139: Answering MORE Questions about Recipe Videos with the Pinch of Yum Team

In this episode, I'm going to talk about the dark corners of your blog and we're going to have a Q and A session with Alana Woolley and Lindsay Ostrom from Pinch of Yum chatting all about recipe videos. Hey there everybody. This is Bjork Ostrom and you are listening to the Food Blogger Pro podcast. And this podcast is brought to you by WP Tasty your. And if you run your site on WordPress, then you should check out WP Tasty. It is the site that we built to offer all of the things that we are integrating into our own blog. Pinch of Yum and the two products that we have right now are a recipe plugin called Tasty Recipes and a Pinterest plugin called Tastypins. I've talked about both of those in depth and if you haven't had a chance yet, what I will say is go check those out and see if they would be a good fit for your blog. If you have a food or recipe blog, Tasty Recipes is going to be an incredible solution. You can see what it looks like and how it works. On Pinch of Yum, all of the recipes are built with tasty recipes. And if you're interested in leveraging traffic from both Google and Pinterest, check out TastyPins. It's a simple little plugin that allows you to optimize an image for both Pinterest and SEO. And if you didn't understand that, that's okay. You can check out podcast episode number 136 where we talk with WP tasty product lead Raquel Smith, and she talks about how Tastypins and Tasty Recipes works. And you can see that@foodbloggerpro.com 136 so this is the tasty tip. We have one tasty tip for every podcast episode. And today's Tasty Tip is all about checking those dark corners of your blog. And here's what I mean by that. It's actually dark important corners of your blog. Every blog has these areas that are really important, but we don't really see them because we're not shining a light on them often. And one of the most important areas on your blog to shine a light on is the dark corner of the confirmation page. And the confirmation pages are any of the pages that people see after they sign up for an email or any type of signup that they go through any type of signup process. And both for Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro, we've slowly but surely been been converting over our confirmation pages. So they are valuable pages. And if you want to see an example, you can go to pinchofyum.com and sign up for the email list. If you want, you can automatically unsubscribe right after that, you don't have to stay a subscribed member or a subscriber. But what you'll be able to see is the confirmation page that we use for Pinch of Yum. And you can see that we have some information on that page, but we also have really solid next steps for people. Some other areas that they can go and explore, including the pages and posts on Sage, are dog. So some of them are kind of fun. They don't have to be very intentional. But the idea is that you're allowing people to take a step after they sign up for something. You don't want to give them that blank confirmation page, make it a really valuable page. So the takeaway, the tasty tip is to, number one, make note of that and then number two, test out the confirmation pages on your blog and your website to make sure that those are optimized. And if they're not, make a point to update those. So that dark corner of your blog, that place that you don't often see, turns into a bright corner and it becomes a beautiful place, not only in the design and functionality, but also in terms of the flow that people go through when they sign up for any email list or opt in that you have on your blog. So that is the tasty tip for today. All right, we have a live Q A session that we're going to be showing today or we're going to be replaying today. And this is from the recent Recipe Video Boot Camp that we did. The Recipe Video Boot Camp was a deep dive into shooting recipe videos and how we do that for Pinch of Yum and Alana, the video specialist at Pinch of Yum and Lindsay. Both were a part of this live Q and A and I played kind of the role of host or facilitator and we went through a bunch of different questions that people had as they participated in the Recipe Video Bootcamp. If you are a Food Blogger Pro member, you can check out this bootcamp in the bootcamp sections of the video courses. And if you didn't make it this time, we do these bootcamps occasionally. We've done one on sponsor content and Instagram. We we've done a Recipe Video Bootcamp and we'll probably have some others coming up down the line. So if you stay tuned to the podcast, you'd be able to hear those. But right now, what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and jump into the live Q and A. So I will officially welcome Lindsay and Alana. They'll do a little intro to who they are and what they do, and then we will jump into the questions. Lindsay, if you would start by sharing a little bit about who you are and what you do and what your role is when it comes to videos on Pinch of Yum, both past and present.

All right, cool. Can do. So. Hello, everyone. I'm Lindsay. And my role with Pinch of Yum and the videos has kind of changed over time and as we've built up our team. So in the beginning, when we first started doing videos, I mean, I've always been behind the scenes of Pinch of Yum, or not even behind the scenes. I've always been like, the face of Pinch of Yum, the voice of Pinch of Yum and kind of the content brain of Pinch of Yum. When we started doing videos, I was literally the one propping my iPhone up on a couple boxes of cereal or trying to rig up some really fancy system to record little videos and edit them on my phone. Usually Bjork and I did a few together on a DSLR camera. But then a few years went by and we realized really the need and the desire for leaning more into video content. And then that's when we hired Alana, and she does all the video creation at this point. So my main role now that we have a person doing video full time is to kind of direct the content, I would say, and the style of the videos.

Awesome. And there was a time, like you're talking about when you were doing everything for Pinch of Yum that had a bigger role in the videos. But that's changed now. And Alana is our video specialist, so she handles all things video. So, Alana, do you want to talk about kind of what a typical day or week would look like for you?

Sure. Hi, everybody. I'm Alana, and my role is the video specialist. So I work with Krista, who's our shoot assistant, and we take Pinch of Yum content and other content, and two days a week, we'll film those recipes and turn them into recipe videos. And then the other three days of the week, I spend editing those videos so that we can post them on the blog and on Pinch of Yum social media sites.

Cool. So we have a broad range of people and experiences here with Alana and Lindsey. And we have some questions from earlier in the day. So for the podcast listeners, the Recipe video bootcamp, just so you know, what happened was we spent the entire day today talking about the process that we use on Pinch of Yum for shooting and editing videos. And Lindsey talked about using an iPhone and editing with an iPhone, and then Alana talked about shooting with a DSLR and then talked about editing as well. So we're going to have lots of questions all across the board as it relates to the video process for Pinch of Yum. As a side note, again, for podcast listeners, if you are interested in catching any of these courses, they are part of Food Blogger Pro. So for any Foodblogger Pro members, you can go ahead and check those out in the boot camp video area. And Boot Camp sounds super intense, but it's actually us just talking about how to shoot and edit videos, not like an actual boot camp. So let's jump into some of the questions here. So first question coming in is about sharing and promoting. So any best practices when it comes to the process of sharing and promoting the videos? And Lindsey, I'll start with you by asking, you know, when you think about the different platforms, is it, is it different for every platform, how you share videos and what is your focus right now from platform perspective?

Yeah, I mean, for us, what we primarily end up doing is focusing our content direction and style and all of that on Instagram and how that content will perform on Instagram and how it will really be best optimized for Instagram. And that's just because Instagram is our top performing platform. That's where we have the most followers. That's where videos get the most engagement and views and things like that. So from there, we'll take that video and share it across other platforms. So Alana will actually a lot of times kind of tweak little things that make a video for Instagram maybe better optimized for Facebook or better optimized for YouTube, for example, on Facebook, a lot of times we'll have teasers. We're always experimenting with this both on Instagram and Facebook. Is it best practice to put a little teaser of the completed recipe at the beginning? And which platforms is that best practice for? And right now, I don't know. I guess right now I would say maybe Facebook over Instagram. We're doing that less and less on Instagram. But then for YouTube, another thing would be like, and Elana can talk again, more about this at greater length and detail about this, but doing some different things with the logo slide at the end or the different calls to action. So for example, on Instagram, our ending slide says pinch of Yum, which is the account name. And then it's instead of saying go, you know, go to pinchofyum.com for the recipe, which isn't a natural behavior. On Instagram, we have our call to action on that ending slide. Say follow inch of Yum for more recipes. So our call to action is native within the platform that we're sharing. And I think little things like that are how we really optimize the content for the different platforms. We're not actually filming different videos. You know, like a long form video for YouTube and a short form video for Facebook and Instagram. We're using the same content, but we're just tweaking it in minute ways to really optimize it for the different platforms.

Got it. So Alana, can you talk about from an editing perspective some of the ways that it looks a little bit different and maybe some of the things that we've changed for different social platforms? Like, you know, are things different in the beginning, are things different at the end? And we're using the same video in general, but on the editing side, there's kind of some promotional things that look a little bit different. So can you talk about what those are?

Yeah, sure. Lindsey hit a lot of really good points. And the biggest difference between the videos that we're posting on the different platforms are like Lindsey said that end card, that call to action on YouTube because we have a little bit more time to work with and there's not that one minute limit on videos and you can add links within the videos on YouTube. We have end card that doesn't just say follow us at, you know, pinch of yum on this platform, but it also has links to the website, to the YouTube channel, to other recipes that you can find. So there's more options and more time for people to engage with that video at the end. And then for Instagram and Facebook, it's kind of an ever evolving game trying to figure out what makes videos perform well. And the intro, the little two second teaser, we're always trying to figure out it seems to perform better on Facebook than Instagram, but that's always changing as the algorithm changes. So it's just little tweaks like that. But the main content of the video is pretty much the same across the three.

Yeah. And the big thing with YouTube that's interesting is they have so much functionality for interacting with the video within the video. So you can, like you said, you can include a link to your Blog. So at the end you could say within the video, you could say, click here to get access to the full recipe. You could link to another video within YouTube which isn't as possible to do. Like with Instagram, for instance, you can put a message there, but that message isn't going to be something that people are going to be able to click and interact with. So different strategies there and you can check out the different videos that we have to see how we do that a little bit differently. So a question coming in that has to do with the specifics around food. So this would be for both of you because you both have experience with this. Alana, I'll start with you and then Lindsay, if you have anything to add. Are there specific foods that are really tricky to shoot? So video usually takes a little bit longer than photography. So are there specific types of food that you are difficult to shoot and if so, with those videos, what would your tips be for when you do have a recipe that is that type of food?

Yeah, that's a really frustrating part of filming food is especially when you know that a dish is really delicious, but it doesn't come off that way either because it's not very colorful or it's like a weird texture. And we do our best to find the pieces of that recipe or the different elements that do look the most delicious, the most mouth watering and really try to show off what that is. So if it's a soup, you know, it's not going to look super interesting in the bowl if it's, you know, a pureed soup or something. So we'll try to get really close up shots of a bread dipping into it so you can see the texture of the soup or you know, adding a little swish of oil or something to show off those parts that are the most appetizing to look at and not waste time just doing the same kinds of shots for every video that's not going to show off what is best about it.

Yeah, Lindsey, this would be more for photography for you, but I guess it would also cross over. Are there certain types of food that are difficult and any advice for people when they're looking to shoot those types of food?

I think everything Elana said is exactly spot on. We are constantly, for both video and photography, we are constantly thinking, how does this food look best? Foods that are consistently pretty challenging would be cheesy foods like Alana said, like pureed, smooth, flat foods or even like, even something that's not pureed but just kind of brown and lumpy like doesn't like I'm imagining a lentil soup. Like, it doesn't have a lot of vibrant color to it. A good example that this is a medium good example. We just did a. A sweet potato nest with an egg, like cracked in the middle of it. And it looked really nice as is. I mean, eggs usually are pretty good to work with as long as you can get the yolk cooked just right, because it will make a really nice, you know, shot to dig your fork into it and have the yolk be runny, assuming that you're into runny yolks. And if you're not, you should talk to me about that because I will convert you. But we have, we had these little cute little nests and we're like, oh, these look great, they're delicious. But then it's saying, okay, what could take that and make it just one level better? So texturally and lighting wise, everything with those actually looked good, but they were just a little bit more interesting when we put some little microgreens up on top or off to the side or a couple slices of avocado just to add some color variety. So I would say the things that, the specific foods that are probably like, when I think of the category that's the most challenging, it's probably cheesy foods or brown lumpy foods in the soup and casserole category. And then when I think of how we tackle that, it would be anything from like paying attention to texture, paying attention to color, and then paying attention to form. So, for example, let me think of a good example. Let's say the beer cheese soup. We're in the middle of filming this beer cheese soup. That's. Oh, my gosh. It's just been kind of a. We've had to do many rounds of it because we want to get the cheese melted just right so that it looks perfectly smooth. And I think we've made it a total of six different times and we're seeing. Still making. Going to be making it again to get it just right. But when it will look the best might not necessarily be like Alana said, when it's in the bowls, like when it's just flat in a bowl, it might actually look best when a big ladle is going into the soup pot. And so then we're really paying attention to that specific shot as opposed to just doing it the normal way that we do everything else. I think if you can think, how does this food look best? Another example is I did a. It was a brown, just completely brown colored vegan chocolate pie last summer. And I mean, pie is pretty beautiful to work with, but it didn't have any toppings. It was pretty flat, basic, and brown, and the crust was brown. But the thing that really was awesome about that pie was the texture. It was like a buttery, thick, dense texture. And this is a photography example, but I think it crosses over to video as well. We were really careful about how that was chilled, so that it was thick. Just thick enough so that when we put a fork into it, you could see the lines of the fork running through that slice, which gave you a really, I think, intimate feel of, what would this look like, what would this taste like if I had it right in front of me? And that's not necessarily needing to, like, pile a bunch of stuff on top and make it super fancy, but just knowing that the best thing about this pie is its texture and then really leaning into that with how we visually represent it.

Awesome. Yeah. Really good things to consider. And one of the takeaways, I feel like, is to think creatively. To not just say, this is how I always shoot video and this is what I'm going to do for this, but to think creatively and say, okay, given what I'm shooting, how am I going to represent that? It might require me to think creatively and to think outside the box a little bit.

Yeah. And can I say something else about that? Because some other specific things that I'm thinking of as they relate to cheese, because I know sometimes it's hard to take these generic. Like, it's helpful to have some really specific things. So one thing I always say with cheese is have everything set up. Like, get your camera settings right, get everything all set so that when you pull something out of the oven, you can literally bring it over, set it down, and you're like, even pull your placeholder pan out, put your real pan in, and then take that big scoop out so you can get the cheese while it's still really hot. I feel like cheese is one of the few things that you can't go back as easily. You have to get the timing just right, otherwise it's gonna tighten up or get, like, kind of congealed and not be melty in the way that you want it to be. Another thing that I know Alana and Krista do quite a bit with the videos, and I do this a decent amount with photography, too, is returning something to the microwave and maybe, like, stuffing a little more cheese in. If we're trying to get a specific shot of, let's say A grilled cheese pulling apart. Like, Alana, did you have to do that at all for the crunch wrap that we just posted when you guys did the cut with the crunch wrap?

Yes.

So putting in like an extra layer of cheese or something. Is that what you did?

Yeah. Especially for those pole shots. If you cut it, sometimes the cheese doesn't, like, re stick together. So we'll like, stick a little bit more cheese in there and kind of melt that so that when you it's already cut, pull it apart, the cheese is like ready to go and melt it and not sitting around.

Yeah. So those are some of the super, like, on a really practical level, and specifically with, I think my slash, our toughest category, which is cheese. Cheese can be either amazing or really difficult. But that would be. Those would be some of the specific things that we would do in that category.

Great question about brands. So brands are obviously interested in working with video because they are able to showcase their product in a way that is natural and also a little bit more enticing than it would be with a photo. And I know for Pinch of Yum, that's one of the things that we hear a lot is brands would be interested in working with video. Sometimes not even on the blog, just strictly on social media, on Instagram or other platforms. So, Alana, I would be interested to hear you talk a little bit about the ways that you are able to naturally include a product into a video. And what do you find? Like, do you have to go out of your way to do this, like, really strong product placement or able to integrate that in easily? What does that look like for somebody that's never worked with a brand before in terms of including a product when they're showcasing that on the video? And is there anything else they should consider in terms of how that video is presented, like disclosure or something like that?

Yeah. So we try to feature brands in the video in a way that feels seamless. And like, we try to choose shots that we would use for just a regular video and not a sponsored video so that it doesn't feel different or doesn't feel like this totally separate thing from what we're already doing and already publishing all the time. So finding ways to. If it's from the overhead, maybe instead of just, you know, dumping a tomato sauce into the thing, you show the jar as it's going in, instead of having this totally separate scene set up just to show off this one jar or container or whatever the product might be. And then we also do include the logo for brands twice in the videos for social media, one is with a little banner that comes in in the first few seconds of the video that's pretty small but still noticeable, but not too intrusive into the video that just says, this video is sponsored by whatever the brand is. And then at the very end on our little call to action page where it says pinch of Yum, follow us here. And then we'll include the brand logo there as well. So just usually you just one shot product shot in the video and that shot we try to have match the normal shots that we do for every other video.

Yeah, it's interesting that you say that. You know, I always kind of viewed it as disclosure, but when you said that, it's like, oh yeah, that's, that's not just disclosure. Like we're partnering with this brand. It's also a chance for them to get their logo in front of people. So it's branding pr. So it's a win for them. Three different places in the beginning than when they have the product placement, which is where I normally would think of that being the most value. But then at the end, again when the logo comes up. So, Lindsey, question for you. When you're working with brands, how are the ways that you think about balancing the brand relationship with the brand of Pinch of Yum? So like, Pinch of Yum has a look and a feel and a style, and then in some ways it kind of has to mix together with another company. So how do you go about doing that stylistically from a recipe standpoint, from a content creation standpoint, what does that look like? Lindsay and Elana, if you have any thoughts after Lindsay, I'd like to hear them.

I think it is a process. I think when I started Pinch of Yum and when we first started getting pitched to do videos, it's different. You're in a different place and you are more eager to take any projects that come your way. I think as we've developed our brand and as we've developed our ability to create and share these videos, we also are able to be more particular about who we work with in a way that really feels like a good brand match between us and the people that we work with. So what that would look like. I just had a check in with Jenna a little bit ago. Jenna is our communications manager for Pinch of Yum. So she manages a lot of the brand relationships and she had four new brands over the last couple weeks that we needed to go over some proposal related things for. And there's one of those four that is within, you know, budget, and it's within the scope of what we normally do. But I don't feel like it's a super great product fit. And she doesn't either. And so together we're saying, I don't think that this is the right brand to work with because I don't know that this product is going to land really well with our readers. A lot of our readers, Instagram followers, in this case, because we're talking about video specifically and social media. But a lot of that decision comes with time, and it comes with really knowing who you're reaching and what you're good at and what messages you're able to most effectively communicate to the people that are listening to you. And I feel like that's something that if you're feeling frustrated with that, that's okay because that takes time. It takes a long time to develop. I feel really solid with where Pinch of Yum is today in that regard. But I also feel like two years ago, even two years isn't that long. Like, two years ago, it was a lot different for us because we were just getting into the video game. We'd have sponsors and we'd be super excited. We wanted to do more of that. So we were in more of a yes. Mindset. And now we're really thinking about what are our brand core values, what are a potential brand partner's brand core values, and how do we pick brands that really line up with what we're trying to communicate.

Yeah. So one of the things that I hear you say a couple times that I think is important to point out is that it's a process and it's an evolution and to not get overwhelmed in the early stages if you feel like you don't have it figured out, because nobody ever has it fully figured out. So it's embrace the process and be okay, knowing that things might feel a little bit weird or off, but as you go forward, as you improve, as you figure things out, it'll get better and better. But it doesn't have to be good right off the bat, which I think is encouraging for people to hear. Alana, anything that you'd add from a brand perspective in terms of when you're shooting a video that you know you're going to partner with a brand on, are there any changes that you're making stylistically or for the most part, do you say, hey, this is going to be the same style, but we're going to be making the adjustment to include a brand product placement somewhere throughout the.

Video Yeah, I think we try to have it match our unsponsored videos as much as possible. Just paying close attention to including those packaging shots and really showing off whatever the product is that they want us to promote. And I think what Lindsey said, having working with brands and products and foods that really match your blog's brand is really important and really helpful for us because then the kinds of recipes that we're filming feel like any other Pinch of Yum recipe. And we're not going out of our way to create something totally different for a brand that doesn't fit our style.

Right. Makes sense. One of the questions that came in from the chat here. So again, people are going to be listening to this on the podcast, but there's also people listening to this live in real time. So we have some questions coming in from people that are watching is a question about the surfaces that Pinch of Yum uses. And also for people that were watching the Bootcamp, there is this kind of, like, cart that we had. So can you talk about, in general what that cart is and how that works and surfaces and like, kind of the gear that Pinch of Yum has, not necessarily the camera gear, but everything around that, the things that help you to shoot recipe videos effectively. If you could chat about that, Alana, that'd be great.

Sure. So the surfaces, or I guess surface that we use 99% of the time is a marble, like a white marble pastry board. And ours is 16 inches by 24 inches. So it's not humongous, but it's big enough that we can fit pots and pans on it, and they're not going to overflow over the sides of the board. And then we shoot on. I think it's an IKEA table. It's like a kitchen island kind of a table. And we put the surface on that because the table is big enough to hold the tripod and all of our extra dishes and everything else. And then the marble is just one little surface on top of that table. And I like this table because it has a couple shelves on the side, too, so we can have paper towels and oven mitts and whatever we might need kind of on hand and ready to go at this shooting table.

Great question came in about the how you can. How you use a monitor. So Pinch of Yum when you're shooting, Alana, you have the camera, but then you also have a little monitor where you're able to see what's on the camera screen. And somebody was asking if you can use your phone to monitor what's on the screen. So is that screen that you have, the monitor there? Is that. Could that be a phone that you use to connect it and sync it over or is that kind of a special piece of equipment that's made specifically for cameras?

Yeah, our monitor is made for cameras. It's a field monitor. It's just a little 7 inch small. HD is the brand and that's connected to the camera using an HDMI cord. So I'm not sure if you could do the same thing with a phone unless your camera had some sort of WI FI connection. And I don't know if there's even apps for that on the phone. But if you don't want to splurge on a monitor, there are a lot of programs that camera companies will make for your computer. So I know Canon has one where you can tether your computer to the camera and then see what's on your camera screen on your computer and kind of use your computer monitor as a little field monitor.

Great. So, and best way to find that would probably be to search for your camera name + monitor. Probably not monitor, it'd be camera name +. What would the additional search field that they would use to be able to find that? Do you have thoughts on what that.

Would be for Canada?

No.

It's EOS utility.

Okay.

So manufacturer website. And I'm sure it's something similar for Sony and Nikon.

Yep, got it. Cool. But point being that you don't need to purchase a separate piece of equipment. A lot of times what will happen is you can get a cord that connects your camera to your computer via usb. I would guess usually that happens, or usually that's the connector cord that you'd use. And then you can see what is on your camera, which is really, really nice in general, but especially when it's overhead and you can't get up there. And a lot of times you can control it from there as well, I think. Is that right?

Yep. You can start recording and change your settings and everything right from the computer.

Cool. And somebody just said in the chat it's control. My Nikon is great for Nikon. So that looks like something that somebody's used in the chat. Question coming in. Lindsey would be interested to hear you talk about this and Alani, you could weigh in on this as well. So let's say that you are going to be shooting the Crunch Wrap. So we just did that with Pinch of Yum and I have been lucky enough to taste test a few rounds of that and have also insisted that it be Made on other nights after taste testing it. Great recipe. And the wondering if, when you're preparing for that shoot, do you sit down and say, okay, this is exactly how I want to go about shooting it. I want to do these steps and in this order and from a kind of high level brand perspective. Lindsey, pinch of Yum brand perspective. Do you come to the table and say, you know, meet with Alana and say, here's what we want to do and here's how we want to go about shooting it. Make sure to get this angle here and this overhead shot there. What does that look like in terms of, like the planning process and how has that evolved over time?

So in terms of video, we're speaking to specifically about video. Alana pretty much. She pretty much takes it and runs with it at this point. But if we rewind to when she started and when we were just starting to work together as a team, there was more conversation about that and there was a little bit more happening in terms of kind of storyboarding or even building a template storyboard. So we could say, okay, on every recipe video, we're going to have this angle for when the ingredients get added. Then we're gonna do this angle for this. Obviously that's gonna be different for every recipe, depending on what the steps are. And Alana and I are consulting pretty regularly on, you know, hey, we have this video coming up. It is this particular type of recipe. I don't think our traditional angles are gonna work for it. So what if we tried this type of angle instead? And there's a lot of that happening on both of our ends where I'm bringing that to the table or she's bringing up an idea. So now there's more. There's not more collaboration, but it's just a little bit more fluid. So it's more on a case by case basis. Whereas in the beginning when we started working together, there was a lot. I mean, you're just trying to learn how each other works. And for me, I'm trying to communicate, you know, the brand and the style of Pinch of Yum to her as a new person to our team. And so there was more of that that's happening that was happening in the beginning, I think now. And Alana, you could probably speak to this, but I think now some of that is just like in your head. It's kind of like with photography. I have a little shot list, mentally in my head. I don't need to have it written down, but in my head, I know generally what types of shots I'm looking for, I'm looking for a beauty shot. I'm looking for some in process shots. I'm wanting to get a close up side angle so that I have some variety of shots within a post. And that would be true for video as well.

Great. Anything you'd add to that, Alana?

Yeah, I think at the beginning, like Lindsay said, we, there was more conversation around it and we kind of worked off of a pre production form. So there was every step of the recipe listed out. Every shot that we wanted to get, every ingredient, every detail of the shoot was planned out way ahead of time. So that when we sat down to shoot, we knew exactly what to do, exactly what shots to get. And then as we started making more and more videos, we kind of had the same sorts of routines for different types of recipes. And now we're at the point where I can look at a recipe and some recipes. If they're more complicated, I will write out a storyboard or write out specific shops that I think are important to get in order to make that recipe flow better and fit into that one minute timeline for Instagram. But for the most part I think, Kristen, I can take a recipe and know which shots we need to get and how to approach it, but that just comes from doing so many of them.

Great. Yeah, that makes sense.

Like one thing to add would be on the back side of things. Like our process now is so Alana creates a video. We have it in Dropbox. This is just to give people an idea of how it works from a team perspective. But she has the video in Dropbox and currently I'm the person that's like approving. Those are kind of a final run through on does everything look right? Does the recipe look right? And so I'll go through all of those videos and kind of give approval or send notes to her and say like, hey, one thing, I was thinking let's word this a little bit differently with this text or can we try to go back tomorrow and get one more shot of that soup being scooped out with a spoon? And then we also have monthly video meetings that are pretty important times for us to come together and say, hey, what are some new style things that we might want to try? And I'll often bookmark like sources of inspiration or videos. I see that. I think, wow, that's a really interesting idea. I haven't seen that before. And I'll bring that to the team and say like, hey Alana, what would this look like next month to try this particular new style? So that's happening. It's just happening more after the fact and within the context of these monthly meetings, these monthly check ins. And those could be things like, hey, I was thinking, what if we tried no teasers this month at the beginning, or what if we tried removing text altogether? Or what if we tried taking more of a stop motion approach for some of our videos or closer up angles or any of those different kinds of things. Changing out backgrounds could be a variety of things. So those things are always being communicated too. It's just happening in a, I would say in a context like kind of in a confined context. One thing I've found helpful, and Alana, I'm sure feels this way, is that instead of me always being like idea, idea, idea and sending them to her and kind of having that be like all the time to put some parameters around that and say, like, here's where we keep track of it. Here's the one time a month that we talk about it and make a plan and then using that as kind of our launchpad for any new stylistic ideas for our videos.

Awesome. Yeah, great.

And that also helps, I think month by month to look back at what we did the previous month instead of just trying new ideas all the time. But to have, you know, this month we're going to try this thing and then a month later we can look and see how did that perform? Is that something that we want to continue doing? So kind of segmenting it that way?

Yeah, I think it's important for people to hear just not only what's involved with editing and shooting, but also what's involved outside of that. Because a lot of it goes into a lot of thinking and intentions work goes into the content. It's not just how do you produce the content, it's what content are you producing that's such a big part of the story. I think sometimes that can get lost as we get into the specifics of gear and equipment. And what editing software do you use. Which, speaking of, is a good lead in to the next question about gear. Somebody had a question about when you're shooting with two angles. So let's say you have an overhead and you also have something on the side. If you're lucky enough to have two cameras, is it an issue if you're doing that and it's two different types of cameras. Do you need to have the same type of camera if you're going to be shooting two different types of angles? Alana, do you have any thoughts on that?

No, I think in general you shouldn't be able to tell what kind of camera your footage is shot with, but you will be able to tell the difference if you're shooting with different frame rates or, you know, different camera settings. So the biggest thing doesn't matter if you're using two different kinds of cameras, just that the settings on those two cameras match so that when you go to edit, your project settings will be consistent throughout the entire video.

Great. And for those that want to know the different gear that we use for Pinch of Yum videos, you can go to foodbloggerpro.com videotips and that is with no-just video tips. And that will bring you to It's a little PDF download that we have that outlines the kind of what we would consider the seven essential tools for video, including the types of cameras that we use and software and stuff like that. So you can check that out. Video Tips FoodBloggerPro.com videotips some other questions coming in. Some questions about surfaces. So we talked about surfaces that we use. Have you ever tried any other surfaces? Sometimes people use vinyl surfaces. One of the companies that we partner with for Food Blogger Pro, Food Blogger Pro members get a discount on Erickson Woodworks, which is another great company. So Lindsey, do you have any thoughts on surfaces from a stylistic standpoint in terms of Pinch of Yum content?

Yes, I do. I know that a lot of people love vinyl. I feel like vinyl is kind of a love hate for most people. Either they love it or they hate it. I think I'm kind of in the not super excited category about vinyl. Advantages of vinyl are that would be that it's easier to clean, it's cheaper, it's transportable. It's just like a really good low maintenance option. It's not going to be super heavy to carry around. So those are all good things. I'm a little bit particular stylistically about wanting things to look like the real thing. Even the really, really nice Erickson Woodworks boards that I have, I prefer them to look like wood or some other wood related surface instead of like the wood board that's painted to look like marble. So my top preference would be like if I want it to look like marble, I want to get marble. If I want it to look like wood, I want to get wood. That kind of a kind of a thing would be my preference stylistically. But we have four Pinch of young videos we have played around with some darker backgrounds. Some of the Erickson Woodworks boards that we have we've used kind of, I think it was Kind of like a gray kind of concrete looking surface that we've used a few times. I would say we lean or I lean more towards a higher contrast look. So whether that's a super light background like the marble, or even something just white, I would probably like pretty well just a plain white or something that goes pretty dark, where in either case the food pops off it really nicely. My visual style for my photography is pretty high contrast. I like things to pop and those two background surfaces allow that to happen pretty, pretty easily. A gray. There was a time where we were using the gray surfaces kind of the more neutral colors, and I feel like those are a little more tricky because just the food doesn't pop as easily. And I think there are some situations where that fits the style. I think we learned through trial and error that our preference was probably towards either the really light or the really dark surfaces. And between the two, we lean more, usually more towards a really light surface.

Got it. And a follow up question with that, Alana. Somebody was asking about the types of dishes that you use. So do you have to use a certain type of dish because is, let's say you use one that is super shiny. Do you get reflections on that? So do you have to be intentional with how you are choosing what you're plating the meal on?

Yes.

It wouldn't have to be a full meal.

Right. In addition to just stylistically, what would look nicest with whatever recipe we're shooting, we're also keeping in mind what plays well with shooting on video. So anything that's super shiny or reflective will reflect either the camera equipment right above it or sometimes like the studio lights, you know, the more orange lights that are not natural light. So we try to stick with matte plates and dishes and we also, color wise, I think, try to stick with things that look nice with the food and with the marble surface that we're using.

Yeah, that makes sense. Lindsey, somebody asked about ways to make a video stand out and this is Maria and she said it feels like all food videos on social media look the same. So any advice for people that are looking for something that kind of hooks people in or something that pops and really draws people? What, what are some things that people should, should consider?

That's a very good question. And I would agree that a lot of videos look the same. And that's true. Pinchu Yum videos as well. We follow a pretty universal style for food videos, which is just that overhead hands only kind of style. My gut reaction is to say just anything that surprises People is going to keep them watching. So if you can start your video in a way that people are. Imagine people scrolling through their feed, right? Or looking at a Discover page with a bunch of different pictures on. Again, I'm focusing primarily on Instagram, but the same would be true on Facebook. Imagine they're scrolling through a feed, and for something to really pop out, there's gonna have to be something really unique about it. That doesn't mean your recipes have to be super crazy, but maybe if it feels like, okay, I know you can't really see me super well, but like a normal place to stand when you film your grilled cheese pulling apart would be like, right here. Try going super, super close up. Try getting a super close up on your cheese pull. Another thing for Instagram would be try choosing a thumbnail that plays really nicely with the start of your video. Pro tip. Here's a pro tip. Don't choose a thumbnail that is the same as the start of your video. Because what happens is when people scroll through Instagram, the first thing they see is just a flash of the thumbnail and then it starts into the video. But sometimes there's a little bit of a lag in loading a video. And so if that is the same as the start starting frame of your video, in my opinion, it's not interesting enough to keep people watching. They're just going to keep scrolling past because it's like flat. It doesn't look like a big change. For example, I might choose a super nice overhead shot of, let's say, spaghetti or something for my thumbnail. But then the first shot that we include is something with a little more action. It's not that necessarily, just that overhead shot. So it's not like a continuous three seconds of the overhead shot of spaghetti. It changes immediately and pulls people in. I think there's definitely something to be said about videos that include you, that include more of the personality behind your blog. I don't know, I feel like it's kind of a great debate amongst food video creators or food publishers. It depends. In my opinion, it really depends on if you want to position yourself as an influencer or if you want to have broad, universal. Like, I am a food content producer and I just put food content out there. I always think of Tasty as an example of this, you know, just producing mass amounts of food content. We don't know who Tasty is. We don't know who is doing tasty videos. We don't know whose hands they are. We just know, like, they're just going to have a lot of food for us. Whereas someone being personally in the video, I think more of like a food network personality. And so when you think about your brand and standing out, I think that's an important first distinction as well, is not just thinking like how can I, you know, have little gimmicks to make things more fun? But what am I actually trying to be with my video? Am I trying to just be like, hey, look at this great recipe, or do I want to position myself as someone with someone who's going to talk to people about food, someone who I am as much a part of the content as the food itself.

Great. Another question was coming in and it had to do with different platforms. And this one is a question specifically about YouTube. And I feel like I can pick this one up to give you guys a break. The question was what is the recommended video length for YouTube? And I'm by no means I'm a YouTube expert, but what I do know from conversations and what I've read is that one of the big factors in how the algorithm for YouTube works is this idea of watch time. So how long are people watching your videos and do they watch additional videos of yours once they're done with the first video that they've watched? And that influences whether YouTube recommends your videos to other people, which then makes more people watch them. And if more people watch them, then it's a video that is sticky if they, if they're watching a lot of it. So it works as kind of a snowball. So whereas with Instagram or Facebook or you know, if you're doing video on Twitter, the idea with these is that they're pretty short form types of content and medium, different types of medium. But it's also restrictive in a lot of ways. So like you can't post a super long video on Instagram. But with YouTube, there might be some strategy in posting a longer video if it's engaging throughout. So if you have a 20 minute tutorial video on how to make a certain recipe and the entire time it's really engaging and people watch it all the way through, that's going to be great because YouTube's going to see that and it's going to be a lot of watch time for that video. So in some ways the traditional one minute recipe video like we're creating with Instagram isn't the most beneficial type of content for YouTube because it's a tiny little snippet of video and it's not going to have much watch time for your account in the media that you're creating. So if you want to go deep on YouTube, the strategy is going to be a little bit different because watch time is a really important factor for the videos that you're creating there. And they're probably going to be longer form than they would be on other platforms. We're going to keep diving into these questions here.

Can I add one other thing kind of related to that last question? So this is what happens is I. The question goes out and then I answer and then you talk and then I think of some more things. So answer part two. I think in a really important thing to consider in making your video stand out is. And that's important enough that I wanted to jump back in one more time and say it.

Rewind.

Yes. Is just the content itself, what actually is being posted. And you could have a super fun video. Making muffins, for example. It could be like the cutest muffin video you've ever seen. But if you're trying to get something that's gonna like break the Internet, I mean, in whatever, whatever scale that means to you, muffins probably aren't gonna do it. Because people make muffins pretty regularly. Most people know how to make them. The style of making them is pretty much the same. You mix the dry, you mix the wet, and then you bake them muffins. That's not really surprising to people. It doesn't make people say, oh my gosh, I should try that. And I think that phrase is something we think about a lot with pinch of yum content. And it almost feels like again, to go back to, I mentioned this in an earlier session, but that 70 to 80% of what drives performance really boils down to what the content is. You could have the most awesome recipe and video for hot chocolate, but it's hot chocolate. It's just by nature, not viral content. It's not something people are going to be like, oh my gosh, hot chocolate. Look at this. We got to make this. However, let's say it's like loaded ice cream, boozy hot chocolate overflowing with chocolate lava. Like that's something that's going to make people say, oh my goodness, I need to try this. I'm going to tag my friends, I'm going to send it to people. And the video quality could be worse than your regular hot chocolate video, but it could actually perform better. The trick with this is trying to stay true to yourself and your brand and not just like trashing up everything you do in order to try to get it to go viral and get the performance out of it. But we think like the content itself is a major part of our video strategy. When we sit down for these monthly meetings, half of the time that we are spending talking is about not just the style of our videos and what new stylistic elements we want to have, but literally what recipes are going to land with people. And that is a huge driving force in how to get your videos to stand out is literally just content that's interesting, that makes people say, oh my gosh, I need to try that. And at the core, that's valuable to people.

And what are. Is that a gut thing? How do you go about figuring out what those are, what that is?

For us? With Pinch of Yum, we are looking at trends of top performing videos. So regularly for us, and I think this would probably be true across the board, but regularly for us, it's healthy recipes, it's pasta, it's noodles, this is for us. Drinks and desserts aren't super high performing. They're just not like our top winners. We still do that type of content sometimes, but we're thinking strategically about that. We might even say, hey, desserts do okay for us on Facebook, but on Instagram, just people don't. That's not what people are looking for. And we want our content to consistently perform well. So we're going to really hand select the content that goes on Instagram. So that's what we do is we look at the data of the previous month and we're just always looking for those themes. And those are generally the themes that we see is stuff that's pretty approachable for people. That's easy. It's usually nothing super, super wild, but it might be a twist, like a meatless variation on something or something that has a little bit of a different flavor, generally healthy, but still feels like, omg, that's a big pile of noodles kind of a thing.

Yeah.

Alana, would you add any, like, food content trends that to that list?

I don't know. I feel like it's always changing too. Like even season to season, month by month. What's doing well at that time of the year is always different.

Another example, and this would be something that people could use. I just have to get the resource from Jenna in order to share it, to have it be shared. But Jenna's been following a pin guideline, calendar type thing. So she's been following that for the type of content that's going to perform well on Pinterest. And we've sort of been using that as a guide that in combination with what has previously been effective for us in the last month. And we're using that to kind of drive our content for the following month. So when we sat down and we were looking at the content for March, just. Yeah, or yesterday. Was it yesterday? This is like a long time ago. Yesterday we sat down and we did that. But a lot of the content is focused around, you know, Easter and salads and spring recipes. And a lot of that comes from these kind of guides for content that Jenna is using on different platforms. But we're just pulling that information to use on content for videos. And so when we know that it's, for example, salads, this is a good season for salads, or kind of lighter, crunchier, whatever things, we're then going to pinch of yum. Content and saying, what are our best salads? Like last year, what salads did people love? And let's revisit those and let's think of variations on them. So we might take even the same salad recipe and there might not even be new blog content for that, but we might just remake it. And this time we're going to use tofu instead of chicken. Or this time we're going to remove one of the weird ingredients and add something a little more normal. So we're constantly thinking about that, and a huge, huge part of that is looking at how previous content has performed and those trends.

Yeah, cool. Great takeaway. So one of the questions that somebody had was a kind of technical question, and they're wondering about the video quality when you are shooting. So when you're shooting a photo, we know that you can set the size to be a really small jpeg, so you can have thousands of images that are showing up on your SD card, or you can do raw. And the same also exists for video. So are you shooting in the highest possible format for video? And if so, what's the reasoning behind that? And, Alana, would you be up for taking that one?

Sure. We shoot our videos with 1920 by 1080 pixels, which is not the highest quality video you can record, but it's the highest quality that you can post on Instagram. And it's the recommended quality for YouTube. So it's very high quality. It's HD, but it's not 4k or anything higher quality would be. You would only need to record that if you're going to project it in a theater or post it somewhere with 4k viewing capabilities. So 1080p is what we shoot at, and that's the highest quality for most Internet content.

Yeah. And it's interesting you see 4K kind of popping up here and there with YouTube. But. But it's also one of those things where it's so rare that people are using 4K when they're streaming content because it's such a huge download. So it would take so much Internet bandwidth. So for those that aren't super into, you know, detailed shots or really need that 4k, you can have that as the 1920 by 1080. And even then people that are streaming probably are streaming at 720 or maybe not even full HD. So we're getting to the end here. Want to make sure that anybody that is in the chat gets a chance to ask any other questions that they have for people that are attending this live and for people that are listening in on the podcast. Sorry, but you can't submit a question because by the time you hear it it'll already be done. But we're going to try and hit as many of these as we can. So another question that I would be interested to hear you talk about a little bit about, Lindsay, is in terms of video and video interacting with content that you're creating, are you trying to produce a video or thinking of a video being included with every recipe that you produce? Or is the process for including and producing videos a little bit looser? Like one week all of your posts maybe don't have any videos and then in another week every, every post does have a video included. How does that look in terms of the production calendar with pinch of yum content?

So most of the posts at this point do have a video. Most of the new posts, they don't always have a post when they publish or sorry, they don't always have a video when they publish. But usually within a week of publishing, I would say there's a video that has come out that we are going back and embedding in that post. And that is a positive thing, obviously for anyone that comes across. The post itself also potentially a helpful thing in terms of having really rich, long form, valuable content for people so they're staying on a page. We rank better in search results. So there's really no, in my opinion, since we have the team effort to be able to do it, there's no downside to having those videos in each post. The problem is I don't produce as much blog post content as Alana and Krista are able to make for video content. So a lot of times their video content, like in a month, let's say they can produce 16 videos, maybe four of those. I'm using the example from our meeting yesterday because I don't have a ton of recipes coming up. I have a lot of other non recipe content but not a ton of recipes. So I maybe have four recipes from the blog that I'll be giving them to produce a video. But that leaves us still with 12 videos that they can produce in a month that I don't have any blog content for them. And in that case, what we're doing is we're going back. That's the content brainstorming piece I was talking about before. So we're going back to old Pinch of Yum content. We're looking at videos that were produced last time this year we might even pull out some magazines and cookbooks and say like, hey, what feels interesting and exciting and you know something? Even if we could, let's say, oh, this is a great idea from a magazine where we could make the video and say we love this idea from Food Network magazine or something like that. Not all of the. I think it's a huge burden if you're producing a ton of videos and you feel like all of the content has to always be new. It's not always new. A lot of it is variations on older content. I feel like even in the year plus that Alana has been with us, we've worked through most of our existing, most of our video worthy existing Pinch of Yum content. And so now it's kind of taking that. And just this month for the first time, we said what if we revisited content that actually already has a video, but it's an old video and either we edited those videos to update them to match our current style, or we made some kind of a, like a compilation video. So five great recipes, five great dessert recipes for spring or something like that. And in that way we're not necessarily creating something new. We're just taking those existing pieces and either re record them or repurposing them in a way that would be useful on social media. I would say every once in a while there's a recipe that we come up with as a team that's like, oh, this would make for a really great video that then works backwards and comes back over to the blog because we love it so much as a video. But more often than not, the blog content is kind of those. If you could think of the 16 videos in a month that we're producing, the blog content kind of makes up for the first four to six pieces of video and then those remaining 10 are individual. Like some of them are sponsored. They're not sponsored. Blog posts only. Only social content or things that we come up with just specifically for social media and for video.

Got it. Great. We're coming to the end of our Q and A time here. But before we end, my last big question for each of you, Elana and Lindsay, is for those that are listening that are maybe a little bit nervous about taking the plunge into doing video, what would your advice be to people? Just can be general, high level advice or specific if you want it to be. But what's the one thing that you'd say to somebody who's thinking about doing this but maybe a little bit nervous? Elana, what would your piece of advice be? We'll start with you.

My advice would be to just jump in. The hardest video you're going to make is the first one. And then the second time you go to make a video, you're going to know all the mistakes that you've made and exactly how to approach it and just start with what you have. You don't have to go out and get all this new equipment and you know, every little thing that we have to create a great recipe video. You can create a great video with just your phone and, you know, an hour of your time. So just jump into it, don't be intimidated. And I think you'll find that it's very fun once you start doing it.

Awesome. Yeah, great advice, Elana. Thanks. Lindsay, how about you? Any advice that you'd give people that are just starting out or maybe people that have been doing it for a while and are still feeling like, I don't know if I know exactly what it is that I want to do.

My advice would be the same as Alana, but I won't say the same thing. But I would second for sure everything that she said. Definitely getting started is the hardest part. So if you can get past that, that's a major win, even if you have like a medium good video. But to have my own point of advice for people who are just getting started or who've been doing it for a while and looking to up their game or whatever, my advice would be to think about the content itself as the driving force behind your video. So rather than thinking about creating a video that looks perfect and beautiful and matches your exact vision of what you want it to be, instead of thinking about all those things which are important but maybe less of a driver in the success of a video. So instead of focusing on that, focus on the content itself. Make a video that's really helpful for people or really inspiring or really interesting. Just really interesting for people. Like, oh, I never thought to use avocados to make ice cream. That's a great idea. So really focus on that. Omg. I need to try that kind of mentality and think content, content, content as it relates to performance of your videos.

Awesome. That's great. All right, that is a wrap for the Q and A part of the call today. Alana and Lindsey, thanks so much for coming on. Really fun to chat with you guys. And I feel like I always learned something as well on these calls, so it was fun for me to be a part of it as well. So thanks for being a part of it.

Thanks, Bjork. See ya.

See ya.

Thanks for tuning in, everybody.

See ya. Thanks.

Hey, friends. Alexa here. We hope you enjoyed this Q and A episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast. And if you're looking to start video or maybe you're looking to, you know, up your video game a little bit, my suggestion is just to jump into it. You'll learn a lot along the way, and I think you'll find that the recording, editing, and sharing process is actually a ton of fun. So we hope that this podcast episode gave you some inspiration to do some video on your own. And I'm also here to bring you the reviewer of the week. And this one comes from kelly from a sideofsweet.com and it says you really can't go wrong with any episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast. But the one that inspired this review was with Megan from Culinary Hill. I loved hearing about Megan's perspective in finding a niche, but what really resonated with me was her commitment to investing in herself and her business. Sometimes the upper upfront price tags on something like that could be daunting, but it can really help take you to the next level. Thanks, Megan and Bjork. I love that. Thank you so much, Kelly, for that review. The episode that she's talking about is number 93, and you can find that by going to foodbloggerpro.com 93. It's called how Finding a Niche Transformed a Business with Megan Hill from Culinary Hill. And honestly, this is one of our most popular episodes. So if you haven't checked it out or maybe it's just been a while since you listened to would be a great idea to check it out again. So from all of us here at Food Blogger Pro hq, thanks so much for tuning in and make it a great week.

Sam.