Why Ooni chose us as their production partner.
We’ve been creating content for Ooni’s growing Youtube channel, social pages, blogs and website for 1 year now. Ooni are the world famous pizza oven company selling gas, wood and electric ovens, mixers & accessories with a global reach. The content we’ve created for them so far equates to:
Video:
26 x recipe videos in 2 different formats - (16x9 long form Youtube videos plus short form 9x16 Tik Tok edits)
250 photographs to be used as high resolution thumbnails
3 of the recipes recut & translated in French and German
Photography
15 x recipes showing their new stand mixer in action (1,194 stills to chose from)
Sourdough is classic recipe loved by amatuer and professional bakers alike. Why not join the 200,000 peple who’ve watched the recipe and have a proper taste of the type of work we create. After that we can explain the reason Ooni chose us as their production partner…
Specialists in food content
When we launched the business, we made the decision to specialise in 3 core areas of production. Sports, lifestyle and food. Ooni very much come under the food and lifestyle banners for us. 7 Years on and we’ve had the pleasure of working with the likes of BBC Food, Horlicks, Sharwoods, Mr Kipling, Aunt Bessies, Batchelors, Slim Chickens, Snowdonia Cheese, Insomnia Cookies, Myprotein, Protein Works and many more.
The real clincher was when the Ooni team found out we were the key supplier of 85 x recipe videos for BBC Food. A company highlight and one in which we’ll never forget. They were able to see that we can execute on recipe testing, development, producing, filming & editing with minimal guidance needed making the process stress- free and the output premium.
Each recipe undergoes intense planning and preparation working with the brand to make sure it’s fitting for the audience. We’ll test and develop the recipe ahead of filming to iron out any potential kinks or quirks and then schedule up a filming day. We typically capture 3-4 recipe videos per day using a multi-cam shoot and crew of 4.
Here’s the morning of Day 1 of 4 broken down into detailed steps and notes for the whole team to review. Preparation like this is what makes our food shoots go so smoothly and gives everyone involved full visibility on what’s coming up. It helps us stay on schedule and go home in a timely manner. A very important part of our productions is staff welfare and not over running uneccessarily.
Fully kitted out kitchen studio facility
We launched Base studios as a specialist kitchen studio with customisable sets, props and tools in May 2023. It’s been a labour of love ever since. We now have:
1x moveable island,
5 x worktop choices,
3 x cupboard door sets,
2 x moveable walls,
Gas or induction hobs,
a prep kitchen and over 500 props
Indoor and Outdoor sets all under one roof
Our studio has a prep kitchen where the chef weighs ingredients, chops and dices before bringing the food onto set. Next to it is the kitchen set which is lit to be a beautiful spring day with speckled light dancing on the background shelves. Within 5m walking we can get food from the prep kitchen to set to begin the recipe making process.
Having two separate kitchen spaces may sound like a luxury but honestly it’s a game changer when filming with food. Every work surface is precious real estate and the film crew needs that space to work effectively. It also means the camera, cables and lighting aren’t in the way of the prep kitchen. It just makes a whole world of difference to everyone working, significantly increasing the quality of the output and the safety of the production crew.
The biggest challenge when filming food content using an outdoor pizza oven is doing it in the height of winter. Rather than trying to rely on the weather and actually filming outside, we decided to build out a section of our studio into a ‘Scandinavian inspired’ walled garden with textured concrete walls, wood panelling and foliage. Once lit and framed up it looks cracking on camera and we bet you didn’t know it was shot inside a studio and we can use it year around regardless of the weather.
Custom props
We’ve built a collection of custom props that you wouldn’t normally stumble upon in a typical kitchen. These include a prop oven and prop fridge where the backs have been safely removed. This allows the camera team to create an immersive point-of-view perspective making the audience feel like they’re in the oven and right there with the food.
If you see the shot of a bubbling cheese pizza and your mouth’s not watering, are you really human?
Easy to work with
An often very overlooked quality when working with creatives is how easy they are to work with. Our post production suite is just a staircase away from the studio meaning we can begin editing footage almost immediately. Client’s can review day 1’s footage on day 2, if they so wish significantly reducing the feedback loop. We pride ourselves on taking the pressure and stress of our clients and over delivering where possible.
Don’t just take our word for it. The lead project manager said:
“We love working with the Dead Pixel team. Brilliant people and great creatives.
They’re definitely a big part of what we're doing and we appreciate it all.”
If you’ve got this far and still want more delicious foodie content on your screens then why not check out our Classic Pizza Dough recipe video here. 56,000 views in 3 months isn’t bad going at all.