#cinematorgaphy

[deancrowleycas]

Favorite Shots Per Episode ✩ 1.10 Asylum (2/2)

[twitter-and-twine]

Costume Design: Anna Karenina

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”

(links in photo descriptions)

[cannibalbite]

Blame, 2017

[holyrollr]

John Guleserian

"It was a very liberating experience to work with such a small camera, and to be able to move around very quickly with limited lighting. I think this really helped us find the heart of the story and the characters."

Yes. My approach to filmmaking summed up in a sentence. 

[sheereleganceinitssimplicity]

Visually stunning, artistically filmed television shows

Good, artistic cinematography is a quality that is very important in the making of movies. On the other hand, it seems that the artistic qualities of cinematography are more frequently overlooked in television programs. The emphasis lies on the characters and the story in a serial production, which is only logical, especially considering the rate at which episodes need to be churned out. 

Lately, I've noticed that I really enjoy television shows that make the extra effort in the cinematography department. I often find I'll be watching the show for a while, and all of a sudden it hits me how. A neat trick I found that illustrates my point: one can pause an episode at any random point and 9 times out of 10 the composition of that still shot looks like a elegant photograph (ignoring the weird faces that sometimes happen) or at least pretty.

Here are some programs that I enjoy for the story, characters, and the cinematography.

Carnivàle - Everything about this show is slow and deliberate and that makes it beautiful. The sweeping shots of the dust gently blowing through the set were apparently difficult to set up, but it makes look real, and subtly shifts all the color of anything it touches to a tan, which brings the color of the entire set into one family. The amount of detail in every scene, especially the clothing and buildings/tents, is incredible.

Pushing Daisies - The entire show is about as bright and colorful as it can possibly be. The cgi isn't as subtle as it could be, but the imagery they create from its use makes up for it. Basically, if a rainbow and a television hooked up and had a pie-loving child-thing, that child-thing would grow up to be this show.

Supernatural - This show pays a surprising amount of attention to visual aesthetics. Not only that but they frequently use the fact that they have a distinct style to subtly indicate breaks from the norm. For example, in "It's a Terrible Life" they have noticeably removed the blue/green filter they regularly use which helps indicate that something is wrong with the Winchesters' world. The minute the illusion is dropped the color filter comes back and it served to make the snap very dramatic. Unfortunately, as of the last two seasons, the quality has been fluctuating.

Firefly - This show had a unique aesthetic that somehow blends clumsy and graceful. The ship itself was bulky and awkward, but it was always put in the context of wide open space or the wild frontier. The cinematographic style was most useful simply in setting the tone, but the additional attention to color, well-balanced shots and picturesque backgrounds made it beautiful. The decision to keep shots of objects in space (see what I did there?) silent also served to being attention to the visuals of the scene.

This was all I had to compile into a list, but there are other shows known for their visual aesthetic, so feel free to respond! (I'm always looking for another eye-catching show to watch).