Blue Velvety smoothness

[missyjack]

This is me banging on about the visual style of Supernatural. My higher degree was in Agricultural Science, but I know some of you actually have studied cinema so please weigh in with your knowledge and expertise. It contains vague spoilers for this week’s ep. It all started with the gorgeous

Comments

[anthrogeeke]

I usually think that this show is genius, subtle and stunning However there were two things visually that pulled me out of this ep.

1. The horrific photo manips all over. Cripes, they have to have people that can do better manipulations than they had. Every single one of them was bad.

2. When Dean was talking to his dad at the grave. There is a brief couple seconds that you have a full on shot of Dean, hear him talking but his lips are not movie.

[missyjack]

horrific photo manips . oh see i thought this was deliberate. I mean look at the SFX they do, of course they could do better manips! I took it as a visual clue saying Dean has pasted all this together - from the girl in the beer ad, from stock/cliched images of what a happy family looks like. They look fake - because this is all fake.

The piece by john's grave - again i took it as a way of indicating Dean is having an interior dialogue with John. Then the silence at the end - when we know he is 'hearing' what John would say to him, fits in and is nto just tacked on the end of a scene where Dean speaks everything.

But this is all possibly my own wank...

[anthrogeeke]

Oh, didn't think of it that way. I may have to go back and rewatch it. Thanks.

[22by7]

see now, i really do like that explanation better, now i won't have to stop making fun of the terrible fanmanips i run into, sometimes. :g:

[sophisticas]

CINEMATOGRAPHY KINK!! *flails and flaps happily* You picked up on everything I picked up on. I'm a film graduate, so I pretty much analyse my way through everything I watch, but Supernatural is so densely packed with so much cinematographically rich material, its no wonder I fell in love with the show.

The exterior shots of the Winchesters house remind me very much of Tim Burton's exteriors - especially in Edward Scissorhands - where you just know the suburban perfection is hiding a deeper darkness.

[missyjack]

The wave to the neighbor also seemed very "Truman Show" to me.

Supernatural is so densely packed with so much cinematographically rich material Isn't it? Its a show made for (and by) people who love movies and who can read these references.

[aerynvala]

holy fuck but Jared has filled out since the pilot. :D Jensen too, but it's not nearly as obvious. :)

[missyjack]

Yes when you compare the two silhouettes from the wrestling scene Jared has expanded mightily!

[missyjack]

its cinematographic geekiness. Oh yeah. I love that it asks something of us an audience. I mean even its own internal visual refs - like the fight scene relying on the audience's knowledge of that scene and its meaning and re-interpretation 40 episodes later!

[lynne_mitchell]

I like this analysis a lot. I'm always struck by the intense use and light and shadows in this show.

The only thing I have a question about is, "But of course this is the Wish verse - what we see is what Dean wants, and he wants Sam to be with him and to have chosen to be with him."

I thought that Dean's final talk with Sam after coming out of the wish-verse made it pretty clear that the world wasn't meant to be a perfect world or fulfill all of his wishes, but only changed things from the point of his greatest wish: his mother not dying.

Of course, I might be very wrong. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

[missyjack]

Oh I totally agree with you - i think the point that everything in this reality flows from that one wish. However my reading of this bit is that as Dean starts to uncover what's going on, perhaps the djinn starts to give Dean more things he wants.
and certainly while this is not Dean's perfect fantasy world, i think it is populated with desires from Dean's subconscious - Sam having a happy life, him having a hot but respectable chick and the Impala. And i think this is what the deliberate echoing of the scene from the Pilot tells us part of Dean regrets having 'made' Sam come with him - i am sure partly from guilt and partly from a lingering doubt that Sam is with him willingly.
However this is just my version, the great thing is that with material this rich there are many interpretations.

[lynne_mitchell]

See, I'm almost wondering if at some point the people inside the world aren't "aware" of what's going on and trying to get him to stay. I mean, that little group hug they had at the end with the people coming out of nowhere certainly gives some credit toward not only a different universe but a bit of a Truman Show affect.

... Maybe?

[missyjack]

I took it that the 'people' are drawn from Dean's mind but contructed by the djinn i.e. they don't have self-awareness. so yes, it was the djinn using them to keep Dena under. IMHO