How to film and edit a food video

Today I am going to work on the Amsterdam part 2 video. I thought it would be nice to share my video creating process with you. Since I have learned some new things this half year.
These are my 8 steps of creating a video:

1. Video idea

Usually I know a restaurant I want to film at. Sometimes I have been to the restaurant and know the food is delicious. Sometimes I don’t know the food, but Google reviews are raging about the food. Sometimes Lazy Penguin suggests a restaurant. But the idea is usually: show the delicious food of the restaurant and Lazy Penguin will give a review.

I usually just need a topic to film about. I don’t really think about the structure of the movie, that usually comes when I edit the video. This might not be good, but this way I can solve problems in a creative way. Or just fail and I will know what NOT to do the next time. My motto is: Don’t think too much, just do it. Something good will come out of it, because that’s creativity. No rules, just play and try.

Don't think just do

2. Film day

The restaurant videos take about half a day to film. We film an introduction in the city, because I want to show a bit about the city the restaurant is in. I film the surroundings of the restaurant and the interior. I always ask for permission to film. Usually restaurants owners are okay with it, because it’s also free publicity for them. We order the food and we film every dish. Not every dish will be shown in the final video, because it can slow down the pace of the video.

filming a foodventure

We use these tools to film: Sony RX100 IV (camera), Zoom H1n + lavalier (sound) and a mono pod. I usually use my hands instead of the monopod, because hands are more flexible. (The Amazon links are affiliated; I will get money if you buy via the link.)

3. Naming footage

After filming I have tons of videos and sound files. I export everything to my computer and watch and listen every file. I give them a name and add a [T] for talking, [Z] for zoom-in shots. I keep the original code in the front, so I have the exact order of filming. For example: C0127_[TZ]-eathundun.MP4, which means this file has Talking about hundun and also Zoom in shots of hundun. Not useful videos go in the ‘meh’ folder. It’s important to be critical. I use about 10% of what I film.naming videos in File explorerI only recently started using Premiere to edit the videos, before I edited everything in After Effects, but this was a staircase of layers. In Premiere I order the files in bins (folders) and then I start the editing process.

4. Matching sound with video

I will pick and cut the talking part to create a rough version of the story. While I am editing, I will also match the sound of the lavalier to the video. In Premiere it’s very easy to synchronize the sound to the video. If you have both files under each other, click right mouse button and pick synchronize sound. Choose the main video as base and voila! In the past I would zoom in to a frame to match the sound manually. This feature saved me a lot of time.

synchronize sound

5. Music & sound effects

I think a video is well-edited when the video cuts dance on the beat of the music. So when there is a beat, you cut to a new shot. It feels right for the watcher. Picking music is the hardest. Which song fits the restaurant or the feeling I want to portray? On YouTube.com/Audiolibrary you can find a lot of free songs. The YouTube audiolibrary also has sound effects. I add sound effects for popping in words and swooshing (switching) scenes.

6. Adding B-roll

B-roll is pretty video shots without talking. Mainly visual entertainment, so you don’t have to watch a whole video of Lazy Penguin talking. I add in food shots, shots of the city, shots of dancing etc. I also try to cut the shots on the beat of the music. When Lazy Penguin is talking, I turn the volume of the music down. When there are only pretty video shots, I turn up the volume of the music.

Premiere editing workspace

7. Adding effects

The last editing step is adding words and funny animation over the video. You can drag the Premiere file from File Explorer to the After Effects Project area. Then you can choose the video sequence and you will have the Premiere video in After Effects. Now a link is created between the Premiere video in After Effects. When you are not satisfied about a cut, you can go back in Premiere and change the cut. The Premiere video in After Effects will automatically update itself. Here is a video explaining the dynamic link.

Animations are drawn in Illustrator and animated in After Effects. I always try to choose a typeface that fit the atmosphere of the restaurant; cool, hip, fancy, barok, simple etc.

8. Posting the video

Don’t think the video is done after editing the video. Now people need to see the video. I post the video on Facebook and YouTube. I will also make a preview video for Instagram and write a blog story for the video. The video on Facebook and on YouTube have a different ending. In YouTube I add space for other videos to watch and a subscribe button. In Facebook I end the video by mentioning the website and the Lazy Pig Passion channel on YouTube.

For even better Facebook video experience I add subtitles to the video. In YouTube you can add automatic generated subtitles to the video. I will adjust these a bit and then export a .srt (subtitle) file and use this for Facebook. Then the video is done. Up to the next project.


Pfew, this was a long post. I hope you could learn something from it. I am going to edit the Amsterdam video now. See you in the next post! 🙂

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