This Was So Cool To Read Through - Blog Posts

𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬   |   EPISODE NO. 1 "Goodbye Mama"

❧  𝐚𝐥𝐥  /  𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭.

welcome to a new and uncalled-for series, brought to you by Second Simblr Wind™ or whatever this is :^) i was flipping through 1992 to finally do a fashion rundown inspired by jennifer's analysis of her characters, and i realized 1) i was doing good work once upon a time but have improved a ton since and 2) my favorite shots often aren't the ones that get the most attention. so, here we are. i crave attention like everyone else on the internet, so questions, comments (of your favorites), and requests welcome. if you're new, go catch up !

𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 ↓

01.01 - safya dies : I know this isn’t that standout shot from this post, but it is the one that I find the most striking. It may be the interplay between the dialogue and what’s happening, but the tentativeness of the gesture and the way her ring is conspicuously absent makes it noteworthy to me. I also just love shots constructed this way: side profile, cut off so the only expressiveness you see is the lower nose and mouth.

01.02 - leonor has a nightmare : It was hard to choose for this set. The runner-up was the close-up of Safya applying sunscreen with her ring very visible—which, of course, raises questions about why Leonor’s dream version is ring on versus ring off. There’s also a blue-brown contrast in this post, and that one exemplified it because Safya’s swimsuit is a pale pink that blends into her skin and the surrounding wood. HOWEVER. I chose this one because it’s just more visually interesting. There’s details, like Safya’s watercolors on the table, the way Rodrigo shadows her on the right margin, how she’s casting a backward look at him or us or both …

01.03 - arturo attempts to comfort leonor : Another color contrast scene! Blue versus orange, although, of course, Leonor’s thoughts are on the color red. There’s some analysis to be done on that alone, but I won’t bore everyone with half-baked ruminations on literary color theory or whatever, lmao. This one—! I actually had to redo this shot for some reason, but I was very insistent about getting it right. I guess it’s simple: this is child Leonor’s perspective of her mother. Emotional recollections and flashbacks are always more powerful when you can’t see someone’s face. Maybe that’s because we often struggle to remember people’s full faces as the memory of them fades over time. In any case…

01.04 - blanca helps beatriz bathe : This may be one of the tenderest shots in the entire story as it stands! Despite having helped care for younger siblings, I didn’t appreciate the fragility and intimacy of caregiving until my grandmother needed me to help her bathe, dress, clean her wounds, rub lotion into her feet, brush her hair … So, that’s what is being conveyed here. Obviously Beatriz is spry and capable, but it says something, to me, that she clearly must have asked this of Blanca. Is it something she’s done before? Is it something Safya would have done instead? The moment is tense in some ways, especially since Beatriz reprimands Blanca for her nail polish (contrasted with the, well, plain “elegance” of Beatriz’s hand here). It is, however, the most vulnerable we see Beatriz—even more so than when she’s openly sobbing in later scenes—and, to me, a visual representation of the unconditional love Blanca has for her mother.

01.05 - prissy and leonor discuss beatriz : I have less to say about this one, but the context is this scene was a bitch to shoot! It was originally in a different location, and I redid it in its entirety three times. This still isn’t right, but that was my mistake for going with a ton of white/cream. I do like this shot because of the depth, the colors, and the interaction between Leonor’s averted gaze and Prissy approaching with the sideways glance at her.

01.06 - arnaut returns to uspana : This is a beautiful daytime garden scene, but this final shot is my favorite. It’s established that Leonor is watching them from the moment they arrive, but we don’t see her face until the end, when little Abelina presents Arnaut with some flowers to cheer him up. What’s going through Leonor’s mind? She knows why he’s here. She knows how close he and her mother were. She knows he’s basically a foreigner at this point. She knows he’s a good father. Either way, it’s telling that hers is, to me, an unhappy, even negative expression.

01.07 - the family gathers for dinner : This scene is another than I redid because it wasn’t good enough. It still isn’t, but don’t tell past N. that! Anyway, the foreground-background interplay is what I like about this one. Visually, it’s interesting, but Arnaut having a breakdown while Mateo and Leonor convey, mostly, exhaustion … I dunno. I just like it. That and the blurry glasses and plates to remind us this table is set for a formal dinner no one felt like having. They’re more like anxious lingerers in a waiting room than dinner guests or reuniting family members.

01.08 - matias and sal have a moment : In retrospect, this is such a special scene. No one had all of the backstory on how Beatriz’s family came to be—how she ends up with these two men comforting each other outside her bedchamber, as it were. So, I wrote this hoping their dynamic would fill that void and show the product of decades of learning to live together. It’s also a rare opportunity (outside of the main story) that people who are a little bit more on Beatriz’s level talk frankly about her as a person, not as an iron lady or distant matriarch. Anyway, there are more visually interesting shots in this scene, but this one … It just arrests me, somehow. The look on Mathias’s face says it all. An exhale, finally.

01.09.1 - the day of the funeral arrives : I had to go back and pick this out because I forgot I’d split this scene into two posts! Freebie. I can’t say what I like so much. It’s an unusual angle, relatively speaking, and it has intersecting angles from the squareness of the bed, the carpet, their bodies. Something about Leonor’s expression visible in profile like that, and then the empty space of the bed … It focuses you somehow. The dialogue is melancholy and reflective, and the composition suits that to me. Of course, most likely, I stumbled across this angle because flipping face shots back and forth gets boring in a conversation scene!

01.09.2 - leonor makes a decision : I don’t even have anything clever to say about this one. I just love the bursts of yellow in this scene, and the fact that there’s a lemon tree to complement Leonor’s paint made it fun to shoot. This is another scene that underwent a redo, and part of that was moving this part of the conversation outside. I think it looks better that way. Certainly, the lighting was better! Maybe there’s some symbolism, too, with the fresh air and such. Maybe not. Reader’s choice, the postmodern way.