Week 50: Socials Roundup
Posts from 11th December to 18 December, 2023
Week 49 saw posts on Rutherford Falls (2021-2022), Trying (2020-2024), Barry Lyndon (1975), Broad City (2014-2019), and Fall of the House of Usher (2023).
Rutherford Falls
Nathan Rutherford has a strong played-for-laughs veneration of his ancestors, so when he talks to a wall of them in 1.07 "Rutherford Inc." the scene starts with an extreme high angle which shows the sheer number of them, as well as how Nathan sees himself small in comparison.
At 0:13 there's also a delightful use of Cousin Cyrus's picture, framed as you would frame a person for a shot-reverse-shot.
Trying
The framing of this "Trying" scene is straightforward; a classic 'shot-reverse-shot' in a small sauna, which being 'hot and claustrophobic' makes sense to be close-up on Jason and Freddy*. But the closeup is also necessary to land the extra punchline at 0:45
The 'extra punchline' is perfectly edited into from Jason's eye-shift), and completely unexpected on first watch, but perfectly set up in retrospect.
(*I never realised until I typed this that "Trying" named the two best friends JASON AND FREDDY!)
Barry Lyndon
#SexySaturday
Kubrick is perhaps the most famous overly-obsessive-to-detail director to ever direct, so you KNOW this highlighting of Barry Lyndon's package - complete with one bandit double-fisting pistols and the other eyeballing him while frisking his pockets - is wholly intentional.
Broad City
The camera work here in the Broad City pilot “What a Wonderful World” is crucial to the joke - the seemingly innocent pan across to reveal Ilana is not the exact same as Black Swan's mirror jump-scares, but similar enough (especially with the sound effect) that Abbi's jump and quick "don't Black-Swan me" response lands perfectly.
Fall of the House of Usher
This transition in "The Black Cat" continues motion across the cut (0:17), but everything else is in contrast: yellow / blue loud / quiet medium / closeup The motion carries our eyes, but the sudden change in everything else is still jarring - and funny.