Possibly more exacting in detail then Andersons work itself
May 25, 2014 2:00 PM   Subscribe

Last year, Saturday Night Live aired a Wes Anderson parody [previously]. This is the amount of work it took.
posted by mediocre (17 comments total) 37 users marked this as a favorite
 
You know it's from SNL because they had to tack on one last unfunny joke instead of just letting the thing end. They went to so much work to get this looking exactly like a Wes Anderson trailer, and then throw in a second narrator at the end just to say, "Rated G." When was the last time trailers announced their rating at the end? The 70's?
posted by thecjm at 2:21 PM on May 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wow, that's what bothered you? I think I know how to play this, then. Did anyone else notice that the MPAA preview screen was not in the Frere-Jones typeface Gotham, like all the new ones? Frankly, I'm appalled at this shoddy level of quality!

Anyway, pretty sure this link was previously posted in comments (yeah, way down at the end of the original thread). And to repeat my earlier assessment: Anyway, I really want to give props to the production designers, as well as camera work and editing -- it was all perfect. It would have been so easy to skimp on (and believe me, I'm watching Season 3 right now, and I suspect the budget for this would have covered that whole year), but they even got Futura right. Especially that one shot when Owen says "Hey, kids, let's go to the panic room!" and you get a pan showing this is a fully-realized multi-room set. What a labor of love. Also, Adrien Brody in a closet full of antique typewriters.

Beyond that, I would like to add a recent Twitter exchange with a mefite wherein we agreed that Too Little Tilda Swinton is a general cinematic failing to be avoided, and I pointed out that in this trailer, there is Too Little Kate McKinnon as Tilda Swinton, which means that the Too Little Tilda Swinton property is in fact transitive. But perhaps this observation belongs in the rhetorical maths thread.
posted by dhartung at 2:44 PM on May 25, 2014 [14 favorites]


Great article; I love reading about all the nuts and bolts involved in filmmaking and it's amazing how complicated even a shoot for a quick short can be. I love how much detail they went into to duplicate Anderson's style.
posted by octothorpe at 3:15 PM on May 25, 2014


As a Wes Anderson parody.... Submarine was top notch!
posted by matimer at 3:18 PM on May 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


The fact that they film and edit these things down to the last second is amazing to me, since the quality of the SNL Shorts is always so much better than the live shows.
posted by xingcat at 4:12 PM on May 25, 2014 [3 favorites]


The bigger the budget, the lamer the comedy. SNL has too much money to burn.
posted by ReeMonster at 4:19 PM on May 25, 2014


Why hasn't Wee Anderson taken up the challenge to make this into a real film yet?
posted by humanfont at 4:43 PM on May 25, 2014 [4 favorites]


Maybe he's too busy being taunted by Scottish bullies?
posted by Bromius at 4:45 PM on May 25, 2014 [11 favorites]


Great post. The information on anamorphic lenses is mind blowing.
posted by photoslob at 6:29 PM on May 25, 2014


I had no idea there was so much involved in lighting sets. Thanks for sharing this.
posted by lemonjel at 6:49 PM on May 25, 2014


20 seconds. 20 seconds. I don't even work in TV and that's giving me heart palpitations.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:13 PM on May 25, 2014 [3 favorites]


I always want to believe that the extra pixel depth of anamorphic lenses is a nerd obsession that no one really notices... but damned if he isn't right about the binocular shots.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 7:40 PM on May 25, 2014


Who plays the kids in that video? The daughter looks like Felicia Day.
posted by Ber at 9:28 PM on May 25, 2014


Cast list. (It's Nasim, Ber.)

BTW, to follow up with thecjm, I think the different voice at the end may have as much to do with the fact that the animation was worked on separately as any artistic decision.

20 seconds. 20 seconds.

Reminded me of Douglas Adams's tales of master tapes of Hitchhiker's being motor-scootered over to the broadcast facility with minutes to spare. (But recently I read about some other live TV or radio thing that was just as manic, so perhaps it's not as unusual as all that.)
posted by dhartung at 11:17 PM on May 25, 2014


The anamorphic info is really solid and I hope people continue to see its value even as they move farther away from shooting film and towards digital capture.

Also, it's seriously insane how close they work to air. That would drive my anxiety through the roof.
posted by dogwalker at 3:07 AM on May 26, 2014


That was an awesome hyper-detail-laden I don't know if my favorite part was the helium-balloon light, the positioning of the 'Condor' or the explanation of anamorphic lenses and their pros and cons.

And then that the short is uploading as it's broadcasting!

Fucking cool man
posted by From Bklyn at 4:11 AM on May 26, 2014


Wow. Great article! I want to check out more of his work.
posted by bstreep at 12:04 PM on May 26, 2014


« Older The Moby Dick Variations   |   RIP Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments