What Netflix Taught Me About Making Better Social Media Videos

Here's the story behind my favorite video that I've ever made for a client before. It all started the night before the shoot when I got a text from the co-founder of the membership club that I'm filming for. And he said, we're doing an R&D day with the new head chef of the club. We're gonna go around LA to all these restaurants to try out food. I want this to feel like Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown mixed with Chef's Table. I remember reading that text and I was like, wow, that sounds awesome, that sounds like so much fun. But the only problem was the shoot was literally the next morning. I had less than 24 hours to prepare for a project where I've never met the head chef. I don't know which restaurants we're going to, what food we're trying, no storyboard, no shot list, just a really loose idea coming from a text at 12 a.m. in the morning. And I was shooting this by myself because at that time, my wife was pregnant and she could not go around town with her big belly and everything and film with me. So I had to be A cam and B cam at the same time. Is it doable? Definitely. Is it hard? Yeah, it kind of makes the job a little bit harder, especially if you're given last minute notice. The only thing that I was really sure about was the feeling that the client really wanted for this video. Somehow I had to combine two completely different documentary filmmaking styles into one social media video. And that meant I had a lot of homework to do. After realizing that I couldn't just copy these two shows, like shot for shot, I started thinking about what actually made them feel so different. Both shows are about the food and the chefs, but how they presented them was a lot different. Parts Unknown, it was all about being raw and unfiltered and spontaneous in a lot of ways. And it wasn't just that you were sitting down and interviewing a chef, you were really experiencing everything with Chef Bourdain as he is going around these cities and exploring new things and eating good food. And so for the restaurant portion of us just driving around LA, I wanted the audience to feel like they were spending the day with Chef John as he was going around town, trying out these new restaurants and hearing his reaction and seeing his personality shine through the camera. It's pretty good. You can tell that they've been making breakfast burritos forever. And for me, that meant prioritizing, getting real moments and capturing those authentic moments versus getting the perfect shot with like great lighting and a great composition and stuff like that. I wanted the camera to feel like an active participant in the conversations that they were having versus an outside observer. And that meant I rolled on everything, every dull moment, every low in the conversation, or even the hype moments that they were having, laughing, joking, and stuff like that. I wanted to capture everything so that I got everything in order to have a lot to play with in the edit. And speaking of the edit, if you watch Parts Unknown, you'll know that there's a lot more like energy. There's a lot of quicker cuts, all the jokes, all the imperfect moments in between that kept the authenticity of all those conversations. But then jumping over to Chef's Table, it was a completely different feeling. Every shot feels intentional. Everything slows down from the editing also to the music choice. And the cinematography allowed you to appreciate the small details, the ingredients, the process, and the story behind why the food was being created. So for the kitchen portion of this video, I wanted the audience to slow down and be with Chef John as he explained not only why he created the food, but also how the resort property has inspired him to create this new menu. When we were driving around LA and exploring restaurants, my job was to react and capture moments as they unfolded. But when we were back in the kitchen, my job was to slow down, shape the environment, and create intentional moments. So now that I knew how I wanted the audience to feel, the question became, how do I actually film that? For me, it came down to three things. First, shooting for the edit. I knew that this final video was gonna live on social media. That meant Instagram Reels, and that meant vertical video. And if you've seen my previous video about how I shoot vertical video, you all know that I shoot horizontal and then crop into the vertical frame. So every framing decision was made with that in mind. For example, I mounted my Insta360 action camera in the middle of the dashboard when we were driving in the car so that I could either crop into Chef John or the co-founder later, and I made sure to position myself in the middle of the back seat so that I could eventually crop myself out. During conversations, I framed the people with enough separation so that I could grab multiple different compositions from that same shot. It's one of the biggest reasons why I prefer shooting horizontal and then cropping in for the vertical. Do you lose resolution? Yeah, but it's for social media, so it kinda doesn't really matter at the end of the day. I have an entire video dedicated to talking about this, and you can view it up here. Number two, I started editing in my head as I was filming. Every time someone says something interesting or funny or talk about some sort of detail about the food, I immediately ask myself, oh, am I gonna use this part of the conversation? If you didn't have that dressing, you'd have one of the world's worst salads on the planet. This dressing is like A1. And if yes, what kind of shots do I need to support or show the audience about what these two guys are talking about? And when you get into that mental zone of filming for the edit, you're not really shooting B-roll anymore. You are collecting pieces to tell the story. And number three, follow the conversation instead of chasing shots. Just like wedding filmmaking, there's a lot of great moments that happen in between takes, in between conversations. One of the biggest things I would tell myself if I was filming this all over again, brand new, is to just really listen. They will tell you what you need to film. So if Chef John is saying something like, you know what is good about this? It's the bacon. Then you'll know that you need to grab a closeup shot of the egg inside that burrito before they finish eating it. It's got great texture to it. The flavor is awesome. This is a great burrito. I was actually, I'm kind of blown away by it. Or even before they start eating it, have them cut it in half and then show you to the camera what it looks like inside the burrito. And by the end of the day, I wasn't thinking about capturing individual shots anymore. You have to think about building sequences. Once we finished driving around LA and trying out these great restaurants, we headed back to the Membership Club's kitchen on a separate day to film the chef's table stuff. And the feel of this portion of the project felt very different, obviously from the running gun stuff. There's a lot of things that I could do that I couldn't before. For example, turning off house lights to create more contrast. I could add in my own lights. I could ask Chef John to stop for a moment and let me reposition the camera. One of my favorite examples of this was when Chef was making bread and he grabbed a bunch of flour in his hand and then he just threw the flour across the tabletop. I immediately, in my head, I was like, okay, this is a cool shot. I'm gonna capture this and this is gonna make it into the edit, for sure. A lot of those cool shots happened because I was just refusing to simply just film from where I was standing. And instead, Chef was garnishing a dish with crushed pistachios. I was like, hold on, wait, let me just grab this top-down angle and then counted him in and then sprinkled it. And that felt a lot more intentional with the camera versus just kind of passively filming stuff. And that, to me, felt like the biggest difference between these two different sections in the video. At the restaurants, my job was to just react and film what was in front of me and then think about what shots I needed to get as I was filming. In the kitchen, even though it was a live kitchen where staff was still cooking and prepping food and people were moving all around us, my job was there to shape moments and create moments. I wasn't really trying to change the reality of what was happening in front of the camera. It's really more about how you present those real moments. And for me, it wasn't really about trying to recreate parts unknown or a chef's table shot for shot because that won't work. It's really about trying to recreate the two different feeling that you get from watching these two shows. And that's exactly what the client wanted. So guys, I brought you here for our first stop on our R&D tour. So they take their brisket, it's smoked brisket that they take from Bledsoe's and it's pretty incredible. Amazing, thank you so much. That looks great. This is the pastrami. And this is the bacon avocado? Yes. What do you want to do first? Do you want to do both at the same time or do you want me to do a different one? Don't make it weird. Should we touch burritos? You're making it weird, man. It's pretty good. You know what is good about this is the bacon. It's smoky, it's got great texture to it. The flavor is awesome. Let's try this one. The egg puts a totally different vibe on it. It's really good. The inspiration for the menu came from the sort of natural intersection of coastal surf culture and the rugged spirit of a ranch. It's a beautiful property that deserves beautiful food and it deserves to be treated with that kind of respect. And I think you will never ever have something like that that you can go to in Southern California. Okay, so this is what we came for. See, like look at the consistency of it. It's still a honey consistency. Am I going to burn my face off here? Yeah, it's pretty hot. This is great. It's really the texture of the chicken. Yes. I mean, Japanese fried chicken always though is like my favorite. This new menu, I want to make two order of fresh made little focaccia loaves and then load it up with roasted garlic, parsley, lemon zest, and then they just scrape all that bone marrow butter onto the focaccia. Executing that is terrifying, but it's like the only thing that keeps me alive. It's just chicken, bacon. Is that, is there egg in it? So is it a cob? But I think it's, yeah, it's a cob. I can tell you exactly why you like this because of the acidity and the dressing. It has enough acidity and salt in it to carry all of these bland ass flavors. If you didn't have that dressing, you would have one of the world's worst salads on the planet. I love that. This dressing is like A1. I wanted to craft a dining experience that reflects seasonality. I think wood-fired meats, raw seafood, vibrant produce, and house-made elements that feel natural to both the ranch and also the coast. It's casual in approach, but it's also elevated in execution, creating a dining experience that feels just as natural at a country club as it would be at a beachside fire pit. And this is why this video goes down as one of my favorite videos that I've ever made for a client before. When I showed the final video to the team, the feedback was exactly what I was hoping for. They said it felt funny, it felt natural, elegant, and unlike anything we'd made before. What made this project successful wasn't really about the camera. It was that every creative decision that I made when I was filming served a purpose towards a story. Coming from wedding filmmaking, I'm used to discovering the story after the day is over, but this project was very different. Before I even picked up the cameras and started pressing record, I knew exactly what I wanted the audience to feel. Like I know exactly what each section, what the goal of it was. It's really about understanding what your story needs and how every creative decision works toward that goal. And that's probably the biggest thing that Netflix has taught me about making better social media videos. All right, that's it for this video. I hope you guys enjoyed coming along with me as I explained this really cool video that I made. Until next one, my name is Alex Chung and I'll see you later, bye.