Mise en place
Short and visually appealing
I don't really need to see your face. A lot of cooking videos are pretty chaotic and don't explain it well.
A LOT of cooking videos seem to not really do a good job of SHOWING the FOOD and cooking processes.
If I were to ever do any cooking videos, I probably don't want my face on them though I have historically gotten positive feedback on my voice and voice plus TEXT on the screen would probably be good.
I don't like playing this game of dealing with how society thinks a woman should look and Muslims have an issue with women showing their face in public. There's no real NEED to do that, I don't think, and if you are looking to be inclusive and have broad appeal, why do something millions of people will object to that isn't actually of any importance whatsoever to the intended goal?
It's a criticism I had of sexycyborg aka Naomi Wu: If it's on the Internet, YOU control the camera angle and what you focus on. Dress however you WANT, I don't CARE at all, but please let me check your channel without the extreme soft porn levels of focus on your cleavage.
Same thing here: Other than ego or laziness -- doing it that way because that's how you've seen other people do it and never stopped to really think about it -- is there some point to all these YouTubers pointing the camera at THEMSELVES instead of at the FOOD?
Most of you aren't members of The Beautiful People TM and aren't all that charming. (No, this isn't an attack on the woman in the second video. I reviewed other videos NOT linked above.)
If I'm looking for food instructions, does it matter WHO is presenting it? You aren't Julia Child. It probably doesn't add anything to the video and may well detract from it to make the video focused on the PERSON doing the cooking instead of on the food itself.
Plus it increases security issues for you to have your face plastered all over the Internet. Do YOU really NEED to be "a celebrity" for your channel to succeed? Do you WANT the headaches that go with being a recognizable face?
People with CAPD do a lot of lip reading and will watch your MOUTH moving to help them understand. If the clip doesn't show your mouth clearly enough to serve as help in understanding what you are saying, it may be pointless filler or downright distraction.
And text on screen or closed captioning can serve for better clarification than lip reading. I frequently watch videos with the sound off and closed captioning on for various reasons.
I began looking at mise en place videos because of a commercial using lots of different styles of bowls, many with multi colored patterns and it's visually distracting from seeing THE FOOD.
The mixing bowl should be CLEAR glass OR the camera angle should be more from the top so you can actually clearly SEE the food being mixed together. No, semi translucent plastic isn't sufficient.
I'm imagining solid color bowls in different sizes where the containers don't interfere with seeing the food being shown.