We’ve had cooking videos on our website for years, but except for our videographers, none of us Fine Cooking staffers are video pros. And I hate to admit it, but it shows. Our past videos are full of solid information, but our delivery could defintitely use some polish. To that end, we got a lesson from Rob Patton-Spruill, a documentary filmmaker and media arts instructor from Emerson College. Rob coached us through filming a video on shucking oysters, starring Juli Roberts, former oyster shucker extraordinaire at the Pearl Oyster Bar in NYC (on a really busy night, she’d shuck upwards of 2000 oysters!) and now our editorial assistant. Turns out that Juli’s also a natural in front of the camera. Over the course of an hour and lots of different takes, Juli showed us the ins and outs of choosing and shucking oysters, while Rob gave lots of tips and suggestions. Now we’re a little savvier to the ways of the video shoot, so stay tuned for new and improved cooking videos on our website.