Week 25.26 - Socials Roundup

Posts from 23 June - 29 June 2025

Week 25.26 posts are all about don’t do drugs kids, mkaaaaaaay?

and include shots from Poker Face (2024-current); Moontide (1942); Broad City (2014-2019); Bound (1996); and Legends of Tomorrow (2016-2022).

Poker Face

Episode 2.05 "Hometown Hero" follows Charlie to a gig for a minor league baseball team, where she accidentally chews some bubble gum laced with something extra . . .

The ‘something is off’ here starts with muffled audio, but notice how the use of light is what really motivates everything; from the warm brightness growing on Charlies face (in a laundry-cart-POV shot!) before she lifts the sock, to the light emanating from the sock continuing to glow bright against her hand and face (which would have been done with practical light on set as well as post-production colouring).

The way it starts with the light, and then animated details — not just the sock, but a wall placard, fire extinguisher, etc. we saw earlier.

And it ends with Charlie walking into the BIG BRIGHT LIGHT! at the end of the hallway.

We love feedback! If you’d like us to break down how this scene moves from live-action to full animation, or talk about a different element, drop us a comment!

As always, feel free to get in touch with any scene you’d like us to elaborate on.

Broad City

As Abbi crushes salty snacks and inhales them with a boba straw, a repeated dolly zoom makes the drug parallels felt.

It’s a fun camera move which seems to make the background ‘float’ away even as Abbi gets closer; it’s not a super dramatic here, but then, it’s mostly Chex Mix rye pieces she’s snorting (AKA the best component: fight me!)

Moontide

These shots are incredibly fun and slightly nauseating . . . just like the feeling of that first drink too many, especially when strung all together.

We did a longer look at how the editing in this sequence puts us in Jean Gabin’s woozy POV, evoking ‘having too much’ even when we’re looking directly at him.

Legends of Tomorrow

We’ve talked plenty about this show making a small budget do big things whether it’s stunts, film homages, three-boobed aliens, scene transitions with massive size discrepancies, magical sequences, or giant rampaging gorillas.

Behrad joining the team in Season 5 brings in more casual drug use, but despite Legends doing lots of timey-wimey effects, animated sequences, period pieces, and Doran-Gray-esque paintings come to life, we don’t often get put inside a trip trip.

But after Nate (Nick Zano) ingests a [wholly fictional] hallucinogen, this scene from 3.03 “Zari” puts us not in his literal POV, but within his experience, with their lens, shot angle, and sound choices.

The plot arc leans on acting from Nick Zano, but also whips out a fish-eye lens, Dutch-tilted camera, creative and echo-y sound mixing, and even colour choices; for example Jax and Sara are against an orange, basic wall, while Nick is against a blue wall with several lights ‘popping’ behind him; even though nothing is surreal about Nick’s single shot, it emphasises how his experience and perception of reality are very different than the other two.

All this emphasises and put us ‘within’ the trippy nature of the bright lights and space-go-whoooooosh feels Nick is experiencing, without needing to give us a POV sequence.

Bound

The Wachowski’s 1996 noir knows exactly what it’s doing with Violet using coffee to seduce Corky . . . and this quick one-two-one shot proves it.

When Corky looks down, it’s the sort of lascivious ‘up down’ shot usually given to a woman’s body in noir films. Then the cut to her point-of-view shows us . . . two cups of coffee.

Violet’s hand on the edge of frame is the only part of her her body Corky or we see (the first of many times Bound shows off hands!)

The return shot to Corky shows a look of appreciation on her face which is also usually given to the object of lust in a noir film.

I suppose lusting after coffee is the correct response, when it’s made right.

Coffee isn’t the only drug of choice for a fun shot — Bound also makes unique use of a whiskey decanter.