#yes i was a film major

[moutheyes]

gelboys cinematography go brrr: episode 4

sorry this is a bit rushed but here were some of my favorite moments from episode 4, aka sad boy club hours.

previous posts: episodes 1-2 | episode 3

the agony and the ecstasy of baabin

same doorway + shop, same splash of pink to center the eye on baabin's signature color, but vastly different moods. lighting slightly darker, baa in motion vs baa standing still, the absence of decoration as a motif showing emotional exuberance. (also wanted to point out that they used some of the stickers on baa's guitar, love the consistency!)

three's a crowd

this episode hurt me in a lot of ways, but the camera framing was especially cruel to baabin in this scene:

baabin thinks he has nearly succeeded in pulling fourmod back from the depths of his obsession with chian, only for the man himself to show up and interrupt their nail art (friend)date. at first we see the three of them in the same frame; baa is physically situated higher than the other two, positioned to be "above it all"—it's the role he's chosen to take when it comes to this mess, even if it's a lie on his part. although he wants to remain in between fourmod and chian (as in the first frame), he's forced to the outside by the reverse shot.

the camera goes on to cut him out entirely, keeping only fourmod and chian in frame in the ensuing conversation. but when fourmod addresses baabin directly, the camera emphasizes, with a slight re-angling of the shot, that baabin only sees fourmod—chian is the one cut out. it felt like a subtle nod to the way fourmod has kept baabin dangling this entire time. just a little dagger of a scene, both in the dialogue and in the visual framing of these three.

more shot-reverse-reaction

this is a variation of the episode 3 ending scene, so I'm not going to break it down further except to say ow. the successive cuts between the dirty framing (establishing context + conflict), baabin's pov shot (audience participation), and baabin's reaction (audience empathy) is just so effective.

the little heart sticker on his cheek the entire time his actual heart is breaking, oh I'm unwell.

"you don't have to be exactly like him. just a little bit is fine."

I sucked in my breath when fourmod said this, because the show has consistently demonstrated just how similar yet different they've been, using slight adjustments in framing, positioning, and actions. here are three examples:

1. the train car (their positions are swapped)

2. the dressing room (different shop, fourmod helping chian take off a hoodie vs. fourmod helping baa put on a hoodie)

3. the lap sprawl (public vs. private space, indicated by the length of the shot)

fourmod is still hiding

this boy, I swear to god. the way he has to physically remove himself from chian's sightline in order to go spiral, the way he still can't lay himself bare because his want is like an open wound, so he has to partially put a visual barrier (the pillar) between himself and chian. the way they both would have kept on like this were it not for baabin's selflessness.

miscellaneous cool shots

loved seeing the bts of the overhead shot—it's not a shitty rig if it works!!!

the static shot through the window of chian approaching the nail store and seeing who was inside. did it fill anyone else with dread.

loved the over-the-shoulder focus through bua's arm, and the way this shot was held for so long, insinuating that bua had to have seen baabin, but chose to ignore him until baabin made the decision to approach him first.

the concert lighting made me clap in delight (I'm sure there was some non-diegetic lighting but they made it look natural, also brilliant use of cell phones and lightsticks).

[chirpsythismorning]

Yeah a teaser dropping on ST day would be cool. But can we agree that a DNA board reveal would be infinitely better?

[monster-college]

Introducing Our First Enrolled Student!

Edith Whitney!

(School Photo Shown)

Also her actual profile!

[himblebo]

What’s wrong babe? You’re thinking about Glinda’s face before she is handed the torch to light the funeral effigy of her friend? Her best friend who was fundamental to the woman she has become? The woman that she abandoned at the most pivotal moment of their lives in an act of cowardice that she has spent the rest of her life running from? Her best friend that, through her own lack of action when it counted most, is widely believed to have deserved her murder?

[variousqueerthings]

was an ad for Gemini AI at the cinema and it really was like "hip young things who are cool like having verbal conversations with ai" "ask ai how you should fix a problem in your car" "ask ai about peoples star signs so you can base your relationships on its advice" "ask ai how to do your job" "ask ai how to have a conversation" "ask ai to think for you" "why would you ever connect with another human being again when you can just connect with ai" "who are you talking with? oh, it's just Gemini. say hi, Gemini, who is basically like a person and not a water-guzzling theft-driven algorithmic data cruncher"

and i simply thought that it looked and sounded like about a dozen famous "don't invent the torment nexus" dystopian science fictions but maybe i should ask ai how it "feels" about it

[sebsxphia]

i can’t believe they made bucky into a politician !!!!

[nero-neptune]

“Good movies are always better when you watch them with someone.” - Ed Chigliak (Northern Exposure)

[possiblyfunny]

With all the Missing Numbers Doodles popping up today, I finally found it in me to actually doodle and not care about how it looked. Anyways—

Here is Aster’s Halloween Costume! I didn’t color it, but Aster is Little Red Riding Hood and Del is the Werewolf. He’s not trick-or-treating, by the way—he’s just handing out king-sized chocolate bars to everyone he passes while walking around!

It’s not much- Just a goofy little thing to celebrate the holiday. Happy Halloween, everyone!

(Psst-! Hey, @100nebulas ! Starry! I know it’s not a lot, but I promised! Here’s your small dose of Aster content :])

[lazzarella]

I really shouldn’t respond to the knucklehead on reddit who thinks all Thai bl actors suck but oh boy do I want to…

[strawberrybyers]

hmm one take i have on saltburn is that it isn’t a film you have to find your way through a maze to figure out, but instead is exactly what you see.

it’s about oliver being fascinated and obsessed with felix. in my opinion, it’s like the lines blurred for oliver of how much his desire to weasel his way into felix’s life because of his attraction/obsession vs how much is his desire to become wealthy like felix. oliver wasn’t a bitter poor person wanting to get revenge on the rich. oliver wasn’t even POOR. he came up with a tragic backstory for felix to believe and play into the wealthy’s “i have the power to save them” ego trip.

it’s fair to say oliver did what he did in a way to become felix. it’s like the question of “do i want to be with you OR be you???”. oliver even questions about if he was really even in love with felix (which yes i do believe oliver was in love with him). but anyways back to my point— oliver staying even after felix’s death proves that there was some intent to become felix. he doesn’t want to change the imbalance between the rich and the poor; he just wants to become rich and that’s it. he found a way to do that and he worked, as he puts it, to get what he wants. the rich always tell the poor “work hard and you can be me one day” and so oliver did his own version of that by weaseling his way into a rich boy’s life and finding the cracks within a family that uses their wealth to mask up. oliver says “no natural predators” and i think something we have to think about is how the rich vs poor is a man made predator vs prey system. therefore, there’s flaws within it and the imbalances can be manipulated. like there’s different levels of wealth and poverty. oliver portrays himself as prey (we could even say the deer antlers is symbolism to that) to the predators (the catton family // think about the cold-blooded quote from venetia). except they’re human. he’s not actually a deer and they’re not a group of hungry carnivores. the catton family portrays themselves as liking oliver and oliver uses that to his advantage. he takes control of the imbalance because he wants wealth for himself. he becomes a predator (remember the “no natural predators” quote). so yeah, saltburn discusses classism but in a “i want to be wealthy and i’m obsessed with this wealthy boy at college and i’m going to become what he is because my attraction to him makes me want everything about him regardless of what that entails”.

[moutheyes]

gelboys cinematography go brrr

I don't have a way (or time tbh) to do this coherently but I did want to point out some of the visual aspects of gelboys that have invigorated my brain so far.

1. depth of field and visual texture

I loved how long the mall scene was and how it was shot to take maximum advantage of the space. in the first screencap below, the dialogue action is taking place all the way at the back, but because everything is more or less in the same field of focus (blah blah phone camera depth of field but i'm not getting into the technical nitty-gritty) the viewer can take in everything all at once, while also following the spots of color—baa's pink guitar case, bua's green sweater—that tell the eye exactly where to look. compare that to the second shot, which maintains a very similar framing: now the action has moved to the front, so the camera's focal point does naturally focus on fourmod and baa, but chia and bua are still in the same spot they were earlier, in the center of the frame, inescapable for both the viewer and fourmod. you get so much information from every single shot, and the way the action moves forward and backward in these spaces to create visual texture in this show is so pleasing to me.

2. ambient + diagetic nighttime lighting

I was SO happy about this. we always complain about how people in QL are always sleeping with the lights on but the gelboys team is out here showing us you can have it all! you can have a realistically dark room that utilizes natural sources of ambient lighting! in this scene, there's the various LED computer lights, the phone screen, the lava lamp, and the street lights coming in through the window. that overhead shot with the phone screen illuminating fourmod's face through the glass table is one of my favorites from the show so far.

3. montage of decorative elements

serves a few purposes: scene transitioning and shorthand exposition (fourmod suggested they all get gel nails for the performance so the implication is that these are the designs they chose), reinforcing the visual motif, and revealing the individuality of the characters. the bassist seems to be more minimalist compared to baa and fourmod, but even they have different decoration styles, with baa repping his favorite girl group, while fourmod goes for cute and hodgepodge (and changes his mind quite a bit—stickers and nails are good for the fickle-minded because nails grow out and stickers are generally easily removable).

4. dirty framing (with additional layers)

semi-related to the first point, but the use of dirty framing to show both context and conflict is so effective. back to the mall scene—fourmod seething while creeping on chian and bua via spotify playlist was a pretty classic use of this, but when he comes back a third time (these are unprecedented levels of downbadness, I'm afraid), the crowd action has surged to the front and grown even more chaotic. now, not only are there more people between fourmod and the object of his obsession, but this time he's behind the glass, and thus smaller in the frame—an even more isolated position.

also want to shout out my favorite dirty shot from ep 1; the scene is populated with students but the framing of bua and chian's faces in the foreground keeps the viewer grounded, and I especially love the second frame, where you can only see fourmod's eye.

oh! and these; the amount of contextual information the viewer gets here is so pleasing. the intense flirting is the centerpiece, but the framing and body movement also shows you baa's annoyance/displeasure one moment, followed by fourmod's other friends playing documentarian. the social aspect of how this is all unfolding—not only the use of social media, but the monitoring of said social media as well as real-life interactions—adds additional textual layers on top of all the visual layers in this show. it's so good I wanna cry.

[notmoreflippingelves]

What she says: I'm fine.

What she means: I just don't understand how the showrunners of EoA expected me, an English major, to cope with their explicitly and visually coding Elena and Esteban as narrative foils and two sides of the same coin throughout S3. And they weren't even remotely subtle about intertwining their characters, destinies, and relationship with each other.

They were just like "what if we gave Esteban and Elena the exact same unique, transformative experience (i.e. falling in the crystal well and absorbing its magic) but ONLY them.? Then maybe, we explicitly seal up Takaina so that no one else can ever have that same experience again?"

And then if that wasn't blatant enough, they each get magical powers that are specifically tailored to their most notable character flaws (Esteban's running away from his responsibilities vs. Elena's emotional intensity and volatility). And if that still was a little too subtle, they also get matching sparkly outfits as souvenirs from their trip down the magic well. So that in every scene they have together (with the exception of the Coronation scene) from then on visually links the two of them together.

Like all of that is just barely scratching the surface of the thematic ramifications of this. Because at the end of the day, Esteban and Elena each metaphorically (if accidentally) gave the other their corresponding powers.

Esteban canonically gets his teleportation because Elena's new anger powers literally lift him up and throw him down the crystal well.

Similarly, Esteban is (albeit much more indirectly) somewhat responsible for Elena's magic as well. It's somewhat implied that the reason Elena is able to use the Scepter of Light in the first place (when presumably her parents and ancestors could not) is because of the Maruvian magic that she absorbed from her years in the Amulet. Crucially, a very real part of the reason that she was even in said amulet in the first place is due to Esteban's decision to smuggle Shuriki into Avalor. His (admittedly terrible) choice led to Elena's ability to use her greatest weapon and that very weapon (via spying on Ash with "Farsight") is what eventually leads Elena to Takaina where she gets her additional emotion powers.

That's canon, baby. Esteban's actions in the past indirectly give Elena her magic. Elena's direct (if accidental) actions in the present give Esteban his.

All of this alone is already more than enough to make me absolutely feral, but they just have to up the ante even more in the series finale. Esteban uses his teleportation powers to take the magical bullet for Elena; Elena uses her own emotion magic to bring him back to life after his sacrifice. They use their powers--the same powers that they technically gave to each other in the first place--to save each other.

And then, if all that isn't enough, they proceed to use each other's powers together in order to defeat the enemy. First, Esteban is able to break Cahu's hourglass by using Elena's scepter, and then the two of them are able to send Cahu back to the Spirit World through the combined power of the scepter and staff. They've converged into one tight, solid, united force for Good that is powerful beyond imagining.

And I am deeply insane about all of it.

[daincrediblegg]

You know the older I get, the less star power means to me. Give me shows where the leads aren’t played by a true A-lister, who actually cares about the part they’re playing and why they’re playing it and the nuances they want to convey with that over some hollywood darling any day and THEN I’ll pay attention

[hickeygender]

the fact that sco's watching blake through the window when blake's standing in the yard in the very spot where sco watches him get stabbed to death. sco is unable to reach him in the yard (unable to help). all he can do is watch

[starbuck]

taking a film course my final semester just for fun and i get to write my final paper on literally ANYTHING, essentially, and i was going to do it on something insightful, but instead i am going to do it on how music is sex in The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) because i am OBSESSED with it and it makes me happier every time i watch it.

[sparrowstarsandsorrow]

Elias on his way to set Barnes straight