Every Angle In A Bottle: BOJACK HORSEMAN
BoJack Horseman has a few episodes widely known by name and/or reputation:
"Fish Out of Water"
"Stupid Piece of Sh*t"
“That’s Too Much, Man”
We are gathered here today to talk about “Free Churro”, twenty six minutes of one actor, voicing one animated character, in one room.
Specifically, we are talking about how the shots keep this episode interesting, and for an episode like this, it helps to look at every angle. For the sake of analysis, they’re sorted by size — wide, medium, closeup — with three ‘exceptional’ shots.
OPEN ON
The first shot could not be more innocuous: a standard medium shot, with no context.
The episode will serve variations on the medium, including angles which hold more obvious religious undertones (what could be a generic podium has a distinctly pulpit-y vibe, and stained glass windows show a dove flying to the heavens), but this is chosen for its generic-ness.
You can’t even see BoJack is wearing a full, head-to-hoof black funereal suit.
WIDES
The next shot, however, goes wide. Almost the widest the episode will go, in fact. Specifically it shows full context: coffin, flower wreath, stained glass windows, and all.
The episode plays several slight variations on this shot, including those where BoJack paces around, which come in just slightly to show Bojack and the coffin alone, or which cut off the Right side / wreath in favour of showing the Left side / doorway (which leads perhaps to a bathroom, or entry into another rom for another funeral), .
A variation on this wide is also the final shot . . . but more on that, at the end.
The other two wides are on a more extreme angle, one of which makes the coffin loom large, and the other almost an exact reverse which puts BoJack almost ‘on top of’ the coffin, looking as though he’s staring straight down into it.
MEDIUMS
The mediums play with a few more angles than the wides, but these are the real ‘workperson’ angles, just variations on the same which allow variation while occasionally reminding us the coffin and/or door still exist.
(you should be able to click through the gallery to get the full picture of each)
CLOSEUPS
The animators give BoJack some of his more extreme facial expressions here. Said expressions have all the more power against a backdrop we’re quite used to — as it’s the only thing we see all episode — and with no other face to either react or cut to.
The 360
This is the only shot which kinda-sorta breaks from the conceit, but it never leaves the room. In fact, the ‘camera’ movement directly transitions into and out of medium shots which appear elsewhere, as though to make it clear BoJack is still ‘stuck’ in place even as he whirls through an emotional 360 in a shot reminiscent of the show’s fantastic opening credits.
The Reverse
This ‘punchline’ packs so much impact because we’ve just spent 25 minutes looking at approximately [pending exactly how you count the minor variations and pans] 30 shots* all on one side of a 180° line.
Parting Shot
And then it ends, medium wide, centered amongst the key elements which have been there all along, the blocking putting BoJack behind the coffin for the first time.