The Lost Art of Flashbacks: Interview with the Vampire
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- A collection of thoughts about the ways Interview with the Vampire season 2 evolves the formula of the flashback episode, and how it compares to other shows like FROM, Yellowjackets, Station Eleven, and more.
MUSIC (in order of appearance):
Release, M|O|O|N
Olympia, Cory Wong
Dummy!, Toby Fox
Bootstrap, from the DARK score by Ben Frost
GDGEGDGCDEDHECETCHCOHTHOTOTO, Patricia Taxxon
Egotistica, Glitterwitch
Xanadu of the Soul, Glitterwitch
Grinding My Teeth, Molly Noise
Dating Start!, Toby Fox
DODTDODHOTOGTHTEHGHCGEGCECEC, Patricia Taxxon
Harbinger Led Operation, Ruby
Growth Under Constraints, Molly Noise
Hotel, Toby Fox
Honey Sanba, Ratsuyuki Itakura Trio
It Falls Apart In My Hands, Molly Noise
sans., Toby Fox
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i so desperately want to watch this video but i am exercising self control to finish reading interview with a vampire before i watch the show, and then finally watch this video. i will be back in like 6 months to a year
Okay, so about the commercial cuts, the thing is it's AMC wanting more money. When S1 aired, the version you got on AMC+ had no commercial cuts, unlike the one broadcast on their cable channel. But somehow three months later, they dropped an Uncut version. We thought it would be like director's cut or something, but it turned out to be pretty much the same. Then fans started to notice they added differences. The normal version now hides boobs, while the Uncut doesn't.
Then S2 came, we saw how they even added commercial breaks to the streaming version now, because now AMC+ offers a tier with ad breaks. They also censored curses. But then people who bought the series on Amazon or iTunes said their version had no cuts. So we were like, "Oh, this is they're going with the Uncut version now". And today, AMC dropped the Uncut version of S2 on AMC+ and Amazon Prime. So, all of this just so people re-subscribe to AMC+ to watch the Uncut version. Which tbqh it's very annoying because I believe it makes the show presented not as it should be
Scooby doo taught me that the real monsters were spooky ghouls and ghosts
it's refreshing to be able to watch a youtube video without needing to set the playback speed to 2x 🙌
"The suspense is killing me" "Good I hope you DIE" I absolutely loved that bit lol! I completely agree and I feel like I get a lot more out of something when I take the time to sit with it and think about it. Such a good vid and a great preview for the Lost vid, excited for that when it's done!
Oh, I really like this essay! Thank you for it.
Speaking of awkward commercial cuts in Interview with the Vampire: apparently the "uncut" version doesn't have those weird transitions because it was made specifically for streaming only - I guess it can be treated as a version of the show "how it is meant to be watched". I do agree that they should have been more careful with the other version though, even I, a layman, noticed how bad they were.
I wonder if the uncut version is the one that showed on BBC iPlayer then, because that's how I watched the show and the cuts didn't feel awkward. Also it didn't have the next episode previews and behind the scenes stuff, which I would honestly have found infuriating.
I highly recommend Black Sails, it employs flashbacks very intentionally and with integrity. the first season is spent subtly setting the stage for flashbacks that begin in season 2 and flashbacks are integral to some of the most important moments through the rest of the show. also a literary adaptation that engages with the source material in a unique and enriching way, and there's some thematic overlapping with iwtv in how they explore storytelling and the narrativising of history and trauma. each season gets stronger and stronger and the finale sticks the landing
i've been watching it with my gf for the last couple months! we're about halfway through the final season now and it definitely deserves to be part of this conversation. i'm sure it'll come up in a future video
the version of iwtv on bbc iplayer is edited TOTALLY different, the cuts didnt feel jarring at all (I guess cause of no ad breaks between scenes?) and the ends of the episodes feel so much more impactful than the version on amc because they have music over the ending and we sit with a black screen for just a bit longer, and then the credits roll. it almost invites you to sit and think about the episode cause theres no bts to ruin the emotional climaxes at the end
'Sarah Zedig video about iwtv and yellowjackets' is a sentence that makes me feel like christmas came early and this did NOT disappoint - those last five minutes in particular are so blisteringly correct that I am going to be thinking about them for the next week probably. Thank you so much for making this.
Yet again, I find my own thoughts put forth with eloquence and humor, with extra bonus thoughts that delight. You never miss, please don’t stop making videos.
Yooo I gotta say I love the presentation style of placing showing video footage by filming the editing software. It really highlights your great camera work
some people didn't read 300 chapters of manga where fight scenes are routinely cut with flashback chapters and characters are forgotten for whole arcs but they and their decisions still haunt the narrative even in their absence and its fine, but also it shows. did i just compare lost to tokyo ghoul? yes i think i did!
The Lost mention made me so happy! I’ve just started my first proper rewatch since it first aired and noticed straight away how different the structure of each episode feels from similar modern TV shows. We have to go back non-ironically.
Lost is such a product of the transition into the new, "Golden Age" of television. Imagine if lost was 30 or 40 episodes, total, edited to run without commercials.
"The suspense is killing me!" "Good, I hope you die!" is an all-timer line from Sarah
I have an appreciation for Yellowjackets. Upon my first watch, it was a very chaotic experience where I kept getting confused with each character's storyline and the general settings of the show. However, now I find meaning in it. Typically shows of the similar format have a large group of characters and make the experience of show's consumption simple by focusing on one character at a time. F. ex. The Wilds has a similar premise and dedicates one episode to one character. The Wilds is a very digestible, linear, and easily understood show. Yellowjackets, on the other hand, is supposed to confuse you. In this way, the form of storytelling in scrambled flashbacks, constant change of pace, moods, and POV helps assimilation with the emotional state of the characters inside the show. You kind of step into their skin and experience with them the turmoil of survival, the brainfog of trauma, the horror of the-in-the-moment fear; thus leading to logical conclusion of all the hallucinations and cannibalism and whatnot. Their choice of flashback construction is clearly deeply intentional and is honestly quite bold (and for sure a nightmare in post-production) in being a quite uncommon industry approach. Although yeah, I understand it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's nice to discuss these things tho
Also regarding the "Daniel is barely a character in the books" comment, Daniel thankfully gets expanded upon in the later books. The show already begun to borrow events from the later titles, it is possible that Ep. 5 is the show's inspiration with the events unfolding in Queen of the Damned. It also makes sense to invest into Daniel's character from the start, since he's a meaningful part of the story, rather than making him a passive observer and then explaining his character. Honestly makes me very curious about the next seasons and Daniel/Armand relationship; was Episode 5 a substitution for what unfolded in the book, did something else happen during these days Daniel does not fully remember? 🤨I am thoroughly confused yet intrigued
zoomers: can't take a break between episodes? think of it like this: sitting with your thoughts is mental edging. have fun.
i absolutely love how you use your video editor to talk about the editing
When you started talking about the cuts to black for commercial breaks I just thought why didn't you watch the uncut version which does away with those? And the immediate 'next episode' at the end isn't there in the DVD version. But I get your complaints! if you only experience the show on TV or the censored version it's absolutely annoying.
edit: The uncut version also have additional bits of dialogue, more swearing, and more nudity.
THERE'S AN UNCUT VERSION???
@@letstalkaboutstuff IWTV was created to be an AMC+ exclusive. So yes, S1 is a bit more spice. S2 was toned down but that was on purpose. Jacob explained, that it was less sexual due to Louis being respectful of Armand. So he didn't go in depth about their sex life.
4 and a half minutes in, really digging this editing suite framing, excited to see what you're up to with it
13:20 this reminds me so much of Station Eleven again, the pacing and the way that show divides its episodes into self contained pieces of a whole was so masterful and made it so engaging to watch. the cut to blacks and credit sequences are honest to god _memorable._ ive never seen such an earnestly made show on all levels and that includes the editing, it's truly something else. this video made me add iwtv to my list for sure.
great video. your essays are so tight and insightful, i never get a feeling of wasted air. i love the funky visual choices, they feel very unique.
as soon as i commented this Station Eleven began being talked about! lovely articulation. 'contender for the best of the century' is fucking right! what a joy.
...is it a faux pas to comment multiple times or is it good for me engagement?? mobile yt on firefox doesn't allow to edit comments lol
anyways i forgot to say, this video did that wonderful thing where i Felt and Knew a lot of this stuff but didn't have the eye to articulate it, and someone else with a more trained gaze offered me that understanding. abt multiple things but also especially clicked so hard why bingewatching and shows made for bingewatching feel so much worse, and why shows like SE rock so hard
And that i have to watch LOST
@@Mosstrades i dunno if it's a faux pas or helps the algorithm, but it's certainly doing great things for my ego :)
I love this. I loved Yellowjackets but at times the pacing really got so frustrating. Can't wait to watch everything else you talk about here. Thanks for the recommendations! Love your insight and style of talking about media soooo much.
Slight defence of the Deniel Molloy s2e04 cut I think it was supposed to be a garish cut off and end to the episode.
i know it's supposed to be, they just don't give that cut enough room to breathe before jumping into the next-time-on
i agree about the editing in some cuts but not all cuts. Like, I like how the pilot ends with Louis giving the monologue and the camera comes in on his face as he says that was the end and the beginning and a bloody tear rolls out of his eye because it is jarring to see. I like the ending for Season 2, Episode 7 with the view of the dress and the silence. I watched the show on TV...which is different than how it presents on the AMC streaming services so I actually have commercial breaks and credits. I think my least favorite cut is at the end of Season 1, Episode 2. Some episodes are edited better than others.
LETS GOOO i'm so delighted that you made a video on amc iwtv!! truly one of the shows bringing back Television. love to hear all the deeply correct takes, a balm upon the soul.
Excellent analysis, I too like when art and videos analysing art are actually about things. IWTV truly is fantastic and so thoughtfully made and what you said about music is so true.
It's so weird being in a time where young people are more politically galvanized and more left-leaning than ever, and where people on tiktok love punk/metal/goth aesthetics and yet...mainstream audiences still don't want more out of music than relationships and parties?? As someone who grew up listening to bands like Rage Against the Machine I don't get it at all.
really great essay, i'm happy that i heard someone mentioning station eleven, that show is criminally underrated
You’ve captured a lot of my thoughts about adaptation so well. It comes up a lot in discussions about this show. I don’t think a good adaptation is just a copy of its source in an unintended medium, but rather something that respects the vision and and becomes a new piece of art in its own right. I believe the interview show is (or should be) a textbook example of “what to do” when adapting material, especially ones that have been around a long time and have seen adaptions before. I think the showrunner said it best, essentially that they aren’t trying to replicate the book or the movie, and that he was tasked with creating this “new third thing.” That can become problematic if they don’t understand or respect the source material to begin with, but it’s clear that the team at Interview are intimately in conversation with the source material.
THANK YOU for talking about those cuts to black and end credits. I thought there was something wrong with my tv 😭😭 still the best show I’ve seen in a long time but those cuts are atrocious and definitely bring me out of the show every time
The story on the show takes characterizations from later books as well.
station 11 is incredible. cant be said enough.
I just binged the second Interview with a Vampire series and if those strange jumpscare endings with stranger epilogue discussion did something, it was to paceout the binging ^^
Oh and I hated Lost proclivity to just stop character arcs dead, just to maybe pick them up 3 episodes later.
Hmm, I always thought the weird editing was intentional. Because the theme is “memory is the monster” and because Louis is an unreliable narrator. So, I thought of it as emphasising the fact that it’s often about memories that Louis and later Daniel don’t remember fully/clearly. Oh well. :)
10:03 I would say not even the latter is true! Some shows take way longer than a year between seasons to come out now.
I'm not proposing we should return everything fully to a 22-episode season with episodes that come out weekly instead of dropped all at once… but I'm also not *not* saying that, either.
I never understood binge watching. I have maybe 2 watched shows right through as fast as I could and I was actively trying to stop myself. Can only enjoy that first immersion once! Usually though I just get bored with the story, guess fhe ending and wander off.
station eleven it's so underrated, i've recommended it since it came out!
I have a Lost observation! Idk how valid it is, or if it’s route, but I personally haven’t seen people making this connection. The Lost flashback model to me seems descended from Reality Tv. In the same way Lost is in premise “what if Survivor was a fictional drama” the flashbacks do serve the same function that the interviews do in most competitive Reality Tv, where you focus an episode on someone before they have a big win/are ‘voted off the island.’ I feel like I’ve watched many ensemble shows since that ape the Lost model, doing that focus episode with flashback - Orange is the New Black comes to mind from the 2010s. I’m not sure how well it works for every story, in the wrong hands it can feel like it’s giving too much away, not trusting the audience to make inferences about the characters history, or allowing that ambiguity to sit there. Something I liked a lot about Succession is that it doesn’t use the flashback crutch at all. Only for the title cards, and then only vaguely. For a show that’s entirely about the family dynamic, it could be tempting, but to do so would have harmed the immediacy, the feeling of being trapped in the present with the characters. Imo, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had out of the box hot takes on one of the over talked about shows of the decade 😅. But yeah 100% I think Lost is worth revisiting, and I’m hype for your takes, and also esp curious to see if it’s talked about as a bridge between the semantics of reality tv and prestige television.
actually this makes a lot of sense. another example is mike flanagan. he's a master of transitions and using flashbacks to build tension and drip feed information, but before all that was an editor on rpdr
@@rachelz57 oh yeah! And his flashbacks in Hill House operate in that same vein, as part of an episode focus on a character
Your discussion about episode structure is spot on! It's what made me lose interest in season 2 of Ted Lasso - it felt like every episode was checking in on each ongoing plot thread, and so no given episode was about anything in particular.
This video made me realize why I felt sometimes v weird abt episodes of yellowjackets. The editing between flashbacks is weird! Especially in season 2 even if I still enjoy it, the show feels unnatural structurally.
really adored this video!
station 11 the show was so incredible, i read the book afterwards but it really disappointed. ah well, shows how good of a job the showrunners did
". . . the big flashback episode that I'm supposedly talking about." Yeah . . .
👍
You prefer short stories (standalone episodes) to chapters in a novel (long-form TV).
No, don't give me an example.
more like the LOST art of flashbacks
I don't know why they would do something so stupid as commercial break. I just didn't feel the magic that is season 1 in season 2
You can tottaly uses the comic as storyboard if it is a comic from Frank Miller. And then he failed trying to bring the spirit to cinema, because it is not Frank Miller, even if directed by him
Well, not in full -- that would have been an hours-long episode.
FNAF MENTION
im audibly screaming, wtf are you doing with a halo property if you dont even care about the story in the damn game?!?!??! They thought you couldn't convey emotion while wearing a helmet????? have you watched anything ever????
Totatally disagree, I prefer the Interview With Vampire sharp cut. It is an aesthetic choice that makes it unique. And please, never add 10 second stop on non-existant commercial breaks of steaming. Are you insane? Also, Lost finale makes clear that nobody should be using Lost as an example... for screenplay. Ok, the edition on Lost was something, but it was still TV, semi-procedural episodes...
you are wrong about the ending of lost but that's okay
I have yet to see a faithful adaptation of the Vampire series that doesn't shit on key elements of the story heavily reliant on physical characteristics of some protagonists...
Claudia is a 6 year old blonde girl when she was turned, and (that's the most infuriating) Armand is a beautiful 16 years old, curly dark mahogany haired youth when he was turned. It's important for the plot and character development. It's the contrast between his angelic innocent looks and what he's capable of that made him terrifying.
The worse was the 35 years old Banderas playing him... uurgh!
The dude now playing Louis is good, as in the books he is depicted having black curly hair and dark complexion.
I mean, it really wouldn't be practical to cast an actual six year old as Claudia and remaking her as a Black teenage girl was a thought-out choice for the story they wanted to tell with her and her relationship to Louis. And Armand is definitely still young at heart, frozen at the age he was abused and groomed as a boy.
I understand book lovers wanting to see exactly what they read replicated on the screen, but tbh I think all the changes they made in the show added so much to the story. Except perhaps Claudia's age, I think her being a teenager forever takes away a bit of the tragedy, but I think it still works and you also gotta factor in practical reasons of needing to use a child actor vs being able to use a young adult actor.
To me the physical attributes of a character matter much less than everything else about them, which the show nails. And still, Claudia’s age is still an issue for her, and Armand’s actor captures that ethereal but unsettling nature very well. The actors cast and the decisions made were not made lightly, and I think they actually enrich the story.