The CakeWalkVodcast Pilot Arrives!
Well, finally it has happened – the CakeWalkVodcast Pilot is finished!
It was filmed back in November (as you will be able to tell from my Movember Moustache) and there is no reason why it should have taken so long to put together.
No reason, that is, except the complexity of life and editing itself. Hey ho. This is why the Spekti Vidjablowg has suffered a bit this past week, but I consider it a sacrifice worth making – my regular rambles will be back up asap.
I am still not entirely happy with the finished product, even accepting the normal trial-and-error nature of a pilot.
I could say I ran out of time with it, but it is more accurate to say I ran out of patience.
Anyway, here it is, for better or worse- CakeWalkVodcast: Mulled Wine Cake!
Okay- feedback lines now open!
Very eager to hear your views- here are some of my reflections on it.
Perhaps a little bit of background about the filming of this may well help explain some of the following- first, on the day we had planned to be walking (with a friend who is a dedicated chocolate enthusiast and contributor to the Fat Chick’s Guide to Real Food on tumblr (which you can find here: http://fatchicksguide.tumblr.com/) it was grey and raining heavily, despite mild weather predictions. There was no way we could either take the camera or have a nice time, so it was off.
We had to wait a little more than a week before another window came up, and we took it, but this time without a ‘guest’- fate graced us with an absolutely gorgeous winter afternoon, but it was still very chilly and getting dark and at the end we more or less wanted to get home.
There are positives and negatives in the final product, so…
Things That Need Improving
- It is FAR too long – I think at most it should be 20 minutes long, 10 minutes for the cake, 10 mins for the walk
- There is far too much waffling in the cooking stage- its fun to throw in a bit of banter, but too much waiting makes it drag on
- The title sequence is okay, but not really inventive or engaging enough, IMO
- The position of the camera is wrong because my body blocks the food – it should be placed with the food between the camera and presenter
- The sound varies wildly, both in and out. Inside I kept on having to move the mic, and my own position relative to it, for different shots, and outside I forgot to turn the external mic on when we were discussing the cake, hence the subtitles. Talking of which…
- There’s not enough discussion on the cake – its flavour, texture, keeping power, etc. were very lightly touched on, and people will want to know! (I hope)
Things to Add
- An recipe – of course we do go through the ingredients, and we can continue doing what we did for this one and include a .pdf file of the recipe on the notes, but having a few seconds of it on-screen would be useful for people watching.
- A map of the walk – the idea was always to encourage people to try walks for themselves and see a bit of the area. Since this walk was fairly close to our house it was perhaps a good thing not to include it for privacy
- A ’round up’ at the end – this I feel is the biggest omission; there was no discussion at all about the walk and and a ‘goodbye’, which would have rounded things up nicely
Things I Like and Want to Keep:
- The theme tune
- The logo – this very cute thing was designed by Britta, but I think it need tidied up a bit more for computer use
- The ‘stings’ and associated animations
- The banter on the walk
- The background music (but vary it a bit)
- The judging cards (but filmed better so you can actually see the numbers properly)
So the question is, what next?
Well, we will need some feedback from those who have been kind enough to show their support so far.
Also there will be a matter of discussion with Miss Britta- despite being (I think) a charming and talented presenter she is not comfortable in front of the camera and so doing she may not want to do what she did for this one again.
All in all it will probably be another month at least before the CakeWalkVodcast really gets on its feet. When it does, there is the question of regularity. We will need to arrange walks (and people to do them with) quite a way in advance and, when it comes to putting it together, although the baking part of the Vodcast will be fairly controllable the amount and quality of the footage from the walk will always vary, which makes editing time consuming.
Given these and other logistical constraints at most it would have to be a fortnightly ‘broadcast’…unless we got paid for it, of course. Here’s hoping!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Bye!
– Spekti Jim
SpektiJim 