Shadow Unit: Breathe
Thoughts on Breathe, the first 'aired' episode of Shadow Unit, a tv show that never was, except it is, here on the web. It is the brain-child of coffeeem, matociquala, truepenny and Will Shetterley.
First of all: really great stuff. Loved the whole thing, and looking forward to more.
It read like reading television. I mean that in a positive way. I'm not used to reading television -- I watch it. I read (and write) fiction and fanfiction that relates to the visual & audio presented stories, and spend time relating the two modes of presentation, but they process differently in my brain.
It wasn't at all like reading a script, though there were aspects of that that came into it. There was more detail, and the detail was generally stripped down to the important, focussed in like the camera does on the clues/keys/moments that matters. Unlike the visual media, though, very little of the not-important but still present was shown, though it was indicated and left for the reader to fill in. (This actually made me conscious of how the focus and field of view in the camera affect the scene, and the choices of the editor shape it further. In a picture all that visual information is there -- the viewer filters it personally with and through and around the lens provided -- and can be added in if wanted. In written material, the reader brings their own rest-of-the-world.)
The reader is given access to the point of view characters' actual thoughts and feelings, which in the visual media must be interpreted and mediated by both the actors and the viewers.
I think I would say that it read like really good television fused with really good fanfiction, satisfying my desire for plot, action, and engaging visuals, as well as giving me interactions, thought & emotional processes and yummy-chewy interpersonal stuff.
Plus, foreshadowing!
I could see the influence of Criminal Minds (I am sure that Hafidha and Penelope know each other well, and Chaz and Reid almost certainly avoid each other on purpose (too much similarity for comfort with each other, too much perception on both sides) in a 'not going there' way, not in a personal dislike/disrespect kind of way.
Good, good stuff. I recommend it.
First of all: really great stuff. Loved the whole thing, and looking forward to more.
It read like reading television. I mean that in a positive way. I'm not used to reading television -- I watch it. I read (and write) fiction and fanfiction that relates to the visual & audio presented stories, and spend time relating the two modes of presentation, but they process differently in my brain.
It wasn't at all like reading a script, though there were aspects of that that came into it. There was more detail, and the detail was generally stripped down to the important, focussed in like the camera does on the clues/keys/moments that matters. Unlike the visual media, though, very little of the not-important but still present was shown, though it was indicated and left for the reader to fill in. (This actually made me conscious of how the focus and field of view in the camera affect the scene, and the choices of the editor shape it further. In a picture all that visual information is there -- the viewer filters it personally with and through and around the lens provided -- and can be added in if wanted. In written material, the reader brings their own rest-of-the-world.)
The reader is given access to the point of view characters' actual thoughts and feelings, which in the visual media must be interpreted and mediated by both the actors and the viewers.
I think I would say that it read like really good television fused with really good fanfiction, satisfying my desire for plot, action, and engaging visuals, as well as giving me interactions, thought & emotional processes and yummy-chewy interpersonal stuff.
Plus, foreshadowing!
I could see the influence of Criminal Minds (I am sure that Hafidha and Penelope know each other well, and Chaz and Reid almost certainly avoid each other on purpose (too much similarity for comfort with each other, too much perception on both sides) in a 'not going there' way, not in a personal dislike/disrespect kind of way.
Good, good stuff. I recommend it.