Where I Work: Ellie, a food video director for Tastemade remotely guiding people how to flip bacon on camera

Ellen Scott

Published April 22, 2020 9:30am Updated April 22, 2020 9:31am

Ellie Holland, 27, is a food video director and producer for Tastemade UK (Picture: Ellie Holland)

The coronavirus lockdown has radically changed the way we work.

While many have lost their jobs or been put on furlough schemes, others are finding ways to get stuff done from home.

Our Where I Work mini series is taking a look at people’s work-from-home setups, going inside a different person’s home office each day.

This time we’re meeting Ellie Holland, 27, a food video director and producer from southeast London.

Ellie develops, produces, and directs editorial and branded content for Tastemade. Since lockdown began, she’s been doing all of this from the home she shares with her boyfriend.

Ellie lives (and currently works) in a flat in London that she shares with her boyfriend (Picture: Ellie Holland)

Hi, Ellie! How has the coronavirus pandemic changed the way you work?

Ready to start your homebuying journey?

You can access completely fee-free mortgage advice with London & Country (L&C) Mortgages, a partner of Metro. Customers benefit from:

– Award winning service from the UK’s leading mortgage broker

– Expert advisors on hand 7 days a week

– Access to 1000s of mortgage deals from across the market

Unlike many mortgage brokers, L&C won’t charge you a fee for their advice.

Find out how much you could borrow online

Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Coronavirus has definitely changed things; I’m not used to being in the same space seven days a week. Working in production, there’s no such thing as a ‘typical day’, so my weeks are usually split between working in the studio, filming on location, and working at my desk in the Tastemade UK office.

Now, I’m doing everything from home.

Talk us through your working space

I’ve set up a remote shooting area in our bedroom where I direct food shoots happening in the homes of our chefs, food stylists, and camera operators.

The shoot happens over a Google Hangouts video call and my laptop is plugged into my monitor, which I use as a secondary display.

The monitor in my bedroom is what the main camera in the stylist’s or chef’s home can see via a EOS utility output. The majority of our studio equipment – monitors, cameras, lenses, tripods, lights, and reflectors – are currently in the homes of the crews who are shooting (and so is all the food!).

I have a tendency to get excited, laugh, and shout loudly when I’m doing a shoot, so I’ve been ‘banished’ to the bedroom for shoot days so that my boyfriend can work in the living room in peace.

She’s a fan of fairy lights (Picture: Ellie Holland)

What are your personal rules for working from home? How do you stay focused?

It can be easy for the line between home and work life to become blurred during quarantine, so I find it important to set boundaries for myself.

My sort of personal rules have been to get up at 8:00am and take the first hour to do my own thing – shower, get dressed, and make myself a coffee.

I might read or go for a walk to clear my mind before the workday is officially started. I do my best not to check emails until 9:00am.

I work from different rooms throughout the day to help me stay focused. I’ve set up a remote shooting area in our bedroom, and I use a desk by the window in the living room for meetings and for when I need to do a bit of creative brainstorming like writing storyboards and developing new ideas for content.

I’m a big fan of fairy lights and candles, so I usually put these on as the evening draws in.

Ellie has to direct shoots over Google Hangouts (Picture: Paul Monckton)

The stylist lays out the food on camera for Ellie to review and approve (Picture: Tastemade)

Have you come up against any challenges working from home?

I really miss the buzz of being on a shoot in person and working alongside a crew; I work with so many different people every day and I miss seeing their faces.

Directing remotely also comes with its own set of unique challenges; no longer being able to rely on demonstration, body language, and facial expressions means clear communication is vital. Direction is given with a five-second lag so patience is certainly something we’ve all been exercising more than ever.

What’s a workday like for you in lockdown?

If I’m not shooting, I’ll have five to six meetings spread throughout the day. I have a 10am daily production call with three other women on the team. I might then have some more meetings with food stylists and chefs to talk through upcoming shoots we have in the calendar.

I’ll write up some storyboards for ideas I’m developing and review content we currently have in post. I might jump on a call with the editor to brief them on a video we’ve just finished filming.

I always break for an hour for lunch and take time to eat a nice dinner at 7pm. I wouldn’t be in this job if I didn’t love food!

On a shoot day, I’ll start the day at 9am. The shoots take 9-10 hours and vary based on the brief.

While in quarantine, I’ve directed ASMR food content, editorial and branded overhead food videos, and self-shot videos made by chefs and food stylists.

A lot of the shoot involves me directing the chef or director of photography on how to flip some bacon. For example: what angle to go with, what lens should be used, how many takes are required, how much the bacon should sizzle, whether the pan needs more or less oil, and how long it should take to fry the bacon for it to look best on camera.

If it’s ASMR, I have to mute myself after each instruction and listen in with headphones so my feedback doesn’t come through in the sound. The saddest part is that the crew can eat all the contents once the shoot is finished and I can’t!

The toughest bit for Ellie is watching all the food get made then not getting to eat any (Picture: Ellie Holland)

What advice do you have for people who are new to working from home?

Everyone’s routine is different so find one that works for you! We’re all going through a real global crisis, so don’t be so hard on yourself in trying to achieve ‘the perfect workday’ and comparing yourself to others and what they might be doing.

If your job allows you to take breaks, do it! Check in with your colleagues and chat about something outside of work. Enjoy your lunch breaks.

Set little rituals throughout the day that you can look forward to. Do things daily that signify when the working day begins and ends – it could be as simple as starting the day at your table with a cup of coffee or ending it on the sofa with a glass of wine.