Week 25.17 - Socials Roundup
Posts from 21 April - 27 April 2025
Week 25.17 posts include shots from Buck and the Preacher (1972); Ladies in Retirement (1941); Throw Momma from the Train (1987); Ghosts (US, 2021-current); and Josh Johnson’s standup Katy Perry and the AstroNOTS (April 2025).
Buck and the Preacher
This shot from the 1972 Western does so much in one frame:
shows the audience Deshay (Cameron Mitchell) hiding behind Ruth (Ruby Dee) while making clear nobody out away from them would be able to see what is happening
conspicuously making it clear Deshay is a low-down coward
related, making clear he is ‘lower than’ Ruth
using a wide-ish lens to accentuate the terror Ruth feels in the moment
using Ruth’s proximity to to the lens (thus the screen / audience) put us close inside her experience
Throw Momma from the Train
The transition between these two shots of Larry and Owen (Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito) unmistakably ties them together; much as they — especially Larry — may want to believe they’re different, they’ve got sooooo much more in common than wanting someone dead!
Ladies in Retirement
Ladies in Retirement ends with Ellen (Ida Lupino) walking into the endless fog . . .
actually into a stage with a painted backdrop, but they really sell it by building a circuitous path between prop trees for Ellen to walk, and holding out til the last second, popping THE END and credits up to distract juuuuuust a little from the magic trick.
Katy Perry and the AstroNOTS
Get you a camera team like Josh Johnson's
who understand exactly when to tilt, and when to switch to a 90° angle, to peeeeerfectly sell this joke about Katy Perry's rocket flight, including coming back down to earth / re-orienting into typical standup camera work.
Ghosts
The delightfully named "Thorapy 2: Abandonment Issues" has fun contrasting Pete’s diminutiveness with the hulk of Gorm, a ghost of Thor’s old Viking shipmate.
The angles (and having Pete’s head and body, but Gorm’s elbow) dirty in each others’ frame really accentuate the size difference.
(Likely, putting Gorm on a box for those closer shots helped, too.)