MovieChat Forums > Queer as Folk (2000) Discussion > Cinematography Appreciation Thread

Cinematography Appreciation Thread

posted 12 years ago by Sunikota
39 replies | jump to latest

Can we all agree that Qaf was directed, edited and insert other technical stuff here, very beautifully, along with the amazing OST

So what are your favorite scenes in terms of how it was shot, edited, etc.
Here are some that I can remember:

- Forever Young dance sequence- the slow-motion scene when Brian was leading Justin to the dance floor, then there was a shot of a hand up in the air and there were falling glitters. The perfect music. The scene was just magical.

- Dumpster Boy investigation- Kenneth Rickert didn't show up, the loft was in darkness, Brian smoking by the window then justin coming up behind him, the up close shot of Justin smoking the cigarette and the sound of it sizzling. Very cool.

- Brian and Michael hospital rooftop- I have no explanation for this, just love it for the simple reason that Gale looked hot.

-Brian and the joys of scarfing(lol)- this whole sequence, the music, Brian playing with scarf, just everything about this scene is perfect.

I'm rewatching season 1, I know there's tons more, I just can't remember at the moment.

EDIT: I know these are all Brian's scenes, but seriously, they're the one that sticks to me.

[–] KatrinaW 12 years ago

I *love* the cinematography of this show! The camera work, the lighting, and the awesome music are consistently great.

Most of my favorite scenes are with Brian, too, of course. Gale is just so stunning, I can't help it. I think the standout scene for me is Ep 219, when Brian confronts Justin, who's been with Ethan all day. Justin wants to take a shower, and the whole following makeout scene is amazing, with the whirling hand-held camera and the spotlight lighting.

A lot of the opening Babylon scenes are great. I love how they use slow-mo in a lot of the openings, with all of the HDGB's (hot dancing gay boys) dancing with their arms up, and the glitter falling down. Ep 312 does this best, with Prodigy's "Baby's Got a Temper", which is slower than the usual thumpa-thump music.

Another great scene is after Brian and Justin get back together (I think it's 309): they're laying in bed, and the camera is sideways, so we're looking at them right-side up. There's a knock on the door (Brian's 11:00 trick), and when he starts getting up, the camera slowly turns until Justin is shown laying down. It's hard to explain, but it's just one of many nifty camera tricks that this show does so well.

[–] Sunikota 12 years ago

I agree, all the Babylon scenes are done so well, it's always very magical. And they're so creative with the themes too, like in one episode there were these huge oriental wooden fans.

Yes! I know what scene you're talking about! I've seen it a million times, lol.

[–] clofa 12 years ago

I love all the examples already given. In my opinion, QAF itself is an amazing work of art and I can't believe how it all came together so beautifully in every episode.

This topic reminded me of watching the extras of episode 314, where most of the cast (minus Gale and Randy :( ), CowLip, producer Sheila Hockin and Director Kelly Makin were commenting on that episode and I was amazed by the details that went into making this just one episode. Colors played a major role and the director even came up with a color theme for each storyline!

For instance, Ted's color was green (and you'd see green things taking over his scenes)
Ben and Michael's color was orange
Brian and Justin's color was blue...

And at the end, all the colors are gradually merged again on Liberty Avenue when the LGBT flag is raised after Stockwell loses the election.

It made me want to know about how each and every episode was made.

Brianwashed!

[–] Sunikota 12 years ago

That is one of my favorite episodes. The beginning sequence in black and white was done so well. After I read your comment I just had to rewatch the entire episode again. lol. I noticed that when people went out to the street to dance even the people and the cars were dressed up and made to look like the LGBT flag. The most noticable was red because the people on ehte left most part were wearing red and the car in the middle was red then in the middle the people were in blue, yellow and orange, it was so neat.

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[–] dergil27 11 years ago

It may not related at all. But noticed that in ep 107 the end scene with David and Brian had David all in one color and Brian in another. Perhaps the creators remembered this and expanded on it for thier rainbow themed third season finale.

[–] dergil27 11 years ago

Hearing the cast talk about this helps highlight the tremendous amount of imagination and effort it must have taken to infuse a noticable but not overpowering color scheme into each storylines.

[–] revansco 10 years ago

I know this may be late to comment on, but I know you're on the boards a lot so you'll see this

I too saw the 3x14 commentary and they also said that in light of the importance of the campaign/Stockwell story coming to a close, they included a television set somehow in every scene of the finale. It's so true! I can think of some specifically.

TV at Woody's showing the ad, again at Woody's showing the results, at Brian's loft when he's selling stuff, Justin comments that Brian has to sell his new plasma tv to pay for the ads, there's a tv above the receptionist in that beautifully-shot scene of Ted walking towards the desk at the rehab center, there's a tv playing at the rehab center that Ted notices right before he sees Blake, the tv was used at the crystal meth doctor's house to show us the horrible Ted rape scene , TV was shown at the diner where Deb turns the volume up.

Very creative on the director and prop people's part!

[–] clofa 10 years ago

I know this may be late to comment on, but I know you're on the boards a lot so you'll see this

You guessed right! Even though I hardly have any time at all, I can't help not at least check this place every day!

Thank you for the notes about the TV, I don't remember that and it's very interesting. Now, instead of putting any artistic, creative efforts, the most successful shows seem to be the "reality shows" (I don't watch TV but that I keep hearing) and it's too sad.

Brianwashed!

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[–] dergil27 10 years ago

Bump

[–] KatrinaW 12 years ago

fairpenguin, Em looked absolutely fabulous in that dream sequence, and he was totally rocking the sparkly eye makeup!

I watched one of my absolute favories episodes in the series the other day, S1 Ep 17. Nothing really groundbreaking happens, but there are a lot of great smaller scenes (mostly involving Brian, natch!). But, this episode is where the gang crashes Michael and David's posh political fund-raiser, and they end up livening up the whole thing. Awesome!

Not only are everyone's getups hilarious (Emmett in the Jackie Kennedy pink suit and pillbox, Ted in his leather getup, Brian as a lounge lizard, Justin in a very twink cutoff shirt and low cargo pants, Vic in a pimp outfit complete with hat), but the cinematography and lighting were so great. My favorite is when the camera starts on Mikey freaking about Deb and the gang being there, but then slowly pans around the room. It follows Justin and his pickup dancing (the way the camera follows them is really cool), we see Em in the background, it passes Brian and the waiter he's hitting on, and finally ends up on Ted in his leather getup, asking the random preppy guy to dance, and explaining how his former school friend locked him in his dungeon and made him his 'suck pig'!

I know they used the jerky/swooping camera and white light effect a lot, and I loved it. Another cool thing was when Blake (or even Ted later in the series) was tweaked out on meth, and they did a lot of cool slow/fast motion and jerky head shaking.

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[–] dergil27 11 years ago

Remember the camera and light effects on Blake's point of view. Thought it was very unique. And certainly something I'd never seen before.

[–] clofa 12 years ago

I've just watched episode 113 and one scene reminded me of this thread. Though I'm not as interested in Mel and Lindsay's relationship as much as other stories on the show, as a Melanie fan, I couldn't but be touched when she comes back home and can't sleep next to Lindsay on their bed. The whole scene starting from when she's climbing the stairs to the bedroom and the dialog between her and Lindsay (where we see them both but they don't see each other), I thought the whole thing was brilliantly done (the music, the acting, the overlapping scenes...).

Brianwashed!

[–] dergil27 12 years ago

This show has such steller cinematography it would be easier to mention what is not visually appealing.

But one of my favorites is the end scene of ep. 5.9 with the slowmotion dancing at Babylon and music with a middle eastern flavor setting up the imaginary reconciliation between Michael and Brian. Then the drastic cut to reality with Ted and the sad sounding end music with falling confetti.

[–] dergil27 11 years ago

Always enjoyed the outdoor snow scenes, of which there were many. One favorite was Jack Kinney's burial. Snow is usually pretty, but the way it became a passive but very "there" part of the show was never more clear than in this scene.

[–] KatrinaW 10 years ago

Totally! That whole episode was brilliant, regardless.

This show does the ending scenes/songs really well, cinematography and music-wise.

One of the best was S2, Ep 17, when Brian ends up going home alone at the end of the night, and we see him walking down the steamy alley, while Queen's "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" plays. Perfect!

Another great scene is at the end of the ep with Michael's tragic birthday party; there's a closeup of Brian, sprawled out on the floor while smoking and reading the comic book. The camera slowly tracks out, so we see all of Brian's apartment as he recedes into the distance (a nice way to get the layout of his loft, which is initially hard to figure out). Of course, there's still party mess everywhere, and we can see the blown up old school picture of Michael/Hal on the wall behind him.

[–] BrightMelody09 10 years ago

One of the best was S2, Ep 17, when Brian ends up going home alone at the end of the night, and we see him walking down the steamy alley, while Queen's "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" plays. Perfect!

Yes, that scene is one of a kind.

[–] revansco 10 years ago

I'm bumping this thread because it's so brilliant! I love so many of the scenes mentioned above!

My personal favs usually have to do with Brian (shocker)

Love the "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" scene. Gale was amazing in the "scarfing" scene, but I also loved the cinematography of it and the music too. The scarf flying through the air several times as he's trying to hook it, the candles lit, and then the blurry vision and "far away" sound effect as he realizes Michael's in the loft, to the moment Michael grabbed him down was excellent! One of my all-time fav. scenes. "You'll always be young and you'll always be beautiful. You're Brian Kinney for fvcks sake!"

I really didn't like Ethan, but I can appreciate the cinematography of the scene where Justin goes to surprise him at Ethan's recital and he sees him talking to another boy. Cut to a shot of just their lips (and I think eyes too, not sure) and how Justin is seeing it from that perspective and just knew Ethan was cheating. I loved how that was shot!

Another 2 favs. of mine have to do with cinematography AND music. Both Brian/Justin Babylon scenes. The episode (I think end of 3x07) where Brian sees Justin doing another guy in the backroom and Brian looks at Justin while someone's going down on him too. The way it shot from just their bodies to close-ups of their faces and their intense looks. Great directing there! Also loved the Brian/Justin scene in Babylon when Justin is "king of Babylon" and takes Brian's "guy" away. Brian goes down the steps slowly looking for Justin only to see him doing the guy. The green/blue lighting of that scene made it all the more intense and made me sad for Brian that he felt like he kind of "lost" Justin in the scene. Beautiful lighting! Both scenes had incredible music to boot.

Another great one was how they shot the scene with Gus getting the bat for his birthday and how it shook in the air (from Justin's perspective) and how it recalled the flashbacks for him.

There are so many more I can't think of right now!

[–] rdpepper210 10 years ago

Those scenes were almost like a moving painting with the lighting, music, speeding up and slowing down. I have the whole thing on DVD but haven't watched it lately, but now that it's on demand, I realized how sorely missed that show is. It's an amazing show on so many levels.

[–] KatrinaW 10 years ago

I just re-watched S1, Ep 15, a very dark-looking episode visually. The Leather Ball was happening at Babylon, and both the lighting and costumes matched the 'black leather' look.

Everyone was dressed very darkly (except Emmett, of course!), and the lighting was very moody. The weather for the few outdoor scenes was grey and misty, which also set the tone. I know they can't control the weather, but it's nice that it fit the mood of the episode.

Brian's loft was also very darkly lit. The decor of his home is very masculine, but was oftentimes more brightly lit. Not this time. I liked how everything tied in.

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[–] KatrinaW 10 years ago

Another great scene, visually: Emmett (aka Mrs. Ted Schmidt!) comes to see Brian at his office to beg for Brian to use his influence with Stockwell.

It was just an ordinary, daytime office scene, but the way the guys were lit, in what looked like average indirect daylight, made them both look beautiful, and made their eyes really pop out on screen. Especially Emmett's blue/green eyes.

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[–] dergil27 9 years ago

In 3.14, when the show was doing their "every character represents a color of the rainbow flag" thing, the use of red light for Emmett and green for Ted as they pass each other in Babylon.

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