Video Production - Community Education Series

Hi, I'm Chef Dennis Littley, and tonight we're here for our community education series, and tonight's broadcast is on video production. So it's something we can all use, especially me when I'm doing these, and my guest tonight is Lenny Ferrara, and he's here with us to give us his tips on doing videos and show us what we're doing wrong. And my friend Jenny Field is here too, and she's going to be one of our test kitchens, and they're going to go over some things with her in her kitchen to show her how to set it up. So Lenny, I'm going to turn this over to you, and let's get this party started.

All right, thank you, Chef Dennis. So first off, I'm not going to show you what you're doing wrong. I'm going to show you how you can improve what you're doing now. And so I'm particularly going to focus on live aspects. That's really my background in live video production and event production, but these principles are anything— are principles that you can use in general video production. So most of the time, you know, we're looking down at a laptop. So one of the first things that you can do to drastically improve the user experience is you can grab a box. If I can have my the lovely and talented Denise Woodward, a.k.a. Vanna White. Put this box underneath here. So one of the things you can do is really just get a box or books or something. If you're seated at a table, then you could just stack up some books and put your laptop on top of it. That way you can be at eye level with your camera. And I'm just using a regular camera on a MacBook Pro here. So the other thing that helps quite a bit is using— there is a plugin called Poonvis, or it basically moves that film strip on the bottom. It moves it up onto the top. So that way, a lot of times you'd like to look at who's in the film strip, so we're not always looking down. It's a lot easier to keep your eyes focused on the actual camera. So it's a lot easier for me to speak to you this way. So let me— I actually do have some slides. How exciting is that going to be?— but I want to show you some slides that I put together. They're part of a presentation that I did a while back. Let me change here, wake this up. Come on, Google. All right, there we go. So we're all dealing with the new Google+. Is this looking all right? Can people see what's going on here?

Looks good.

All right, great. So I've got an iPad hooked up here, and so basically I want to just go through some quick pointers about, you know, just some basic things that are really going to drastically improve your production. So this is just a slide of who I am. I'm a part-time police officer, as you can tell by those glasses, but I'm the other half of Sheyaz. I've been in the video production business for about 20 years. You know, it's all about making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Don't typically like to be in the limelight, but I do love amateur videos, and I love the whole spirit behind them. One of the things that I think happens a lot is people get discouraged, but don't let anything get in the way, bog you down, or people— just kind of go for it. You know, there are people creating some really exciting and fun stuff, and I'm a big fan of the live Hangouts and what people are doing with that. So what are the common mistakes that people make? And I'm going to go through each of these.— but it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. If you can avoid the top 3 of these, you're already in good shape. A lot of times you'll find that people just— they'll just stand up against a wall for some strange reason, or they'll stand too far away from the camera and they'll want, you know, somehow they'll want their shoes in the shot as well, where you really want to focus on, you know, sort of a head and shoulders type of thing. Standing in the middle of the frame, you know, It depends on what you're doing. For example, in these Hangouts, standing in the middle of a frame is fine. If you're watching the news, standing in the middle of the frame is fine. But if you're looking for something— if you're doing some storytelling, then you might want the camera— you want to be slightly off-center. My personal favorite is people not paying attention to the background. And so this is where I think what ends up happening is people will just say, you know, "Oh, it doesn't matter. I'll just sit here and the camera will go here and I don't really care." And so I think that the background, it's sort of like when you find hair in your food. It doesn't really matter and it's not a big deal, but it's distracting and it's probably not going to make for a pleasant experience. So keeping track of what's going on is really going to help in the long run. The other, I think actually the most important, is lighting. And, you know, 90% of it is really lighting. If you're trying to do something with your overhead lights or in-house lights, it's really not going to help you very much. And what I'm going to do after I go through these quick images is we'll do a demo here, and then we'll also go into Ginny's kitchen and see how she's done it. So staging and framing. This is my friend, I'll call him Larry. So here's what I'm talking about. Larry, I'm proud of him because he's using a microphone, and that's a big step. But you know, I mean, that hinge in the door is killing me, the lights are killing me, there's a big glare. If he had stood away— but he just said, you know, I gotta bang out this video, and I think that that door is going to make a great background. Clearly it's not. So here's where— I was lucky to be able to find a shot like this because if any of you watch news or sort of press releases or things of that nature, this is where you have to start thinking outside of the box and not be so literal. So Larry, the literal wall standard buyer, he really— a lot of times people think I need to be in my kitchen to let people know that I'm a chef and I'm working in the kitchen.— but that's not really the case. You can kind of step just outside of the kitchen, or in this case, what you'll often find if you start paying attention, which you might, is people are standing in the middle of a room or seated in the middle of a room, and what that does is it really gives you the opportunity to light scenes, and I'll show you how that's done. So here's that same scene, and another technique that I like to use is really breaking your image into quadrants. Right? So here you've got a 16:9 image with 6 boxes, and I don't even look at the subject anymore. I don't even care who's in the shot. What I'm looking for is what's in the first box, what's in the middle box. A good test is, will each of these boxes stand on their own as an interesting image or a picture? So you're assembling 6 pictures, essentially. So what's— if you look back at the middle of the room, you can see how far he is from that flag. And what that does is it really gives a nice depth and some really nice distance from that background where they can add some lighting. Here is the lovely and talented— what's her name again? Something Vargas or another. She's very puzzled. But again, looking at this image, forgetting about her altogether, you can see that we've got some flowers in the background. We've got some color texture. On the right-hand wall. It was part of an interview. And what I want to point out is they're just sitting in the middle of a room, which you've never noticed that you've never picked up on that until I just told you. But what it does is it really creates a nice texture for a background. And so that's what I really want people to do in their kitchens as well. Don't stand next to the microwave or the refrigerator, maybe stand away from it a little bit. Here's our lovely friend Giada, similar shot. So now what I like about this particular shot is what is she doing on the couch? So again, not so literal. This is, you know, a casual day at Giada's house. We're just hanging out. It's totally— we're going to make some brunch, having a good time. But there's a nice distance from the background. She's got, you know, those wonderful pillows. She's got, you know, she's got Giada going on there. She's telling a story. That's right. Thank you, Denise. So this is from that same show. And what I like about the way she's got this, you know, this laid out here, and this is something— if you've got an island like this, we in our kitchen don't have the luxury of having a Giada-style kitchen. But what's, what's nice here is if you look at each of those little boxes again, so I'm going to look at the bottom left.. And you've got that nice little placement of that parsley or something, or those, the olive oil and all that stuff. The stove fits in nicely. You know, they don't all have to be a picture, but they're kind of contributing and then not distracting. It's not a light switch. It's not a clock. It's not anything like that. Here's a picture of our kitchen. This is Denise. And, you know, again, we're trying to achieve the same thing. The Actually, let me go back here. I want to go back to Giannis. An important point here. From a lighting point of view, it looks really subtle. And that's really the key. The key to lighting is to try to make things as subtle as you possibly can without letting people know too much. But one of the main things— they have an enormous softbox right in front of that island. I mean, I've seen it. I think it's like 6 feet by 6 feet. It's ridiculously big. And that's what's creating that nice, soft glow we look on her face and the nice shadows on half of her face which give that image depth. But— and then I'm sure there are backlights and all kinds of stuff. As a matter of fact, this is actually— I don't think this is anyone's house. It's probably a set and there are probably lights going through those back windows. We don't have the luxury, so we work with what we've got. And what I, you know, what I like about this already, I can, you know, I've got— I like the fruits on the lower left. I'm not a big fan of that light switch over there on the top. Left, but I can't really do anything about it. You know what, I like pointing out that I probably should have cleaned the— or taken the dishes out of the sink. But, you know, it's okay. We're making some videos here. It's all in good fun. We don't have budgets. And I'll review the lighting here as well, but I just wanted to break that up. Here's another, you know, piece of video. This is just one light. I'm just sitting next to a window. I probably should have put some stuff in the top left-hand corner, but it worked for what it had to do. Here's a video of Darren. He's a pro blogger, and he was experimenting with cameras. And he's a photographer, so he already understands the concept of framing and things of that nature. And again, he's in the middle. It's OK. I mean, he's doing that sort of relationship type of connection, which is more sort of informational and news-based.— but he's got a nice bookshelf back there. I think the only thing that's distracting to me is he probably should have opened the blinds so that we don't see the reflection of the glasses. Glasses are tough. Those are really hard to contend with. And one of the tricks that you do, I can show you, is you just lift the lights up higher and put them pointing down at a 45-degree angle. I want to go through these really quickly. And so This is the founder of Clif. This is at the Clif Bar headquarters. What's cool about this location is they've got bikes hanging from the ceiling, but the reason I wanted to point it out to you is he's really sitting in a hallway. You wouldn't have paid attention to that otherwise, but it's like, okay, we'll just sit you here and we'll have a long hallway that goes away forever. And these are just some concepts and ideas that I want you to look at or think about when you're in your house and where can you stand that might be a little bit more interesting or compelling when you're telling your story. So far so good. Any questions, Chef Dennis? Am I going too fast?

You're going great. We don't have anything on the board yet.

Perfect.

We're 10 minutes in. I don't want this to go all night. I have a tendency to be long-winded. So let's talk about some lights. These are your basic light options. On the right with those tungsten lights, this is a light kit that I got. It's sort of, if you know, if you're serious into production, they're heavy and they're hot. I don't really like to use them. On the far right, this is a light kit that I bought from Amazon that was literally— they're nearly giving these away. When I bought them 2 years ago, they're like $300 for all 3 of those. And you can buy them now for, I think, $150. And you can buy one of them for $80. So before that, you know, I was a big fan of these sort of the Home Depot cans. But what you find once you start piecing these things together, if you start to try to build these things from scratch, is next thing you know you spent $50 to $80 and you spent a bunch of time and you don't have a stand and you don't have all kinds of options like that. So these are just things to consider, and I'm going to focus on using the can and the soft boxes. All right, this is my last slide before I stop talking and get into the demo. So this is our kitchen. This is where we're at. This is from a higher vantage point, and you can see I've got 3 softboxes and where they are. Now, the kitchen— this picture was done during the day, and so we've got a back window there that I'll point out to contend with, and front windows to contend with, but I just want you to kind of look at the light arrangement. This is sort of a 3-point light arrangement, and we will go from there. Let me go back here now. Let's go back. Let's hope it all works. There you go.

I'm back.

All right. So now what I want to do is I want to try to light this scene or light our kitchen. Again, I don't want to go crazy. I don't want to go overboard, but I'm going to bring in the lovely and talented Denise Woodward. She's shocked. I don't think you're surprised. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to kind of set the stage, or I'm going to actually show you principles to look for. So you might not have a light kit, but you have windows. But a lot of times I see people that they'll have the windows behind them, and it'll completely create a silhouette where, I mean, all you have to do is turn and face the window, and you've got, like we saw with Darren, you've got a nice soft light lighting you, and you're not so concerned about the background. But she's Instagramming. She's totally busy right now. Come on, get over here. So, so far so good, everyone? Where are we at? I think I'm nervous, so I'm down to 15 minutes. So here we go.

Here's—

so she is the guinea pig. So these are those— these are the lights I was talking about. So these are— they're You can get this light now for $80, maybe less. Now they're really giving them away. They're daylight corrected. There are 5 bulbs in there. And you can get 3 for $150. Now the only problem with them is where do you store them? They're kind of hard to pack away. So we do have 3 of them. So I'm going to come over here and I'm going to show you how I like to light someone. Why don't you stand over here, Denise? And the other challenge is definitely this camera, uh, the recent change. I'm not gonna make excuses. Anyway, so let's come over here. So one of the things you want to look for when you're lighting a subject— so I've just got one light here, but the concept of the 3-point light kit, right, is you've got what we're using here right now, which is the key light, where it's going to illuminate this side of her face. And then you've got a backlight, which is going to create a sha— basically a sharp line here. And once you actually are aware of that line, anything you watch on television, any show, you'll start to notice there's going to be a lit line around a subject. And then there will be other light, you know, background lights, which, you know, I didn't go too crazy, but we can play around with other lights here and basically try to light the scene. So here we have the key light, which we already know is working. Let me go ahead and play with that. So I'm gonna actually turn it off. You shouldn't be able to see anyone, right? So we like where that key light was, nice and dark.

Now I want to turn on There you go.

You typically wouldn't have the light in your shot.

You typically wouldn't, yeah. Well, we'll move that around later, but we're just kind of getting an idea. So what this light is doing, see, it's kind of illuminating her hair. And are we getting the little, the sharper line here? Not so much. It's a bit light on. Don't want to go too crazy. So there's one, right? And then, you know, you know what the actual problem is? The bigger problem is this camera where it's got the auto iris, and so it's compensating and it's trying to light the entire scene. So I'll show you, I have some, some pictures of if you have, you know, a DSLR or some other camera where you have full control It's amazing, the whole house is— the kitchen is completely lit up. So let me go ahead and—

but this gives you an idea of where to place lights.

It just gives you an idea. So here we've got the key light back on, and I can kind of play with this and try to get some shadows. So in order to get depth, let's get over here. If you put your light at a 45-degree angle coming down. If you have glasses, it'll remove the glare of the whole box in your glasses, but it'll add a nice little specular highlight that, you know, it'll be like a little twinkle in your eye. Twinkle in your eye.

Go ahead, finish. Sing it for us, Larry.

Go ahead. I'm really flying through this. I just gotta relax. I don't know what the big deal is.

Woo-hoo!

So what I want to point out, and unfortunately you can't really see it too much with this particular camera, is I'm looking at the light here, the line here, which you can't see so much, but it's there. I'm looking at her hair being lit. I'm looking at half of her face having a bit of a shadow, and that's going to create some depth. So it makes it a little bit more 3D-ish, as opposed to— and I'll go back to our friend Larry. If you look at Larry, he was completely flat because it was light from all angles. And sometimes what I'll do is maybe add another light.

Emily! Hang in there.

What you call this light? What do I call this light? This is just a fill light. Right. So it might be— sometimes it might be too dramatic or too dark on the other side. Right. So now, I mean, because this— the lens just— the camera just basically said open it all up. And you can see as I come in and out, it changes the lighting. And that's the camera's compensating. So look. So I actually like this one off. But these are the basic principles of lighting. I mean, this could be a window, and you can just— you know, the hard part might be the sort of the backlight. Or your key light would be the window. Yes, the key light this way would act as a window, and that's kind of the shot where I was standing by a window with those microphones. There was no artificial light. That was me just standing by a window at an angle. So I'm liking the way this lighting is looking, but I don't actually like the way that we're framed. And we— you can actually see, and I wanted you to see, it's daylight savings. So unlike vide— unlike photography where you want natural light, when you're in productions like this, you really don't want natural light because you can't control it and you have a short window to which you can shoot. But so you might be shooting a specific scene the breakfast scene might take you all day, and you can't be at the mercy of lighting, or rather of natural light. So I've actually blacked out as much as I can. So I'm not crazy about the actual framing, so I'm going to go ahead and just move these— this box. And this is how we normally do it. Unfortunately, my camera isn't working with the Google+ upgrade. So what I'll do is— Yeah, so now go ahead and— so if you can, Denise, go ahead and stand where we normally stand. So what I'll try to do is I'll try to sort of get rid of those windows and that— and the black. Usually there's a curtain there, but, uh, I left it out just to show that. And so what I'll do is I'll put this— I'll usually have the camera at an angle like this or something, right? The other thing that we have to contend with is that microwave. Sometimes we get a lot of reflection there, but it's okay. You can't have it all. So here we have a typical framing for how we'll shoot something. So like I said, we don't have the luxury of an island that, you know, with the kitchen in the background. So what we'll do is, you know, we just kind of try to do it with, with, with things there. We call that— we don't have an island, we have a peninsula. So But this is the other key too, right? I mean, sort of, this is the framing part. What's in my shot? So I might want that KitchenAid in my shot, but see how I've gone too far? And now I've got that corner with the plug. So we'll move that plug, we'll put the KitchenAid in there and do some better framing there. Maybe there are sponsors. I definitely would get rid of that rag hanging from the, uh, Hanging from the— yep, there you go. Anything else? Everything else dirty? The iPad's got to go. You get the idea, right? Set a stage, get rid of things that don't seem to be adding value, clean it up a little bit, maybe turn on those underlights. Yeah, you know, I've actually— here, let me put this back here. I don't— we don't have a lot of flexibility with these lights. So what I've done in the past was I've taken gels. Here's, you know, here's a blue gel that might give it some color. And you just tape them underneath. Color is kind of nice. It adds a little bit of texture. It's too bright. We'll never know with that, with the, you know, because of this particular camera. But already you can see this doesn't actually look That's bad.

How's that look?

How's that look?

Looks good.

Yeah, so that's quite a bit of a difference. And what have I done? Well, let me turn this light off. And if you only have one softbox— so now we've only got one softbox, and even that looks eons better. So let's turn off all of these lights, and now I'm going to turn on the house lights. So this— so the— this camera again is really compensating quite a bit. It doesn't look horrendous, but it doesn't look all that bad. But it looks yellow. There's no control. You're not— I'll show you an example. You're not going to shoot with this camera, and I'll show you an example with another camera of exactly how bad it looks. And I think we've all been there when, you know, you shoot something, your expectation's really high, and then it just doesn't look like what you expected it to look, and that really has all to do with your lighting. And personally, I think these— I don't like this light. Yeah, then it's a little bit dark, but that's okay because we're focused on the subject. I don't actually like it. I prefer to use these lights. So here we just have that, that key light. And what one of the things that you can do— I was a big— I was a fan of the cams. And the cans are nice, but sometimes I find that they just have— they give off a lot of light that's not really controllable. So for example, let me actually turn this light off. Right, so we've got this big light that is totally bright and it's washing everything out. What I can do is I can take these gels. What you can do is you can put these gels and you have, you know, you're saying, let me see here. I can't see what you're doing. I'll do it again. So what I've done was I've taken, can you see that?

Yep. Whoa!

So I've basically got some clothespins, some gels, and some filters. And I have tried to control the light a little bit. And what you can do with this one— so if you only have one softbox, what you can do with this is you can just clip it to the cabinet, and I'm going to use it as my backlight. Yeah, but then this is a big job. So let me get that out of the way.

Romantic.

Yes, how romantic is that? That's one— it's very romantical. So here we've got the backlight. It's still a little hot. I wonder if you put that— you know, I think that looks pretty good. I mean, I think that it's, you know, the daylight-corrected bulbs are really a lot nicer than the house lights. I mean, that camera was very forgiving by design. Design, but you're not going to shoot anything with that. So let me cut back and— any questions?

No, we're good. Keep up.

I am done with you. Yes. So I'm going to come back here. So let me just change over really quickly and I'll show you with the proper camera how it— Wake up. Come on. There we go. So, here is— this was shot with the 5D, the Canon 5D Mark II, and here we have— you can really see the backlighting where we've got that white edging and her hair is nicely lit there. Turn that off and arrange my key light. And, and then now we've got all three of them on. I've got a fill and I've got those— I think that the, the under the cabinet lights are too strong, but they kind of light up the, the countertop, which, which I think, and I think you'll agree, looks drastically better than— this is the same shot, no lights, just the house lights. So you go from this nasty orange to something that's a little bit more decent and crafted. And I believe that's it there. Yeah, let me go back here. Now if we can go over to— and so no questions?

I just have a question, Lenny. You're using your Canon 5D To shoot the video with?

Uh, no. So this— the Canon 5D is what we use. 5D and a 7D is what we use to shoot stills and editorial pieces. Or stills as well. But just sort of story, you know, for storytelling or for promotional videos, or for work, we'll do customer testimonials. So those are cameras that you'll use for production. You can't use them You can't use the older models as a live camera, so you can't plug those cameras into your computer and get a live video signal out of them. At least you couldn't. Now what we use for a live production such as this is a camcorder or just sort of, you know, any other traditional video camera, and what those give you are audio options, zooming options, and they are on all the time, and they'll send out a full-time HD signal that you can then bring into your computer, kind of like what this camera is doing. What the 5D or the 7D will do is they shut down after 12 minutes. The Mark— the 5D Mark III goes for 30 minutes. I think the 60D will give you sort of an HDMI full-time output The newer cameras are doing that now, but the originals did not. And they're not really live, they're really for storytelling, those cameras. They're not really for live event production. They're completely different animals. It's kind of like a pastry chef and a regular chef. Similar, but not the same. Is that a good analogy? Does that work?

Yeah, so in other words, when you would shoot a video, just a regular old video camera would be fine.

This is the— yeah, exactly. This is where your camcorder actually is still very useful.

Could you use that for Hangouts on Air like this?

Not easily. OK. Yeah, you can't— so not easily and not since the change today. So typically, I actually have a camcorder going, which is a lot more controllable and easy to manage, but that stopped working working today. And I usually have a microphone too, which I'm gonna stick before. And that stopped working as well. So, Miss Jenny, we have, we have Jenny on the Hangout because I think that she's done a great job with what she's done in her kitchen and how she sort of transformed it from, you know, what it might look like now, which I think it looks great as it is. But, but she is But she's done a great job with her Hangouts with lighting and just sort of making sure that her framing is right. So if you want to just, you know, show us what you've done or how you've kind of set up your shots, that would be great.

Or not.

I can't hear her.

Jenny, you're muted.

Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to?

Well, while we're waiting for Jenny, we did have a question. Madeline Moy asked, how do you approach lighting in a very small space?

Not with these big softboxes. Uh, how do you— what would be a small space like?

Well, here's what you would do.

So let's say you have these kids The nice thing about them is you can— you can see them now. Uh, the nice thing is you can hang them from the top of your cabinets. The key is to get them out of the shelf. Don't use bulbs that are crazy, uh, pot or with really high wattage. This one is 120. You'll have probably more success with a light at 60. You have to play around with it and decide where you want to put it. So this, this would make a great backlight. Um, the problem is it's got this huge flare. How do you control that? There's something called Cinema Foil, which is essentially aluminum foil, but it's, it's rated for high temperatures. So what you can do is— I mean, a 60-watt bulb is not high temperature, but a lot of times these lights are 1,000, 2,000 watts, and so things get really, really hot. And what you can do is— I'll turn this on— and so you can just fold it down so that you can start to sculpt and shape the light. So a couple of these some aluminum foil for your 60-watt bulb, and that will help you sort of control things. But keep in mind, it's those 3 principles. You want your key light coming at you at about a 45-degree angle. You want a backlight to separate you from the background. And if you have a bunch of lights, then you can kind of light your background in ways that it also can further separate you.

Sounds good. Alright, Jenny.

Am I back?

You're back.

Sweet! Okay, so when I first started doing this, I owned nothing. The only thing I purchased before I did my first Hangout on Air was one camera and this little microphone that cost $17.17. I was like, you know what, I am not going to spend any more money before I know that this is something I'm going to be doing a lot. So I just brought in all these lamps and I've got a couple of these clamp lights which I think are like $6 or something like that. So I guess what I'll do is just show you how I run around the kitchen and get the room ready. First of all, I'm like way farther away. I zoom in generally, so I'm going to go ahead and do that because that sort of makes you— focus more on what I want you to see. Let me get rid of the lower thirds, Javi, so you can also see the countertop a little bit more. And generally I have the computer, so you can't really see that either. So I think what I'll do is take off this microphone and use the microphone that's just on the external camera and sort of wander around and just get the room ready. Does that sound reasonable?

Yep.

Okay, and hopefully you'll be able to hear me and I'll just tell you what I'm—

So am I still on?

Yeah.

So what's nice about having a camera, well, in that case you guys are using the USB camera, and what's nice about having those small cameras on a tripod is, you know, again, this was supposed to be working, but you have it on a tripod, you can then put it further away. And maybe stand in parts of your kitchen that you otherwise wouldn't think to. Again, kind of in a framing point of view. But so, you know, and she's got the luxury of having that island or that sort of countertop that is directly in front of the sink or some additional workspace, which, which is pretty helpful.

The only issue is I do have the window behind me, so sometimes it can be distracting, like I'm doing it during the day. But I do try and do the whole 3-point lighting principle with what I have. So key light, fill light, and backlight. The backlight is played by this guy.

And then I'm just gonna—

I literally have lamps that I have grabbed from the living room. They're not color corrected or anything, but we'll just see the difference it makes just to turn on these lights. Can you guys hear me okay?

Yep. Yep.

Okay. So this is a sad little fluorescent bulb. It takes a while to actually crank up. So I've got that one on. And now I'm going to have to wander over to the other side without knocking anything over.

So as far as the countertop is concerned, you know, you maybe want to get rid of those dishes.

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. I learned all these things from you, Lenny. I used to think that it was absolutely fine, that my kitchen looked awesome. And then I realized I must put it away.

I don't actually like it. You know, sometimes I'll just see Doritos chips on on top of a refrigerator. It's, but you know, these are just little things.

So what I do, I have a corner of the kitchen that you cannot see, so I just take all of these items.

You can leave them there now.

Okay, we'll leave them so I don't make a horrible mess. And then this guy, I'm gonna take my step stool and use it as my backlight. I don't normally have a step stool in the kitchen.

That's a nice one. It's totally handy.

It doesn't look very good in the shot though, does it?

You know, it's so hard. Like, you'll shoot something and, you know, we— I've shot stuff and I've forgotten that the trash bin was over by the door. You just kind of— you can't stay on top of all of it, but you just have to try, right?

And honestly, it wasn't even on my radar until you said something. So I am much more mindful of these sorts of things now. Okay, so this light, hopefully it's out of the frame at this point. And then now I'm like super aware of light switches because it's all Lenny's fault. So I just take something reasonably decorative that ought to live in a kitchen and just cover the light switch like that. Um, how's it looking so far?

Yeah, looks good.

I normally have the pendant lights on. I'm gonna like climb over the countertop very elegantly and turn on the overhead just because I need that light if I'm working here. I don't have like color-corrected lights, I just have halogen jobbies.

Yep.

And then this guy I use— he's kind of bright. I think he's only 60 watts, but he's kind of bright. And I use him back here behind the black hole of the toaster oven. So I just plug him in. He has 2 layers of paper towel kind of muting that light a little bit.

Yeah, and that's definitely where you want to be somewhat careful. I mean, these, these, you know, 40-watt, 60-watt, even 100-watt bulb is not going to generate a lot of heat, so you can get away with the paper. But it's actually perfect, right? So you can see that there's a huge difference with that corner and how it's nicely lit. And the, the, the backlight that you have at the top, it's just blaring out light. And so that's something that maybe You can use— I mean, you don't need to go get, um, cinema foil, but aluminum foil. You get some clothespins and you kind of hone it in and close it down a little bit so that it's just not blasting light out all over the place.

Right.

And that way you could just focus it specifically on your shoulders and on your hair.

So I still feel like I'm a little far away. I normally feel like for these things I'm closer.

Yeah, maybe turn it a little bit.

Now my head's cut off, but anyway, this is basically what I do, and then I normally have time before we start something to play with the angle and make sure, like if I'm going to do something on the stove, I want to make sure that you can actually see part of the stove, so when I move from one camera to the next it makes sense, you know, that oh, she's going here now, and then I'll have a camera usually set up on like a cereal box or something very expensive like that right here. Focused on whatever I'm cooking.

Light looks great, Jenny.

And this is nothing special. Seriously, there's not like any kind of special bulbs or anything. It's just what just lives in our house. Some of them are bluer lights, and some of them are warmer lights, and it just seems to work.

Turn that light off that you put in the corner. This one? Yeah. I think to me it kind of— I mean, these things are all really subtle, but to me it makes a big difference because now you've got this black hole that's kind of drawing your eyes towards the toaster. But when you kind of light it all up nice and evenly, it's not as distracting. Again, These are all small things, and I think you really want to not focus on overwhelming yourself, right? Because this is yet another skill and another task, but these are the little things that can go a long way. Again, forget the lights, just don't stand next to the wall. That would be your first thing. Lift the camera up to eye level, that's another thing. Those are simple. Create some depth between yourself and the background. Then if you want to go crazy and have a bunch of lights, normally we have a lot more gear here, but thanks to the upgrade, I've got a lot less. The key is to actually do something and not let the process bog you down.

What happened with me, the first time I did it, I just brought in the lights, and the second time I refined it a little bit. I talked to Lenny, he's like, "You know, what about that light switch?" And so now I sort of have this checklist in my head that I go through to make sure, okay, are my light switches taken care of, is the light in the shot or can you not see, I mean, make sure that it's framed reasonably, put away the dishes, like there's a couple of sponges back there that are bugging me because I know they're bugging Lenny.

I was just going to bring that up actually, I was going to tease you. And the drain, you've got it upside down.

So, but anyway, it was overwhelming to begin with, but if you guys have not done these Hangouts before, honestly there's plenty of people who can help you with all aspects of it and none of it is— I mean if you forget one thing it's not like you're not going to have a successful Hangout. So my advice is just go for it.

Just try it. You're better off just jumping in and learning the hard way sometimes and you'll be much better for it.

Exactly. I mean, we were talking about it earlier, and like I said in sort of one of the earlier slides, it's all about making mistakes, and you're going to make endless mistakes, endless. And the checklist is always going to get bigger, but you're still going to make mistakes, and it's okay. Don't let them slow you down or get you— everyone is, everyone makes mistakes, and I think everyone is really supportive. So feel free. I love doing this stuff. I'm more of a behind-the-scenes guy, so doing this, I was definitely a little nervous and maybe going a little bit too fast, but feel free to hit me up anytime. I mean, ask Jenny, I'll do this all day long. I mean, I do. I do it for a living.

Lenny, we had a question about using two cameras. How would you set that up?

Not this way. So how would we set that up? And I've done this in the past, so the issue with Hangouts is people are— I would say people in the food community, I don't really see too many others, but people in the food community are really, I think, pushing the envelope in that I was shocked that you guys had 2 USB cameras and you're switching by going to the settings thing. And I mean, I've got it here, and that's how I got my iPad in. You need some switching software. Or hardware. Now I've done it with hardware where you hook up two cameras into a little switcher and you just go back and forth, or you know, you get 3 or 4 or 5 cameras. But that's a whole other level of production that I'd be psyched to get into, but I'm sure a lot of people will just not be interested. But if that's a— I would love to do that, to answer your question, how to put another camera into this. How to switch cameras, how to just really go nuts. And that could be the next incarnation of this talk.

Lenny, that's something that we've asked for a long, long time, is some kind of a switcher that wasn't going to cost a fortune. Because the software that's available now really doesn't seem to work real, real well or all the time. And every switching box that we found has been just way too expensive. So we need something, we need something designed to make it easier or something made like a switching box that isn't going to cost too much.

So there is a product called Wirecast by a company called Telestream, and Wirecast makes a really cool piece of switching software. Now it's $500, so right there it's $500 to get in there. I have it because I use it for a living. It works great. I do a lot of live, you know, CEO events with it. There are other boxes that are even more money, but I'm finding that Wirecast is working quite well. The issue is Google+ is not really designed— they don't have that in mind. They just have low common denominator, how do I get a webcam? To work easy and fast. I'm sure the majority of people who do Hangouts aren't even familiar with that gear, that settings gear.

You're right about that.

That's really it. So like I said, I was kind of psyched, I was like, I can't believe these folks are switching USB cameras like that.

Why are you switching?

Wirecast will do it, but it crashes, and I wanted to do it today, but I mean, hours into it and I still couldn't get it going.

Well, I think it depends on what type of event you're doing. I mean, when I teach my classes, I only use one computer and those people don't mind me switching back and forth or reaching over and doing the gearbox and coming in. But when I do other ones, I'll just hook up two computers and use two of the Hangout slots. And Madeline Moy just asked, "Can't you just use two of your windows for that?" So I have two different computers running two different cameras and then two different angles on it.

Well, think about how much that solution costs. Yeah. That's $2,000 to $4,000 right there.

Well, not nowadays with computers, no.

Yeah, sure, right, but if you've got two MacBooks, there's $4,000. Right.

Yeah, well, we buy PCs, they're $300, $400, okay.

Get yourself a bunch of netbooks for $300 and there's your studio.

But I mean, I have two just because one will crash. Anything that can happen will happen, so I have two set up.

Yeah, and you know, I like amateur. I prefer this. I think there's a connection that you can make with people with this quality of production that you don't make with the really highly polished stuff. I mean, that stuff is great and, you know, it's fine, but this is raw, and I much prefer raw type of productions. But, you know, push it. I like, you know, I like pushing it as much as I can. And like I said, Dennis, I mean, if there's a round 2 of this thing where people really want to get, get down and dirty and try to make things work, I'd love to do that.

Absolutely. Absolutely. We will, we will be doing more, possibly. We had talked about our virtual conference will be coming up in July. I haven't announced that yet, but very likely will be able to do something for that.

I think you just did.

I know, I just did.

The examples of— I already did. I already did. Yeah, she was just— Denise was asking me if I was going to show the examples of the 3-point lighting with a much more controllable camera. So just, you know, ask yourself this question: where is the light, and where am I in proportion to that light, or in relation to that light? Is it behind me? Is it over my head? You know, if you can stand by a window at this angle, then you'll probably light yourself pretty well.

I guess completely overhead lighting is not a good source, is it? If that's your only source.

And if you want to be in the witness protection program and kind of create those crazy shadows up above you. Or, you know, underneath it. You know, a lot of times you'll have someone at a podium at a conference and then the lighting somehow was either only above them, so they've got crazy dark eyes.

Raccoon eyes. Yeah. Okay, well, that's great. You've given us a lot of information in a short period of time, and Jenny showed us how it works and how your, your tips have helped her a lot. And I know her videos have come a long way. I remember when we first started this thing back in December, it was that we were just all kind of crazed, but the only way to really learn is to go in and try it and to make the mistakes and just to correct them as you go. And now we have people like you that are able to help us and point us in a better direction.

Thank you. You know, I love to go back and look at my old stuff and see how terrible it was, and that might be last week.

Well, we're always improving. That's the important thing. That's it. So actually, I don't have any other questions up here. If you have anything else you'd like to cover, I think we're doing good. I mean, it was great. Jenny, anything you want to add in?

I don't think so. That pretty much covers it. I just again want to encourage people to use what you have before you go out and spend a bunch of money because Hangouts on Air are wonderful. It's a great way to reach your audience and to get your word out there, but it's also maybe not for everyone necessarily. So I would advise maybe not go in whole hog. Use your lights that you have in your house, see how it goes, but don't not try it.

Right. I mean, we've had people do them even with just the cameras on their laptops. And granted, it may not be the best way to do it. But if that's what you want to do to give it a try, I mean, you know, I would suggest doing that rather than not doing it at all. And then seeing how it comes out and then going back and deciding whether you want to get a camera. And they aren't that expensive. And, you know, in getting a webcam, if you're going to get a webcam, I mean, the difference in price if you go for something that might be $40 or $60 to $75 or $80, there is a drastic difference in the quality. So, I mean, bite the bullet on that extra $40 and just get the one that's $80. And we're using Logitech 920s or 910s. I don't think you can get 910s very much anymore, but the 920 is an excellent, an excellent camera. And if you're using Apple, you just need a little piece of software you get from the Apple Store to make it work.

I think your camera looks great. I mean, granted, you're kind of static, but I mean, we're all kind of static at this point. But the resolution that you've got, and even the way you're lit, you know, you've got just that eco light off to the side, but like I said, you've got the shadows on one side of your face that kind of add some depth. I think it looks great.

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, they really do a nice job. It's amazing. You can get them on Amazon. Sometimes they're on sale for $72.

Right.

It's really not a bad investment if you're gonna do these, and I think you should. We're gonna be doing some other events on just videos too, because, you know, YouTube videos is a great way to bring more people to your blog if you're a food blogger or any kind of a blogger. You know, just having those videos on your on your blog will draw more and more people in. So it's something that I think is the next wave of where we're gonna go with, with our craft. So, you know, this is something you might want to get into and think about.

No, you're blazing the trail, so like to see it. Yep.

All right. Okay, Madeline asked about the USB cameras and microphones. The USB camera we mentioned was the Logitech. Microphones, I know a lot of people talk about the The Snowballs, Lenny, do you have any preference? I can't remember the name of them. They're those big round— I'm trying to think of the name of them.

Oh, for a microphone?

Yes. Like the Blue Yeti or anything like that?

There you go, yeah, the Blue Yeti. Yeah.

So I think that those are quite good. How much are those, do you know?

They go for around $100 to $200 depending upon what kind you get. Actually, I've used the microphone on my Logitech most of the time, like if I'm just doing something and I don't have a headset on, and that sounds pretty good for the most part.

I think I'm actually not allowed to buy myself any more gear. And to Ginny's point, you don't really— don't go crazy on your microphone. I think that I'll put a link, I'll put some— hit me up and I'll put some options together. You can get a decent enough microphone that isn't necessarily USB but it's a mini for $30. There you go. The one Jenny has is— that's a mini one, isn't it, Jenny?

Mm-hmm, yeah.

USB ones are cool, but then you're stuck with USB, right? If you have one that's mini, then you could hook it up to a camera, so it's a little bit more versatile. I don't think I'd shell out $200 for a USB microphone though. It's only going to be marginally better.

I've heard people do sound tests using like a cheap and a middle and then like the top of the line, and honestly, for just something like we're doing here, I don't really see the reason to spend the extra money. I mean, it would be great, I guess, if you want this full resonant sound because you have Yo-Yo Ma in the studio with you, you know what I mean? But just for this, I don't really see the reason for it.

Yeah, $30, I think below $30 then you're just taking chances and that might be okay.

$17 and I bought 2 of them.

Is that what you paid?

Yeah.

I think I told you which one to get and they sound great.

Yeah, I mean $17 and I bought an extra one so in case this one like gets eaten by a cat or something, I've got a backup.

There you go.

And you know, I have a— I personally like to outgrow gear, whether it be a bike or snowboard or microphone or camera. So, you know, $70, and it's not gonna break the bank.

All right. Well, very good. Thank you so much for everything. We're— I guess we're going to wrap it up. We don't have any other questions out there. And this is Chef Dennis Littley with the community of community series on— community education series, there you go, I'll get it out sometime today. Community education series and my guest tonight was Lenny Ferrera and he helped us learn how to do video productions and Jenny Field and she showed us from her kitchen how she did them. So thank you very much for coming and we're back on schedule now, we'll have another event next Tuesday so I hope to see you then.