I think for the most part we are a writer-weighted community, and I'm all the way onboard with that. But I also enjoy deconstructing the mechanics of interpretation, of performance, of how a director or an actor chose to play the words on the page.
Joss had definite ideas how he wanted his lines to sound, and he wrote the words he wanted his characters to say. When possible he directed the action to look like the vision in his head, and I respect the cohesiveness of his vision, because for the most part it gave us a complete world, a realized 'verse whose values and concepts we could recognise and accept as fact.
But I'm still interested in those aspects of performance and interpretation once the words are off the page. I'm curious as to who made the choice to turn away just there, to hesitate over that line, whether it came up naturally in rehearsal or read-through, whether it was a direction, or something that evolved from the synthesis of an actor and the character, or an ensemble cast.
As we're W&Ping Faith tomorrow--well, just about 24 hours from now--I was just reading over sargraf's breakdown of "brother touches" on LJ, here.
I know I've mentioned her(?) here before, she does wonderful analyses of the relationship between the brothers as revealed through physicality and types of touch in the first season episodes. Not so much on the second season, not yet, anyway.
Faith is a reversal of the usual style, since Dean is a border collie in human form, physically herding and guiding Sam and anyone else under his protection, and in Faith he's too weak to "herd". Sam's style is completely different, and while he tries some of the same methods, he's not as successful at it as Dean.
It's a fascinating--to me, anyway--look at body language and how we communicate even when we're not aware of it. sargraf's breakdowns of Shadow and Salvation were a revelation of motivation and interpretation, and in the case of Shadow, her analysis was borne out by comments by episode director Kim Manners and JA at the Paley Festival last year.
I find that I've subliminally picked up on a lot of this stuff, but having it broken down and explained sort of illuminates it for me. And it makes me wonder, again, how much arises normally in the workday of getting pages on film, and how much is blocked and planned and rehearsed.
Just me then?
Juliebird,
It's a personal preference that I like dark(er) better, if only because while quirky and light is fun, it's also more easily dismissed. The grimmer stuff resonates with me. I like more consequences, I like higher stakes, and if I'm laughing at the world about to end, then I'm not taking any of the story seriously and I'll forget about it in an hour.
TOTALLY agree. That is what I loved about Serenity. There was a point where I seriously wondered if Joss might just close down the franchise by killing everyone off. The way he set the stage it was a serious possiblity. Anything less would have been cartoonish.
Just me then?
Not just you, Bev. I just have that window open and haven't been able to set aside enough of my brain to look at it, think about it and talk about it in the way that it deserves.
Because I pick up a hell of a lot from what we actually see and that is the writer, the director and hugely the actors. There are scenes that would be completely different for me if I were to just read them but as they appear onscreen, I get another vibe altogether.
So I am mostly thinking about my response. And some of it is edging into meta. But, no, not just you.
Season 3 of the new Dr. Who starts in the UK this Saturday.
So apparently putting off buying the SGA season 2 DVDs until I finished my taxes was a smart move, because as of this morning, I am getting someone's presumed-lost-in-shipping DVDs for FREE.
Yay for free! I can't remember if I have SG:A S2 yet or not. Must check.
Apparently with the SGA DVDs I am also going to be given a pimp disc of The Dresden Files. (In return, I will be slipping her 20 episodes of FNL, so basically I am making out like gangbusters in this exchange.)
Beverly, not just you. I was thinking about this the other day, with Dresden Files. I love getting the scripts and watching the show while reading, watching how the actors chose to interpret the words and the written direction. I only ever got scripts for Joss' shows; I wish I could get my hands on more scripts!
So I was three weeks behind on BSG, and watched it all last night. (I should have meara'd, but there you are...) This season has been such a scattershot, it feels like. Definite rewatch in the future, just to try to see if it strings together. I think my biggest problem has been that I completely lost what the hell was going on with Baltar. I enjoyed watching his character, and suddenly he seemed to take a left turn.
I 100% called Starbuck's return, and it makes me feel simultaneously cool and a little disappointed. No body, not dead. (Or Lee's got an invisible friend now too, which wouldn't surprise me either.)
The Big Cylon Reveal:
Do I remember correctly that even the Cylons (or at least Six) don't know who the Final Five are? So it's possible they could be Cylons and no one would have known. Also, the Cylons seemed to theorize that the requirement for having children with humans was the love component. Chief and Cally are in love, they have a baby, see above re: Helo and Sharon.
But I wasn't sold on it. Unless I missed something, it basically seemed to me that "We can all hear the music that isn't there, and we all wanted to go to one room, so clearly WE'RE CYLONS OMG!!1!" Couldn't hearing the music be an indicator of something else? I was thinking about how it's a bit of a shame that they didn't focus more on who comes from what colony, because I think it would be interesting to have a "representative" for each colony, lead by Starbuck, with a pre-destined biological determination to unite the tribes. (The human equivalent of the 12 models, if you will...)
Conclusion: I am the only person left in the universe who hasn't done a cover of AAtW.
Another BSG irritation: How can Tigh be a Cylon when he fought in the 1st Cylon War (i.e. before there were skin jobs)?
