Week 25.04 - Socials Roundup
Posts from 20 Jan - 26 Jan 2025
Week 25.04 posts include shots from Hot Rod (2007) and Ghosts (UK; 2019-current); Abbott Elementary (2021-current); Time Without Pity (1957); and Paris Texas (1984) and Twin Peaks (1990-1991).
Paris, Texas and David Lynch
Paris, Texas has several shots reminiscent of David Lynch films, including this mirror superimposition shot of Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) and Jane (Nastassja Kinski) in the confessional booth.
It’s actually akin to multiple David Lynch shots, including one with Cooper in Twin Peaks season 3, and a far more terrifying one with Laura Dern’s character and a man in Inland Empire — the former uses a crossfade and the latter a morphing bit of CGI.
Perhaps the most similar is from Twin Peaks 2.14 “Lonely Souls”, which aired in 1991, where Leland sees Bob’s face over his own.
Both scenes use mirrors and similar framing to intimate the concept of two characters being the same and/or knowing each others’ innermost thoughts.
Hot Rod and Ghosts
It’s just a lot of fun to watch people and/or anthropomorphised inanimate objects tumble down and down and down and dooooooooown . . .
Speaking of stunts . . .
Abbott Elementary
Abbott Elementary pulls a lot of smaller, simple stunts, like this opener from 4.05 "Dad Fight".
A shot-by-shot breakdown below!
1. wide establisher
2. medium shot 90° angle from the establisher. This is a front-on of the group, showing where Mz. Schemmenti is, showing the audience her / Lisa Ann Walter's face.
3. closer version of the establisher; here's the stunt.
A car drives by, which - along with the camera zoom - momentarily obscures exactly how Schemmenti trips. The car+zoom also potentially cover if the fall isn't perfect, because we can see all of the sidewalk and there's no mat . . . though it IS a perfect fall!
Look how the stuntie falls with the coffee cup upright *and* in perfect position in case the wig doesn't fully obscure their face. The stuntie begins to get up, and on that movement a cut-
4. return to shot 2, the front on of the group. We Mz Schemmenti in motion, with her actions and the facial expressions of everyone else (Quinta Brunson's little panic and check-in with the camera!) to make us laugh and distract us from the bait and switch.
A simple stunt, perfectly executed.
5. BONUS: they clearly continued Shot 3 with the stuntie being helped up by everyone else, and cut to that to help generate the chaos / hide the fact one take was clearly better for Lisa Ann Walter getting up, and one was better for everyone's reactions to lead into the title card.
A good reminder to let things play out; you may not use it, but giving a few extra beats especially within stunt scenes gives your editor room to work!
Time Without Pity
This slow-moving shot from 1957's Time Without Pity lets us linger in the emotion of David's (Michael Redgrave) pain at having failed his son, but it also considers blocking and lighting in every place the camera will be from start to end.
Both stationary guard and the one who enters from a doorway Frame Left / exits Frame Right (0:05 / 0:29) fill space and add shadowing, while Honor (Ann Todd) stops walking partway to leave David with his grief, but also to fill the 'middle space' in frame as the camera backs up and David moves forward.
At 0:18 there's a soft flare from a light when then comes in and makes a beautiful halo on top of frame. Meanwhile on the back wall loom shadows of the jail bars, constantly reminding us where we are and what stakes the story has.
