Week 66: Socials Roundup
Social Media posts from 1 April to 7 April
Week 66 saw posts on Blue Eye Samurai (2022); Mr and Mrs Smith (1941); Edge of Tomorrow (2014); and The Devil and Ms Jones (1941).
Blue Eye Samurai
The first episode of Blue Eye Samurai "Hammerscale" uses framing, blocking, edit, and depth of field to “ShowDon’tTell” how important hair is, personally and culturally.
First, Mizu is framed wide approaching the river, so we know (and we know she knows) she's alone, before she uncovers her head, and lets her hair down.
Mizu's hair coming down 'match cuts' to Princess Akemi's hair (also down, and in the same place in frame) as she brushes it.
Akemi's scene continues to be about hair, here tied somewhat closer to aesthetics and beauty. As Akemi examines her reflection, we see her in the mirror, while close to camera her hair takes up fully half of frame.
Akemi compares herself to a drawing, bits of which we see in extreme closeup. She pulls her hair up and smiles . . . then drops it with a sigh.
As Akimi's smile and hair both fall, cut to Taigen - whom we last saw on the ground as Mizu's sword whooshed towards him. Between Taigen and the camera, fully in focus while Taigen is soft, lies a knot of hair.
Taigen reaches and grabs it as he sits up, focus shifting to his head and making it clearer that the pale circle we saw is his scalp - because Mizu cut his topknot off!
As Taigen turns, showing his bald spot again, focus racks to the three men who turn their backs and walk away, demonstrating he is dishonoured because of losing his fight and his hair.
By featuring hair in different ways, centring and (literally) focusing on it in three different context, Blue Eye Samurai doesn't need any dialogue in these scenes to *clearly* tell us about the importance of hair in this world.
Mr and Mrs Smith
This Mr and Mrs Smith gag is relatively simple.
set up mess
set medium shot on the door
David closes door
make a horrendous crashing noise
camera tracks out as door opens to reveal pre-set mess
repeat til you get timing perfect, without having to reset the mess (or risk flying pottery)
let Carole Lombard go for her life
Voila!
Edge of Tomorrow
This establishing shot is a banger.
The move itself isn't that complex — it's a boom and pivot around Tom Cruise — but the gradual reveal of where William Cage (Tom's character) has found himself + the disorientation from the countermoves makes us feel Cage's WTFness.
Great stuff! Edge of Tomorrow is def one of our fave pieces of pop cinema.
P.S. Countermoves? The camera is rotating clockwise (ie left-to-right) around Cruise, whereas the midground extras are marching right-to-left, ie counter to the camera move. There's some far b/g extras marching left-to-right as well, which enhances the visual density.
Speaking of extras . . .
Edge Of Tomorrow takes the standard Tom-Cruise-Rides-a-Motorcycle-Without-a-Helmet sequence and elevates it with some great environmental storytelling.
In the background of the opening shot we see people lining up at tents, then it’s revealed they're collecting rations. An extra is blocked perfectly to cross behind Tom to draw our attention so we can clock the water tank he's carrying.
When Tom is in the pub, there are glasses covering all the beer taps *except* one. They're even used for interesting 'shoot through'. Because of the previous setup we know what this means: even the beer is rationed.
When Cage exits the pub, garbage/trash bags are piled up against the wall and we know that social services have been cut back.
The button the sequence is great: all we need is some smoke on the horizon and the rippling water to know *exactly* what is happening.
And all of this is done wordlessly. No characters stating the obvious: "the aliens, they're attacking!!"
This kind of environmental storytelling encourages the audience to put-together the puzzle pieces and that makes it a more rewarding, and immersive, experience.
The Devil and Ms Jones
Gotta love this cheeky opening title card from THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES (1941), which goes on to skewer the a rich Scrooge-type character who could have reflected a few real-life producer types (who would be plenty litigious . . .)
