As a video editor of the NTD Taste Life team member, I will also ask to go outdoors to shoot street fair food footages. So I am used to carrying the camera with me, with the extra batteries and the memory cards, standby ready to shoot anytime if occasion required. Last time I went was at the end of September, to a street fair located on Canal Street. The street fair was very lively and cheerful. By the same time shooting the food videos I also got a chance to taste those delicious foods. I really enjoyed the street fair shooting.
Author Archives: Akina Jiao
9. Forwarded Videos
NTD Taste Life is a department that publishes food videos on Facebook to make money. There are multiple sources of food videos. We have resources of making our original food cooking videos and shooting on the streets or restaurants to get more diverse types of food clips. on the other hand, some are also forwarded from other pages or youtube channels. After obtaining the permission from the original vlog poster, the post-editing team will help to add the watermarks of the original channel’s name on the video screen. When audiences want to see more similar videos, they can find the channel of the original vlog based on the name on the screen. The amount of the viewers watched ads on our page benefits to our profit, and at the same time, we also help YouTubers promote their videos. Everybody benefits from what we are doing, everybody’s happy. 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/TasteLifeOfficial/videos/1059979650819251/
8. The Duration of the Video
NTD Taste Life is a department that mainly makes profits on Facebook by posting original food relevant videos and cooking tutorials. The times are changing, and the rules of online social media are changing too. The videos in the past were made into more than a minute and a half, but now all of the video durations need to be change and edit to more than three minutes. By inserting ads in the middle of the video to get income has only worked when the duration of the video is more than three minutes long. I have been thinking about how to make adjustments to the new videos that are going to be produced. A production stage takes about four to five hours to shoot the footages. When the video editor got the footage from the producer, the footages were not processed or being used at all, and the duration of the footage was the same as the filming. I am the video editor on the team and it is my duty to polish the raw footage into presentable videos. In this production process, I mastered the skills of adjusting the duration of the videos. I used to adjust the video to 200% speed, but now I will choose 150% or 120%, and make different adjustments according to the requirements of pictures of the screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh39eKwUObw
https://www.facebook.com/TasteLifeOfficial/videos/521062358303591/
7. The Best Truth I Learn From My Mentor
NTD Taste Life department use a particular editing software called Final Cut Pro. I have never used or heard about the editing software when I first came to this department. J and E are a married couple, the department head, also my mentors. Especial J, he is my direct head, I got most of the video editing and storyboard design cases from him. He provided a lot of useful online tutorial videos to help me with self-learning, that’s why I am able to grasp video editing skills in a short-term and doing very well. He also taught me the truth that human beings need proper reconciliation and rest. As an editor, dealing with computers for many hours every day is very bad for the eyes, so occasionally J will take me out to eat delicious snacks. The activity does not only allow the eyes energy to recovered or eat snacks but also greatly doubles the work efficiency. Working with a happy mood increased the quality of the work and leads more positive energy of interacting with the co-workers.
6. The food video
The modern social network has become more and more developed and has become an indispensable part of our lives. Among the changing of the generation, new era network occupations have been founded such as online creator, Youtuber, blogger, etc. Many online creators have uploaded their original works, especially video works to the web, by increasing their view rates to earn advertising costs from the advertisement that are inserted in between their videos. NTD Tastes Life is also one of the departments that make money by posting original videos online to Facebook. A food video begins with research. Every team member will take a short period of time to do some research, and then will be presented on the weekly meeting to figure out the new topic of the video for the following weekdays. The rules on Facebook are changing. In the past, the final video can be just a one minute long, and now the video has to be changed to more than three minutes in order to insert the video ads. However, my editing style needs to be changed as well, which is a big challenge for me. The link below is one of the studio shoots and post-production that I recently completed in. If you like our videos please give us a like, and don’t forget to follow us so you won’t miss any new updated!
https://www.facebook.com/TasteLifeOfficial/videos/173882523477928/
5. Collaborative Project
In the NTD Taste Life department, I think that every work done every day is a cooperative work. We are an organized team; each member has a job position under his or her own jurisdiction. For example, as a video editor in the team, my main job is to edit the footages into the final video, so I am the one that has the right to decide the final presenting view of the finished video. But of course, in the process of production, we will communicate with the photographer and director all the times. I will first communicate with the staffs who take over each step of the production, to understand their ideas and concepts about the work. After summing up and integrating everyone’s ideas, I will give a satisfactory result to everyone. I believe that taking an action is the best way to show the efforts. Even if there are some people who are dissatisfied at the end, as long as we work hard, it is the greatest reward for ourselves. I love the works that I have done. They are all masterpieces in my heart.
4. My Duties
My position at NTD Taste Life department is a video editor. Our department is required to upload two to three original food videos to the Facebook page every week. My job is to get the captured footage from the photographer and move on to the post-production stage, edited the footage into finished products which is the final video, and then pass it to the Facebook main page manager for her to upload to the Facebook. I will help with setting up the cameras and work as a kitchen helper if there is a need during the shooting. Other than the positions I just mentioned, I have one more position that is my favorite for now. Independently outdoor filming the street fair food videos is my third position. The individual activity gives me more personal space to find out my working style, I got chance to eat different kinds of street foods, I think that in addition to shooting, it is also very important to seriously understand what I am shooting, and the conclusion is “delicious”.
3. The Culture of My Workplace
NTD TV is a formal and organized television company. The working hours for full-time employees just like most companies do, eight hours a day, and working five to six days a week. Start working at 10 o’clock on time and get off work at 6 o’clock in the evening. The lunchtime is included in the working hours, every day we have one hour break to get a lunch outside or at the cafeteria in the building. The typical employee workstations are offices and open work areas. Our department, NTD Taste Life has a divided individual office that fits six people. Due to the busy food video shooting schedule, the working hours for our department is not fixed. Sometimes for taking beautiful shots and angles for the footages, the photographers take longer time in the shooting studio, overtime to complete the task with higher quality. If the shooting stage is understaffed, editors including me will also be called to help. These are all the valuable lessons and good opportunities for me to learn more shooting skills of the studio shooting.
2. My Role
I have been working at NTD TV for around four years. I was only a high school student when I first came to the television headquarters building. My mother works for the financial department of the company. Out of working in the same company, she gets to know people from other departments as well. The head of the creative department was her very good co-worker. In a coincidence, she introduced me to the creative department chief. I liked to draw and create pictured stories since I was a child, and I shared most of them with the chief. My drawings have gained his appreciation. He helped me installed Adobe design software, and welcomed me to intern in their department. I have been an intern in the creative department for more than a year. The most storyboards and design productions I created was mostly contributed to another department called NTD Taste Life. So later on, I was deployed to the NTD Taste Life department so I can work for them directly without connecting with them through the creative department. I was very excited and appreciative. While creating and experiencing multiple different kinds of designs and progress, such as logos, brochures, posters, spreads, video, and storyboard designs. I realized that although I like to design a variety of things, the design field that really really interested me and not greasy is video editing design and storyboard design which also can be sketching or digital drawing. In this department, I can experience the design fields that I really want to do. I also found a new interest in the process, dubbing. My passion has continued even until today, a proof of this is that I’m still in the NTD Taste Life department. I love what I am doing now.
1. NTD TV
New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD TV) is a worldwide television broadcaster based in New York City founded in 2001 and located at 229 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001. The television company covers topics that are censored in Mainland China, such as human rights. In addition, the further goal is to restore and promote traditional Chinese culture and to facilitate mutual understanding between the East and West. They are now forming up small departments that onset on the social platform called Facebook.
I am interning in the department called NTD Taste Life. A small department set up in the headquarters building, with three to five members including me. The task is to upload two to three homemade original food videos every week. Each video needs to have a duration of more than three minutes in order to insert ads in between, while the video is playing. The more the ads being played by the viewers, the more income we get on our Facebook page. Occasionally we will receive cases from the clients. We use direct product placement with customer brand marks, by using watermarked items in the video of a cooking process and give it a huge close-up to present the items of our clients. Such as an instant noodle package, vinegar bottles, etc.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/shen-yun-symphony-orchestra-arrives-in-south-korea_2674241.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/shen-yun-symphony-orchestra-receives-rousing-welcome-at-taiwan-airport_2658767.html
The above are two articles about the company. The purpose of NTD TV is to spread Chinese traditional culture. The Shen Yun Performing Arts and Shen Yun Symphony mentioned in the article are performances that they appreciate and highly promoted. Experiencing the ancient Chinese history and culture through music and dance is the performance that the Shen Yun Group has always brought to the audience. The respect and positive view of Chinese history and culture link the media and the performance together and bring the best show to the audiences.