Research
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For the research element to the process of producing my lifestyle show, I researched into similar shows with known and successful presenters in order to get a deeper insight into what it takes to present a cooking show. One of the chefs included Lorraine Pascale, not only because she is a female but also her cooking style is one which interests and inspires me. From watching her present the shows and cooking different dishes I can see the experience she has gained over the years which shows through her food always turning out brilliant every time. This was helpful in many ways than one. Firstly, I was able to understand the relationship a cooking show presenter has with their audience and how this may or may not impact on their reactions. This taught me that as a cooking show presenter your mode of address to your audience must be clear and engaging in order to capture their full attention.
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Another presenter I researched into was chef Gordon Ramsay. His experience and style also caught my attention, and as I am familiar with his show 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' broadcast on Channel 4, I know from watching him, he is a good chef to get inspiration and ideas from. His mode of address to his audience is what I found most interesting, and more specifically his verbal techniques and choice of language. Although there are times where he may use profanity carelessly, I still feel like this is the key to his effectiveness in the kitchen and delivering the best presentation in his presenter role. He also frequently uses hand gestures to illustrate what he wants you to know, this is also another strength to his way of presenting his shows. I will take away his style of presentation in terms of his communication as well as his desire to get the best results possible. Watching him was very useful to me in understanding that confidence is vital when presenting a cooking show and communication is also vital.
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Moving on to the difficulties that I encountered during the pre-production period. Firstly, one difficulty was deciding what to actually make for the cooking show. Although, I knew by then that I wanted to bake something as I find it more exciting than regular cooking, I still found it hard to decide on a food to make. Nevertheless this didn't take up much of my time and I decided on making something middle eastern and went for a Palestinian dessert called Kunafa which I have eaten before and found to be very delicious. Once I'd settled on this idea, I then begun my rehearsals starting in school first, where I filmed in a classroom. I didn't have the ingredients for this rehearsal, but knew the cooking instructions well so I used tools that I could find and improvised on what I could potentially say in the final show.
At this point I was also completing my pre-production documents including the shooting script and location recce. These at the time of completing them were different as the dish I had in mind was different, this was a middle eastern dessert called Kunafa. I thought that as I've previously tried the dish and enjoyed it , I would find it quite interesting to have a go at. However, as I found the actual filming of the show difficult I decided to change my idea to something which was still simple and engaging to the viewers watching. Further, after thought I decided that I will make chocolate brownies because they are fun and exciting to make and eat, I also, knew that my target audience being the same as before would enjoy it just as much as the kunafa, as they're both sweet desserts. My next steps from there were to do a rehearsal (once was enough as I've made the dessert in the past) just to see how I am going to be introducing the show and speaking throughout etc. Once the rehearsal was done I was confident that I can begin filming, which I did the following week. This time the filming process ran much more smoothly and efficiently and I was able to act on all the mistakes I'd made previously during filming rehearsals.
Additionally, the editing process here went quickly and I didn't have to re-shoot any shots that were not fitting in right with the editing and framing. This was a bonus because it meant that I could get on with the editing of the shots, playing around with different sounds and music to include without having to worry about re-shooting anything. However, I think that sound plays an important part of most productions, and in my cooking show the music used which was a Christmas song by Justin Beiber wasn't the most suitable. I definitely could have improve upon that, putting in a song which suited the feel and atmosphere of the show. Although, there were not many editing techniques used, I don't think it takes anything away from the show, it was also very tricky to get the camera around my kitchen (which is ridiculously small).
