How to make Pancakes

In general there a variety of recipes online and how to videos with mostly the same ingredients but slightly different proportions.

Ingredients (subject to change)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter,melted

Directions/Storyboard:

1. Take a large bowl and measure and pour the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then mix.(dry ingredients)

2. Add milk, butter and egg and stir until smooth(wet ingredients) (do not over mix as pancakes will be quite tough)

3. Heat a frying pan at medium high heat

4. Pour approximately 1.4 cup of batter for each pancake into the pan

5. Wait until the pancakes start turning brown and small bubbles form then take a spatula and flip the pancake over

6. Once the pancake turns brown then check both sides then angle your pan so the pancakes can slide onto the plate.

7. Serve on a plate and enjoy !

question: Can I use splicing in the beginning like stop motion to show ingredient?

Some takeaways:

I should not assume anything when it comes to cooking also even a slight variation can deteriorate the taste

Also baking soda and baking powder are NOT the same thing and I should definitely use baking powder next time for this recipe

There was not much problem actually doing the task as I had previous experience of creating the batter. After getting the ingredients, I started making the batter and realized as I was taking pictures what angles were more appealing. I think the types of angles that are suitable for food pictures or videos are definitely different and capturing the texture of the food is important. Although being experienced in making them, I need to refine some parts of the process such as trying to zoom in more and doing some more side views. Cooking wise, I do need to practice more on using less batter when cooking the pancakes.

Doing the task is not difficult but making this quickly and have the actions go smoothly is different.

Studio lecture/ video examples 10/18

10/23 First crit on storyboarding

Lecture/crit notes on storyboarding

Brainstorming

• try bird’s eye view like tasty video
• try different angles
• show ingredients all in beginning then put them in
• show ingredient then pour ingredient then pour

Then I thought maybe I should different recipe

Referring back to the crit the focus should be on making a simple, straightforward video. Therefore I thought maybe less ingredients would be better. So I searched and watched more videos on three ingredient pancake recipes.

Ingredients:

• banana
• 2tbsp of flour
• one egg

But according to the comments and fellow classmates it is easy to make but does not taste very good.

Shooting for the first time

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/162760/fluffy-pancakes/

I wanted to be the one solely filming this time because when making it and having someone else take the pictures they were not at certain angles i wanted. Therefore for the shooting I filmed while I had my friend experienced make the pancakes.

Because he is experienced he knew an alternative to using baking powder as I did not have baking powder in handa nd knew the instructions

Video exploration

Because the batter was made for more than one every time we cooked a pancake I tried different angles so I created a video with variations of the cooking part.

Class crit on videos

People generally from each group shot their video.

2nd draft

Change of location

I realized that for my first draft the lighting was kind of dim so i decided to film in studio where there is a long table and a white background which eliminates any sort of distractions in the background

What I realized while filming

I was only set on focusing on the lighting and did not realize how lud it was in studio even when there were a couple people inside. .Additionally, along with better lighting the shadows appeared to be to harsh.

Problems: focused too much on the cinematography aspect and not much on the instructional part as many of the ingredients used or the amount was not clear.

Therefore, over the weekend I focused on mainly filming the beginning part where I measure and mix the ingredients. I feel like for now it is important on clarifying the steps first before focusing on the quality of the shots.

Things to consider

• shoot at certain angles, 3 primary
• can get closer at some parts
• indicate how hot it needs to heat up in video hand covers it
• can cut down the angles a lot
• camera change closeup by manual and on lense
• Side angle when cooking is good
• clean pan and use a measuring spoon.
• make sure mixing is not too vigorous
• do not zoom in and zoom out too much for vid
• keep angles and how long mixing not for cinematagraphy to communicate what is necessary to inform reader
• only zoom in to check consistency

Revisions to make

• maybe eliminate bird’s eye view
• transitions too awkward
• milk and flour get diff measuring cup?
• even missing do from side view
• maybe separate wet and dry

Crit Feedback:

During class we got into groups and critiqued other people’s how to videos.

Things to fix:

• get new measuring cups hard to tell measurements, get same measurement cups
• transition of white to brown confusing for measuring cups and use the same one. The white too focused on the fact it is a heart shape and the brown is easier to see ingredients. Should not zoom in too much as it is unclear what ingredient is used on scene without the ingredient in the back so make the sequence more consistent.
• Maybe indicate how much time passed like a time

Set angles:

1. ingredients put it on the side
2. bird’s eye view for mixing
3. close up of mixing so side/high angle

3rd draft for video

New recipe for clear simple measurements

Easy Pancakes Recipe

The day before I went to get new measuring cups that were black so it is easier to see the ingredients and the label is a different color so it is easier/

I had made some revisions based on the feedback I got from the previous crit. The main things is I reduced the number of angles and kept the same angle when putting in the dry ingredients.

When actually filming I tried to angle the spoon so it is easier to read the measurements but it was hard to look at the screen while pouring at the same time as I was doing this alone.

Problems: Because I added new transitions and since the process is way over a minute I am worried about keeping it at a minute while being informative.

Feedback from third draft

Final Draft

For the final shooting I kept the same location by making the batter at Donner and cooking in Mcgill. But, i filmed at a different time, which was right after class as around 2–4 when there were less people at my filming location.

Things I have changed:

Recipe:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

I used vegetable oil instead of butter, primarily because I was under a time crunch.