A special darkness all my own

One of the things I really love about the classic “The Eye of the Beholder” Twilight Zone episode is the tension built up during the scene wherein the doctors and nurses unwrap the gauze. Everything was working towards this moment, and cinematically it is deliberate and compelling at once: “Do you see any light now, Ms. Tyler?” There is a reason why this is the most memorable episode, it’s the ongoing critique of conformity, a monolithic idea of societal purpose, and the disturbing historical reverberations of a state that “exterminates undesirables.” Masterfully written (by Serling himself), scored (by the great Bernard Herrmann), and directed by Douglas Heyes—all three come together in this episode to create a holy trinity of awesome that might make it single greatest episode of any show in U.S. TV history. So, to try and capture some of the magic, I created a Multi-Frame GIF Storyboard of sorts to try and capture some of the magic of the scene when the bandages are being removed. My thinking is that an assignment like this is one of the best ways for unpacking a scene in film or TV to see what shots actually constitute the illusion of continuity in cinematic storytelling .

Design: 4 1/2 Stars (13 Design Stars total)