Tasty Tips to Get Throught the Longest Night
‘Yalda’ is one of the most celebrated traditional events in Iran, marking the longest night of the year and the winter solstice. Every year, on December 21st, Iranians celebrate the arrival of winter, the renewal of the sun, and the victory of light over darkness – “Shab-e Yalda”, or the Night of Yalda.
The name Yalda means birth and is a Syriac word imported into the Persian language. It is also referred to as Shab-e Chelleh – the last night of fall. So, although this is the longest night of the year is the shortest day of the year!
In Iran, as is the case elsewhere, when it comes to outdoor video production or outdoor photography less daylight means fewer working hours. So the shortest day of the year means the shortest video production or outdoor advertising photography day. This of course isn’t ideal for production houses that have outdoor production projects on that day.
Conversely, production houses have the longest night of the year and a lot more time for video post-production, photo retouching, photo editing, corporate films creation, colour correcting TV commercials, in-studio product photography, and video production. Phew!
Here in Iran the occasion has become symbolized by certain seasonal fruit and we, therefore, wanted to humorously highlight production headaches on a day like today.
Pomegranate Impossibilities
As pomegranates are traditionally a popular fruit to eat on the Night of Yalda and the stain of pomegranate juice is practically impossible to remove. We suggest going for dark backgrounds with photography. A stain on a white background would be a nightmare – and remember, this is the longest night!
Watermelon Wariness
Watermelons are also another traditionally popular fruit for this occasion, but we suggest you avoid advertising photography with neat clear products involved. Having to arrange items or people in front of a camera with wet and wrinkled watermelon hands will certainly waste time – and remember, this is the shortest day!
Nutty Noisiness
The best part is dried fruits and nuts – also another traditional popular item for this occasion. Although these won’t leave a stain, you’ll have another problem all together. We suggest that if you’re recording sound or dubbing music compositions in the studio beware of capturing the sound of eating these delicious nibbles. Doing so will certainly destroy the audio production – and remember, this is the longest night of the year, so don’t make it any longer!
