Shot Zero

#AbbottElementary 3/3

2 PAYOFF
Janine is in the same place in the frame, only now she’s in a new location: dancing into the lunch room.

3 PUNCHLINE
The 'door close noise' punctuates Janine’s routine, then caps it off with a hard cut to Barbara's perfect reaction.

#AbbottElementary 2/3
When Janine dances into the center, Ava draaaags her back to where she started.

After a quick pan Left to show the kids stepping, the shot holds a few beats before quickly panning back Right; we expect Janine to be approximately the same place in frame she was before . . .

This #AbbottElementary visual transition works with a "setup, payoff, punchline" structure.

1 SETUP
The scene opens by establishing Janine Frame Right in the gym; in every shot of her conversation with Ava and interaction with the kids, she remains Frame Right . . . in fact,

1/3

TBT to our lil look at how #PrehistoricPlanet uses blockbuster techniques in its portrayal of dinosaurs!

shotzero.substack.com/i/140214476/...

#TheBear "Sophie" 2/2

Twice we clearly see clocks: when Tina finally cracks her pasta problem, and the final frames which remind us even when we’re not paying attention to time, it continues passing.

See our Substack next week for a full breakdown of every clock in this ep, and what they mean.

Time is always important in #TheBear, but the main stories of 4.06 “Sophie" are about the hazy feeling of being lost, deadlines fade into the background, so clocks out of focus and/or obscured in whole or in part; even frames with two clocks in them, you don’t see either or both clearly.
1/2

I wrestled between that and Total Recall, honestly possibly just swayed by which I've seen more recently!

But yes plenty of wonderful options to dither over

My life's goal to study 🫡

and the moments it manages to somehow make the action and the comedy also sexy!

real cinematic magic right there

True Lies

#TheBear "Sophie" 2/2
See our substack next Wednesday for a more thorough look at every use of clock in this episode.

#TheBear 4.05 "Sophie" is a 'standard' use of clocks to tell the story within the season:

no time signifiers for the first 6.5 minutes of Carmy at an AA meeting and visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park house, then ALL THE CLOCKS as Tina, Richie, and Syd, wake up and start their days.

1/2

How can you signify to your audience they’re in a dream before you reveal the waking up?

We look at three ways this dream sequence from "Why Didn't They Ask Evans" signals its surreality, all in the 20 seconds before Bobby (Will Poulter) wakes up.

shotzero.substack.com/p/it-was-all...

Black and White closeup of a hand with a knife peeling an orange The caption reads "Echoes and Homage: "M" and "If I Should Die Before I Wake"

ICYMI: buff.ly/cNX3tY8

Another of our running ‘movies referencing movie posters,’ I love how this show naturally saturates the red light on the wall where the poster is hung, making the “HALLOWEEN 4” both more blended in . . . and more sinister.

#TenPoundPoms 2/2

Reflection on marble; prismatic moving shots; sound mix; softly backlit 2-shot.

These elements work on their own, but hit with full weight as the scene ends - the shots aren’t just gorgeous, they set up the scene’s conceit and add heft to its emotional payoff.

Director Ana Kokkinos and DP Carolyn Constantine created some of my (Mel’s) favourite Aussie-made frames of 2023 within this #TenPoundPoms scene.

We’ll break down the whole 2.5 minute scene in a Substack next month, but for now admire!

1/2

Echoes and Homage: M and IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE Fritz Lang’s 1931 famed noir thriller M centres about a child serial killer (played by Peter Lorre in his first big role) and the mob who apprehends him.

open.substack.com/pub/shotzero...

Today we look at how two films - "M" (Germany, 1931) and "If I Should Die Before I Wake" (Brazil, 1952) - look at similar subject matter through similar lenses.

M was definitely an influence on "If I Should Die," but both clearly influence films such as "Night of the Hunter" and "Pan's Labyrinth"

#ParisTexas 3/3
In the next room, Travis feels painfully conspicuous. The starker lighting makes him and his shirt stand out against the walls, while his shirt, EXIT, and mini-room-indicators being the same colour draws our attention to him as well as the signs.

#ParisTexas 2/3
In the first, Travis’s shirt and thus Travis himself almost blends into the room as he wanders through mostly unnoticed.

in "Paris, Texas" Director Wim Wenders uses Travis’s (Harry Dean Stanton) shirt in conjunction with the lighting, set dressing and details to completely different effects in these two adjoining scenes.

1/3

#TheBear "Worms" 3/3

Sydney's final question of the scene to TJ (Arion King) is also to herself: “what are you gonna do” punctuated by eating homemade hamburger helper, with the still-blinking clock in the background.

#TheBear"Worms" 2/3
The blue digital numbers also echo the numbers of this season’s main clock, while the constant return to it flashing remind Syd — and us — of the decision looming over her that she does not want to make.

#TheBear 4.04 “Worms” makes meaningful use of a ‘broken’ clock.

Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) finds her cousin's kitchen mostly empty of ingredients as the stovetop clock flashes 12:00 - clearly because Chantel (superb guest star Danielle Deadwyler) rarely cooks.

1/3

#TheBear "Scallops" 2/2
This episode is lighter on clock reminders than much of the season, but the opener sets the tone, and the slightly-unusual technique makes those timepieces stand out.

See our Substack next week for the full video, as well as notes on where those clocks all showed up before.

#TheBear 4.03 “Scallop” opens with shots the show often uses, but a technique it rarely uses: a running digital timer in blue, The Original Beef’s analogue clock, and the EVERY SECOND COUNTS sign; starting through blurry-slow-racking-to-in-focus shots, then crossfaded into each other.

1/2

Frames within Frames: ALL OF US STRANGERS All of us Strangers is a romantic magical realism drama, in which Adam (Andrew Scott) tries to navigate a blossoming relationship with his neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal).

shotzero.substack.com/p/frames-wit...

Today on our longread (though it's a lot more pictures than words!) we look at how #AllofusStrangers uses frames-within-frames to show Adam's journey to connect to others, and himself.

avail yourself of some of the best writing (and drawing) on cinema you could hope to see!

for so damn cheap!