Most nights I feel like I’m eating at a Michelin-rated restaurant.
During the past year, my wife has been testing new recipes and the results are both stunningly beautiful and delicious.
This got me thinking on how similar two seemingly different crafts, cooking and filmmaking, really are.
Sometimes tackling a complete video production as a 1 Person Crew feels like running a restaurant by yourself. Possible, but borderline insane.
But the key question you should be asking yourself is “WHY am I doing this?”
THE DIFFERENCES
If you have a restaurant serving multiple “sittings” each night, and striving to offer safe food, prompt service and an overall good customer experience, you most likely need a team of people working with you. Most likely you’ll also have a huge overhead and anxious investors expecting to see great reviews and even greater profits.
But what if your goal isn’t running a restaurant, but to improve your cooking skills, eat healthier, prepare dishes that are hard to get by where you live and/or simply have a relaxing time with your family or friends? Then you don’t need a commercial kitchen or a team to cook. You can do this alone.
I truly enjoy working “lean and mean” on short projects, learn as much as possible, and apply those new skills to the next project.
Working as a 1 Person Crew offers several advantages, including more intimate conversations with your subjects, the ability to work extremely fast, and forcing you to prepare well in advance, as more often than not, there are no opportunities for retakes (or blaming anybody else for the screw ups!).
THE SIMILARITIES
Seeing how much time and effort it takes my wife to prepare even a simple meal that will be consumed in a short period of time is mind-blowing. And that’s not including cleaning the mess afterwards!
My wife needs time to find the right recipe and buy fresh, seasonal ingredients at a fair price.
I need time to write the script and shot list, determine a “look and feel” for the project, and test my gear.
She needs enough time to marinate the dish and to actually enjoy the prepping time.
(Lounge music and wine work great, by the way).
I need to allocate enough time to scout locations, get permits, props and go over any logistical challenges.
She needs plenty of time to cook, which often requires following many steps in a specific order and having the right temperature and amounts.
I need cameras, lenses, lights, microphones, monopods, and some sort of plan, or recipe, so I have enough footage to work with in post.
MY VIDEO GEAR
Amazon
The finished meal is often enjoyed by others within minutes or sometimes even seconds.
After days and days of prepping, location scouting, shooting and editing, and running like a madman, I might have a 2-minute video that most people won’t watch until the end.
So, unless someone is really into cooking or filmmaking, few realize how much time and work is behind each meal or video production.
The funny/sad thing is that, as a cook, you don’t have time to get attached to the finished product. Whether a dish is uneatable or it’s an art piece, you have to start from scratch the next day. Same goes with filmmaking. We can’t spend 10 years making sure our video is “perfect” before getting it out!
Final Thoughts
The best dishes are the ones tested and improved over time. The only way we can master any technique is to consistently practice and do our best to improve ourselves at every new opportunity.
Salud!