Pizza, basketball, and my creative process
A method to the madness
Subway rides to write this: 3
A basketball is round… like a pizza.
On the surface, that’s the only visual similarity between them.
But on a deeper *dish* level, there’s a lot that the two round objects have in common.
And I learned that after a DYSH interview with Emi Guimond—a pizza shop owner and pro basketball player.
Emi is the co-owner of Public Display of Affection (aka PDA Pizza). She is simultaneously a professional basketball player that has competed in counties like Germany, Ireland, Mexico, and Honduras
Watch the video here to see what she said.
Some BTS
I’m writing this blog to share more about my creative process behind Emi’s episode.
Her episode took three days filming and a lot of hours editing, but there’s a method to this madness.
Here’s the breakdown:
Day 1: Interview at PDA
Day 2: Filming basketball
Day 3: B-roll at PDA
Day 1: Interview
I wasn’t sure what time to interview Emi because she was working at the restaurant all day.
So I decided to spend an afternoon at the shop and film whenever there was some downtime with customers.
I spent most of the time observing people just to get a sense of things that happen at a restaurant.
Like glass breaking, people walking in asking for a job, customers seating themselves, interactions among the staff, etc…
Beyond those little things that make restaurants, well… restaurants, I was really trying to get a sense of the vibe to understand how to approach the interview.
The nice thing about filming this episode was Emi let me hang at the restaurant as long as I wanted.
This let me record part the interview and then immediately start editing it.
So if there was anything missing or a certain clip I needed, I could just stand up and ask Emi to film/re-film it.
Usually it’s not like that, but just wanted to call that out for this one.
Day 2: Basketball
The core of the DYSH episodes is about someone’s passion for basketball.
So the next day, I went to a basketball tournament that Emi was competing in.
She was playing for Team Hoop York City in the Cookies Hoops Classic.
Her team ended up winning the entire thing, which was perfect for the content haha.
I got a bunch of great clips of her playing, and I even did a mini-interview with her at the court that could be weaved into the interview we did at the restaurant.
I went home after the tournament and immediately started editing the content from the last two days together.
By the end of the night, I developed a solid storyline and narrative…
I just needed one more thing… b-roll of people eating at the restaurant
Day 3: B-roll
If you’re unfamiliar with this term,
“B-roll is footage that supplements your main video clips. It can help to establish a scene, smooth out a transition, or add meaning” - (Adobe)
I use B-roll to connect different parts of the interview together and provide visuals to what is being said by the interviewee.
For example, when Emi talked about the “chicken wings,” I showed B-roll that featured the chicken wings.
To get the rest of the B-roll, I rewatched the interview and basketball parts to hear what Emi said.
I noticed she talked a lot about PDA being a place for friends to hang, have fun, and (obviously) show affection.
However, I didn’t have any B-roll footage of people actually doing that at the restaurant since I didn’t want to film random people eating.
The last thing I wanted to see was a Google review saying…
“Food was great, but some random guy with a basketball was just filming me and my friends eating the food… and if he actually played basketball, he’d probably airball every shot.” - (imaginary Google review)
Okay the last line is a joke (hopefully), but I wanted to be mindful when filming because I didn’t want to impact a PDA customer’s experience in any way.
I just wanted to be like a fly on the wall.
So how did I get the right B-roll of people eating the food?
On this third day, a basketball community Emi and I are in, called Sunday Washed Club, hosted a small gathering at the restaurant. Since everyone there already knows me, they had no issues with me filming them.
I spent the time hanging with them and occasionally captured fun moments of everyone eating, talking, and laughing.
From there, I (1) went home, (2) added in that b-roll, and (3) posted the video.
The System
I know this sounds like a lot, so to recap, here’s how I break down my filming/editing process:
Film the interview and talking parts
Scrape through all that footage and find the best sound bits
Piece together the sound bits to develop a clear storyline/narrative
Film & weave in the B-roll
Add captions
Rewatch & fix minor things until I go crazy (but that’s at like every stage lol)
This system for content creation can work for different types of videos. I even use it when making cooking videos with my mom haha.
10,000 Hours
I recognize that this isn’t something you can just pick up and execute in a few hours.
I’ve put in thousands of hours of “practice” to get to the point I’m at today (read my very old blog about it below).
Now, I can identify a story quickly and figure out what pieces are needed to effectively tell it.
This system for my creative process is how I can complete large projects and increase overall productivity.
I know it’s cliche, but developing systems is how I’ve been able to actually get shit done…
…like how I posted for 365 days straight (read more about that below).
Parting thoughts
I’m a huge believer in learning by doing because that’s how you see progress and build momentum—which ultimately gets you closer to achieving your dreams.
Please let me know if learning about my creative process was helpful.
Definitely open to sharing more if anyone is interested.
“Subway rides to write this” is a metric I share at the start of every blog to show that making content doesn’t need to be so difficult. You can find the time to create during everyday activities.
Each subway ride for me is ~15-30 minutes long.
Also…
Please note: some of my new blogs (started Sept’24) contain a lot of satire and should not always be taken at face value.
Expect to see typos, wordy/repetitive sentences, passive voice, and anything else you’d expect from a “D-” graded high school assignment.
Because that’s my writing ability according to my first ever hate comment back in 2018.