Quite Curious

XO does things a little differently than other companies. Their products aren’t made to sit on a shelf and look pretty - their products get everyday tasks done in the easiest and best way possible. And above all, they’re meant for any kind of user, regardless of how much experience they have in the kitchen. So, it made sense for them to have everyday people be the face of OXO, rather than paid actors.

And here I am, your average Joe, given the opportunity to film OXO demo videos. I don’t know a thing about acting, and I’ve never actually been in front of the camera (except for my own silly videos), but if anything, I love being in the kitchen, and I own more OXO tools than anyone else.

I’m guessing that paid actors would have to fake enthusiasm about the product, but the enthusiasm you see in my videos are 100% real! I was happy to be there, excited to have such a great opportunity to do something I normally wouldn’t do, and the products I talked about are brilliant to begin with. (They sent me the Smooth Edge Can Opener before flying out and it’s friggin’ fantastic. Get one.)

Unlike the other finalists, this is my first time in front of the video camera, so needless to say, I was pretty nervous. But when it came time to film, I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

1) 90% of the video is a voice-over. You’ll see me in the beginning of the video where I introduce myself and the product, and at the end where I say a closing statement. The rest of the video are close-ups of my hands demonstrating how to use the product, which is overlaid on top of the voice-over that I recorded in a completely separate room, while I read a script in front of me.

It was such a relief! I was worried that I would have to talk while demonstrating the product, which is fine for something as simple as a can opener, but scary while making a complicated mandoline look easy.

Well, I memorized the scripts on the plane anyway, and the good thing was, the memorizing came in handy, because not only was I overall more comfortable with what I had to say, but I was able to say lines like “These containers are BPA-free, air tight, water tight, leak proof, stackable AND microwave and freezer safe!” without too much trouble. Hahaha.

2) The people I worked with were very helpful. They gave me great direction, and led me through the entire process. It’s hard to read the script without sounding like you’re reading, so the cameraman would listen carefully to what I said and give me hints on what words to enunciate. He was also good about directing the shots in a way that would best explain the feature that was being talked about.

3) There was some leeway in the script, which allowed me to be myself, instead of sounding like a robot. They were open to any suggestions I had about saying something in a different way.

So there you have it, my first videos! And it was a pain-free process.

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It has been a very, very busy weekend for Bena, who has been working on the OXO contest since the beginning. She was there for more than 12 hours of filming, over the course of two days. It was a lot of filming in a very short amount of time, so it was hard on everyone. I was tired after doing 4 hours of filming, I can’t imagine how tiring it must be to be there after a whole day of filming demo videos. One of the reasons why it took so long was because of the storm going on outside - we had to wait until it quieted down to start filming again.

Here I am demonstrating the Smooth Edge Can Opener. I chose to open a can of chicken broth which ended up being a minor issue, because when I took off the lid, all you could see were these nasty strands of glue…and chunks of chicken fat floating on top of cloudy water. Should have chosen a can of bright red tomato sauce. Oh well.

I look terrible here. I was probably waiting for him to focus or something.

Doing a close up shot of the can opener.

Here’s Bena and Drew, setting up the refrigerator for a video. They’re trying to figure out what food you would see in a typical fridge, and removing anything that looked cloudy, old, or gross.

Isn’t that funny? The fridge on the left is for the OXO employees, the clean one on the right is for the video. I wish my fridge at home looked more like the one on the right.

They bought me a whole sack of potatoes, because that’s how many it took me to get good looking french fries on the mandoline the other day. I ended up only using a few this time. The key to making slicing potatoes look easy on camera - choose tiny potatoes. For making sliced tomatoes look easy, get the firmest tomatoes you can find, and slice a chunk off first.

Bena bought lots of photogenic food to go into the containers we were demonstrating that day.

Getting a closeup of the container…it was important to get the “snap” motion and sound.

Yvette came in after I was done to do her three demos.

Yvette getting her microphone attached.

Everyone at OXO talks about their favorite person - Drew, who is the office administrator. He’s been working there TEN years, and he works day and night (literally), to keep everything running smoothly. He was at the video shoot pointing out anything that looked out of place, setting up shots, and cleaning up every cut tomato and drop of spilled chicken broth.

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