Iris Shots - THE ACOLYTE (episodes 1-4)
Circles, Opening and Closing
All this week our socials feature iris shots through the decades. A recent show made copious use of this technique, and so we’re looking closely at The Acolyte.
Because of the sheer number of iris transitions, we’ve split our post in two. Next episode includes purposeful iris-ing both in on and out from two Star Wars staples: lightsabers and twins!
To a Title Card, To A Credit
The first iris shot caps The Acolyte’s opening sequence, with the iris ‘closing’ into the area of frame where the O of the title card appears a second later.
Then the final shot of 1.02 “Revenge / Justice” is also a ‘closing’ iris, which almost seems to suck the picture into a black hole.
This transition not only makes the fun contrast of moving from a house in the woods to space, but draws our attention in to the centre of frame, which is where the director’s title card is.
It’s fun that an iris shot ‘bookends’ The Acolyte creator’s two directed episodes: first into the show’s title card, last into her name.
Pulling Attention
To Moving Characters
These iris shots in 1.01 “Lost / Found” (top) and 1.04 “Day” (bottom) both work similarly, drawing our eyes toward where the characters are walking in the first scene, which is the same general place where another character emerges in the second scene.
To Something Broad
In 1.02 “Revenge / Justice,” the iris grows to overtake the first scene, instead of closing on the scene from the edges of frame.
This ‘growing’ iris works differently to the above two shots, because the second scene is not drawing our attention to anything in particular, it’s expanding a broad market scene. Subsequent shots get closer and closer and more specific, but the opening is an establishing shot where we’re just meant to take in the whole tableau.
Lapsing Time and Distance
In 1.04 “Day,” the scene transitions to the same group of people, closing on a closeup which transitions into a big wide shot, helping to emphasise the great time and distance the group are covering.
Takeaways
Not every episode uses an iris — for example, Episode 3 doesn’t, which could be because director Kogonada did not want one, or because the episode is entirely in flashback (in relation to the series) and the stylisation is tweaked somewhat to accomodate that, or the editor did not find a place it worked, etc.
Film Details & Further Reading
The Acolyte (2024)
Directors: Leslye Headland, Kogonada, Hanelle M. Culpepper, Alex Garcia Lopez (2 episodes each)
Cinematographers: Chris Teague, James Friend (4 episodes each)
Editors: Cheryl Potter, Miikka Leskinen (4 episodes each)
Draft Zero episode: our discussion is centered around The Mandalorian, but this episode discusses how to deal with writing a story where the outcome(s) and many characters are already known to your audience from other stories, and specifically how Star Wars often deal with such.