Blue Velvety smoothness
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
tvm squeeing about the Blue Velvet references in this week’s episode and then i got carried away. You know me - when an episode affects me emotionally i go all thinky to hide from my feelings.
caps are from all over the place but special credit to
marishna and
leggyslove for any that look good.
For me one of the many things that distinguishes Supernatural is that it strives to use the visual medium for more than just showing us pretty boys, a hot car and scary monsters (not that there's anything wrong with that...).
One reason I fell in love with the show was because it gave me so much in its direction and cinematography. This is the actual shot, from Phantom Traveler, that seduced me. It was a shot that told me how much the visual aesthetic of this show meant to the people making it.
There are of course many visual references and images to movies of the horror genre such as The Shining, The Ring, Evil Dead etc. (Over the hiatus I must do a picspam on these).
In every episode scenes are made more resonant because of how they are framed. There is an attention to detail and the power of images (and sound) here. Rewatching Nightshifter recently I was blown away by the strong images - the use of shadows and flashing lights within the bank, the close-up of the SWAT team’s boots crunching on broken class, and those iconic final moments of the boys’ escape. A cut above normal TV.
The show also uses its visual language to give us more information about the narrative and the characters. In Salvation the scene where Sam slams Dean against the wall, is a reversal both in text and images of Dean slamming Sam against the bridge in the Pilot. The characters have shifted positions both literally and metaphorically in relation to their mission and this mirroring conveys this with great power.
From the Pilot when Sam questions their mission.
From Salvation, when Dean questions their mission:
This technique was used again this week. In the Pilot Sam attacked Dean when he broke into his apartment. Forty two episodes later, the scene is replayed here. What this is adds to this scene is by pointing out how the situation in the Wish verse, is rooted in real life. Sam and Dean were estranged in the Pilot, still would be if Dean hadn’t made the decision to come and get Sam - which remember was not because he needed him but because he wanted him. And again this scene is a point of change in their relationship but this time it is Sam who chooses to come with Dean. 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. (and
lyra_wing explores this beautifully in her episode coda Drink this well dry ).
Wrestling in the Pilot:
and in this week's episode:
Anyway the point of all this is the Blue Velvet reference in this weeks episode. Blue Velvet is a David Lynch film, a dark disturbing visually arresting film that explores the violence and corruption that lies beneath an idyllic façade of suburbia.
The film opens with shots of the perfect town, and we zoom in on a picket fence covered in red roses, where a man is watering his garden. A perfect happy scene. Suddenly he has a stroke and collapses in pain. As life continues on around him, the camera takes us beneath the surface literally, to the writhing disgusting bugs and decomposition beneath the manicured lawn.
And this is all referenced in the scene of Dean mowing the lawn. Something evil lurks behind this we are being told, all is not as it seems. How much do I love this? And that Kripke assumes us to be sophisticated enough to read this? Umm a lot.
Of course the other visual clue we have that not all is perfect in Dean’s wish verse is this horrific picture….
I could hear John Winchester's screams all the way from Hell ;)
ETA: I think the photos looked like crappy manips for a reason.I mean look at the SFX they do on this show, I am sure someone on staff has used Photoshop before. 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.
tvm squeeing about the Blue Velvet references in this week’s episode and then i got carried away. You know me - when an episode affects me emotionally i go all thinky to hide from my feelings.
caps are from all over the place but special credit to
marishna and
leggyslove for any that look good.
For me one of the many things that distinguishes Supernatural is that it strives to use the visual medium for more than just showing us pretty boys, a hot car and scary monsters (not that there's anything wrong with that...).
One reason I fell in love with the show was because it gave me so much in its direction and cinematography. This is the actual shot, from Phantom Traveler, that seduced me. It was a shot that told me how much the visual aesthetic of this show meant to the people making it.
There are of course many visual references and images to movies of the horror genre such as The Shining, The Ring, Evil Dead etc. (Over the hiatus I must do a picspam on these).
In every episode scenes are made more resonant because of how they are framed. There is an attention to detail and the power of images (and sound) here. Rewatching Nightshifter recently I was blown away by the strong images - the use of shadows and flashing lights within the bank, the close-up of the SWAT team’s boots crunching on broken class, and those iconic final moments of the boys’ escape. A cut above normal TV.
The show also uses its visual language to give us more information about the narrative and the characters. In Salvation the scene where Sam slams Dean against the wall, is a reversal both in text and images of Dean slamming Sam against the bridge in the Pilot. The characters have shifted positions both literally and metaphorically in relation to their mission and this mirroring conveys this with great power.
From the Pilot when Sam questions their mission.
From Salvation, when Dean questions their mission:
This technique was used again this week. In the Pilot Sam attacked Dean when he broke into his apartment. Forty two episodes later, the scene is replayed here. What this is adds to this scene is by pointing out how the situation in the Wish verse, is rooted in real life. Sam and Dean were estranged in the Pilot, still would be if Dean hadn’t made the decision to come and get Sam - which remember was not because he needed him but because he wanted him. And again this scene is a point of change in their relationship but this time it is Sam who chooses to come with Dean. 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. (and
lyra_wing explores this beautifully in her episode coda Drink this well dry ).
Wrestling in the Pilot:
and in this week's episode:
Anyway the point of all this is the Blue Velvet reference in this weeks episode. Blue Velvet is a David Lynch film, a dark disturbing visually arresting film that explores the violence and corruption that lies beneath an idyllic façade of suburbia.
The film opens with shots of the perfect town, and we zoom in on a picket fence covered in red roses, where a man is watering his garden. A perfect happy scene. Suddenly he has a stroke and collapses in pain. As life continues on around him, the camera takes us beneath the surface literally, to the writhing disgusting bugs and decomposition beneath the manicured lawn.
And this is all referenced in the scene of Dean mowing the lawn. Something evil lurks behind this we are being told, all is not as it seems. How much do I love this? And that Kripke assumes us to be sophisticated enough to read this? Umm a lot.
Of course the other visual clue we have that not all is perfect in Dean’s wish verse is this horrific picture….
I could hear John Winchester's screams all the way from Hell ;)
ETA: I think the photos looked like crappy manips for a reason.I mean look at the SFX they do on this show, I am sure someone on staff has used Photoshop before. 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.