Any cooking to camera tips

[nandocuca]

I have just started recording my own cooking blog, doing what I do best which is Brazilian Cuisine. But I must say the whole thing of cooking while speaking to camera is still quite a challenge, as you can attest by my bumbling attempts at cucabrazuca.com.

Does anyone know of courses which include 'cooking to camera' ? Or any books on the subject? Failing that, does anyone have any tips they can share?

[Free Rider]

Toastmaster's International has a little manual and advice on working on television. It gave me good advice about how to act on camera and you could make cooking one or more of the exercises. In the end, it's practice that counts.

[mudbug]

Not bad...

1) Smile.

2) Keep your head up so viewers can see your eyes.

3) When your eyes need to be directed to what you're doing, make sure you're not only saying what you're doing but adding additional information about the ingredient, about the combination, about the utensils, etc that people would not otherwise learn.

4) Personality, add a bit of your history or what you like and how this relates to what you're doing. Personality in addition to skill is what allows people to earn a check in front of the camera.

5) Talk with enthusiasium. Not as if you're reading out of a text book.

6) Have fun. It's will show.

[Mezzaluna]

It looked good to me, Nandocuca.

Mudbug had a good point about making eye contact, though. When you showed the wooden muddler, you had a winning expression on your face. Don't be shy for the camera- your personality seemed to come through.

[Sebie]

Hey, that is pretty good for an amature recording, what is the brand of the video camera that you used? I like the quality.