On-Set Production – Short of the Week Review
On-Set ProductionCru (Raw)
In film and television there has been a surge in stories about the hospitality industry, specifically the unglamorous reality of being a chef in a high-end, haute restaurant. Shows like The Bear and films like Boiling Point, The Menu, and Burnt, have focused on the impassioned, frenetic, and gritty lifestyle of chefs and the contradiction between the serenity of the service, detailed perfection of the food presented, and the hidden strife and turmoil in the kitchen.
The short film Cru (Raw) directed by David Oesch follows a young female chef working in a high-end kitchen in her first few days of the job.
The opening shot presents a plate with a meticulously prepared dish centre-framed and with a bright, cold light. This tells us that the food, the final plate presented to the customer, is of the utmost importance. It comes before any of the chefs who made it. The soundtrack accompanying it drones ominously, creating a sense of tension to an otherwise neutral shot.
The following overhead shot shows chef’s tweezers fixing a sprig of chive as a garnish, again emphasising that attention to detail that is demanded of chefs of a certain calibre.
We learn that this is our nameless protagonist, and this speaks measures about her personality and place in the kitchen. The composition and lighting in this shot seems almost surgical, with cold, white light and a metal utensil. She seems only momentarily relieved by this adjustment to the dish. Her concentration is interrupted by order calls by the sous chef.
We cut quickly from shot to shot, to represent a similar sense of chaos and shifting focus in the kitchen. Each lasts only a few seconds before switching to something else, mimicking the workflow of the chefs who switch between tasks rapidly.
The sous chef has taken over from the protagonist, chopping the chives haphazardly and inconsistently. She asks if it bothers him – the lack of consistency – and he replies that she will change her mind with time too and care less about the fine details.
We know the head chef has entered the kitchen from the startled reactions of the other chefs, and then our first glimpse is of her boots hitting the floor – creating a sense of unease and anticipation.
The head chef instantly notices the imperfect cut on the chives – something the protagonist insisted she would never not care about. The sous chef admits they rushed through it and will perfect it, contrasting his earlier flippant attitude.
The framing of this shot is interesting – she is framed by two chefs who are her superiors, but in this moment she revels in her brief feeling of superiority over the sous chef and her alliance with the head chef.
When the sous chef storms out of the kitchen, she loses concentration and focus and cuts her hand. Determined to impress the head chef and secure her place in the kitchen, she attempts to hide it and continue on as normal. The chives she once argued over are now contaminated – her values have changed.
This shot is reminiscent of a horror film – the blood stains, surgical gloves, and an attempt to hide an injury. In a high end kitchen, this is the one of the worst things you can do – to try and achieve her goal, she will violate health and safety regulations. When the head chef enters the kitchen, she conceals her injury in order to hide her ‘weakness’.
This attempt to conceal the cut is contrasted by the head chef proudly displaying her own scars from cheffing – commenting that it is ambition through the form of suffering that counts, not aspirations of talent. The downward-angled lighting acts as a form of backlighting, drawing attention to their silhouettes.
Determined to show the head chef what she can do, she pushes herself to the breaking point. She throws a sauce the sous made into the sink, pushes him against a wall and tells him to get out of her way, and bleeds into the sauce that ends up being served to a customer.
Out in the soft, warm lighting and calm, serene ambience, our protagonist looks out of place. She’s horrified to realise it’s too late and to cause a greater scene would cost her the job.
The head chef tastes the contaminated sauce in a shot with a narrow depth of field to focus on her micro expressions. Pleased with the sauce, she instructs the protagonist to make the sauce for everyone else. The blood from her cut that contaminated the sauce represents the underlying thematic idea of the film – to succeed in a cut-throat, stressful environment you must suffer and make personal sacrifices.
Final Thoughts
Cru (Raw) was a chaotic, tense, and visually dynamic short film that used handheld footage and considered composition and framing to add subtext to the story of an upcoming chef in a tough industry. The motif of blood, sweat, and tears, was taken to a literal extent and paid off in the visual storytelling that communicated with the viewer without the need for dialogue. The juxtaposition in lighting – cold to warm – and camerawork – handheld to steady – represented the progression of the characters in the film and the difference in their world versus the service provided to customers.