scranScribble
I’m all for special effects, if done well. I love the gross-out anatomy effects used on House; they take me back to my freshman science dissections. Bleh! And how about the classy explosions over on Burn Notice? A bit gratuitous, but pretty cool nonetheless.
I’ll even head-bob some respect to the not-so-well-done special effects on TV these days, like the dream sequences on That ’70s Show. You have to appreciate the hokey, though, and it worked for them.
Fringe, however, just created their own category of special effects, and it crossed the line for me. Seriously, Fringe folks, what were you thinking with the floating 3D letters, indicating a scene change?
Believe it or not, there are some of us who can follow the characters to a new setting without confusion. We don’t even need subtitles, let alone the obnoxious floating “Harvard University” to know that the team is back at the lab.
You know what I’d like to see? A parody of the Fringe transitions, with extras walking head-first into the damn letters that are in their way. They are in the way of the viewers, that’s for sure. The image I found to accompany this post is in no way meant to be a parody (it is some British festival fanfare), but they didn’t realize how much this viewer would enjoy their floating “fringe.”
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Oct 07, 2008 @ 14:19 EST5EDT
I think it’s a nice effect. Doesn’t bother me at all.
I also like it.
*POST AUTHOR*
So does my husband; thought it was a cool effect from the very first time we saw the screener pilot this summer. I guess I find it distracting; it just screams “out of place” to me.
I mentioned in my review that this is one of the things I really do like about the show as it stands out to me. Much like Heroes chapter titles are a special effect but also a static part of the scene, there’s something cool about it to me. I know it’s a little thing, but I love it when shows try something unique or different.
*POST AUTHOR*
HA! You sound just like Keith. In fact … nearly verbatim. Did you guys rehearse? ;-)
Debbie I’m afraid you are going to be the minority here. Everyone I know that watches Fringe thinks the floating letters are pretty cool. :-P
I’m waiting for the first parody to be a car crashing into the letters or, better yet, a helicopter. The writers leave those damn letters laying around all over the place!
Maybe even a letter falling off one of the buildings, or falling out of the sky. That would be pretty funny.
They *did* have the letters show up in a reverse angle shot (ie the shot directly after the establishing shot in which the letters were seen), I think it was in the pilot. I thought that was pretty funny.
I find them amusing and moderately cute, if not cool. I did notice that they’re already recycling establishing shots in last week’s ep though — if they continue to reuse the same shots it’ll get old pretty fast.
The reverse angle shot you’re referring to was in the pilot. It was the scene right after arriving in Iraq to find Peter, I believe.
Not to gang up against you Debbie, but I also like the letters. So does my wife and my older kids that watch with us, we just think it’s cool.
I’d like to see the letters somehow be an extension of yet another field of experimental researsh done by Walter Bishop all those years ago. They could have an episode that parodies itself, say for the 100th episode.
I was surprised to see how many commenters likes the HORRIBLE letters. My wife and I both enjoy the show (Go Joshua Jackson!) but we would not miss the HORRIBLE, DISTRACTING, UNNECESSARY floating letters.
*POST AUTHOR*
Finally, a soul mate! :-)
I don’t mind them … it’s something different … and unique for the show
This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone say anything but positive things about the letters.
I like them. Everyone I’ve talked to about the show has mentioned them in a positive light.
Yeah, sorry Debbie, can’t agree with you argee with you (have a feeling after reading all Keiths BSG posts over the years that I’d usually tend to agree with him). The title cards are unique and interesting, not unlike their “Fringe will return in 90 seconds” bits.
Are you kidding? Those letters are the only good thing in the whole show.
Watch HIMYM from Monday.
The letters at the front of Robin’s anchor desk that fall off during one of her newscasts are a CGI.
Same effect as the ones on Fringe but with less depht.
It felt out of place to me too. I find the Chapter changes on Heroes much more seamless since they use an organic font and not the metal finish and the enormous depht of the letters they do on Fringe. On Heroes they look like a Comic Book’s chapter headings – just as if Heroes was a comic book. Together with all the drawings of the future it gives the show a certain look and feel.
Same goes to HIMYM. The sign at the desk would’ve been done as a real metal sign if the effect wouldn’t have been “falls down at a certain moment” which now can be cheaply done in CGI.
But on Fringe they always pull me out of the story. It really puts a strain on my suspension of disbelief. I mean that aerosol that bound to the nitrogen in the last episode… seriously, how much cas must’ve come out of that tiny can to build a solid that fills up the hole bus? You need to never have attended any chemistry lessons in school to believe that one… weren’t the characters so quirky and wouldn’t I love Pacey so much (I’m still happy he ended up with Joey) I would be just as angry at that show as I’m at Bones. Angel in a role where he’s the wuss. Blasphemy I say!
Sebastion,
Great Comments. I have several things to add/remark/reply:
– The letters on HIMYM were CGI? Holy crap, I totally missed it. I must go and watch it again. Thanks for the info.
– If I can believe that a gas can turn into amber or whatever on a bus, I’m going to go all the way and assume it’s a SUPER gas where a little goes a long way.
– Damn straight Pacey ended up with Joey. I would have been pissed if wussy Dawson got her.
– Bones rocks. I don’t think that Booth is a wus. Not as bad ass as Angel, but what non-vampire role could be?
As an aside…I’m really digging cliqueclack. Great posts and really fun commenters. Thanks and keep up the good work.
What I meant was this:
If I have to accept that a gas can turn into a solid, and believe this is real, then I would have to believe that the enormous signs over the Buildings at Harvard University are real.
Understand what I mean?
Either both are scientificly correct or neither. The signs are so enormous and have a metal finish, that they would weight hundreds of tons if they were as solid as they are portayed and on top of that totally unnecessary – who would need a huge sign on top of a 200 year old building in Harward giving the name of the institiution instead of the name of the building?
It’s just so out of place and unreal that it pulls me out of the story.
And I know Booth isn’t a wuss. I can’t accept the forensic methods on the show, they use stuff that’s simply not invented yet. Bones in the not-so-distant future would work for me, but they are working with stuff and expect me to accept that those things are used today (!) and that’s just not the case.
It’s the same with the CSI shows. I still believe in the forensic methods they use on Vegas but the things they pull out of their collective a**es on NY and Miami I simply can’t take because they aren’t real.
Crimes nowadays 80% of the time get solved due to things the people involved in the case do or say. That’s why I love “The Closer”. On CSI Miami, New York and on Bones they pretend as if there’s a black box somewhere in their lab they put stuff in and on the other side magically the bad guy’s name drops out. I just don’t like it, but that’s personal preference.
I like the wording that tells us the location. I think it looks cool.
Actually, I’m going to add something to my previous comment above (that I like the letters).
The letters in the pilot *seemed* to have less bevel and looked like they had sharper edges. I’ve not rewatched the pilot, but the ones they use week in week out seem to have more rounded edges. Or I could be wrong.
I realise that this makes me a massive nerd …
It can’t imagine why it really matters.
Eh…they stand out SO much that they take me out of the plot to go, “Damn, that looks weird.” In Heroes it fits better since it’s a comic book world.
Really, really like them… just a neat little signature touch, like flying into the locations thru cut out letters in alias.
But I also agree that if (fox willing) it makes it to 100 episodes or so, a parody would be great with helicopters crashing and extras walking into the letters each time. ha ha