“Tasty” by Buzzfeed is iconic, captivating unsuspecting students as they scroll through their Facebook feed and causing them to fall down the rabbit hole of food they will never make. The videos’ minimal hand motions and easy and short recipes fulfill the criteria for quality high school content: quick, high quality and centered around food. When the idea of creating a food video was brainstormed, I jumped on the idea, ready to show the world my superior cooking techniques that had been hidden for too long. When Nicholas Borda jumped on the “Tasty Talon” bandwagon to assist me with the cinematography, we decided to use “Tasty” videos’ overhead style as our muse because it’s popular and hip but also because it seemed the most simple. Like all things, I had my work cut out for me. But I wouldn’t know that until the microwave overflowed.

Before you decide to just go ham and create your own “Tasty” video, please plan. This was probably the only area which actually went right for us. After brainstorming what recipe we should make (acai bowls, burritos, cupcakes???) we decided on a microwavable brownie — we only needed two cups to make it, it’s a good finals snack, and everybody likes brownies. Start with something simple. I cannot stress this enough, because if something goes wrong, it is much easier to start over or make modifications to a simple dish rather than something complicated like a multi-layered cake.

You want your video to be visually appealing for your creation to incite awes of deliciousness from your audience, and for people to declare how easy it looks. The only way that that is even possible is by having a storyboard for your video, frame by frame. It doesn’t have to be complicated but have a plan for how you’re going to edit your video so you know what shots to get. You can modify as you go but this outline is crucial to make sure that this video doesn’t take years to create.

As real estate agents say, “LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!” Our plan was to create the video during Talon latenights in our beloved room 409. We discovered that the lighting was poor, the background was poor and that we had a limited amount of time on our hands. In the end, Nick was able to create a crude overhead shot by changing the height of the tripod and then zooming up on the ingredients but after asking ASB for a piece of butcher paper for a makeshift background, we were able to add a Talon spin on our first food video. The blue background was our ode to Los Altos.

For anybody who takes “Tasty” videos for granted, please don’t. For anybody who wants to recreate a “Tasty” video, please do. While I may have griped about the trials and tribulations that occurred during the whole process, it was actually immensely fun and made me appreciate those at Buzzfeed who create these food videos. I am here to offer professional advice so if you want to hear more tales or want more advice, stop me at school! Enjoy your microwaveable brownie!