It’s easy for me to keep track of how long I’ve been doing live videos — I started right after Noah was born. I had just given birth via emergency caesarean and was still recovering at Westmead Hospital when an email from Google Australia showed up in my inbox.
Google wanted to set up a meeting with me about their soon-to-be-launched new platform, Hangouts-on-Air — they wanted to pitch the idea of using it to do live cooking videos, so I hopped on a video call with them from the neonatal ICU waiting room a few days later.
(At this point you might question what would drive someone to say yes, who had just been hit with the news that their baby was likely not going survive — but that’s another story for another day.)
When Google decided to shut down Hangouts-on-Air in 2016, I explored other livestreaming platforms — you name it, I’ve probably used it — before I found a new home on Twitch.
So what are the big takeaways from my 7 years of doing live cooking videos?
Here’s my list (in no particular order) -
- The Compelling Character Theory (yes, I made that up)
I know the buzzword is to stay “authentic” or to keep it “real”, but the truth is, live video is as much a performance as any other visual medium…
