(DON’T) LET HIM COOK
For our short film TV show spoof, we wanted to pick a show that was ubiquitous, but not forced. What that meant to us is something that already existed in the minds of most of our audience, but wasn’t a show that could have quotes recited word for word (like The Office). One of my favorite TV shows to watch with my mother growing up was Chopped, a cooking show, where contestants are given free reign of a kitchen, under the stipulation they include a specific mystery ingredient in the dish. Given that Chopped has a rotating cast of chefs, and not very memorable judges, this was a good fit for us to shoot in the span of a lunch break.
For the sake of convenience, we used premade food in the Furman dining hall as opposed to cooking in a real kitchen like on the show. As I grew up watching Chopped, I took the lead on directing by following my contestants (group members) around the dining hall, chronicling their creations on a handheld camera. While I did look like the BIGGEST weirdo in the whole cafeteria, we got excellent shots showing the preparation of these dishes. Each of the group members then presented their dishes to me and I graded them on their presentation and taste. Carter’s (see below) Asian fusion burger is the inspiration for the title, with ingredients including:
A panini pressed wheat hamburger bun
two beef patties
two slices of American cheese
and of course, dried apricots
Carter Whitt: Great basketball player, bad chef.
He should no longer be allowed to cook. Ashlyn and Kaitlyn did a fine job producing a semi-palatable dish, but it was my childhood dislike for bananas that gave Kaitlyn’s ciabatta (see left) the edge. Kaitlyn, Ashlyn, and Carter all helped co-edit the piece, as I had prior arrangements that weekend.
Given that Chopped is a mostly unscripted show in terms of dialogue, we left that to each of the actors when on camera. We did however outline four key sections of Chopped that needed to be included:
Introduction of the ingredient
Preparation of the dish
Chef interviews
Judging
In addition to this, our ability to improvise dialogue on the fly gave us humor that our spoof desperately needed. As I did the majority of the camera work, I practiced getting dynamic handheld shots as well as quickly adjusting tripod heights to accommodate the large difference in heights between our four actors. This ability to deal with the large crowds and find dynamic angles (see right) to shoot on the fly seems very similar to what news crews deal with day to day, and while I no longer see a future for myself in that, it is a valuable skill to have under my belt.
