VGHS Fun Fact #43!
February 16th 2017
[WARNING: TRIVIA FACTS POSTED HERE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]
VGHS (Fun) Fact #43:
We all know S3E4 was the most action packed episode yet, right? Oh wait no i got them mixed up, my bad.
Uhhhhh... let’s talk about S3E4 then!
This was the saddest one yet, now I remember. But do we know how it started? And not plotwise, but how was it shot? As a sitcom, right?
AUDI the laughing robot, Couple’s council, the in between shots of the house with the theme music playing, sitcom material. And this is indeed correct, obviously.
The crew actually set up 3 cameras at once in the living room. Freddie was in another room monitoring the footage of the cameras and switching back and forth between them to create the episode as we know it today, in real time. Well, until the sudden shift in plot that is.
In Matt’s words, it was essentially watching a stage play, having the actors in that living room playing out the complete scene without having to stop them midway. The cameras just rolled the entirety of the scene, until the big reveal of Ted’s father’s demise. The actors actually rehearsed the scene multiple times days before the actual shoot to really get into it, as if preparing a play. However, as soon as things go dark this episode, it turns to close up shots, getting between the actors as if you could’ve been there yourself. Turning off AUDI signals the shift, this is when things change in that episode to a more serious tone.
Was this extremely well executed and therefore created a sublime contrast between happy and superficial to extremely dark, sad and serious, you may ask?
Hell yes. Written off as the most “non VGHS” episodes of the series, the incredible acting, camerawork, and powerful plot made this episode into not only a masterpiece, but also one of my favourite ones in the series, hence my gratitude.
(Jimmy, your acting gave me proper feels man :( )
Posted Feb 16, 2017, 10:27 PM UTC · edited