I have something to add as I keep going through ctrl-shift-alt-9’s transcript. I started watching my favorite scene of the film and reading the transcript in a divided screen, and something just clicked.
Simon was obviously not well prior to the beginning of this scene. He was freshly coming out of a breakdown after experiencing the Void, “hallucinating” the Shadowman (his future self), and being told by Ava that he wouldn’t be saved, only to bargain for a slim chance to be rescued by her while everyone else would rather let him rot. So I never questioned that, though he had a chance to survive for the first time in possibly days, his only saving grace was also the cause of his dissociation. His only choice being to return to the caves that had almost trapped him, where Elli first found him and toyed with him, before luring him to the Light.
However! This transcript has truly changed the way I perceive this scene, especially when comparing the audio in the movie and the soundtrack of the scene itself:
There is a heavy rumbling that only appears in the movie, and it appears to be diegetic (aka, that Simon can hear it as well as us). This rumbling is present ever since the scene begins, when Ava is demanding David to pull Jack from medical and weld the SM-14. It almost sounds like metal ripping in slow motion, or perhaps a very low growl.
Furthermore, we either see Simon from a bird’s eye view, reflected on a surface such as the compass, or in the camera’s periphery.
The scene was preparing us for his dissociation. We can assume this from how we stop seeing his face and see him from behind, as if Simon’s own perception of himself becomes a watcher from above (a similar concept as the Eye watching him). Also in the way the film panned from Simon piloting to the picture lighting up “on its own” (something that had been foreshadowed since the Asleep at the Wheel scene). And finally, in the dilation or distortion of diegetic sounds such as the camera whirring. It sounds slowed and eerie the second time, and from the periphery of the frame we see his head snap towards the picture. The picture looks blurred—it casts a halo light on its borders, almost like astigmatism.
Now this is where the transcript comes in. Not only did it catch the whirring of the camera, but also gave the rumbling a name, and identified a screech. We do not know if the rumbling is non-diegetic ambience meant to symbolize his building dissociation and mental chaos, or if it is a diegetic, dilated, endless auditory flashback that led to the rest of the memories spilling from his mind. A flashback of the explosion of Filament Station. Similarly, there’s a screech—and i’m not sure if it’s the shriek of a person, or the screech of tearing, burning metal. It is meant to be ambiguous, but the terror it inspires is the same. Somehow, someway, the stimuli around him that seemed neutral before is making Simon flinch, and perceive something else. Something from the past.
He’d spent most of the film running away from the memories of Filament Station. But now, his mind is splintering from the weight of the trauma he’s endured in the SM-13. Now, the memories have come back to haunt him.
Immediately after, we see Simon from above for the third time, struggling to keep his balance, holding onto the wall as he adjusts his stance, and looking down where he steps. Almost as if dazed, or as if he’d forgotten the puddle of blood where the Eye once reflected back.
This may be the final trigger, because the instant after this frame, we finally see Simon’s face for the first time since his journey to the SM-8 began.
And it is blurred.
And when the camera whirs again, the frame cuts. Time skips. We see him lose time in a way we cannot miss, unlike the camera’s activation without seeing him. The camera has officially become a trigger, cueing his dissociation to a higher degree.
Now, right as we see his face and realize he’s dissociating, we hear one last factor that triggered this scene.
What was the last voice, the last connection to humanity before his new mission, where the rumbling and rattling and screeching intensifies in his isolation? Ava.
What was the first voice he heard in his flashback?
Ava.
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This scene will be perhaps my favorite thing that Mark has ever directed, performed, and edited. I will yap about it and glaze it forever, probably. But because this post is getting long I’m probably gonna make a part 2 where I analyze the rest and use the transcript as a lovely resource and reference. Please go check out ctrl-shift-alt-9’s Master Reference. They’ve worked very hard on all the resources inside of it, and are open to any corrections you guys find as well. We’re building this from the ground up together :D
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So i watched Into The Spiderverse and Across The Spiderverse back to back. This scene:
^^^ The single most beautiful frame in cinema history. Oooh the layers and details and the intimacy of it is gorgeous, in that Miles is showing Gwen somewhere special to him and that she appreciated it and praised it in front of him, and the little shoulder touch. and that’s without talking about the downright SPECTACULAR visuals and the upside-down shots being symbols of how isolating being a Spiderman can feel and Gwen going upside-down first to be there for Miles when he goes upside-down is a subtle metaphor for their friendship and how she’s always gonna be in his corner. (Deeeeep inhale) ANDhowGwen’spastelwatercolourblendsintothe sunrisebeinganotherprettyreminderoftheabove pointIcoulddothisalldaysomeoneisgonnahavetostopme
So I was in film class learning about aspect ratios (the ratio of length to width in the film view/shape of the view) and Catching Fire was used as an example.
When Katniss is sent into the arena, the ratio changes from the Launch Room to the actual Arena.
(Best watching full screen with phone turned!)
The frame becomes bigger, making us feel the overwhelming transition form the claustrophobic room to the huge open arena.
I’d never noticed that before—hope y’all learned something new about CF as well
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Look. Look at this shot. This is Will, waking from a conversation with Abigail in a parody of a family dinner across the ‘tableau’ of one of Hobbs’s victims. She calls him dad. The warm orange lamp behind him is both an indication that he is currently in Hobb’s mind, much like the metronome, and a coloured warning of his mental state (we already saw several similar motifs of his mind ‘on fire’ in the Angel Maker episode). Abigail, meanwhile, is replaced with a plant. She is often represented this way as a nod to her connection with nature and hunting. However, this could also be because she represents, to Will, the very natural desire to be a father - the instinct to nurture something and watch it grow.
246 room shuffle - where’s the missing room? Why so many doors? What is my life?
Okay, answer to the door thing: because this house is an eclectic Mood and I am here for it and cannot let it go until I’ve solved it apparently. Fixated? Me? Nah.
But, curious little detail I picked up on a rewatch that might be helpful to those trying to build the mansion in the Sims: in 1x02, we see young Diego practicing his words in the room across from Klaus’s.
But in 1x10, in her walk of retribution, we see Vanya turn down the hallway across from her room (where only the bathroom should be based on 1x05, but hey that’s an issue for the continuity folks):
Seems like the Even Numbers squad had a bit of a room shuffle between the times of these two flashbacks. Diego, who started in the room across from Klaus, may have wanted a bigger bedroom - so he took what could arguably be Ben’s (previously unseen) room. Ben could have moved into Diego’s room across from Klaus, as it seems they’ve grown inseparable by this time (see below) and Vanya has moved... somewhere else, because Klaus’s room in this same flashback has expanded into Vanya’s old room:
Or, realistically, it could be a decision based on set availability or the fact that this scene was shot after a lot of present-day scenes, so the two rooms stayed as one for this shot. And that would also explain why adult Diego potters around in the room adjacent to Klaus when picking up his old knives etc. If he moved into the other room when he was older, I doubt he’d then move back again.
I’m actually inclined to go with the realistic option there, as there should only be six bedrooms on this floor (plus Five’s upstairs). We know this because the scene in 1x01 where Reginald monitors the children’s REM sleep actually gives us a good hint as the where the kids are situated:
The wire colours coming in from behind the camera in this frame (positioned halfway down the hallway) are as follows:
Luther, blue
Allison, yellow
Vanya, white (ahem)
Klaus, black (obviously)
We have Diego’s room to the right of the frame here, either green or light blue (process of elimination from where Reggie has the wires gathered on his desk).
A red wire creeps from Five’s room upstairs (see how the two wires creeping towards the left side split, one towards the blue light of the hallway and one towards the stairs?
Finally, there’s another wire (again, either green or light blue) coming from the hallway where Diego ducks during the fight with Hazel and ChaCha:
I reckon this hallway leads to Ben’s (later Diego’s) room, and is the hallway Vanya is meant to turn down in 1x10.
Funfact: the door Diego is leaning on may actually be the doorway to (the second doorway to) the toilet we see Klaus crouched over in 1x06:
I told you I had a lot of screenshots, why is this my life? There is a set designer out there laughing at me. If you’re there, sir or ma’am or mx, I love your vision keep it up.
New Article: "Visual Frame Analysis" by Eeva Luhtakallio https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.1218 #sssi #sociology #Goffman #FrameAnalysis @WileySociology
The Special Issue on Goffman’s “Frame Analysis” is quickly coming together on Early View of Symbolic Interaction. The latest article published on Early View is Eevsa Luhtakallio’s article “Visual Frame Analysis”.
Members of SSSI can access the article HERE and by clicking the image below. To join SSSI and subscribe to Symbolic Interaction from $35 (£30), please click HERE.
