A project that I worked on a couple of years came up in conversation this week and that got me thinking about the scope of the project and all that we accomplished in the 2 years that we worked on it. The project consisted of producing and launching weekly videos for a chef’s YouTube channel. Sounds pretty straight forward when I type it out, but in reality, the scope of the project was absolutely enormous as I handled all aspects of production plus all of the social media content, marketing, and website design for this project as well. It takes a lot of organization, commitment, and hard work to get a new video and all of the peripherals ready to launch every single week.
The look and feel of the series evolved over the course of 2 years as I played with the lighting and the camera angles (and number of cameras) constantly until I finally arrived at a look that I was very happy with. I wanted this set to look GOOD and I feel that the look that we achieved was one of the best from this genre. For those of you out there that care about such things, I’ve been really really happy with the lighting products from Intellytech. They are making some incredible lights- that have fantastic build quality compared to the rest that I’ve tried and the Kelvin temperature is very accurate and consistent between their different products. The quality of light that they put out is very pleasing and their customer service is some of the best I have ever experienced. I put a 2k LED through a diffusion panel with honeycomb for the key and then filled with another daylight balanced 1x1. I used another 1x1 dialed down for a key on the action shots and then 2 more 1x1s for a little background love. And then for acquisition, the final schematic consisted of a 4 camera setup, which meant we had a lot of data to sort through for every edit and that also meant we needed a lot of storage.
Chef Clayton Chapman on set in the Desoto Hill Studio video production studio in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, which is just a few miles north of Omaha.
There were Lots of logistics to work through for every video release. In addition to the typical things like creating a custom thumbnail, crafting the best title, and preparing show notes, we also created a blog post, social media posts, and misc other copy and assets for every episode. Most of the episodes featured the chef preparing his favorite dishes in front of the camera. We brainstormed on the best ways to film the dishes on a weekly basis, as well as developed a content calendar for releasing seasonally-relevant dishes. This Shake and Bake chicken recipe is one of my favorites and continues to get a lot of views on the channel. We did a still photography shoot for almost every dish that the chef created so that we had a custom thumbnail that was consistent with the brand we created.
Screen shot of Chef Clayton Chapman’s YouTube channel that we produced. Most of the episodes featured the chef preparing his favorite dishes in our studio, but we also produced a variety of content out in the field at ranches, farms, lodges, and on the road.
Most of the videos were produced in my studio in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, but we also did some traveling around Nebraska to film at ranches and visit with some of the producers that the chef sourced his ingredients from. While it’s always a little easier to shoot in the studio, I thrive on traveling and finding solutions to creative problems out in the field. And working on farms, ranches, and remote landscapes brings me a lot of joy, so I feel very blessed whenever I get to work on these types of shoots.
Working with the infamous Dan Morgan of Morgan Ranch, one of the best producers of Wagyu beef in the world. Their ranch consists of over 5000 acres in the Sandhills of Nebraska.
An environmental portrait of Chef Clayton Chapman on location near Valentine, Nebraska.
Working on an episode about pheasant hunting and recipes in the Rainwater Basin region of southern Nebraska. A lot of this footage ended up being used in a short film for Midwest Food Stories, but we also produced a couple of episodes for his channel on this trip.
On one trip out to western Nebraska, we had a few different shoots lined up with different producers and we were expecting gorgeous fall weather. The weather turned, the temperature dropped, and we got a good amount of snow on the ground. I pitched the idea of changing up some of the planned dishes to better reflect cooking over an open fire in cooler temps and these turned out to be some of my favorite episodes. We did manage to do some walleye fishing before the snow hit, but that was a crazy cold day on the water. We made episodes for beer-battered walleye, biscuits and gravy, and chili. So, add a couple of weather-appropriate cocktails and some super fun side by side runs in the snow and absolutely nothing to complain about! Here’s the teaser we produced for that trip…before the snow hit!
Walleye fishing on the Merritt Reservoir near Valentine, Nebraska.
Devil’s Gap battered walleye for an episode of Chef Clayton Chapman’s channel.
In addition to handling all of the production for this series, we also handled all of the marketing and social media for the brand. As episodes were launched each week, we also created custom posts tailored to each social media channel. We created successful contests, marketing campaigns, and also a simple, straightforward, and easy to navigate website for the brand. And, of course, all of the photography and video for all platforms.
While it’s always a hoot reading what all of the haters have to say, it’s way more enjoyable to read comments from folks who love the work that we produced. Here’s a couple of my favorite comments from the channel:
“I’ve watched all of your videos but this is my first comment. The production and quality of your show is superb. The crew you have are doing incredible work. I’m proud to have you and the grey plume in Omaha, to represent us beautifully. I can’t wait for my next birthday to celebrate at your restaurant. Keep up the fabulous content, I can’t wait to see where this channel will go!”
“Wow! Amazing content! Bingeing now!”
And then to keep things balanced, here’s my favorite comment from a hater (perfect name for a hater too). I guess you need to watch those enunciations!!!
“You enunciated “aioli” incorrect. You’re a chef?”
And to kind of give you an idea on where we started, here is the channel teaser that we produced about 3 years ago. We filmed the first few episodes in my kitchen while we were renovating the new studio. All of the footage in this teaser was captured all over the state of Nebraska during multiple filming trips with Clayton. The episode thumbnail features the very first day that we filmed in my new studio.
All in all, this was a very complex and challenging project that required a constant evolution of thinking and implementation of ideas. It required building a solid, repeatable workflow and a team to implement that process. I would definitely welcome a similar project in the future as this one checked all of the boxes. It required constant attention to detail, managing a team to produce the expected results on time, and it required producing beautiful results consistently. If you have an idea for a web series, documentary film, or YouTube channel, hit me up and we can chat ideas and logistics.