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Production Arts: Costumes, Soundtracks, Props, etc


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I actually think the longer hair makes her look younger, but I don't think that's necessarily a good thing for the character. Technically, she's supposed to be around a decade older than Snow and Emma, right? Her shorter hair in Season 1 made that age jump a bit more believable, but now that it's longer and more youthful looking, she looks the same age as them. Just from an aesthetic viewpoint, I personally liked her Season 3 length the best when it stopped right at the shoulders.

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Does editing fall into this thread? I think it does. Anyways, for some reason, my biggest pet peeve during the "Poor Unfortunate Soul" episode wasn't one of the numerous plot holes and retcons, but it was a really bad edit between the shot of Ursula slapping Hook unconscious below deck to the abrupt transition of her throwing him overboard above deck. Like, there's a time and place for panning the camera over quickly to a different scene, but that transition just did not flow well. It would have worked better if there was a commercial in between those two shots to break up the random transition, or it could have cut to black momentarily to give the sense that Hook had gotten knocked unconscious. We could have even been given a quick scene of Ursula dragging Hook's limp body onto the main deck using her tentacles before she tossed him over. 

 

The #1 rule as an editor is to not make the audience notice your cuts, and that one just slapped me across the face worse than Ariel slapping Hook.

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Does editing fall into this thread? I think it does. Anyways, for some reason, my biggest pet peeve during the "Poor Unfortunate Soul" episode wasn't one of the numerous plot holes and retcons, but it was a really bad edit between the shot of Ursula slapping Hook unconscious below deck to the abrupt transition of her throwing him overboard above deck. Like, there's a time and place for panning the camera over quickly to a different scene, but that transition just did not flow well. It would have worked better if there was a commercial in between those two shots to break up the random transition, or it could have cut to black momentarily to give the sense that Hook had gotten knocked unconscious. We could have even been given a quick scene of Ursula dragging Hook's limp body onto the main deck using her tentacles before she tossed him over. 

 

The #1 rule as an editor is to not make the audience notice your cuts, and that one just slapped me across the face worse than Ariel slapping Hook.

 

Yes! It was jarringly, noticeably bad. I wonder if there was a bit in-between that got cut at the last minute, or if originally that was going to be the commercial break and then they later decided to shift it for some reason. Because no way that just happened.

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My best guess is that there was a miscommunication between the director/writer/editor, and the director didn't shoot enough footage to make for a better transition. Obviously, the director can't add a scene randomly just because he feels like the script is lacking, but he can film those two scenes in a way that helps the editor out a bit and makes his job easier. The editor probably looked at the clips he had to work with and thought: That's it? How am I supposed to connect those two scenes together? 

 

ETA: I just watched the episode again and realized the editor used a wipe transition. A wipe. Of all the professional tools at your disposal, was that really the best thing you could think of? Who do you think you are, George Lucas?

Edited by Curio
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Oh, it was definitely intentional - the question is why use a wipe? I know this is a cheesy show so cheesy transitions shouldn't be too jarring, but I think this is the first time the show has used a blatant wipe transition like that. There have been times where the camera will quickly motion away from the scene to give a similar looking effect, but it's usually to move the action to an entirely different location. They actually used that kind of transition in this episode right before Emma, Snow, David, and Hook go to the pawnshop to meet up with Belle. There, it wasn't so drastic because they were connecting the dialogue from the scene out on the road to them having to travel across town to visit Belle.

 

But that more noticeable wipe transition after Hook got knocked out was completely unnecessary because all we were doing was moving the action a few feet away. All Ursula had to do was drag him a few feet up the stairs and onto the deck. I don't think anyone in the audience actually expected Hook to die from that drowning, but using a cheesy edit like that just makes the scene seem campy and makes me not want to take it seriously. It's just as much a writing error as it is an editing/directing error because the writers should have been able to look at their script and notice how clunky those two scenes would look side by side on screen and given the director a transition scene to make it more cohesive.

 

Why not have Ursula knock Hook out below deck, have the scene cut to black quick to show the audience Hook got knocked out, and then have the next image be of Hook coming to on the main deck. To tie this all back to Ursula being pissed about Hook taking her voice to begin with, we can have a shot of Ursula tying his hands and feet together and gagging him (parallel to what the Queens of Darkness are doing to August) while Hook struggles to make any noise come out of his mouth. Ursula can throw out a comment like, "Sucks to not be able to use your voice, right Captain?" And then she can toss him overboard and walk away thinking there's absolutely no way he could survive being tied up and gagged under water. Which would then make Ariel's rescue more important and add to Ursula's shock in the cabin that Hook somehow survived that event.

Edited by Curio
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I thought it was supposed to be clever, like we're seeing the underside of the tentacles or something.  Akin to Dracula sweeping his cape around to transition to the next scene.  It was pretty horrible.

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That scene transition was the weirdest thing.  I thought there was a problem with my cable provider at first because it just made no sense.  I thought there was something in between and felt some rage at having missed it.

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Seeing Ingrid in this outfit made me kind of giggle:

http://kissthemgoodbye.net/onceuponatime/displayimage.php?album=75&pid=176126#top_display_media

I mean, what the hell?

I think it was supposed to be something reminiscent to what we'd see Emma wear. But they didn't do a good job of showing that.

Eta: like perhaps to show that young Emma was perhaps influenced by Ingrid even without knowing it.

links to show what I mean

http://wornontv.net/29280/

http://wornontv.net/24007/

Edited by Delphi
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I miss Ingrid. Wasn't it a carbon copy of what young Emma had on before she ran away from Ingrid?

Was the promo for 4x16 the first time they've used a song in the promo? I thought it was effective but I wonder why they decided to go there. I don't know the song and I don't who sang it but was it some ABC nepotism at play or something?

Also I think this show could do with a few music montages CW style. I get tired of them over there but I feel like a lot of things on this show would be tighter if they employed that technique seeing as how they have 10 million characters.

Edited by LizaD
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Was the promo for 4x16 the first time they've used a song in the promo?

They used a song in at least one of the S1 promos. (Hat Trick) 

 

 

Also I think this show could do with a few music montages CW style.

I think the last time they did that was in 1x02, if you don't count Neal's song. I'd like to see that too. Would be a lot better than those cheesy speech voice-overs. 

Edited by KingOfHearts
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Would be a lot better than those cheesy speech voice-overs.

 

I was thinking that. Having some music would save us from their words. I honestly think even a Katy Perry song would have more emotional depth and less cheese.

 

I do wonder why they skimp out on the music. Half of the attraction of Disney films is the soundtrack. I don't want a full blown musical in the vein of Galavant but they could have some real songs incorporated into the show.

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At the risk of sounding morbid; Cruella's dalmatian coat didn't look enough like real dalmatian fur.  The fur was too long, but that I could overlook, if they had gotten the spot pattern correct. And it was really glaring to me, because there were several dalmatians in the episode to compare.

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At the risk of sounding morbid; Cruella's dalmatian coat didn't look enough like real dalmatian fur.  The fur was too long, but that I could overlook, if they had gotten the spot pattern correct. And it was really glaring to me, because there were several dalmatians in the episode to compare.

 

I was too distracted trying to work out the logistics of skinning the dogs and cleaning up the blood and getting the coat made with no speck of gore.  I guess that is why it was a timeless realm.

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The sorcerer's apprentice music is probably one of my favorite pieces of music this show has done. It screams of awesomeness. When Rumple first opened the box and the sorcerer's hat appeared, and that music started playing...I was freaking out so hard.

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So I guess we'll just be soundtrack-less for S3? That's a bummer--there are several pieces of S3 music I would love to get my hands on!

Maybe they'll compile S3 and S4 together. The S2 soundtrack had several music selections from 1B that weren't in the S1 soundtrack.

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So I guess we'll just be soundtrack-less for S3? That's a bummer--there are several pieces of S3 music I would love to get my hands on!

 

Right? I loved the song from Rumple and Belle's wedding vows (wow, that seems like forever ago now...) that played over the True Love's Couples montage. I was hoping to see if there was a longer version of that somewhere out there.

Edited by Curio
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So, all those in favor of Hook keeping his alternate universe hairdo where half of his bangs fall over his forehead say, "Aye!"

Aye! Though it did make him look awfully young.

 

I also thought his mussed-up bedhead after Emma tackled him was ridiculously adorable.

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Hook's bangs really do take off a good 3-5+ years.

Jen looks amazing in blue! Her entire fairy tale wardrobe has been amazing. Loved the flynn rider look! I'm torn on how I'd rank them.

3b Prisoner outfit (this probably seems like an odd choice. I really loved the side part in her hair and the blue cloak).

Flynn rider look

Red princess dress

Wench costume

Swan princess dress from The Tower nightmare

The 4b prisoner outfit (mainly because I didn't get a good look at it. It looked a little heavy).

Evil Granny's outfit was perfect. And I think Dopey still had his purple hat!

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Just rewatching some scenes and I love how natural Emma's make up is in the AU.  It's like they forgot to bring the fake eyelash trunk with them and you can really see everyone's eyes so much more clearly without fifty pounds of lashes.

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Just rewatching some scenes and I love how natural Emma's make up is in the AU.  It's like they forgot to bring the fake eyelash trunk with them and you can really see everyone's eyes so much more clearly without fifty pounds of lashes.

 

Oh my gosh, yes. I really hope the makeup people saw the complaints about the fake eyelashes because the women all look so much better with more natural makeup. I thought Emma looked absolutely gorgeous during the scene where she's confessing her regrets about not having told Hook she loves him and she barely had any mascara on, no eyeliner, and her eyes were a little red from crying. You can see a lot more emotion from the actors when their lids aren't weighed down with 10 pounds of fake lashes. 

 

Also, how great is it that there's a couple on this show where (even if it was only for a couple scenes) the guy was wearing more makeup than the gal?

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(edited)

I was rewatching some of my favorite scenes from the finale (basically, anything involving Hook and the Hook/Emma/Henry adventure) and noticed some shots where I wished the director could have filmed them differently.

 

There were a couple of scenes where I wanted the camera pull back a bit and give us a wider shot of Colin's physical humor as deckhand Hook. He was doing so much with his body to portray Hook's meek personality, but I wish I could have seen more of it. The first instance is when Blackbeard comes on board the Jolly Roger and taunts Hook about being a coward. When he dares Hook to fight him, Colin quickly turns away and stumbles to grab the scrubbing brush, but the editor cuts out right away so we don't see him physically grab the brush. And then you have Henry trying to convince Hook that he can take on Blackbeard, but Hook declines and bends down to scrub the deck. But again, we don't actually see this caught on camera. We just have a tightly cropped shot of Colin holding the brush, and then he ducks down out of the frame and you can only hear the sound of the brush scrubbing the deck. I would've loved to have seen that filmed more directly on Hook's actions where you can actually see him scrubbing the deck, maybe lingering a bit longer on that action because this is supposed to be the lowest point of Hook's alternate timeline. Instead, the whole sequence felt very rushed and the editing a bit sloppy. (There was also a little sound editing issue where the soundtrack plays really loud over the words "or are you still a one-handed coward" and I had to rewind a couple times just to hear what Blackbeard was trying to say.)

 

The second time where I wish we'd seen more of Hook's cowardly behavior is when Grumpy goes to knock his sword out of his hand and Emma shoves Grumpy to the ground. Again, the camera feels a little too cropped into the scene, and the way the actors are staged, I could barely make out what was happening. You have a shot where the camera focuses on Hook's sword, Grumpy knocks it out, but then it gets a bit confusing because Emma comes into the shot (covering up the sword and Hook) and pushes Grumpy away. From the split seconds I can see of Colin in the background, it looks like he did some fun physical humor by recoiling his whole body, taking a few steps backwards, and lifting his hand up as if he just burnt it. Actually seeing a better view of that humorous shot would have been a nice contrast between the courageous sword fight he does moments later with Charming.

 

And then we have the whole blocking of that sword fight that makes no sense. Now, I'm not sure how much of this is on the director or if Adam & Eddy didn't give the director enough direction/details in their script, but having Emma and Henry just stand in the middle of the street 20 feet away from the Hook/Charming action really took me out of the scene. Here is Hook sacrificing his life to allow these two to escape, and all they're doing is just standing there watching the entire fight take place. I kept yelling at my TV screen, "Get out of there! Don't let his fighting go to waste! You idiots are going to get captured because you're just standing around!" (It's possible that Emma wanted to watch Hook's final moments/see him win, but at least have her and Henry hiding around a corner watching the fight instead of completely out in the open.) It was also a bit unrealistic to just have Snow watch Charming sword fight Hook the whole time when instead she could have of easily walked around them and thrown a fireball at Emma and Henry. So if I were directing this scene, this is what I would have done:

 

  • During the bit where Snow says "kill them," the original scene took a good 15 seconds to show Hook whispering to Emma to get away with Henry. During this time, Grumpy, Lily, Charming, or Snow could have easily killed them. Why did they all allow Hook and Emma 15 seconds to talk out an escape plan? No, they should have been killed 2 seconds after Snow gave the command.
  • So instead, I would have had Hook kick the leg of that pole immediately after Snow gave the command to kill them, and then have the items fall on all four of the villains, which would have allowed Emma and Hook a head start to run away through the streets. Charming and Snow would wake up moments later and then we could have a fun little chase scene through a crowded Enchanted Forest market.
  • Emma and Hook run into Henry and the three start to escape down an alleyway when Charming pops out of nowhere. They're forced to course-correct and turn around, but Charming has them blocked into a dead end street. Have the set people build a dead end alleyway where there's a brick wall about 10-15 feet high they could try to hop, but with Charming right there, there's no way all three of them could attempt to scale it without getting caught. So then you have Hook give Emma his courageous speech about holding Charming off while Emma and Henry go to scale the wall and escape.
  • Don't let Snow pop into the scene until Charming is knocked on the ground and Emma and Henry have already climbed up the wall, because if Snow is in the scene, she could easily throw a fireball and end the entire sequence. There's no reason why she couldn't have thrown a fireball at Hook when he had her held at sword point during the original fight.
  • Also, by giving Henry and Emma something active to do like climbing a wall, they don't look like idiots for just standing around and watching Hook save their asses. Once they reach the top of the wall, Emma can look back and see Hook has seemingly won the fight until Charming stabs him in the back. Henry tries to convince her to jump over the other side of the wall but she can't help but watch Hook fall to the ground. Finally, Snow enters the scene and is able to throw a fireball at Emma and Henry, but they dodge it by making the final leap to the other side of the wall.

 

Oh, and as a musical aside: A+ song selection choice for Three Dog Night's Shambala at the end in Granny's.

Edited by Curio
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(Moderators, please feel free to move or delete this if props don't count as characters. But I'm starting this topic because this prop has a lot of character that might be better in a separate topic instead of getting shmooshed into the Props and Costumes topic.)

 

I actually thought she was just a prop, only because nobody does any actual sailing scenes with her, it seemed to just be all tugboats or at the harbor or...computer graphics. I know the scenes belowdeck were of a stunt double (set with hydraulics) so, maybe I thought that they just put together a plywood ship from Ikea or something. But, I was surprised to read that she was not only a real sailing ship, but was also in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie as an HMS (so...the law-enforcing bad guys' ship) and I totally didn't recognize her with full sails, not even when she semi-reprised that same role type as Jewel. Maybe it's all paint and CGI, too, but I thought the transformation from Jewel to Jolly during the Neverland arc was fantastic despite, or maybe even assisted by, Washington's wooden acting. She was in the miniseries Blackbeard, so maybe OUaT's passing up of Long John Silver on the Jolly (despite the crossover being in the original novel of Peter Pan!) for Blackbeard has been an in-joke. But she modeled for the animated film Treasure Planet! That actor allusion would have worked with Long John Silver, too!

 

 

I thought 15 years is actually pretty old for a boat, but it doesn't seem like she even has any barnacles on the hull! How does she stay so pretty?

 

The friendship that LWash has with the rest of the cast is adorable. When a fan asked Emilie de Ravin what her favorite 'ship was, she answered "The Jolly Roger" (even took her a while to get to Rumbelle!) And Colin O'Donoghue's immediate answer when asked what prop he would steal if he could was, of course: "Pirate ship!" The other cast members in that interview had to think about it.

 

Maybe there are some character inconsistencies, for example I could try to consider it a demonstration of how much she's matured after shipping Hook and Milah's unhealthy relationship, but her steadfast support of Captain Swan even after Hook leaves her for Emma...that had no buildup at all! It's all plot, plot, plot because plot so of course The Jolly is okay with them because the writers aren't really interested in this ship. (Also how did Elsa shrink her and put her in a bottle offscreen? I thought Elsa had ice powers. Ice doesn't do that.)

 

Anyway, I'm hoping for more of The Jolly Roger in Season 5, now that Ursula brought her back to Storybrooke, but I doubt it since all the other main characters are landlubbers. I don't think they could get The Jolly Roger to sail to Avalon, if they are doing Camelot next season.

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Inspired by some discussion in the spoilers thread ...

 

I know it's a longstanding trope that people change clothes when they're evil, but it seems to me like there should be something more going on than just "evil now, must change my wardrobe."

 

For instance, on this show, I don't think Rumple changed his wardrobe because he became the Dark One. He started dressing different because he went from being a derided, powerless peasant to someone with wealth and power. He wanted to flaunt his wealth and make people notice him. He isn't quite so flamboyant in Mr. Gold mode, even though he's no less evil. He wears nice suits, which still convey that message of wealth, power, and status.

 

Regina's Evil Queen look seems to have been an evolution. First, there was a status change, from country gentry to queen, so of course she was dressing nicer. It makes sense that she started wearing all black because she was mourning Daniel and wasn't happy in her marriage. Then her final change to the full-on Evil Queen look may have just been her realizing that she didn't have to live up to anyone's image or expectations of her. She didn't have to be the proper, demure young lady her mother wanted her to be, and she didn't have to be the queen whose only job was being in the vicinity of the king and looking good. She could wear whatever the hell she wanted, and she wanted lots of attention. Mayor Mills may have mostly worn the sensible pantsuits while she was maintaining the illusion of being a small-town mayor during the curse, but since the curse broke, (supposedly) good Regina has worn some pretty flamboyant stuff, kind of our world's equivalent to the Evil Queen look. She's not out of place in our world, but probably a bit flashier and more luxurious than the general population.

 

Hook's change of look seemed to be mostly about rejecting one role and taking on another in going from naval officer to pirate. I wonder, was his initial adoption of the pirate look a true reflection of his taste or a case of trying too hard, wanting to look like what he thought a pirate would look like? Was it "these clothes reflect who I am now" or "if I want people to take me seriously as a pirate, I suppose I'd better look like one"?

 

I can't think of any reason why Emma would change wardrobes because of taking on some darkness. "Dark" people don't really dress any differently from anyone else, unless they're goths who want people to think they're dark. She already seems to be wearing whatever the hell she wants without caring what's proper or what other people expect of her, so there wouldn't be any need to drop any false front and be herself. She's not really changing social status. Her choice in this was to take on the darkness to save the town, so she wasn't choosing to change roles.

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In my personal experience, "Dark" people like throwing some flour onto their face because it's important to look like you haven't slept in weeks and are suffering withdrawal symptoms from illicit substances.

 

Seriously speaking, though, well said.  I agree there isn't really any reason why Dark Emma would necessarily want to dress differently.  Though I suppose A&E could say the Dark Blob does something to your psyche that makes you more flamboyant, so they could reveal the Dark Blob was an inner fashionista that did make Rumple change his wardrobe.  I mean, it did give him that glistening sparkly green skin.  Maybe Emma's clothing in the past showed her wish to blend in, and to not stand out, and now she's going to be opposite of that.  I can definitely see them stressing the "opposite" aspect of being Dark, despite that not being the case with Rumple.

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(edited)

 

I know it's a longstanding trope that people change clothes when they're evil, but it seems to me like there should be something more going on than just "evil now, must change my wardrobe."

Some good insight in this post. From a storytelling point of view, I do think it's necessary in order to clue the audience in that Emma is different now. 

It's not a drastic change in style besides the black, so that helps.

I agree on Regina and Rumple. What did change on Rumple though was his skin, which became sparkly and crocodile-like. Was that intentional on his part, or was it part of the curse? I'm thinking it was part of the curse since it started to disappear once Belle kissed him. 

Emma's, besides the paleness, doesn't deliver the same style or effect.

 

Perhaps the curse simply takes attributes of someone's dark side and changes their physical look to match. Like I've said before, Rumple was a crocodile and as Shanna Marie said he was greedy and desired power. 

Emma has had issues with being too cold in the past, so maybe the pastiness shows that? The black could represent her depression as well. She has since overcome these things in many ways, but it's still a part of her.

Edited by KingOfHearts
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Something I've noticed after getting a better, bigger TV: the characters with fairer skin always look a bit sick in the heavily greenscreened scenes. The green seems to reflect on their skin, and it's particularly jarring when the color replacing the green is something really different. I noticed this in the giant's castle in "Tallahassee," when both Hook and Emma have a greenish cast to their skin, and in "Queen of Hearts," when Hook is in Wonderland, surrounded by all the red from the Queen of Hearts' lair, and his skin looks greenish and his eyes are greenish instead of blue (I guess the light blue eyes reflect the green). Hook's, Emma's, and Snow's coloring all changes drastically whether they're in a real setting vs. CGI.

 

You'd think there would be a way to correct for this sort of thing, but it is a problem for pale people (I've learned not to wear red for photos that will be professionally lit because my face will end up looking ruddy from the red reflecting off my skin. I can sometimes get away with blue, but that shade of green would kill me).

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The more I see that screencap of Dark Emma in that "sneak peek" of Emma in the dungeons they aired at Comic-con, the more I wish upon a star that that was not canon and they will do a better make-up job in 5A.

 

I mean, is that really Dark Emma, or is it Undark Emma putting on a tad too much zinc oxide sunscreen to avoid a tan?

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I wasn't really sure where to post this, but Cover Girl is coming out with a Star Wars line of makeup and the Droid one actually looks pretty cool and reminded me of Dark Swan.  I do however think that Droid looks hella better (photoshop included obviously).

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