“Frame This: A Smashed Donut with a Waving Kitchen Knife”

    An empty kitchen sitting in silence, anticipating a slice of an onion or a sizzle coming from a pan on the stovetop. The Bear has more to offer than its chaotic work environment and deliciously made food. The mise-en-scene and cinematography are the keys to making every episode highly intense, emotional, and dramatic which leaves the audience wanting more. The setting being entirely the kitchen throughout the first season is significant to the chefs but also establishes the importance of building a relationship while trying to create a harmonious system.

     The kitchen establishes where the characters spend most of their time while providing an insight into how the kitchen functions with them. Episode seven called “Review”, is all about the restaurant’s new feature – to-go orders. The episode goes in one fluid camera movement in a span of 20 minutes. The characters and their involvement with the setting and props heighten the urgency and importance of the day. After a 2-minute montage, it shows one of the characters [Marcus] making donuts. The way he delicately grabs the filling to fill the donut with the utmost concentration on making it the “perfect” donut. However, when the chaos unfolds the rest of the episode, we see that delicate donut that he spent his precious time, smushed and thrown to the floor out of anger from another character [Carmy].

     The donut is meaningful in a way due to Marcus’ passion for learning to improve his baking skills in the kitchen. In “Review” he is shown to be very happy and proud of himself to finally achieve a good and delicious donut. The camera movement does a beautiful job at showing the close-ups of Marcus concentrating on his “masterpiece”. Framing of the jelly filling
and the donut keeps the audience intrigued and maybe guessing what it may look like by the end of this episode. As it is finally shown during the madness of the day, the framing of Marcus focuses on him as he is happy at achieving a well-made donut while panning to the donut in his hand. It frames to Carmy at a disoriented close-up while he yells at Marcus and smacks the donut to the ground. The interaction between these two heightens the falling of the kitchen system as Carmy puts his fellow chef in a defeated manner due to his urgency of the to-go orders.

    The previous episodes have similar situations, but the episode “Review”, has many great representations of how bad the day was for the kitchen. This one episode is more significant because the character's built-up relationships begin to fall very rapidly. Another relationship that escalates quickly is Sydney and Richie. Their first heated interaction is off to the side discussing the topic of how Sydney is “taking over” with her new ideas of changing the restaurant. This specific part of their interaction is where the audience gets close and personal with these two characters. The camera movement between these two flows in one movement which encapsulates the argument escalating.        

      
    The framing at this time is a regular medium shot of both characters but as soon as the dialogue starts to heat up, the camera then moves closer to a medium shot of each character during the conversation. Another great framing of the camera is again with Sydney and Richie during another of their heated arguments. After Sydney spues insults after insults to Richie it goes into a medium shot of them getting into each other’s face with boundaries being crossed. In this specific frame, it shows Sydney holding a kitchen knife and dangerously waving it in the little space between her and Richie. This frame itself shows what type of relationship they have in the kitchen and how they clash against one another. The background also provides scenery of the situation. Sydney is waving a kitchen knife in front of Richie in a work environment with a delusional face due to the situation.

    As intense and emotionally driven as episode seven is, it goes down a notch in episode eight “Braciole”. The specific scene mentioned is with Carmy talking in front of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, which is for friends and families to attend for their fellow loved ones who were addicts. The setting in this episode is inside a church, providing a sense of clarity and proving to be a safe environment for everyone and anyone to speak out as they wish for healing. As Carmy goes up and speaks for the first time in this meeting the camera frames it as if the audience is sitting and listening in. While Carmy talks, the audience gets more insight into Carmy’s life, what life was like growing up with his brother, and what life was like after leaving to become a professional chef.

    The medium shot of Carmy from the viewpoint of sitting cuts to a close-up of him to intensify the topic. The close-up stays there for the rest of the scene. In the frame, the main focal point is all about Carmy showing a vulnerable side to him that the audience finally sees for the first time. The interior of the church's private room becomes blurred, and the camera creates a crystal-clear picture of a vulnerable Carmy. After this scene, it cuts to the next scene back into the kitchen with the onions being grilled on the stovetop and a big chunk of meat cooking for another opening day for the restaurant. Continuing as if everything is normal.

    The Bear is not just about showing off delicious food but also showing a sense of community that is trying to be created within the kitchen. There are dynamics between characters that the cinematography uses to create more depth and meaning besides the script. The props enhance everything in a situation, especially in the setting of a kitchen. The Bear seems to have it all but who knows what may happen in the kitchen in the next season.

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Credits: Kaitlyn Villarreal (Publisher) Rebecca Corpus (Writer) Abigail Newman (Editor) Robert Barrera (Social Media) Sam Kunkle (Scribe)