the blast door map

a successful tv show is made by a team of artists, all working together. excellence in each aspect brings something to the whole. i just rewatched most of the pilot episode, and was struck by how much the photography on 'lost' has changed over the years. the show barely resembles itself anymore.

nothing illustrates this more glaringly than by comparing the opening sequence of the pilot, to the opening of the most recent episode, '316.'

here's a side by side comparison. right side is from '316,' left side is from the pilot. click to make it bigger.



now, i think the opening shot of jack's eye is actually an unused take from the pilot. the angle is exactly the same (though pulled out a little bit), and every tiny wrinkle, lighting highlight, even the clumping of his eyelashes is identical. this is the same shot. however, the shot is missing the effects plate used in the pilot - which shows the reflection of the trees towering over him as his pupil constricts. instead, in '316' you can see the reflectors and even the camera reflected in his eye. sigh.

the shots that follow are like a homemade remake of the pilot's opening scene. it lacks the attention to detail and the dynamics of the original. it felt amateur.

the second shot of jack's face seems determined to make him look as fat as possible. the lighting is flat, and it instantly betrayed that this was not the opening scene.

the wide shot of jack lying in the grass is also lacking in dynamics. the sun hits the area to the right, and the rest of the shot feels like its been pulled up in color correction to make up for underexposure.

and finally jack's pov of the trees towering over him is now shot with a conventional lens. the tress don't tower so much as just 'be.'

now i understand that the goal here was not to recreate the opening scene exactly. the goal was to trick us momentarily, and then make us scratch our heads as we subtly see the differences - but those differences should have not have been in quality of footage!



something new i've noticed this season is that the jungle scenes are getting excessively color graded with a lot of yellow. i'm not sure why this is happening - are they just getting bored and feel like trying new things? or has hawaii just been uncooperative in the sunlight department?

the pilot's director of photography was larry fong, who stayed on for about half of season 1 before moving on to work with zach snyder on '300' and 'watchmen.'

michael bonvillain and john bartley have been trading off as dp since season 2, and have both done amazing work since then, but since descending into the hatch, something has been lost in the look of the show. it's starting to feel like tv, when it once so stunningly felt like a feature film, every week.