Week 25.28 - Socials Roundup
Posts from 07 July - 13 July 2025
Week 25.28 posts include shots from Taskmaster (2015-current); a stillframe and a shot which requires sound to work from Alias Nick Beale (1949); The Royal Tenenbaums (2001); and Poker Face (2024-current).
The Royal Tenenbaums
Lots to love about movement and edit in this sequence, but my (Mel’s) one favourite bit is at 0:08-0:09
When the car plows into the house, we don’t see the event itself; instead, the shot cuts to a medium of Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston) who we the audience knows is in the house, and the camera gives a dramatic shake to emphasize how the house — and indeed, Etheline’s whole world — has been rocked.
Poker Face
Episode 2.10 “The Big Pump” utilises a Texas Switch to give us a little jump scare as Rodney (Jason Ritter) startles Brick (Cliff “Method Man” Smith) in the gym after hours.
As Brick cleans up, Rodney (played in the background by a shadowy body double) moves through the dark gym. When the camera (motivated by Brick’s motions) pans away from Rodney the extra ducks out of frame and Ritter comes in to oh-so-casually lean against the weight equipment.
Why a Texas Switch? Because the distance is too far for Ritter to be so casually, perfectly composed for the jump scare, while Rodney being able to move this quickly is just on the edge of ‘technically feasible’ that Poker Face plays on.
Taskmaster
In S19 E08 "Science All Your Life" Jason Mantzoukas learns why you shouldn’t anger three groups of people: gods, camera operators, and editors.
The first only order your life, the second two groups of people choose your shots!
Alias Nick Beal
Next week we’re looking at five shots from this horror noir which tells the story of Faust in a [then]modern context, all of which use lighting changes to great effect.
But we couldn’t leave out sound and stills!
Stillframe
Though the film keeps the story grounded, it introduces surrealism and potential supernatural elements through suggestion, editing and lighting, and background elements
such as in this shot, where the wallpaper and blocking convene to make it look like Nick (Ray Milland) is both inside and outside, with horns and/or smoke protruding from his head.
Sound
Note how clever use of sound allows this scene to work as an ‘invisible oner’!
Nick asks Joseph (Thomas Mitchell) “How many pipes in the set?” and Joseph answers “Seven.” When Joseph begins to count, the expected thing is to show the pipes, whether the camera moves to them, or he brings them to the camera, or (most commonly) a cutaway shot to a closeup.
Instead, as Joseph counts, we hear non-diegetic tones, escalating in pitch and volume, “one two three four five six” . . . no seven. We know exactly when Joseph does that there are six pipes — a really fun use of score!