#Brad Buecker is a fantasitc director

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I've been thinking about this and I want to ask someone with industry insight! I've been really struck by the fact that we don't see Eddie's face when he sees Buck on the stretcher, seeing him there, laid out. We see his back only pushing Bobby and conspicuously don't see his face when Bobby is telling him to drive. and a little profile walking to the driver's seat. I sorta feel that it was intentional because they take a lot of care when setting up and framing shots. Basically, it seemed like a Choice™ a deliberate omission esp since they shoot from several angles (they love a good reaction shot!)

Am I reading too much into this? If I'm not, why do you think they shot it that way? It's just rolling around in my head....😁

Hey Nonnie

Thanks for a great ask and I really hope my answer helps!

I'll go through the process directors generally go through (disclaimer - I'm not a director and each director has their own way of working so this answer is based on an amalgamation of my experiences)

Directors get sent the script and a few days to read it. usually this means reading it several times - the first will just be a read through, then further readings will involve making notes and questions. On tv shows, there will then be conversations with the writer(s) and showrunner(s) about intentions, important plot points or lines, and questions that the director has can be asked, there might even be further changes to the script at this point. These conversations will firm up any information that needs to be visually given and allow the director to start storyboarding and plotting camera angles and movements with the DOP (Director of photography)

I don't know if you've seen them, but we've had some great bts stuff from a couple of the directors this season showing us some of the pre production process - especially the storyboarding - the most obvious one is the Buck on a bike chasing the car thats driven off with Chimney (I can't find the 911 bts post for that one speifically, but these two links here and here are of other storyboarding posts). This storyboarding plots cast positons, where any visual effects/ special effects might be being used, cgi elements, camera positions - so that they can get the angles they want - as well as other important visual things such as set and or props. They might go as far as noting things like which lenses or filters they want to use as well. Storyboarding like this will often include the intention to capture things from different angles and I'll go into this a bit more in a minute.

All of this is done to ensure they can be as efficient as possible on the day of filming, because time is money and when they're on location especially they may have restricted hours for access, and might find some things they wanted to do won't work in the location when they get there. I once worked on a production where we were on location and filming a scene with a child actor on a roof - they were supposed to cross a room, climb out of one window, run along the roof, climb in through another window and then hide behind a piece of furniture - all in one shot. when it came to filming we had to make changes because we discovered it wasn't possible to achieve this version - for a few different reasons - the biggest one being the safety of the crew - the roof space was too tight and uneven for them to be able to track the route (bear in mind they're walking backwards when filming the character coming towards them). thankfully it was an easy fix because the director had storyboarded an alternative version if it wouldn't work in the space we had.

Back to capturing things from different angles. when you have a scene - like the one you've asked about, they will film a couple of different takes and angles because they will want to have options when it comes to editing - because the director might not know exactly whose reactions they want to have at which moment, the delivery of a line can affect it or capturing a reaction etc. its like when we see a conversation between two characters - they film the whole conversation from both angles so they can cut it together in a way that best serves the story they are telling at that moment. I'm sure you've seen the bts video of Ryan in the scene - in it you can see them filming him with two different cameras and that won't be the only way they've shot him in that moment, there will be other takes from other angles - possibly from closer up - really focusing on his face, filming from over the top of the ladder, or even an aerial shot.

I've got a bit off track with this, but when we get to the gurney scene the camera choices are as much about what they show as what they don't - we see things from everyones perspectives except Eddies in this moment. We get the perspective of Chim from on top of Buck where he's giving compressions, we see Hen's perspective on that as well, we also have the camera back away in the same way we see Bobby back away, but we never see an overhead shot from Eddies perspective - looking down, nor do we get a camera racing in close. Buck is always and very conspicuously filmed being lowered from a low perspective.

It is the most intentional of decisions no to show us Eddies perspective, and not to show us his face from front on once he has realised that Buck is hanging from the top of the ladder - the things that are absent often speak louder. So yes like you said it was all very intentional. we are meant to read it that Eddie doesn't know - he is out of the loop at that moment as to the situation - we see him side on because he has some idea, some knowledge, but he doesn't know and we the audience are meant to feel that with him.

The other thing about using side angles of a character rather than front on ones is that it both masks their emotions - its harder to get a read on what a character is thinking if you can't see all their face, but it is also a way of making that character the focus. Let me explain what I mean a bit more. In that moment we can see Chim Hen and bobby and we know what they are thinking - we can see the fact that Chim is panicking a bit and isn't thinking straight its written on his face, we can also see he's looking to Hen for guidance and reassurance. Its similar for Hen - we can see her fighting to keep control, to both support Chimney, but also fighting for that control so that her medical knowledge remains useful to her - she cannot panic in this moment - Buck needs her to make use of all the things she's been learning in medical school (the foreshadowing of them showing her learning about both neurology and the heart is screaming pretty loudly at me right now!) We also see Bobby - as soon as he's got Buck on that gurney force himself to step back - to force himself to remain in captain mode, because he knows thats what buck needs in that moment. We can see all of this information from the fact we can see their faces in full we know exactly what they are all doing and why.

But Eddie, Eddie we only get glimpses of his face - two to be exact - we get the one while he's next to Bobby beside the ambulance, and then a second one once he's inside, but they are never full face. This shows the quality of a director like Brad Buecker, because he understands who Eddie is in this moment - his choices show us that Eddie is in both military mode, but also that he's shutting down and Brad uses the angle of the shot to convey this information to us. again they will have most likely shot Bobby and Eddies walk alongside the ambulance from fully front on and possibly also from behind.

once Brad (and JCC would likely be present for the editing process as well) gets into the editing suite with the editors, then he can pick the angles that give him the best way of telling the story the way he wants to tell it - he already knew what information he needed to get across to the audience about what Eddie is thinking, feeling etc and he will have made the choice that the lack of focus said more than putting focus onto Eddies reactions.

I hope this answers your ask and that it makes sense. I love talking about the filmmaking process and tend to get a bit carried away 😳😂 so thanks for giving me the opportunity to do so! 💜💜💜