ayfiv

[ayfiv]

From Andor, s2e3.

I LOVEEEEE how this dance stuff is done, it floored me. Forget the overheads and stuff but the on the ground shot design and, in particular, the movement of the extras is great.

It's all about countermovement and moving in these circles. It's diagietic in this show because that's kinda how this culture dances but I really like the idea of people moving in these circular patterns and always. against. joe. The camera constantly circling is great too.

also melina and i talked about this but having people cross/countercross in the foreground is key.

i like the frame rate stuff as shit gets a little more nuts. it's subtle and will be even more subtle in our dark enviro.

[ayfiv]

again i have to watch this whole movie again but i really really really like the scenes between the two love interest leads. I love how they look and feel. This movie does an INCREDIBLE Job of coding those sequences as memory, in a way that's distinct from straight to camera and how Ewan communicates with his father. I think we really need to look at those differences

[ayfiv]

Ok! putting these up for a "I don't want this" example. I love these movies a LOT and i think the cine and styling and type of realism fits, but it feels a little TOO... i dunno... sterile? Lifeless? This (like all reitman) is a movie where the performances just get a chance to shine through so hard but i do think this feels a bit too much like "well shot coverage in realistic locations" i want our movie to feel more distinct, again falling back on that idea of "seeing through an out of body memory" I watched clips from up in the air too and that's about i feel for reitman movies across the board re this one.

[ayfiv]

the shots at the opeening of the emptiness and scale of the house are what i was thinknig for Joe at his parents. honestly Joe at his apartment too. kinda the same idea from an empty space rather than a huge one* these sequences should mirror each other, he's not doing better. you get the idea of a similar kinda of openness from her in her apartment. i could see joe's apartment feeling this way just more "single white male" furnished, yunno? gael garcia feels much more at home in his apartment. it's PD but also they frame lower so no high sceilings. I do like, again, how this is framed and felt. the little off kilterness of especially her in the apartment. you get the sense of nervousness. WE could use this as a pretty perfect reference point for how we could film the scene of joe taking the nudes at his parents house. i really like that actually. having this floating camera moving and following. This might be a focal point for how i think about the whole movie honestly. how we film that emotion.

I really don't want it to feel so much like this voyeurism of someone in there... but the blocking is pretty spot on... and i could see us having these little moves following. or maybe even static wides like this that just don't walk forward/back or follow. things to consider!

[ayfiv]

Ok this i feel like we're moving too much and too quick for what exactly I'd have in mind.... though I'm on the fence. maybe the wedding itself does make sense to shoot this way, just a little more steadily and less "feeling the footsteps" I think after the assault though, with Joe, we gotta be a bit more static in the moments he's around people.

there is tension with blocking and camera moves which i like and i do like the idea of these moving masters hm.

i do actually think tyler boxing in Joe at the party can feel a lot like this. honestly there's an argument that the photo scene and subsequent tyler interaction could be a oner, pretty simple one shot a lot like this. alcohol kinda motivates the movement. hmmm maybe this movie moves more at the beginning than i thought.

i could see that scene outside on the balcony feeling like this.

[ayfiv]

There will be more to steal from this perfect movie but boy if this isn't almost exactly what I was thinking for the Jose oshea scene. Reasons: 1. Really simple but effective coverage even without movement or "blocking"

2. the tangible different though in how Gael is staged/framed vs Diego Luna. Diego Luna is subjectively facing towards Gael with the camera close to the line, Gael is turned away and the camera is further off. I need to watch the whole movie again to have a clear sense of what this says but this scene is dynamic! in our movie Kaleigh would be Diego Luna, maybe turning more towards Joe as Lucia leaves. Need to figure out how she fits into this.

3. wide is just that tiny bit of shaky, that tiny bit of off. even the insert we come in on is a dutch angle! subtle little shit, nothing calling attention to itself or breaking realism but little things doing a lot

I really like jumping to extreme wides for sudden context in transitions. this movie is all timer at that.

[ayfiv]

this and the subsequent confession scene are so fucking good. also so much the tone i imagined for Joe and kaleigh coming back together towards the end. something in the air neither are addressing. human. we know it's there as an audience but we trust it isn't being addressed. and again, reiterating mainly for myself, they come together despite not agreeing. I think Joe needs to give more hostility towards her in this moment, a la hot priest. Standing up for himself and his viewpoint... not taking off the table that he's never going to commit violence.

i kinda think i need to respect joe a little more and make him, in this moment, the me that exists now. i don't really think i can make all the promises kaleigh would want me to make, but i don't think she's wrong to want me to make them. This is a writing note more than anything but i also think okram's razor to figuring out the ending. Thanks fleabag! this isn't they come together on opinion. this is they dont' quite but they'll have each other then joe decides to throw that away. that's more realistic and more interesting.

also this scene needs to be a kinda reverse of the bar scene. joe's unwavering, she's probing. he's more in his right mind, she's fermenting.

anyways i try not to put writing notes here but here it is anyways! direction's probably relevant too

[ayfiv]

Ignore the cute 4th wall of it all but i like this scene a lot... again i sorta think the ending has this energy but they have sex as a form of reconciling irreconcilable differences. This is mostly a writing thing for me but it'll probs be relevant in direcction and intent as well. notes for me!

[ayfiv]

Fleabag dump! Ok let's purely look at season 2, i didn't really have a ton to grab from season 1.

about 90% of what i wanted to grab came from this whole first episode.

the performances here are all top tier. maybe a little comedy heightened but idk, you just buy everybody and get their deals pretty quick. this along with everything else on here i want cast to watch.

i do like the lighting! makes me think of what we'd have in the jazz club. but from this scene i really love the bits at 2:32 of her in the alley, then the very end (which continues in this clip) of her and the priest especially.

basically everything about these two in their flirting lead up is Kaleigh and Joe to me. The like deep sense of FAMILIARITY, the platonic charge, the kinda... fuck you-edness of it towards each other. I feel like fleabag could NAIL the beat of them coming back together after a huge fight/gun moment (i mean they almost do) in a way that makes you really buy it. I'm tinkering with the script based on some thoughts like this, but damn if the performances and naturalism don't fucking sell it all. if she was making this film, she'd make us buy the moment of Joe and Kaleigh coming back together at the wedding no problem. let's copy that.

in this scene also, the way the tension hangs after they separate. i think that's something we need in the script level on our coming back together scene. it's there (and needs to stay) at the end of the jazz club but we also need it in the wedding. Like stuff isn't resolved between them. there's a conflict

then the hamilton note is cutting the tension. THAT'S when we think it's gonna be alright. i really like that end moment here

maybe the sex between them is resolved but the rest of it isn't.

[ayfiv]

(wildlife) ok i couldn't find any other shots (or clips) of this scene, but when the kid is walking around his house at night (horror movie!) seeing the old naked dude and his mom in bed, I've never seen handheld i so want to copy.

it's SO fluid, so motivated, and so without drawing attention to itself, despite being (I think?) the only sequence like this in the entire movie.

it's great. i want to copy it, especially for the beginning of the club scene. there needs to be so much going on and yanking us into it that we aren't paying attention to the fact that it's handheld.

probably something in the writing there... or needs to be there.

[ayfiv]

(wildlife)

I want to copy this shot exactly for Joe on the bench at the park. and then a reverse, and then an OTS at an angle when the lady comes up kinda interupting his stupor, then back to this one with her dirtying it when it's just exactly the same.

probably want to ride out most of it then in this shot to hold the tension. it's coming FROM joe, he's the livewire. hold on that rage.

[ayfiv]

(Wildlife)

This scene of him being sad in the bathroom, then hidinng in a stall stuck out to me.

might be something to copy in our bathroom scene at the club.

[ayfiv]

(Wildlife)

i think this is one of the first times i tracked the camera moving (they do the still to motion thing which i love and want to copy).

I don't have a ton to say but that this scene really stuck with me. she's OOZING rage, planning, and unhingedness and i love how we just back and forth her shakespearian walking. isn't doing the laundry or anyting, just walking slow back and forth. it's great.

there might be something with Kaleigh in the at home scene with her here. in fact there probably should be. maybe while she's taking the garbage/texting. her scheming is interupted by Lucia

[ayfiv]

(Wildlife) I like that the house looks sorta evil and has a face but is so quietly innocuous that it didn't feel that way until looking at a still now.

the emotion was there and set up other ways, but ya looking at a still. teeth!

i think of this for Kaleigh returning to Melanie's house post Joe. subtle, evening, orange against that evening blue

[ayfiv]

(wildlife) i really do like this lighting, framing, and type of house. It's wild that even being so far back my eye goes right to carrie mulligan inside (espedcially when it's in motion)

for our beer pong scene maybe we don't need to be as close as i initially thought, in fact we probalby shouldn't be. the fact that the scene is about what's going on inside should be more of a surprise and this can be done by framing it much further back. the beer pong table can be properly in the backyard.

[ayfiv]

(wildlife) tiny moment here in the pool where Carrie Mulligan's face drops before swimmer comes up for air, just looking so fucking despondent and lost. It's great, honestly a little spooky, and EXACTLY what I had in mind for the conversation between Kaleigh and Joe at the bar, where Joe sorta disassociates and tears something up while she's talking to michael.

how i wrote it is probably too dramatic, it can be as small and powerful as this moment.

[ayfiv]

Ok larger "wildlife" dump incoming since I watched this yesterday. LOTS to steal from. It's hard to find still images that exemplify this, and I couldn't find video clips, but this movie does SUCH a good job of filtering an ensemble film down to individual perspectives. Though we're bouncing around POV, even WITHIN scenes, you're always able to track it, and the interesting part of this movie is what every individual makes of a situation. There's no villains, there's nothing even remotely cartoony, and everyone's perspective is given equal weight and tragedy.

This is a big "let's watch!" for the whole creative team I think, including cast. Though thematically it's fairly dissimilar (coming of age), this movie has a lot of horror movie in its DNA (the tension!!!), no music except for in montages, and fullly fleshed out primary and side characters.

They also do this thing I really love where, even in scenes with the main characters, they limit perspective by holding on ONLY the character who's perspective is most important. They really don't cut away to other folks, but hold on a character you wouldn't expect to be so isolated. It REALLY works. and it's a trick we could use early to give Kaleigh some more weight (in scenes with Joe, we hold on her)

see some specifics in future posts