ARTIST'S STATEMENT
CENTRAL QUESTION
With the help of his friends, can a college student with little to no preliminary culinary or cinematography experience work through the year and gain the skills necessary to spread the love of cooking to his already preoccupied peers through a cooking video?
BACKGROUND
My film is titled "Cuisine de la Suite", which roughly translates to "apartment cooking". Not only are the French known for their culinary prestige, but most of my roommates, including me, have French roots. While we can say we're proud of our background, the sheer elegance of the French culture and language featured in our title contradicts the film's at-times grungy, fun-loving energy. This was intentional, as the title-film relationship highlights the faulty stereotype of cooking being exclusively a lofty or even prestigious hobby. The film shows you that cooking can be fun, practical, affordable, and time-efficient, even for a college student!
INFLUENCE
SUBJECT MATTER
My roommates and I noticed something this year. When you order fast-food, delivery fees always sneak up on you and cost you an arm and a leg. It tastes great, but it often leaves you feeling groggy and unproductive the next day. This leaves you with less drive to make something healthy and subtly sways you towards getting, you guessed it... more fast-food. Especially during busy, sleep-deprived weeks, we were each swayed into this cycle a lot towards the beginning of the year. I recognized this cycle, and breaking it was one of my main drivers for gaining skills in the kitchen. Let alone, it costs less to buy fresh ingredients rather than pre-prepared meals!
STYLE
Other than the fact that culinary material is often communicated through video format, my choices in style and form of expression are heavily inspired by Kyle Mooney's sketches on SNL. He is most-known for exhibiting awkward social behavior in sketches, but it's a rather endearing sense of humor that ironically puts you at ease (Saturday Night Live, 2014). Along with Pete Davidson and other young crew-members on SNL, he acts with a youthful carelessness that college students can relate to. There's also something very human in how rough and sketchy his bits on the show are, which is also something I wanted to capture an element of in my video.
ENERGY
I wanted to interject a warm, radiant energy into my video. NBA player and part-time YouTube personality Serge Ibaka proved to be a great influence for me, as his video-series on YouTube includes equal amounts of cooking, conversation, and laughs (How Hungry Are You, 2020). Although a central-theme to his series is cooking, the warm and open way in which he treats his guests was my main inspirational takeaway from his clips, as they're central to how I intend to interact with my audience. My stylistic influence was also environmental through the presence of COVID. I wanted to create an uplifting final product, as I thought it was good for both me and my audience during such a tough time.
AUDIENCE & IMPACT
The film informs you of tasty, simple, and attainable culinary tricks/recipes, inspires you to get cooking whenever you have the chance, and keeps you engaged through warmth and personality.
As a college student who has low-points in motivation and overall productivity (which describes pretty much every college student more or less), I wanted to gear this project towards other college students. The video could touch my audience in a multitude of ways, whether it reassures them during this awkward period between mom's cooking and independence, or challenges stereotypes of what cooking "should look like". Overall, the project offers a window or a helping hand into the world of cooking and self-care.
METHODS
While the film features my roommates and I behaving like our usual selves, more thought and preparation was put into structuring my personal transformation as a chef.
Among less significant dishes, the film features main "follow-able" recipes such as traditional Asian peanut-noodles, fish/vegetarian tacos, and my signature and improvised peanut butter avocado toast. As you may have noticed, dishes ranging from small snacks to entire meals were included in order to provide guidance or inspiration for any situation in the kitchen. Some of recipes featured in the film were inspired by mother, while others were inspired by online videos (Simply Mama Cooks, 2020) and books centered around spice combinations or flavor development (Sercarz, 2016).
As I mentioned earlier, this is not just a cooking project but also a presentation project, expressing my semester-long cooking journey. To ensure some sense of clarity and order for both me and my peers, I needed to play the role of the director. The production of the film was heavily facilitated and organized by a loose, adaptable storyboard that I devised towards the beginning of the semester. In the long run this saved time, energy, and maximized the potential of the creative process.
Additionally, the film implements intentional cinematography/editing techniques to make incremental transitions in both the video and my ability more clear/memorable. This involves creating that off-the-cuff, stitched-together, and naturally disorganized “Kyle Mooney” style, but also involves incorporating certain themes that organize the video and make for a smoother watch. For example, the film features buffers comprised of lifestyle or preparation footage between subjects to illicit a smoother experience for the audience. Learning some of these basics of the cinematic language also have to ask one of my friends to help film for portions of the video, so that requires me to be both the active subject and the director of the short film. Even though cooking will be the prominent theme of the video, a lot of work will go into how the process of cooking and preparing is shot and presented.
ABOUT ME
To learn more about me and my experience in Arts Scholars, check out my eportfolio using the link below.
REFERENCES
Sercarz, L. L. (2016). The spice companion: A guide to the world of spices. New York City, NY: Clarkson Potter.
Caron, S. W. (2018). The super easy 5-ingredient cookbook: 30-minute, sheet pan, one pot, no-cook recipes. Emeryville, CA: Rockridge
Ibaka, S. “Ibaka Cooks Pascal Siakam Fish Eyes | How Hungry Are You?” Youtube, uploaded by Bleacher Report, December 23, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPjpXKKqqW8
Saturday Night Live. “Inside SoCal: The Kicker at Keith's Dad's Condo - SNL” YouTube, uploaded by Saturday Night Live, 27 January, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCdXmjjvf54.