Actve Cooking

Step 1: Decide the recipe you want to share with everyone.

Step 2: Choose a device (mobile phone, digital camera, tablet, handy cam etc) to shoot your cooking video.

Step 3: Write down all the ingredients with measurements to be used in the recipe. It’s alright if you don’t know the exact measurements. For e.g one big tomato and two medium sized onions or two big spoons of oil or two small cups of grated paneer

Step 4: Keep all the ingredients removed in bowls with utensils to be used in cooking ready, to avoid waste of time while cooking. If the recipe involves grinding, kneading, steaming etc you can keep it ready in advance and show it while you are shooting the recipe

Step 5: Introduce yourself and the dish you are cooking in the start of the video. Make sure you are loud and audible at all times. Avoid shooting in front of a window with bright sunlight streaming in - this will cause silhouetting and we will be unable to see your face.

Step 6: Announce all the ingredients with measurements to be used in recipe & focus the camera on ingredients.

Step 7:  Explain to us on why you chose this dish, keep talking/explaining about each activity you are doing while cooking.

Step 8: Mention the steps that one needs to follow for each cooking activity in as much detail as possible. 

Step 9: Share tips you have regarding the recipe you are cooking. E.g: Add corn flour to make the mixture thick. If you do not have corn flour at home you can also use maida.

Step 10: Serve the final dish in a serving plate & end the video stating what you have cooked in front of the camera.

1. While shooting it's tempting to turn the phone but ensure that you shoot the video in a landscape or horizontal frame only where the width of the video should be more than the height.
   
   
   
   
2. Nothing makes food look more delicious than the natural light, so cook & shoot the video in the day time but at the same time you should also switch on all the lights in your kitchen.
   
3. Rehearse couple of times in front of a mirror or in front of another person introducing yourself, the name and speciality of the recipe you are going to cook, ingredient list of the recipe till you feel comfortable facing the camera.
   
4. If you know the Hindi name and English name of ingredients make sure you say both names. E.g.: cardamom yaani elaichi. Use only common Hindi or English names of the ingredients in use. Do not use regional words for ingredients or while you explain the cooking process.
   
5. Focus the camera on the ingredients when you are announcing them and on any activity while cooking. Keep output of all ingredients & final dish ready to save time. E.g: tomato puree, tamarind paste, marinated chicken, kneaded dough, cooked rice or if ice cream, keep it ready for the final shot of recipe.
   
6. Do not talk while using mixture grinder, blender or any such device which makes noise. The person holding the camera should not talk/whisper while shooting the video.
   
7. While shooting ensure the finger is not over the lens of your camera. Also make sure you do not set date and time on the video while shooting as it is visible in the final video output.
   
8. Avoid noise in the background when you are shooting the video. E.g. door bell and telephone ringing, children talking or playing. Turn off the TV and any background music.
   
9. Do not edit videos at your end. Send them to us in clips and leave the editing to us. Also make sure that when you upload videos on the website they have audio files in them.
   
10. Garnish the final dish you have cooked/prepared.