I just always have, I feel the mic near the face to be distracting even for sports announcers.

but that is just my opinion, and I am nothing special.
Don Parrish is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 25th, 2011, 09:12 AM   #15
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Posts: 408
Re: Cooking With Peppe feedback thread

Thanks for watching and taking the time to provide feedback, Don. Really glad you liked it.

Unfortunately the kind of shooting scenario you're talking about would have been incompatible with the one take, multiple camera format we wanted to use unless we had a much larger crew and a lot more prep time.

We didn't use a lav mic because we would have got audio interference when Peppe (the chef) was kneading dough etc...
Henry Williams is offline   Reply
Reply

DV Info Net refers all where-to-buy and where-to-rent questions exclusively to these trusted full line dealers and rental houses...

B&H Photo Video
(866) 521-7381
New York, NY USA

Scan Computers Int. Ltd.
+44 0871-472-4747
Bolton, Lancashire UK


DV Info Net also encourages you to support local businesses and buy from an authorized dealer in your neighborhood.
  You are here: DV Info Net > And Now, For Something Completely Different... > The Archives > The DV Challenge > The DVC / UWOL Charity Challenge

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:45 AM.


DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network