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Pivotal moments
Jul. 12th, 2024 08:24 amIs there a specific moment where something minor you saw or learned changed your perspective forever in a huge way? For me, one of those times was sometime in the early 2010s. Garrett and I were watching the fantastic show Brothers and Sisters on DVD and in some behind-the-scenes footage, they showed how they could use the same scenic backdrop for day and night scenes. One side had the darker version, and they were able to let actual light from behind the set shine through to make it even more realistic.
I was shocked because I never realized that particular location on the show was a set; the backdrop was just that effective. That got me thinking about places on the show that I always assumed were filmed on location, like Kevin's office with the great view of the street down below. Was anything actually filmed on location? Come to think of it, why would they? It'd be pretty difficult to arrange to borrow someone's office every few months, especially since you can never say how long it will take to get the shot you want.
That got me really looking at every show and movie from that point on, trying to figure out exactly what was happening on set. Were they really there? Was it a set built to look like the place? I learned that Ugly Betty, another show from around the same time, made extensive use of green screen filming with location shots superimposed in.
A few years later, the Dallas reboot started, and I was very impressed with the amount of obvious location shots. As is often the case in later or final seasons, the budget was clearly tighter later on and it became very obvious that the views were fake.
I don't watch the new Star Wars shows but was fascinated to learn The Mandalorian does a lot of filming in front of giant digital displays. Why bother cutting actors out of one scene and pasting them on another when the displays look good enough to just treat them like a set?
Brothers and Sisters is a fantastic show, but it's weird to think a random bonus feature on a disc from it opened my eyes so much.
I was shocked because I never realized that particular location on the show was a set; the backdrop was just that effective. That got me thinking about places on the show that I always assumed were filmed on location, like Kevin's office with the great view of the street down below. Was anything actually filmed on location? Come to think of it, why would they? It'd be pretty difficult to arrange to borrow someone's office every few months, especially since you can never say how long it will take to get the shot you want.
That got me really looking at every show and movie from that point on, trying to figure out exactly what was happening on set. Were they really there? Was it a set built to look like the place? I learned that Ugly Betty, another show from around the same time, made extensive use of green screen filming with location shots superimposed in.
A few years later, the Dallas reboot started, and I was very impressed with the amount of obvious location shots. As is often the case in later or final seasons, the budget was clearly tighter later on and it became very obvious that the views were fake.
I don't watch the new Star Wars shows but was fascinated to learn The Mandalorian does a lot of filming in front of giant digital displays. Why bother cutting actors out of one scene and pasting them on another when the displays look good enough to just treat them like a set?
Brothers and Sisters is a fantastic show, but it's weird to think a random bonus feature on a disc from it opened my eyes so much.
