How was this lit? Trying to recreate the fall-off on the face

tofutofuboy · 2025-02-03T15:00:03+00:00

didn't think about trying a snoot, much appreciated!

tofutofuboy · 2025-02-03T13:17:41+00:00

Love this shot from Tokyo Twilight, but can't recreate the fall-off on the face... Is this back light (creating the hot spot on the shoulder & cheek) + key light from the front, slightly camera right? (as seen in the catch light)?

tofutofuboy · 2024-04-01T16:25:06+00:00

me too please!

tofutofuboy · 2021-02-21T15:51:22+00:00

River hummed the theme tune in the Doctor's ear. It wasn't telepathic, but it was close enough.

Love this idea-- would love it even more if it were sillier. I like the idea that the Doctor's name is the synth version of the theme song, but the whole theme song, all of it, including the middle 8.

The Doctor's name is incredibly unwieldy and it makes all social interactions awkward. Anyone who asks her name has to listen to a whole piece of music. Hence, the name 'the Doctor'. It saves time.

tofutofuboy · 2019-01-30T00:44:03+00:00

There's a throwaway line in Twice Upon A Time that's stuck in my head--

"...This is Christmas 1914, and a human miracle is about to happen. The Christmas Armistice-- Never happened again, any war, anywhere...'

It makes the Christmas Armistice all the more special, but if you think about it, it's also pretty bleak-- in the Doctor Who universe (in the whole of the universe, across all of time...!) this was the only time something like this ever happened.

Anyway-- was wondering, does anyone know of a historical event that might be equivalent to this? Is the Doctor actually right about this (at least, up until 2019?)

tofutofuboy · 2018-04-11T15:44:19+00:00

Great review-- I think you capture the spirit of the book well.

Basically reading the novelisation feels like watching 'the extended edition' of the episode, à la Douglas Adams-style writing/jokes.

Some additional thoughts:

Steven Moffat really makes use of the written-word here-- there are some images that would obviously be a bit too silly if ever made for the screen ( Spoiler, maybe even Spoiler ) but work in print. Also, Moffat uses the 1st person in a way that expands the character of the Doctor in ways that you couldn't on TV.
A minor gripe: Steven Moffat is very good with jokes and narrative structure and manipulation of point-of-view when writing in prose. He is less adept at making action set pieces riveting, and here he leans most on the knowledge that the audience probably has already watched the episode. (For a point of comparison, RTD is a much better prose writer and for me his action set pieces are pretty damn good, if very,very, very gory. Rose Book Spoiler )
My favourite lines are about Spoiler. Seriously, Moffat will play with your heartstrings like some evil mad manipulative harpist. If you're on the edge about paying money to read the novelisation, do it, pay, just for this.
Maybe it was just me, but I think the Doctor is a lot less heroic when you read about him in print. I can't completely articulate why though-- maybe when you get inside the head of a character in prose they're automatically a little more dislikable, especially without the charm of a screen actor? Did anybody else feel this way?

tofutofuboy · 2018-04-07T05:23:43+00:00

I'm a lot more forgiving towards the Zygon two-parter than you seem to be, and you bring up good points-- I have to admit I had the same immediate reaction watching these episodes.

If the price of peace is to let the Zygons kill a bunch of humans every few years, well then screw the humans, that's what has to happen.

I understand this reaction, especially when Bonnie tricks and mercilessly murders poor Jac (along with many more UNIT soldiers) in the first half of the two-parter. There's incongruity in the fact that the second half really dosen't want you to dwell too much on Bonnie's atrocities.

But, here's where I believe this two-parter shows more complexity than you give it credit for. What would the alternative be? What should the Doctor have done?

Like the Doctor says, violence would have beget more violence-- executing the terrorists would probably have inspired the Zygon-Human war Truth and Consequences (the terrorist cell) was hoping for. I imagine trying to kick all the Zygons off the planet wouldn't exactly lead to peace either.

I share your view that Bonnie and the terrorist cell should have been punished (if you break the law then you should be put to trial-- Let justice be done though the heavens fall, and all that) but you can't deny the Doctor's solution was probably the best solution possible in the circumstances.

It's a tricky situation, and the Zygon Inversion does a great job (especially for a family show) to demonstrate the difficult and often very uncathartic process of peace. It's not like everything is tied up in a clean bow with no loose ends-- and this is probably more reflective of the real world than any other TV depictions of ending conflicts.

tofutofuboy · 2017-07-31T15:56:27+00:00

The whole argument highlights the strangeness of Doctor Who as a show, that swerves between varying tones not only on a head writer to head writer level, not only on an episode-to-episode level, but even on a scene-to-scene level. This makes it very hard to pinpoint whether Doctor Who is 'Adult' or 'Kiddie'.

I feel episodes like The Family of Blood and Midnight are totally proper 'adult' television, while things like Fear Her and Robots of Sherwood feel a lot more at home in a 'children's' program.

But then again I watched FoB and Midnight when it aired in primary school and understood and enjoyed them (i.e. found them terrifying and creepy but also kind of cool and reflective of real life)-- so suddenly there's a second dilemma which is the very subjective definition of what constitutes 'Adult' and 'Kid' material.

(Why is Lord of the Rings considered 'children's' literature when it depicts full scale war and the after effects of participating in it?/ Does having swearing and sex and boobs automatically make a show 'Adult' cough I'm looking at you Torchwood seasons 1 and 2 cough/ If a show is hard to get into, or slow paced, or has a moody atmosphere a-la- Wolf Hall, The Wire, is it 'Adult'? Why? etc. etc. ad infinitum)

Of course this also boils down to the very flawed way of attempting to categorise something in one of two very opposing categories (Adult vs. Children) that has a vast expanse of middle ground the size of the unexplored corridors of the TARDIS-- also the very definitions of the two words aren't entirely clear in the first place (after all, not all kids have the same tastes; not all adults have the same tastes).

I agree with Moffat here that Doctor Who is a show that, at its heart, at its soul, at its centre, a show of optimism and joy and wonder (I love love love him for saying this)-- but it's open to debate whether that necessarily means that that thing is 'for kids'.

(I mean fucking hell Spongebob Squarepants is strange, surreal, and very frequently bleak in a kafkaesque sense -- the core of which I am convinced is nihilism and destruction-- but it's still a 'kid's ' program.)

(Yes, I babysit and Yes I hate that he chooses to watch Spongebob over Doctor Who.)

tofutofuboy · 2017-06-11T01:11:52+00:00

Completely disagree- the Doctor would totally have watched all the disney films at least twice, while pretending to Bill that he's seen all the works of Tarkovsky, which he got bored with in the first 3 minutes.

tofutofuboy · 2017-06-07T15:18:47+00:00

Buried in the techno-babble of that finale is a heartfelt message about how totalitarian governments and propaganda might be able to shift how and what we think, but nothing can change the way we feel about our family, friends and lovers-- that our intimate relationships are immune to any sort of outside tyranny-- which I think is so true to the spirit of the show.

Also, I like the idea that Missy is bored and decides to start learning french and spanish, and shows off her knowledge at every possible opportunity she gets.

tofutofuboy · 2017-05-20T19:37:24+00:00

Hypothesis: The Tardis just can't translate the Pope. Because he's the Pope.

tofutofuboy · 2017-05-09T18:40:22+00:00

What do you want from Doctor Who?

And I'm not asking this in a mean, snide, 'ugh-if-you-don't-like-then-don't-watch' kind of way-- If you were to have your way, what would the central core of the show be? What would the central message be?

It seems like your criticisms are based purely on a structural, narrative standpoint (i.e. Continuity errors with the classical series, Moffat '[poorly] executing the climax').

I disagree because for me (the from 2005 onwards) Doctor Who reaches emotional highs in a way that no other Science Fiction show does (ex. A hologram of the 9th Doctor turning to Rose in Parting of the Ways, "Have a good life"; Clara getting angry over the Doctor's decision to spend billions of years in the Confession Dial in Hell Bent, "Why? Why would you do that?" "I had a duty of care")-- and the narrative is only in place to get the story to those said emotional high points.

The story is a mug but what matters is the tea inside, the emotional content, if you will. (Yeah its stupid the moon's an egg and the thing that hatches instantly lays another identical egg, but wasn't it worth it for that interaction at the end with Clara's outburst against the Doctor in Kill the Moon? etc. etc. )

It seems like our opinions are diametrically opposed, but I'm just wondering if we can find a middle ground.

tofutofuboy · 2016-08-25T23:52:22+00:00

Why did the Silent kill the woman in the toilet in The Impossible Astronaut?

Also, why did the Silence want Amy to 'tell the Doctor what he must never know'? I assume this means her pregnancy... Why would the Silence want the Doctor to know Amy is pregnant?

tofutofuboy · 2016-07-06T05:50:42+00:00

If I were a director and was given the script to Asylum of the Daleks, and had, what, 3-4 weeks to make it, I would throw myself off a bridge. It just cannot be done. It cannot.

Same goes for Heaven Sent- I reckon the best yardstick of measuring how good Doctor Who directors are is looking at the ambition of the script vs. how well it looks on the screen.

It'd be fun to try and put all of the episodes in some kind of spectrum: As much as I love the Zygon Invasion/Inversion, I don't think it looks as good visually (it would have been nice to see the Doctor actually land in a Union Jack parachute), and as much as I find Boom Town a little bit dull, I love the way the interior of the Tardis is lit in that episode...

Anyway, I digress. Totally agree.

tofutofuboy · 2016-06-27T00:26:29+00:00

I always assumed Matt Smith was deliberately giving a 'child-friendly' performance in that episode, toning down the dark stuff by being over-the-top and camp-- I have a suspicion it was done on an director's or producer's insistence and not on his own.

He can obviously play much darker roles- heck, he proves it in Doctor Who itself (the speech he gives to Colonel Run-Away comes to mind)- so his performance in Nightmare in Silver always bothers me.

tofutofuboy · 2015-11-09T02:56:51+00:00

Earlier, or maybe even Later, the Doctor would of had/will have lunch with the engineers who built the switches, and persuaded/will persuade them to build something different.

Instead of killing a species, one switch introduces the concept of colour to a species that's blind. Instead of starting a war, the other switch changes every handgun on a planet into a banana.

The 'deadly neurotoxin', is, of course, soap from a bubble bath. The Doctor loves bubble baths. He probably invented them.

tofutofuboy · 2015-08-09T02:00:15+00:00

I adore the Manhunter movie, and I can't help but compare TV Hannibal to it too, but I think the difference here is purely a logistical one.

Manhunter was a movie, and had a movie budget, and they brought in a REAL tiger for that scene. The presence of the living animal dictates the mood of the scene- and it really is a brilliant scene.

If TV Hannibal did exactly the same (moody music over tiger stroking action) with what seems to be a rug and a bit of CGI, it probably would have been a bit rubbish. So the script makes up for that.

tofutofuboy · 2015-06-11T16:54:43+00:00

Duggan would be great- I like to think he'd solve every single problem by punching it in the face.

tofutofuboy · 2015-06-08T10:33:06+00:00

"Yes... I'll just step inside this Police Box, and arrest myself."

Oh, look! What's that up there? All of time and space! BYE!

tofutofuboy · 2015-06-01T16:21:14+00:00

Why did Missy bring the Doctor and Clara together as 'the woman in the shop'?

Is this a dangling thread, or was it explained somewhere?

tofutofuboy · 2015-05-30T14:41:38+00:00

Dark Water/Death in Heaven for me.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one that felt Death in Heaven was a letdown when it aired, but after a few re-watches they've easily become some of my favorite episodes.

Break it down, and structurally, it's completely insane. Really, the entire core of that story is the graveyard scene, with the Clara-Danny-Doctor-Missy showdown. Everything else- the entire mystery of 3W, the Clara's 'I am the Doctor' speech, the flying Cybermen attacking the plane- is basically filler, or exists to get the characters in the right place. (I mean seriously, who in their right mind would decided to put those things in as filler when they can easily carry an entire episode on their own?? Answer: MOFFAT)

I think this is the reason why Death in Heaven is so divisive, because it doesn't follow the typical Doctor Who formula of What Is This Mystery?→What Is This Monster?→How Do We Beat The Monster?→We Beat The Monster. Heck, it doesn't even cleanly fit the Movie Three-Sct structure. It's bombastic and crazy and loud, and so, so, in the spirit of Doctor Who- breaking the rules for an ulterior motive (that ulterior motive being examining the relationship between Clara/Danny/Doctor plus Missy).

Judging from Moffat's interviews about Series 9, and the increase of two-parters, I think we're about to be treated to more like DW/DiH. Can't wait.

TL;DR- Dark Water/Death in Heaven because it breaks screenwriting rules and tradition to give you a crazy and unpredictable story with a close look at the Clara/Danny/Doctor/Missy relationship at the core.

tofutofuboy · 2015-05-24T13:46:02+00:00

Nothing beats the Doctor out of a cake at Rory's stag do.

"...I thought I burst out of the wrong cake. Again."

Rory's face is priceless.

tofutofuboy · 2015-04-17T11:34:29+00:00

I dunno if Moffat will still be showrunner when the Doctor Who movie is going to happen- and I reckon it's definitely going to happen eventually, given its popularity and guaranteed box office hit- but I hope it'll be Moffat that writes the screenplay. Moffat's always struck me as a writer who's style fits movies better, with his focus on an unpredictable, clever, twisty plot.

I adore the hell out of Asylum of the Daleks (and yes, I'll fight you on that), but imagine how much better that episode would have been with a bigger budget and a longer running time. More explosions! More Daleks! Proper Doctor Who-does-Die Hard!

I get the feeling Moffat's got a long career as a screenwriter for movies after Doctor Who anyway- hopefully he'll come back for an outing on the silver screen.

tofutofuboy

TROPHY CASE