I’ve dreamed of making videos and movies for years. Had someone told me that my first completed season of one would be of a cooking show with friends, I wouldn’t have believed them.

I’m not a foodie. I didn’t like cooking growing up. I only begrudgingly learned to cook because you know, adulthood. However, when I got out of college, depressed and feeling fresh out of ideas after making academic videos… I was still hungry to make something creative… Any video I made for myself at the time was a huge struggle and was often deleted. So when Kara came up with the idea for the show, it was perfect timing.

History

I’ll let Kara explain some of the history that led up to the making:

“On November 30th of 2016, I tore my ACL in my left knee. After only about a year of my then new life of movement, I saw a deep depression coming my way and had to do something to offset it as much as possible. My dear friend Emily Abernathy helped me out a lot by coming to live with me. I did a little web series cooking show in college that’s somewhere in the YouTubeiverse, and I decided to give myself a purpose while I couldn’t do all the things I wanted to practice during my surgery and recovery. I asked Em if she would help me do a second cooking show and she accepted. Then I mentioned it to Levi McGlathery and he wanted in. Justin D’Avila also volunteered his expertise in lighting….” – Kara Mellyn, Host of Kara’s Kitchen with Levi

Kara and Levi came up with everything. I hate to sell myself short, but I just had the equipment and the desire to produce.

Team Effort

With us 3, we were already off to a good start. One thing that took it to the next level was movie grade lighting (for most episodes) from a real IATSE Electrician, Justin D’Avila. 

Kara and Levi both had backgrounds in acting. Justin was working on actual movies. It was a dream team. How’d we get that talent? I’ll admit a bit of luck *cough roommates cough*. Friendships, that’s how we got it. *queue stage aww* Yeah, yeah. But that’s this whole series. Lots of corny bits and chessy-ness (often quite literally).

I’d learned before that most film makers start off with the people closest to them, so this made sense. I wouldn’t say it all just came together, because we did work on this for the majority of many weekends for 3 years… but eventually, it did.

The team was all in.

Levi had jokes. Kara the idea machine and cooking savant. Justin brought the light. I brought the tech. 

Kara did the bulk of the editing on my iMac while I just polished it off with some minor sfx. A lot of life happened (3 years worth), but our main deal was to just finish all the episodes before telling anyone… or at least waiting to say anything about it on the internet. Part of me does wish I’d promoted this better initially, but by the time the second year had passed – just getting it out was all we could think about. 

Looking back, the only thing I’d change would be using a real microphone and not the internal mic of our DSLR. I knew better. So here’s my official apology to my video teachers and professors… but, also, my celebration of one of the best memories of my life made possible by what they taught me.

Making this series with these people. <3