The Visual Language of Better Call Saul
Вставка
- Опубліковано 24 кві 2022
- This week on In The Frame, with Better Call Saul returning for its final seasons Darren takes a look at how the show uses a lot of unique visual storytelling techniques.
Join UA-cam Memberships and support our content for Early Access to new videos, exclusive Discord perks & more for just $2 per month ►► / @theescapist
Join our growing Discord community: / discord
Subscribe to Escapist Magazine! ►► bit.ly/Sub2Escapist
Want to see the next episode a week early? Check out www.escapistmagazine.com for the latest episodes of your favorite shows.
---
---
The Escapist Merch Store ►►teespring.com/stores/the-esca...
Join us on Twitch ►► / the_escapist_official
Like us on Facebook ►► / escapistmag
Follow us on Twitter ►► / escapistmag - Розваги
As someone that barely pays attention to this kind of stuff, having someone point it out and then list multiple examples is eye-opening. Thank you for pointing out this visual storytelling, Darren!
Thanks Donald! Glad you enjoyed! I feel a bit sorry for Omar, who got the bones of half-an-hour of me rambling incoherently about particular shots and what they mean, and then had to edit it into this - which I think works really well. Tremendous work from Omar here.
Yeah I picked up on maybe one or two of these details from better call Saul, but they really show how this attention to detail pays off even if the audience notices them subconsciously
@@KeatonKnippel Yep. I’d agree with this. It’s not necessarily that you go “oh a train! that means…!”, it’s that you see a train, and you see tracks and you maybe think about how these characters are all heading to fixed destinations.
Like, I suspect even before I pointed out the visual storytelling, most audiences just *get* that Kim and Jimmy aren’t necessarily a healthy relationship - as much as we love them - in part because of those visual choices, even without explaining or clocking exactly why.
Breaking Bad is a really great show but man Better Call Saul is so visually impressive. I love the art and detail and information they put into every shot. Every frame a painting.
One of the best TV shows, alongside Breaking Bad and Mr. Robot. The fact that the camera shots and the lighting tells a story and enhance what's presented is astonishing. A must watch to anyone who loves the medium.
Yep, it's fantastic.
Darren, you're awesome! Glad your series' are going to be more regular again
I am thrilled to be back!
Love this show. I wish I had friends who'd watch it and appreciate it with me.
I’ve seen the show twice through and god damn this taught me so much
Glad you enjoyed it!
One of if not the best show on tv over the last 7 years. This show had a major uphill climb. It is a follow up/sequel/prequel to one of the most influential acclaimed shows of all time. It had to honor that show while justifying it's own existence and be it's own thing. It also had to take what was essential a fun comedic supporting character in a drama and create a engaging tragic show that surrounded him. It's definitely a slow burn, but one where the creative team, many of which transferred from Breaking Bad have only gotten better at their job. The writing is more confident. The visual storytelling is more refined and deliberate. I'll miss this show and can only hope it's audience will grow over time just like Breaking Bad's eventually did.
As do I! I do think that the people who love "Better Call Saul" *really* love "Better Call Saul", but I'm sad it hasn't quite broken out in the way that "Breaking Bad" had at this point in its run.
Aaah! Lay-lo!?!?
Great video as always though 👍
Sorry!
I picked up on 90% of the things talked about here while watching but the one I missed was Kim’s hairstyle changing gradually. When Darren pointed that out it completely blew me away, beautifully crafted episode picking up on everything that could be discussed. Well done Darren!
Nice! Glad that I added something to your appreciation of the show!
@@Darren_Mooney I finished season 5 less than a week ago so very fresh and well timed. Thank you!
Didnt said enough last time when they launched this new contet so am saying it every siongle time now.
This new content of the scapist is SO FUCKING GOOD, am enjoying it so much.
Please keep the good work
Glad you enjoyed!
Very well made video, I hadn't noticed a lot of what was pointed out. I wish more people had the patience to experience this show's deliberate, economical approach to story telling. It demands the viewer's full attention and most importantly respects their intelligence, still so underrated for how good it is.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed. I love the show's very deliberate approach to pacing its story. I think it makes the show a lot more compelling than it might otherwise be.
I had my reservations about watching this show but now know I must I love In the Frame
"...consider the closing shot of the fifth season..." RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY! (Haven't finished the fifth season yet.)
I love this kinda stuff, I try my best to notice these kinds of visual metaphors in shows and movies but most of it goes over my head tbh :P like i always notice when a shot looks really cool or the editing is really interesting but the deeper meaning never really hits me. so I'm glad there's reviews and yt channels like this to help me out lol... it's interesting that jimmy and kim are shot and framed more and more separate as the show goes on, it isnt something i noticed (partly cuz of what i just said and partly cuz there's been so much time between seasons) but i did notice from the characters' acting and body language that Jimmy especially seems more and more uncomfortable... I dunno if it's partly because he resents himself for never being able to make it as a legit lawyer and feels weird about someone else really encouraging the darker side of him, or if it's because he had thought of this as a way to gain some kind of control over himself but now not only did the cartel boss him around but Kim is starting to take the lead too... or what. Idk that's one of the things I love abt this show is that the characters are so deep, there's so many interpretations haha
Enjoyed this. Havent been able to get started on BCS yet but this is one of those things that might force my hand to binge it.
I caught te dreaded COVID a few weeks back, and I basically rewatched the entire show for this video. I loved it all over again.
Very interesting. You made me want to watch this series now
I really enjoyed it, and enjoyed it even more on rewatch for this. It made me want to find time for a “Breaking Bad” rewatch.
well you kinda done-goofed yourself for watching the entire series analysis because there were some major spoilers in this video
Great as always :)
Thank you darren!
This was just "chef's kiss"
*chef’s blush*
@@Darren_Mooney oh glad to know😂 keep up the good work man! Will be really happy to see your review after the end of series!
Whilst I picked up things like the Nacho's glass at the end of the last season, its amazing how much I don't notice, but probably take in subconsciously. As someone who isn't particularly literate in cinema, I find videos like this fascinating.
As much as I love Darren's pop culture videos (being a big Marvel fan myself), I'd love more of these (being a Saul fan also helps). More Mooney Movie school videos please. Love your and Omar's work!
Yep, Omar's work here is outstanding. To be fair, it helps to be working with this material, and I'm glad Nick let me do something this visual for the video.
laylo scalamanca
First non Yahtzee video i have truly enjoyed by Escapist. Keep it up you guys; this channel might actually be on an upward trend now.
Man, that was an excellent breakdown!
Thanks! Omar's edit is amazing, isn't it?
@@Darren_Mooney aww shucks
@@Yomarz It’s true!
This show will be taught in film schools for decades - or it should be at least. The language it creates using framing, colors, clothes, set pieces - everything! - puts almost every other movie to shame. The only worthy successor to this series at the moment is, fittingly enough, Succession. Even so, Better Call Saul is in a league completely of its own. I hope there are many more essays like this in years to come, to fill the hole in my heart after the last episode airs. (Sidenote: I'm half convinced Kim is up to something, with that out-of-the-blue marriage proposal and the way she is framed more and more in shadow...)
I don't know that Kim is up to anything, so much as she's just indulging her inner darkness.
@@Darren_Mooney Odds are you are right. I am probably reading to much into certain detalls, but we also see that Jimmy is not quite Saul yet, and one of the few things that could really turn him to the dark side is some kind of betrayal by Kim... (I hope not, but I also hope she doesn't die even more)
@@MariaVosa I do wonder if he might have to cover for her when something goes wrong, and that's kinda what forces him to commit to the whole "dirtbag lawyer" thing.
She's just trying to use her evil powers for good.
Very well thought out.
Excellent actually.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!
Terrific video. More please :)
Well, there's another one coming two weeks from now at any rate! Very excited.
I love that you used that clip from Hell or Highwater
It's something that I kept thinking about with the Mesa Verde subplot, the fact that it's essentially as pure a western plot as anything on "Breaking Bad", but which very few people seem to have picked up on - or, at least, talked about. "Hell or Highwater" seemed to be trodding similar ground, so it seemed fair to slot it in.
Best show ever
Nice Video Darren. I never noticed how Kim's pony tail slowly disappeared. I absolutely love Better Call Saul it is nothing short of brilliant imo. Better than Breaking Bad for me at least until now.
What's kinda interesting is that, even in the season premiere that came out after Omar edited this, and - I think - after it was released, there was a lot of stuff that was like, "Yep, we talk about that in the video!"
So, like, you get a sequence where it looks like Kim is littering, for example, but she's just tossing the cup into a bin far away. It's a bit more reckless than she usually is, but she's not making as big a mess as Jimmy does... yet. Similarly, there's another shot of the two of them brushing their teeth... in two separate mirrors, to underscore the growing space between them.
I like it, but I still prefer Breaking Bad.
Gilligan isn't the showrunner for BCS - it's Peter Gould and has been from the start. Yes, Vince created BrBa, which BCS derives its style from, but this is Peter's baby and Vince isn't even part of the writers room anymore.
Actually, Gould's only been serving as solo showrunner from season four. They both co-created it and co-showran the first three seasons. Gilligan is still directing on the show, and is credited with the script for the penultimate episode. So it's fair to describe him as "showrunner", particularly in the context of charting the show's stylistic roots in "Breaking Bad" and "The X-Files."
The runtime on this piece was long enough without getting into that level of granularity. There was an extended intro about television's history as a writers' (rather than directors') medium that was also cut for time and ease of flow.
Heavy spoilers for season 6 episode 3:
He was truly the only noble character.
Man. You hit that nail right on the head!
Breaking Good.
I want to believe.
… the truth is out there?
Analyzing breaking bad and better call Saul is such well trotted territory but you managed to find a unique angle to center it around
Thanks. Yeah, I didn't want to repeat a lot of what had already been said, and we figured that this is a video series, so we might as well lean into the visual aspect of it.
bUt BeTtEr CaLl SaUl iSn'T vIdEo GaMeS!
*Salamanca
To be honest with you Darren, I have literally zero interest in the Breaking Bad franchise. I watched the first episode, didn't like it, never went back. But I pleaded for In the Frame to be revived, so I'm bloody well going to sit down and watch the video, like, share, leave a comment and otherwise engage the living fck out of this video.
To be fair, the first season can be quite rough, particularly due to the writers' strike. But I think the third and fourth seasons are some of the best television I've ever seen. (I'm not yet at the point where I will confidently say "Better Call Saul" is better, but it is at the point where it *could* be, and that is astounding.)
@@Darren_Mooney It's just not my thing, is the problem, I think. I have the same issue with stuff like The Godfather, Goodfellas & the like. I recognize the excellence of the production, I'm just not interested in the subject.
@@Cooleepable Very fair. I can see that.
Still haven't watched Breaking Bad either. Tried twice, could barely manage the first episode. But Better Call Saul, I was hooked right away. I don't feel like I'm missing anything.