Right now food video is mighty popular.
The figures don’t lie; Buzzfeed’s Proper Tasty Channel, which is king of food hack video production, has 49 million likes.
Unsurprisingly these are professional, well-produced, well-lit, budgeted-for videos, which drive viewers through the platform to create ad revenue.
No user-generated content here.
And the people watching these food hacks are not just ‘cyberloafers’ but those genuinely interested in the recipes and the ‘how-to’ aspects of the videos.
So what?
Food hack videos are inventive; they bypass the need for a presenter and cut to the chase by providing visual information about culinary techniques.
But more than that, ad revenue driven media platforms like Proper Tasty or Food Tube or Delish long ago cottoned to the fact that the universal language of food, which all of us share and a majority have an interest in, is a money spinner.
Food, like sex, is a no-brainer for show and tell and making dough (no pun intended).
Food hacks are a short form entry into the world of food video and all it can bring in terms of audience, engagement and brand recognition.
Even more so because as a format that has only just come into its own with its jangly music, semi-animated, overhead-angle, graphic- driven, ‘eazy’-recipe identity, trending high and grabbing eyeballs style.
But don’t be fooled by a food hack video’s seeming simplicity.
They are devilish complex little shorts to make; relying as they do on well-conceived but quick recipe ideas, food preparation and the high production needs of studio-lit, precision filming.
Anyone who tells you otherwise has never made one of them.
This is our latest kitchen hack (a derivation on the food hack) which plays with the stop-motion format to create a fun short.