Washington Post Video
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(click through for the interactive project on washingtonpost.com)
What matters in a pro kitchen: instant reaction, mindless repetition and crisp, efficient maneuvers. Restaurants run on the French “kitchen brigade” system, modeled after a military hierarchy more than a century ago. There’s the chef, a couple of lieutenants (the sous-chefs), and a platoon of line cooks —the kitchen infantry — manning stations assigned by menu category: appetizers, fish, meat and so on.
It has to be this way. The restaurant kitchen is a highly physical place, and if the saucier lunging toward the stove collides with the meat cook slinging plated quail toward the waiters, there will be a meltdown. Chefs, like generals, know they have two choices: discipline or chaos.
Watch the cook staff at the height of dinner service — the open-kitchen trend has put them increasingly on view — and you’ll see an intricate ballet. A refined body awareness and familiarity allows these tattooed Baryshnikovs to dance silently around one another between flashing knives and a stove at full flame.
“There’s a kind of wonderful grace that only happens when people are really good at what they do, and they adjust to each other’s motions,” says Ruth Reichl, former editor in chief of Gourmet magazine.
- Sarah Kaufmann / The Washington Post “At CityZen, chefs cook up sweet moves”
This interactive project was a collaboration between videojournalist Ben de la Cruz, Pulitzer prize winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman, and interactive web designer Grace Koerber.
This occasional series looks at the choreography of life, and this first installment, set in CityZen, focuses on the delicate dance of waiters, chefs and patrons in a crowded restaurant.
Sadly, this is videojournalist Ben de la Cruz’s last assignment for The Post, as he left yesterday to work with NPR. Ben had a long and storied career here at The Post, and we’re sad to see him go, but happy to see him start a new chapter in his career. Send him off right by checking out his final, beautiful, thoughtfully shot, compelling and engaging piece, “The Dance of Life: The Kitchen”
-AJ Chavar videojournalist/The Washington Post
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CES 2012 and New Hampshire Primary Timelapses
Post Videojournalists AJ Chavar and Whitney Shefte both chose to use timelapses as a way to tell a story last week. Timelapse photography is a pretty popular trend in current video production, but it is not just a fad. By speeding up our perception of time, the technique actually serves to make the passage of time more tangible.
In the case of Whitney’s video from New Hampshire, it condenses a day at the polls into a one minute vignette about GOP voters in the state, whereas AJ’s longer video drives home the massive scope of the Consumer Electronics show.
Have you ever done a timelapse video? Share it with us by tweeting @ajchavar.
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Washington wakes up to Winter Solstice
Night turns to day as the sun rises over Washington on the shortest day of the calendar year - the winter solstice. (Dec. 22) (Evelio Contreras / The Washington Post)
When Dave Beard, the Post’s sitewide engagement editor, told me about a project he was working on about the Winter’s Solstice I was eager to see what I could contribute. The Post sent out its photographers to capture what it was like to see the shortest day of the calendar year and we also gathered photos from readers and viewers.
I talked to one of my editors, Jonathan Forysthe about a good place to shoot the sunrise. He suggested Gravelly Point on the George Washington Parkway. It’s got a great view of the National Mall and the Capitol across the Potomac. The park is also next to Reagan National Airport.
I showed up before dawn to set up a Canon 60D and a Canon 5D Mark II focusing on the Washington Monument and the Potomac River to produce two separate time lapses.
One of the cool things about sunrise shots is the sky turns to light before the sun actually shows up. So, in essence, you are shooting for two moments. I knew the sun would rise to my right and to my left I saw the Washington Monument and chose that to show the sky turn from black to light.
In between, I used another camera to shoot a lot of detail shots like autumn leaves and the reflection of the monument in the rippling water while I was filming the sky change to show the mood of the place.
Every few minutes or so, I noticed a plane would take off from Reagan. There were also birds flying in the sky. I wanted to show how flight could be seen as a transition point for folks like the winter solstice can be for the seasons. It became my “character” in this short visual piece.
Before I left the parkway, I noticed a pair of fisherman on one of the riverbanks set up fishing poles. I thought this was a nice way to end the piece to highlight the calm feeling I had shooting the Winter’s Solstice.
For me, shooting the sunrise felt like a smooth, simple transition, like the solstice, one that would have happened without little notice if you didn’t wake up to see it. I like moments like that, one where the light patterns – and the mood – had shifted.
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2011 through the front page of the Post
Video and tumblr post by Kristen Boghosian, video producer
I hope to never create a timeline like this timeline again. With 17 tracks in Final Cut, towards the end the video froze just about every time I tried to play it. It was one of those projects that started off as a simple timelapse, but (as you can see) didn’t end that way.
In order to give each major front page more time on screen, I made the in-between pages fall onto the bigger fronts, so that the images would linger for a few more moments. The speed is such that you can see what’s going on in the page, but fast enough where the video doesn’t get too slow at the end. I highlighted specific images, headlines and A1s that, in my eyes, summarized the year, whether it be the ice cream man who went viral or the front page after Osama bin Laden was killed. Between those large images, pages fall chronologically from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, and every page is included. I’ve already been told by several people that this would have been much easier to do in After Effects. What do you think of this video, and how would you have done a production like this?
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Monday Video Roundup (Dec. 4-10)
Phew! Last week was quite newsy, but if you missed out on anything we’ve got you covered. Here are the videos you need to watch that we published last week.
Empathy in rats, drones in Iran, the Capitol Christmas tree lighting right here in the District, and even an opinion piece from the Post’s Ned Martel on DC’s relation to Hollywood make the cut this week.
Watch ‘em back to back and be back to your regularly scheduled internet browsing in less than ten minutes.
Occupy DC protestors and police clash in K street
Hundreds of protesters from Occupy DC and other Occupy movements from around the United States clashed with police and blocked K street in a chaotic confrontation. Tensions ran high as dozens were arrested on the street known for housing many of the large lobbying firms that are a oft-maligned target of the Occupy movement. (Editor’s note: This video was shot with a special process to create a wide field of view)(AJ Chavar/The Washington Post)
Newscaster reports live on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941
This audio captures a rare live broadcast on Dec. 7, 1941, from Honolulu, Hawaii, apparently during the end of the air raid on Pearl Harbor. The reporter appears to have witnessed the attack from the roof of a building. The broadcast is to be part of the program at the National Archives about Pearl Harbor and the media. (archive.org / The Washington Post
Timelapse of a melting glacier
Researchers in Chile released a series of time-lapse photos showing the dramatic retreat of a glacier in Patagonia. The Jorge Montt Glacier is shrinking faster than any other in Chile, with its snout retreating more than a half mile in a year. (Dec. 7) (The Associated Press)
The Washington Post’s Ned Martel discusses why the nation’s capital deserves to get movies at the same time as New York and Los Angeles. (The Washington Post)
A study by Science/AAAS shows that rats preferred freeing caged rats rather than eating food placed in the cage, suggesting that the rats show empathy, a trait only previously known to primates. (Courtesy of Science/AAAS)
Iranian TV shows alleged U.S. drone
Iranian state TV broadcast video of what it said was the high-tech U.S. drone that it claims to have downed earlier this week. The footage showed Iranian military officials inspecting a cream-colored aircraft that appeared intact and undamaged. (Dec. 8) (The Associated Press)
Va. Tech officials describe events of shooting
A gunman walked into a parking lot and killed a Virginia Tech police officer who was conducting a traffic stop on campus. Sgt. Robert Carpentieri said it appeared that the shooter was not in the car that had been pulled over. (Dec. 8) (The Associated Press)
GOP candidates let the sparks fly in campaign ads
Images of factory workers producing sparks have become the visual cliche of this year’s crop of GOP ads and videos. (Paul Farhi / Edited by Jason Aldag)
Postal cuts to slow delivery in 2012
The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service said it plans to move quickly to close 252 mail processing centers and slow first-class delivery next spring, citing steadily declining mail volume. (Dec. 5) (The Associated Press)
Capitol tree shines with 10,000 lights
The U.S. Capitol Christmas tree was lit Tuesday by Speaker of the House John Boehner. The 118-year-old Sierra White Fir stands 63 feet and is ringed with 10,000 LED lights. (Dec. 6) (The Associated Press)
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This is some sweet video on The Atlantic of the earth from space. No matter who you are or what you like, the earth from above is always beautiful. It’s definitely making us “oooh and ahhhh” in the office on this rainy DC day.
This Is Probably as Close as You’ll Get to Being an Astronaut
October 27, 2011 | NASA’s spectacular time-lapse videos of Earth, as seen by astronauts on board the International Space Station
