Week 25.33 - Socials Roundup

Posts from 11 August - 17 August 2025

Week 25.33 posts include shots from Doctor Who (2005-2023); a look at every use of clock (and one very cheeky use of a J-cut) in two episodes of The Bear (2022-current); Miami Vice (2006).

Miami Vice

These two shots which come moments apart in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice have many similarities — a character’s face fills much of the frame, in similar lighting and colour grade, with an emphasis on eyes and then mouth, to put us in a character’s frame of mind — but the differences make a massive impact.

Rico

Rico (Jamie Foxx) is barely in control, trying to concentrate on a dozen different things including the man behind him, his girlfriend in front of him, radio noise, etc.

The lensing makes him look more manic; despite him being close to the camera we see many objects and items behind him, and we’re caught up in his frenetic energy.

Gina

Meanwhile Gina (Elizabeth Rodriguez) is cool, calm, concentrating.

Despite proximity, the lensing doesn’t distort her, and we see only her face and weapon, no objects behind her. She’s focused on the nazi she’s aiming at and talking to, and the camera helps keep us focused on only her words.

Doctor Who

This scene from 6.07 “A Good Man Goes To War” is all about equal opportunity innuendo!

The setup between Madame Vastra and Jenny talking about their relationship as two prisoner soldiers try to hit a big red button; this is intercut with a tense standoff between soldiers and the Headless Monks.

Then, in a quick series of events, the General says “nobody deploy weapons” — smash cut to a very intentionally framed shot of a very specifically held sonic screwdriver whirring to life.

Next Madame Vastra asks “why do you put up with me?” before suddenly reacting to the soldiers behind her by deploying her long, strong, accurately-aimed tongue; Jenny’s very un-demure look answers the question for Madame Vastra (and us).

The Bear 4.07

Weddings are and are not important in terms of time. On the one hand, you’ve got people flying and driving and arriving from all around the world (first mentioned here at 12 minutes), and firm-ish start times for the rehearsal, ceremony, reception, potentially departure.

On the other hand, part of the point is everyone there has put their lives on hold for this day, however long or short it takes. “Bears” is centred around a wedding, and almost entirely ignores its ‘time’ conceit, except for two moments.

We don’t get a good look, but the flashes of striated digital numbers are immediately recognisable, even within this jittery sequence of Carmy having a panic attack.

It makes sense that time — and these particular bright blue numbers — would be a part of his anxiety, along with snippets of past family functions, closeups of strangers’ faces, words from various reviews condemning his restaurant but also he feels like his personality, etc.

That’s the only clock in the whole extra-long episode, until the very final moments when Richie looks at his phone, and it’s the next day.

The Bear 4.08

“Green” opens with a stylised sequence where Sydney is putting on a heightened cooking-slash-infomercial show which is interrupted by forces of nature and rioting patrons.

As the sequence/dream devolves into total mayhem, a timer rings.

Tale of Two Timers

The juxtaposition is sharp, to say the least, between how Sydney runs her life and how Carmy does. A clean, angular white timer in a blue wash on a fairly neat kitchen bench, as opposed to a rounded, sauce-spattered timer on a tchotchke-crowded countertop lit in yellows and oranges.

Continuing the Dream

But instead of this kitchen timer moving us into another ‘regular’ The Bear scene, it cues a cut to the very opening shots of this season in S4E1 “Groundhogs”, which were quickly eclipsed by a different-but-similar timekeeping instrument in a direct callback to “Fishes”.

Instead of following that patterns of moving on into the ‘episode proper’, we move into another dreamscape. [We’re currently doing several entries into ‘how to shoot dreams’ — this one is pretty obvious; wildly tilted angles, snowfall inside, glaringly bright spotlights, etc.]

To end this dream, a second alarm goes off. When Sydney wakes up, we’re pretty sure it’s not a dream, because we saw her wake up in the same place to the same alarm in S4E5 “Replicants”.

Revolving Around Time

Also stark contrast: conversations in this episode and the last.

So many chats and scenes in “Green” revolve around timing (of phone calls, of meetings, of how many hours til doors open and service starts, of how recent or old wine is), days of the week (for medication, and scheduling), reminder alarms on phones (for medication, for drinking water), of Tina trying to improve her pasta timing, of more soundtrack reminders of time and its passing, of “move swiftly but you’re never in a rush” and Matty practicing his pacing.

All throughout, the red clock shows hours passing as the chefs prep, the blue clock and numbers with the line crawl reminding us of the time crunch.

The Bear — Watching Closely

Not for nothing have they given Jessica (Sarah Ramos) things to do with her right hand, and here keep her right side to camera to keep her watch catching the light.

It’s been noticeable — she always wears this watch, and is often writing or gesturing with her right hand — but becomes especially pertinent here in a scene where she fixes Richie’s tie, and then later uses a feather duster (lol) to give reason to be in the same tight space, then he fixes her tie for her.

Within the second of these two exchanges, loooooove this little moment where they use pre-lap audio (also known as a J-cut, which we describe in more detail here) to ‘commentate’ on her and Richie’s budding friendship-work-romance.

“What does that mean?”

Oh, we know what that means.