POKER FACE: Season 1 Roundup

As we look forward to Poker Face Season 2, we look back at some of our favourite shots from Season 1 of this delightful how catch ‘em.

Hitchcock Homage

Right off the bat, "The Night Shift" gives real Psycho vibes . . . and framing.

Split Diopter

We love a split diopter, and using it twice is double the nice.

This shot-reverse-shot in "Exit Stage Death" has a nice thick centre-blur, but both shots make clear the focus is both characters, because all they can think about even when they’re looking at the audience and delivering their lines is each other . . . for better or worse.

They’re both lit in blues with yellow accents, so dressing one character in bright red and the other in muted green helps us immediately distinguish who is who through the blur and dim stage light.

The third character moving through the middle 'blur' is a joke / commentary about how the two 'in focus' actors see / treat her . . . to their great detriment.

Match Cut

This "Exit Stage Death" scene transition moves us with cheeky cleverness from the Guest Stars Case of the Week story to catch up with what Charlie is up to.

Almost everything except frame size changes: it sweeps from INT to EXT, items falling to a lid raising, warm lighting and with the main wardrobe being red to cool lighting with primarily blue outfits.

Because this is the first time we’ve seen Charlie this episode, it immediately ‘shows doesn’t tell’ where we are via the industrial dumpster, an apron and white notepad, then an extra walking by wearing a cook's white coat.

Both camera and character movements are all motivated, and the camera is constantly reframing different size shots, so we may get swept along and not notice it’s a oner, because that’s not what’s important; giving us the general vibe of Charlie’s life rolling along is enough.

Ultimately the oner cranes to a marquee which essentially serves as the establishing shot we never got (because we crashed in from the makeup table to the dumpster) before smash-cutting to the performance the marquee is advertising.

FIN.