Week 81: Socials Roundup
Posts from 22 July - 28 July 2024
Week 81 posts include shots from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016-2017); Evil (2019-2024(?)) and The Exorcist (1973); The Haunting of Hill House (2018); Elementary (2012-2018); and Platinum Blonde (1931).
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
When we see a low-angle shot of Todd Brotzman (Elijah Wood) in Dirk Gently 1.02 “Lost and Found”, we expect to soon see who he's looking at and talking to.
The cut to a wide shot frames a bush between us and whomever-it-is - this shot both extends the mystery, and makes for a visual punch line.
It's soon followed with the double payoff: a high angle shot of Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) behind the bush, looking (more a bit ridiculously) up at Todd.
Evil and The Exorcist
Evil is a show which really knows how to make an entrance!
Episode 1.05 "October 31" pays homage to The Exorcist with this shot of a doctor arriving at the house where a woman is* possessed by a demon.
*potentially; "October 31" centres around an argument about this point
I don’t know why my absolute favourite part is they find an absolutely giant pot plant for Evil, but: it is.
The Haunting of Hill House
When Clara (Anabeth Gish) walks into the room in The Haunting of Hill House 1.09 "Screaming Meemies" it's almost a moment of suspense wondering whether she will step forward so as to be framed . . . and then, of course she does.
Platinum Blonde
Check out these two silent sequences from Platinum Blonde (1931)!
Half an hour apart, and the high shot from an angle we haven't seen, but the way they frame the characters within the rectangular door means we instantly 'get' that the second scene is a throwback to the first.
In framing Stewart from below in the first, and above in the second, the film shows he has become the thing he once mocked; a gesture worth a thousand words.
Elementary
Teeny details often make all the difference, especially when it comes to title sequences you’ll see again and again and again.
Shallow depth of field keeps our focus where the action is; letters in JOHNNY LEE MILLER are magnified as the marble rolls over them; the revolver chamber and gear under the mouse wheel both look like film reels.
More about the finer details of Elementary's title sequence coming up on our Substack next month!