So… what did you think?
…about the last episode of Lily & James, about the first chapter of the series, about the KitR fandom experience so far. We wanna know all the things!
And here’s how we feel about every single one of you:
There will be a separate post collecting thoughts on the transmedia experiment next week. Canonization will continue through this week, the experiment will conclude on Monday, 4/28 with a final drabble from yulinkuang.
Thank you so much for watching with us, we would kiss you all in the pouring rain if we could!
Much love,
What do I think?
Well, in general, I love it. But you knew that, right?
I think it was a gift. A gift conjured out of thin air by mad magicians who used cameras and lights, PVC and sprinkler heads, and transformed them into moments of beauty.
It was a gift of talent and imagination and humor. It was a gift of people willing to spend their few precious dollars, and something even more precious: their time, their nights and their weekends, to make something cool and give it away to strangers for free.
“The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity, a network not of wires but of people,” said Pope Francis back in January. “The Internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. This is something truly good, a gift from God.”
I can’t verify the God part. But the rest is dead on, and Kissing in the Rain is the best example I know of what he was talking about. Because it was a gift.
To speak more specifically I’d have to watch all the Lily and James episodes again, so I could comment on my favorite parts of each. Which is clearly impossible. “I’m far too busy, so ask me now before I can become sane.”
Heh. Okay.
Episode 1: Lily & James
Still my favorite episode. Favorite things:
- Crazy blocking at the beginning that works so well I can’t even.
- Q: The “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you”… Is it meant as a Singing in the Rain reference? Was it scripted like that? Inquiring minds want to know…
- Sean’s improv at the end.
- Sean’s (real!) glasses, and all the business that Lily doesn’t see him doing after the cut.
- The RAIN! Favorite rain of the series. It seems so real, especially in the wide shot at the beginning, and it just totally sucks me in. A+ rain.
Episode 2: Anne & Gilbert
A very fun episode. Favorite things:
- The magical rain that falls from a barely-clouded sky.
- The contrast between Anne’s heightened, slightly self-important delivery with Gil’s naturalness.
- James’ post-“cut”: “You are… not a nice person.” I love that line, and the delivery.
Episode 3: Olivia & Ben
From the BTS info Yulin gave, I think this is the episode on the treehouse porch that was shot late at night, with only a limited amount of something (battery? memory?), such that they had relatively few takes. Also, I think the actors talked about it being especially uncomfortable in terms of cold and wet?
I’m not going to say it’s my least-favorite episode, because I love them all, and you don’t say things like that about the things (or the people) you love. But I’ll say that this sometimes feels like the hardest episode for me to love.
Favorite things:
- The rain. Heh. This is also the hardest rain for me to love. Is it okay for me to say that it basically felt like they were standing under a sprinkler head? Especially when Ben moves in for his dance and the hissing gets louder?
- The director’s line. I like the little bits of the different directors’ personalities that we get, and this one is one of my favorites.
- The blanket gift, and the understated Lily and James interaction after he puts it around her. The first signs of a thaw. Watching this was when I really started to see the shape of the characters’ relationship arc. I mean, I’d sort of wondered if that’s where things would go from the beginning. But this was where I really started plotting the post-“cut” interactions mentally against the episode numbers to see how events were tracking.
Episode 4: Edgar & Annabel
Next to episode 1, my favorite episode. Depending on when you ask, it might be in first place. I’m glad it’s not a contest.
Favorite things:
- Annabel’s face, and Lily’s acting, generally, in the pre-“cut” part. I think it’s funny that Mary Kate thinks she looks stupid, or awful, or something (can’t remember exactly what she said, but I think she’s both posted about it and mentioned something during the livestream re-watch the other day). I know the prevailing opinion is that it’s the magic-hour sunset lighting Zac managed to capture on her face that makes her look so pretty here. And if so, then okay; it’s the lighting. But I think it’s Mary Kate, too, and not just her face (which srsly needs to stop). I think it’s acting. I just really loved her as Annabel here.
- Sean as James as Poe. I want more Sean as James as Poe. I’ll watch Sean as James as Poe any chance I get. Forever. I don’t know why it works so well for me. But it does.
- The post-cut interaction. The little bouncy thing James does, and the way Lily looks at him.
Episode 5: David & Susan
So fun seeing a minute-long screwball comedy. I love that James and Lily get to show off this completely different style of acting.
Favorite things:
- The contrasting body language, with Susan sitting up ramrod straight and David hunched over, hiding under his paper.
- “Cut. Boom in the shot.” Okay; not so much a favorite thing, but a thing I’ve been curious about since I first watched it, and am still a little confused about. Is it that the director says that because in the scene we were just watching, there was an accidental appearance of the boom mic in the shot? Because I don’t think it’s visible, at least not on the cut we see (though I realize that we’re seeing different cuts edited together in the pre-cut section). Hm. And also, the director’s voiceover happens during the “Kissing in the Rain” title card, when we can’t actually see the shot. So maybe the mic dipped into the fame during the part we didn’t actually see. And of course, it dips down afterward. Is that just meant to explain the director’s comment? Or is it meant as an action the boom operator has taken in response to the director’s statement? Like I said, I’m a little confused. I like it all. I just want to understand a little better what the intention is with all that.
- The fact that we get to see them going back into the next shot, with the rain starting up again, and the way James grabs the prop newspaper and ducks back under it. Something about it just felt really cool. Like, here I am, going back to work. And my work is… holding a newspaper over my head under a sprinkler.
- The sidelong look Lily gives him at the end, and the sidelong look James gives her right after. Heh. Even if I wasn’t following along the drabbles and canonized fics, I’d know you were full of shit with the “I don’t care about you” line, James.
Episode 6: George & Mary
Third-favorite episode. Though depending on mood, it might slip into second. Or first. Okay; look: like I said, I love them all, and love is an all-or-nothing kind of thing for me.
Favorite things:
- I picked up on the It’s a Wonderful Life reference as soon as I saw the title; I’m on record (if anyone feels like stalking my blog backwards far enough) as loving the “He’s making violent love to me, mother!” scene, especially the great story about how Reed and Stewart had pages more of dialog, and skipped it in the moment to go straight into the kiss. God, what a scene. I mean, the emotion in that scene is terrifying, in the best sense. I can’t believe a 1947 audience would have been able to handle it (which they apparently couldn’t; the film’s gritty realism was so far ahead of its time that it flopped commercially, taking years for audiences to catch up).
- The post-cut kiss. Awwww. So well-done. Legitimately misty-eyed every time I watch it.
- A weird thing: I love the minimal set design of this episode, especially since seeing aivlysann’s beautiful fan-art. Something about the way she extended the frame beyond the shot, so I get to see the actors full length, down to their feet, does some weird thing to my aesthetic perception, and makes me appreciate it even more.
Episode 7: Lily & James
Love, love, love. Perfect way to end the series. Favorite things:
- James has a badass house, with a really expensive-looking door. Way to arrive, KiTR actors!
- The rain is mostly invisible, but the sound of it rocks. Very good rain sound.
- The sneaky way they hold off on the kiss, and James is mumbling, and then he pushes into that super closeup so fast for the kiss, such that Zac (I assume it’s Zac?) even loses focus for a moment. So cool. In a weird way it reminds me of the blood pack that spattered on the lens during the inside-the-bus part of that huge extended take at the end of Children of Men, and the way Cuarón was actually shouting “cut” but no one could hear him over the explosions so they just kept going, and it was his DP (I think was the version of the story I heard?) who convinced him that no, the blood spatter on the lens was what made the scene even more raw and real. Um, maybe that’s not the most tonally resonant thing for me to be thinking of in this particular moment of KiTR. But still. I mean it as a compliment. Comparing a scene to the blood spatter at the end of Children of Men is about as high as my compliment-o-meter is capable of going.
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Okay; that’s all I’ve got for now. But once again: Thank you so much for KiTR! I can’t wait for the musical interlude, and then on to series 2!
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1mBRmVF.
Tags: kitr, so there's that, is ridiculously awesome, and a gift, and in my head-canon, has actually been canonized by the actual pope, with apologies to any catholic readers.
