Anyone watching Better Call Saul?

STYLZ

STYLZ

Well-known member
Anyone watching Better Call Saul? I'm finding it very interesting and clever. Not action packed but still good none the less. I'm also noticing their good use of composition as well as their breaking the rules. This last episode they have that one long scene where Mike is talking to the cop and a majority of the shot is the wanted posters above their heads with just the top half of their bodies way at the bottom of the screen. Worked perfectly for that scene. Anyone else enjoying this show?
 
Loving it, and yes, the cinematography is engaging and off beat, building on what Breaking Bad was like in my opinion.
 
Watching it and enjoying it, but I've actually found the cinematography to be wildly inconsistent. Some episodes and scenes look great. Others look borderline amateur. But there's only been one cinematographer credited so far so i'm not sure what's going on.
 
I'm finding it to be OK...a little slow starting. I'm spoiled by Breaking Bad so it's hard not to compare it too much. The first episode of BB covers as much ground as 5 eps of this show. That's OK though, I'm liking it enough to hang on and see what happens.
 
Certainly watching and enjoying it. re: the DP....i was hoping Michael Slovis would be working on this show. I do see some familiar names in the credits, ie the editor, etc.

It's not BB and I'm not holding it up to be as such. I'm like 2 episodes back.....too much great stuff on television to watch & not enough time!
 
I'm watching it and loving it. I'm so pleased that they allow shots to play out in the wide, stay on reactions instead of cut, cut, cut and use blocking to land on great frames. The Red Dragon is killing it on this show. The lighting, somewhat hard and stylistic at times, adds to the show and their use of deep perspective in composition is classic. Fantastic.

My favorite part is, as with Breaking Bad, the writing. They have such a keen ability to foreshadow where you don't know what's coming but when it does it's inevitable. It's great writing.

The dialog is also impeccable. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone catching up but there are two scenes between Mike and his daughter-in-law where the dialog imparted something beyond the words. In fact it was how the words missed (not on the nose) that imparted the meaning. These guys know what the hell they're doing!
 
Yeah, I'm hooked. It's definitely got a Vince Gilligan slow-burning plot, where things that don't seem very important at first will have greater impact down the road. I also love the BB abstract and odd-ball scene intros, where you have no idea where things are going at first, then it suddenly becomes a little more obvious when the camera angle changes or simply pulls back.
 
Sweet article. Thanks. Like Batutta already stated, the cinematography has been a bit inconsistent or lacking in spots. One that stuck out to me is when Mike was at the train station and the shot of the train outside showing up was overblown and looked like it was shot on a T2i. That's why I chose my words carefully. I'm impressed with the composition, although it is part of cinematography, you can have a cheap DV cam with shitty lighting and still have good composition. Reading that article though there are a couple overall awesome shots I'm reminded about. Either way I'm really engaged in the story and that's what really matters.
 
STYLZ said:
One that stuck out to me is when Mike was at the train station and the shot of the train outside showing up was overblown and looked like it was shot on a T2i.
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Yeah, I thought the same thing. I am guessing that somebody in the film crew screwed-up with the back-lit window shot. ( or that the lens they used was very flare prone )
 
Either way I'm really engaged in the story and that's what really matters.
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For me, story always comes first, but now I am watching for these "inconsistencies". My memory is fuzzy, but the last episode I saw there was a scene with Mike on the daughter-in-law's back porch....seemed like the lighting/cc was subpar.

Better Call Saul does not the wow factor of BB, but this show certainly has it's cinematic moments as referenced.
 
That episode really stuck out to me as well Scott F, lot of over/underexposed video looking shots to the point it looked like a conscious decision
 
That is the other scene I had in my head as not being pro looking(backyard patio). I also assumed it must have been an artistic decision too.
 
I think that whole look for the patio stuff was all intentional for the flashbacks, including the blown backgrounds and the Philly stuff with the two cops. It was different contrast ratios with skin tones pulled out. The color palette was completely different from the rest of the show. I thought it was just a look to invoke a bad and dark time for them, and to help signify the flashback.
 
Just started way to slow for me, and I couldn't get into it. Tried a couple more times to watch an episode, but nope, this one isn't for me.
 
lot of over/underexposed video looking shots to the point it looked like a conscious decision
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I thought it was just a look to invoke a bad and dark time for them, and to help signify the flashback.
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That is the other scene I had in my head as not being pro looking(backyard patio). I also assumed it must have been an artistic decision too.
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If this was all intentional, I would chalk it up as a failed experiement.

Once he moved to the United States, (Arthur Albert) began racking up feature film credits, including Night of the Comet, .....and Happy Gilmore.
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Hold on, hold on....all is forgiven!
 
Really? It was the Happy Gilmore did if for you, Scott? :)


I think it's fun to talk about this stuff. Firstly, I'm a big Soderbergh fan but I remember a scene in The Limey where they are in the warehouse and the flourescents blew down this hideous green then they follow out to this dock and the outside is completely blown, awful. Then I heard or read, I forget, somewhere that he noticed both of them and thought, screw it, it looks bad but I like it. It goes with the scene. Maybe something like that is happening with Better Call Saul in that patio scene.

But there are other things that they do differently that I like. The opening of the last episode where they are on the bench, they pan down to a shot of him from mug shots and then just stay there with him and Mike, their heads way down in the frame. I liked it. I like the hard light and the weird framing. So far so good. It ain't no Happy Gilmore but ... ;)
 
I think it's fun to talk about this stuff.
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I do too! I miss the DVXuser of yore when there was a lot more of this good stuff and less tech talk/pixel peeping. At this point, I'm just a hobbyist/film enthusiast.

I watched that episode yesterday (I think it is called Bingo?) After our bashing of the previous episode....I gotta say, they knocked this one out of the park. That shot with Rhea Seehorn smoking (still image in the article i linked), all the shots at Micheal McKean's house.....real smart lighting, great camera moves. Yes, the move down from those wanted posters....(but the fact that the bulletin board wasn't 100% level in the master shot drove me batty! Like it was hung crooked or something)

I'm trying to watch with a keener eye after reading that article & this thread.

PS- The Limey! Great film.
 
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