Production Design in Narcos

This week I watched two episodes of Narcos, a Netflix original series. (I'm really bad at binge watching television.)

Narcos is about the most notorious drug dealer of all time, Pablo Escobar. Much of the story takes place in Colombia in the late 70s and early 80s, where Pablo and his team produce mountains upon mountains of cocaine to sell in other South American countries and the United States. ('narcos' = narcotics. If you didn't get that, it's cool--I didn't until at least halfway through the first episode). The story is told by Steve Murphy (played by Boyd Holbrook), a DEA agent who moves from Miami to Colombia to stop Escobar.

Pablo and his cocaine. Bffs 4 life.

Th production design in Narcos, as I would expect with any major drama series, was excellent. Scenes in episodes one and two take place in the middle of the jungle, a fancy Colombian hotel, a random street in South Beach, Miami, the airport, a plane, a bowling alley, and a ton of other places. There was so much effort put into every little detail--as it should be.

This has inspired me to get involved in this part of production for our project, which was recently retitled as Dollhouse. In class we talked about using our location to resemble a dollhouse, so I started to think about exactly what that means.

I may have had this exact dollhouse growing up, actually.

I played with dolls (Barbies, Polly Pockets, Bratz) all the time growing up. However, I think what makes dollhouses a little creepy is when all the furniture is glued down. Not all dollhouses are like this, but the ones for very young children are, so they can't pick up the tiny furniture and start eating it. Maybe glued down furniture is an element that we can play with. We want the dollhouse to reveal characteristics about our antagonist, Hannah, so very minimalist designs might be best. Perhaps we could have shots of her straightening or tidying things around the house as she talks to Vivian, our protagonist. Vivian's room, in contrast, will look like the "normal" college student's--pictures and posters on the walls, some laundry on the floor, homework sprawled across the desk.

Obviously, we don't have the money that Narcos did, but that doesn't mean we can't put a lot of effort into our production design.

Dexter: Deep Dark and Dangerous

DEXTER

I recently started re-watching Dexter with my boyfriend and I am still amazed by how much I enjoy watching it a second time. I have watched up until the 6th season and have not watched further than that. This series is incredible; the music, location, editing and production in general is awesome. I would love to work on the set of this show because it is so well made and I would enjoy being around such creative individuals.

For those of you who aren't Dexter fans (yet) its premise revolves around our protagonist (which should be an antagonist) Dexter. Interesting thing about Dex is that he kills bad people and justifies it. He also is a blood spatter analysis and works for the Miami Metro police. Oh, irony. Anyway, I love that this show makes the viewer love Dexter, and they too justify his killings. Even though he is in fact a murderer himself. 

The composition of each episode is great, the storytelling is well done and I personally enjoy his narrations throughout. It makes the viewer be able to be in Dexter's mind and this ultimately makes the viewer sympathize with him. The casting of this show is also very well done, as each characters purpose and belonging is very intentional. The musical score for the show is one of my favorites of all time. Its beautiful, eerie, and haunting. It really ties all the elements of the show together.

If these above paragraphs haven't yet convinced you to watch the show, then I don't know what will. Dexter combines all the right elements to make the show suspenseful, funny, and overall enjoyable. 

^^And how can you resist that face???

Never Say Goodbye

I don't know how many times I've been able to say that I was captivated by a YouTube video but this has to be one of them. The Hardwell Miami 2013 Aftermovie entitled "Never Say Goodbye" is a tribute to one of the biggest Electronic Music Festivals in the world, Ultra. This festival is a total 2 weekend, 6 day amalgamation of the best DJs and Producers from around the world. Now, this video may only feature one of the members from this festivals incredible roster but it sure does do his performance justice.

This video, as the title suggests, highlights Robbert van de Corput who is better known by his stage name, Hardwell. This Dutch mastermind is one of the driving forces in electronic music today, having played some of the most prestigious venues around the globe as well as releasing numerous chart-topping hits. On to the video itself.

I was extremely impressed with the overall production value of this video. From the music choice to the obvious finesse in the editing and placement of the voiceovers, this video is visually stunning. On top of its quality, it is able to display all of the energy and emotion and just general happiness that this festival seems to breed. I feel the combination of those two aspects make this video one hell of a production.