A Series of Clever Cinematography

The aptly named Netflix Original series “A Series of Unfortunate Events” follows the Baudelaire children: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny through a series of unfortunate events. It follows a dark humored plot line that enjoys constant misdirections, dead pan, and fourth wall breaking humor. Most of the comedy comes from the dialogue instead of slap stick or lewd elements that one would come to expect from Netflix Original like Bo' Jack Horseman. Which offers a source of oddly refreshing comedy that I seem to be in a constant search of.

A classmate who has read the entire series has said that the books and by a probable transitory property show is heavily based on misleading and deception. After seeing only a little bit of the show I would really have to agree with him. All of the adults have poorly hidden secondary motivations that they or some one near them reveals to a comedic effect. The best part of these characters is that even after being revealed continue to act like or forget that they have been caught. This allows some characters have scenes of being exposed over and over.

While the characters may be deceptive that speaks nothing of the camera that takes glee in messing with you. It plays with field of view, depth of focus, and cuts that hide things or fake you out. The entire first sequence of the episode plays with this. Opening on a dark close up of the incredibly dead pan and mysterious narrator, making you think that this is a close up shot. Then the lights come on (out of focus) in the background revealing this to be a longer shot than you first thought. Moving further into the next part of the sequence we meet our heroes the Baudelaire Children in a clean clear shot, marred by awful CGI. When the shot opens to allow our narrator in everything except him goes out of focus. Most shots featuring him have this effect or have him not being affected by worldly things like wind or rain. This implies and reveals that he is from the world of the Baudelaire, but he is not a part of this story.

I think the highest showing of this, and my favorite scene, is the dinner scene. Count Olaf takes Sunny from the children and begins to act passive aggressively towards the infant. He proceeds to raise her over his head and begin to wobble and sway, while everyone around him readies to catch Sunny. Olaf Remarks that the table they are sitting at is far to dirty and places the baby on a platter and pushes her to the middle of the table. Before telling his troop that they must go practice their show. This scene works because both the camera is changing shots, and we've come to expect awful things from Olaf. He picks up the baby and lifts her over his head. This serves two purposes, one: it shows just how tall Olaf is and how much damage it would do to Sunny if she were to fall from that height, and two: the camera hides that the actor is not holding an actual baby, which would be insane if they actually did. I forgot to mention that this confrontation stemmed from Olaf being upset that the children made an Italian dish instead of a roast for him and his troop. The camera shows that Sunny had been put on a platter with potatoes and various vegetables. When I first saw this scene I thought we were about to get some threats of murder and cannibalism. He however tells his troop that they must go and practice. This scene relies heavily on misdirection and clever cuts.

I equate this show to a magic show. In order to make this show entertaining it requires small talk to prevent the audience from being bored. It also makes use of in universe and out of universe misdirection to surprise the audience. While I can not devote much time to watch this show, (Calculus, you know the drill) I gladly would if I had the time.