WayUp sat down with a recent NYU grad with a degree in film rev to talk about his experience producing and editing videos for The Food Network! Here’s what he had to say.
How long did you work at the Food Network? What was your role and what were your responsibilities? I worked there for about a year. It started as a summer internship but transitioned to a full-time freelancing job! I was working in digital video, so my responsibilities included everything from editing video for social media to pitching new original short video ideas, acting as a Production Assistant on set, and keeping the producers up to date on food culture and media.
What’s the work culture like at the Food Network? What were your hours? Scripps Networks owns the Food Network, Travel Channel, HGTV and a bunch of other channels, so it’s a huge company. The hours were pretty regular except for shoots which can take place anytime day or night. The work environment was really creative and collaborative, getting to talk about (and sometimes eat) food all day is definitely a fun thing to do. With every company, there are pros and cons. One of the pros was that because it’s such a huge company we had every resource at our disposal–like expensive equipment and food stylists. The downside to working at such a huge company is sometimes communication can be complicated and slow things down.
How many videos did you create during your time there? I could not count the number of short videos I edited. Definitely hundreds.
What’s a project or video you worked on that you were most proud of? It’s so satisfying to see something evolve from just an idea to something that gets shared with the whole world. So I would say leading the Snapchat channel. I knew the Food Network was going to have a Snapchat channel before it was ever announced and had to keep it a secret for a while, so when it finally launched I was so excited.
Working on the Snapchat Discovery platform must have been a lot of work! What did you learn from the experience? This was the biggest learning experience of my professional career so far. I learned about organizing my own time, clarity of communication, how to disagree with someone in a professional setting, how to advocate for the content I wanted to see, and how to request what I needed to get things done.
What was the most challenging part about working for the Food Network?
At any company of that size communication is challenging. It is difficult to get everyone in the same room, hash out all of your differing opinions, and arrive at a consensus that everyone accepts.
What are the top 3 skills you need to succeed in this role?
- The ability to take criticism.
- The ability to come up with new ideas all the time.
- The ability to repurpose content, or to give an old piece of content new life.
Did you get to meet any famous foodies?
Yes, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy! I will say that all of the celebrity chefs I interacted with were awesome, not a single diva.
Did you get any free food samples?
Duh. There is literally a group of chefs and their full-time job is to make up recipes for the Food Network brand. They have their own testing kitchen and sometimes they had extra treats for us.
Any advice for students interested in Videography?
Make your own videos, build your reel or resume. Nobody needs to give you permission to materialize your ideas. What we’re seeing now with the internet age is that the rulebook has been thrown out the window. We’re creating the future right now!
