My Short Film: Someone Else’s Trauma I Read Online
An exposé
The inspiraiton for my short film came quick and easy like a one-pot dinner, and, although the short film artform is quick and easy, much like a one-pot creamy Tuscan salmon meal or a one-pot goulash, it still needs to be full of substance. Convenience cannot replace depth.
Take my recent exposé on the human condition for example. I’ll be referring to my short film as an exposé from this point on. There’s also a lot more one-pot meal discourse in here, and here’s the first; when I was searching online for fresh one-pot meal ideas, I stumbled on a story written by someone else. Full of trauma. I was obviously shaken, having been, moments before, in a state of bliss searching for my next meal on taste.com.
As an emerging exposé-maker for the last 17 years, this opportunity filled me with excitement. Could this story from Jackie Bowen of Redcliffe Queensland be my opus?
I needed to become Jackie.
Who was she? Jackie Bowen
Where did she come from? Redcliffe, Queensland.
There were so many unknowns. I needed to recalibrate and take stock. Chicken stock. One-pot. Risotto ai frutti di mare. I was struggling to make a start. My mind was elsewhere. All I could think about was one-pot meals. 15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking. It’s astounding I managed to get anything done apart from sitting in awe of the concept of one-pot meals.
But alas, my exposé was in progress, and I was deep in the life of Jackie Bowen. I like to think of her as a sous-chef on the precipice of greatness. Not quite the head of the restaurant, but she has the top in her sights. She’s a go-getter after all, even developing a new menu that focuses solely on one-pot meals. A renegade, a culinary whizz dedicated to a no fuss dining experience. People think she’s crazy — there’s NO WAY a restaurant could survive by only selling one pot-meals! There’s no variation, no vision, only sodium ridden stocks with an umami punch. The bank will never give her a loan. This is restauranting 101, keep it simple stupid! She’s wasting her potential going down this dark street aimlessly pursuing one-pot meal perfection. You’ve got to give it to her though, Jackie knows what Jackie wants, and one-pot meals are at the centre of that want. She has belief, and for her that’s enough. It’s admirable really. She’s so authentically Jackie, and maybe that’s why I’m in love with her.
Unfortunately, none of the above is true. Jackie works for H&R Block, but don’t worry, my exposé omits that fact and sticks with the bit about one-pot meals instead. See, one-pot meals as a theme for an exposé are overflowing with possibilities. I’m talking stocks, I’m talking stews, endless risottos, rich casseroles, the list goes on! One-pot meals are an underutilised technique, and one that I believe will prove the difference between the success and failure of my exposé .
I hope my thoughts on one-pot meals aren’t distracting too much from the genesis of my exposé, and more importantly Jackie Bowen and the trauma she experienced as read by yours truly on Buzzfeed.
The exposé is currently on the festival circuit, but unfortunately there aren’t a lot of culinary based short exposé festivals out there. We’ve had a lot of rejections, and the press have been brutal.
To make things worse, we’re in early court preceedings for ‘stealing’ Jackie’s life story but adding a ‘weird’ one-pot meal element to it and calling it an exposé. Weirdly she’s more angry about the exposé thing.
I really hope we can reconcile our differences with her over mediation next week. I crammed a lot of really important information about one-pot meals in that exposé. It’d be devastating if it went straight to YouTube.
