Okay I noticed something during the Red Room scene after watching RWRB for the "who knows how many"-th time.
When they hit the wall, Alex puts his right hand on it:
But then they cut and it’s not there anymore:
Now, I’m not pointing this out as an "oh look an editing error" or anything because that’s something that happens in pretty much every movie ever made. Somebody’s hand or leg is in one position, they cut to another angle, and it’s in a slightly different position. It’s what happens when you’re editing together several different takes of the same scene.
Hell, quick and fun tangent, feel free to skip ahead to where the text changes back to the normal color, but there’s a sequence in Clue, the movie, where Wadsworth, the butler, is retelling the events of the evening in very specific detail and reenacting it. This is a fantastic example of a moment where a very attentive viewer can see into the behind the scenes, and remember that when filming movies, they always do multiple takes of a scene, even if nothing went wrong; there’s only very unique circumstances where they film a scene and the entirety of the very first take is used.
Earlier, Mrs. Peacock freaks out because they think there might have been poison in the drink, and Mr. Green slaps her in the throat to stop her from screaming:
GIF from here.
After he hits her, he says this:
GIF from here.
When Wadsworth reenacts it later, he says the same line:
GIF from here.
Notice that he’s accurately in character as Mr. Green, but he makes the gesture to push his “glasses” back up, which Mr. Green didn’t do. Tim Curry went through great lengths for this very long sequence to get all the little details right. The only reason he would do that would be if he did push his glasses up, but it was in a different take. That take wasn’t used in the final cut of film, but they had to have filmed a version of the scene where Mr. Green pushed his glasses back up, and Tim Curry copied it because he wouldn’t have been able to predict which version of the scene they would use, and that’s a specific detail he wouldn’t want to miss if they used that take.
In the easiest and perfect scenario, they pick the best take of each shot and splice them together, but sometimes they use multiple takes of one of the shots and use different pieces of them. Maybe the delivery of one line was better in one take, but another line was better in the other. If there's going to be a cut between those lines, they can cut out the line delivery they liked the best and splice into whatever take they're using the most of.
This is common knowledge, but I'm covering it just in case someone is completely unfamiliar with how films are made.
When the camera angle changes during a sequence, it doesn’t mean that they filmed up until that point, stopped and repositioned the cameras and the actors, and then continued. They set up a camera for one of the shots, they run through the scene start-to-finish, and once they have several good takes to choose from, they move the camera position to the next angle, and shoot the scene start-to-finish again. Sometimes they can knock out more than one angle at once if the cameras won’t get each other in the shot.
For example, scenes like Alex and Henry talking on the couch, in the cafe, on the phone on the bed, basically almost any scene where they’re looking directly at each other, has to be shot from at least two angles separately, at least if they want to show us both of their faces throughout the scene. If they filmed both of them at once, you would see the other camera in the background behind the actors.
In the case of the kissing in the Red Room, there's three cuts, until the end when Amy walks in. I'm talking specifically about from Alex grabbing him up to the shot right before Amy walks in.
So starting there, we have the first shot:
Then the first cut:
Then the second cut:
Then the third cut:
Then Amy walks in:
Now, cameras do move and/or zoom during most shots, even if it's a barely noticeable. For example, there is no cut while Alex crosses the room; the camera moves with him. It also rotates/pans a bit once they start backing towards the wall to keep that shot connected up until the first cut.
Based on the angle, the framing, and their positions, I'm pretty sure these two are from the same shot/camera position, possibly the same take, with the close-up spliced in:
Even if they aren't from the same take, I'm fairly sure, like I said before, that they ran through the scene start-to-finish with this camera blocking, and that these are both from that blocking, even if the second one seems slightly different. It's really hard to be 100% sure, but when I watch them side-by-side, their positions seem to line up. If you map out their starting point and ending point, and the gap of time where the close-up is, it feels like enough time and movement for them to get from A to B in one shot had the camera not cut.
But the camera does cut, which leads me back to here:
The camera angle alone is a big indicator that they cut together multiple takes. I can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure that they couldn't have filmed this angle at the same time as the main shot.
I think about these sorts of things while watching movies; it's something I can't turn off in my brain. I'm hyperaware of the cinematography. I notice it, and thoughts/questions just bounce around in the back of my head.
Like if I was watching this for the first time, excluding all the internal screaming that would've been occurring, I would have probably thought: "Oh hey, that was a big camera change! They probably filmed this separately!"
But it's so brief and subconscious that I would've had the thought without those words actually forming in my head, does that make sense? It's like there's a little version of me chilling in my brain with a clipboard that writes interesting things down while the rest of me is screaming. He's just chilling, taking notes, and I can feel when he writes something down, even if I can't process it in the moment. Does that make any sense?? Whatever, it doesn't actually matter lmfao
What I'm saying is, while the camera change suggests the use of multiple takes being edited together, Alex's hand on the wall 100% confirms it, since it's not in the same position when they cut between the angles.
Which FINALLY brings me to my POINT!
Everything I went over essentially just proves that this shot:
-is from it's own, separate take than the other shots.
And as I explained, they typically run a scene start-to-finish several times from each angle, which is why there's this variation. With choreography like this that's meant to be spontaneous and aggressive is impossible to perfectly recreate each time. It happens too fast, and their characters are so wrapped up in the moment that they're just grabbing and touching each other however they can, so there is going to be variation between the takes in what they do with their hands or exactly how they kiss.
WHICH MEANS
It is very possible that there's a version/take of this sequence of events from the other angle where Alex's hand is on the wall, and he is half pinning Henry against the wall for this interaction.
His hand is in the classic "hands on either side of their partner's head while kissing against a wall" position that basically traps them against the wall and the person they're with.
So there's possibly a version of this shot:
-with Alex's hand pinning Henry against the fucking wall, before he lifts him onto the table.
And I want to fucking see it.
Update: If you enjoyed this essay & would like to support me, you can give me a tip on my Ko-Fi! ☺️
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aventurine, who giggles and jumps around (like a little boy receiving his first full halloween bucket of candy) whenever you plant a kiss on his forehead
aventurine, who thinks of you everywhere he goes; be it the ipc's hq, the grand hotel in penacony, and even the battlefield, you're always on his mind 24/7
aventurine, who keeps a brass locket he salvaged in one of his adventures with a picture of you in his pocket
aventurine, who doesn't forget to say 'thank you, love you' whenever you give him something, even if it's just as simple as a hug
aventurine, who yaps about you to his co-workers to the point where they know almost everything about you
aventurine, who orders ipc agents to 'spy' on you whenever you go to the market (he js wants to look after you)
aventurine, who giggles and kicks his feet whenever you call him 'rinie' (bro literally goes heeheehee); and
aventurine, who 'sleeps' through his alarm so you'd be the one to wake him up (he loves it when you beg him to wake up [BRO IS FREAKY] he feels bad when it's literally the crack of dawn and you cant sleep anymore so he just makes it up to you by not going to work and spending the rest of the day w u 😭😭)
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