Whew. I had to go back into the series and look again. The empty bed was...so empty. No superficial 'friend' person on the other side of the room for Wilhelm. Also reminded me how people act after some tragedy has befallen. Wilhelm has lost his brother AND Simon so lets leave him alone, just what he needed, more loneliness. And his brother is DEAD. We've hardly seen him grieve. Needs to happen, maybe in the arms of his love.
Two other 'negative spaces' that stuck out to me. The first, when the Queen show up to ferry Wilhelm back to the castle to give his 'it wasn't me in the video' speech. Awful. They are in the back of their chauffeured car with a black space between them ( the middle seat). They are separated metaphorically by miles and miles. He wants to be with Simon. The Queen has a hard no to that nonsense. I see Erik's ghost sitting there, undecided what to tell his younger brother. But he's absent.
The other scene is earlier, when the Queen visits Wilhelm for the first time after the sex tape is released. She's come to do damage control, to tell Wilhelm to avoid Simon and deny the tape. As she drives away, there's an odd angle to the back of Wilhelm as he stands there alone with his hands in his pockets looking at the taillights of the retreating car. The scene is mostly dominated by the sulfurous sky at dusk, all sickly yellow and black with this lone figure, his back to us, all sad and defeated. It's almost as if the sky is mirroring Wilhelm's bleak mood.
Simon in the other bed. Yes please. Or push those beds together, or better yet, call Yan Olaf (sp?) and order a king-size.
Yes! Absolutely. That empty middle seat between the Queen and Wilhelm in the car is exactly that: negative space. If I were to guess, I'd say it's probably there to show us how divided they are by this issue. There is so much space between them; they're not touching anywhere. And there is no middle ground between their respective positions either, so to speak. (I mean, otherwise the showrunners could have easily made sure their conversation happened at the castle, with the Queen hugging her son, for example. Something a mother might normally do for her child in a situation like this. But that's conspicuously not how this scene was set up.)
And yes, to your second idea, as well. That's actually a medium long shot (that means we see the character from their head to about their knee-level). Long shots and medium long shots are absolutely brilliant for showcasing negative space. And you can see all that emptiness, all that negative space around Wilhelm in that frame there.
Negative space when it appears in a long shot or a medium long shot is usually there to highlight the character's loneliness and sense of abandonment. Sometimes it's employed to show us the character is feeling ill at ease. In this case, I'd think it's the former, but it might be the latter too, who knows.
In any case, that's a very sharp eye you have. Congrats! And you're, of course, absolutely right that the weather on a show usually mirrors the protagonists' mood, the sky in that medium long shot being a case in point.
Thank you for your lovely comment. It's always such a delight to see someone who has a sharp eye for details.
There is another memento mori linked with Eric's death in the show. In episode one of season 2, there is an empty glass on the table facing the view in Eric's room when Wilhelm goes there to reminisce his brother and hold onto his presence by his possessions and intimate space.
Dear film instructor-
Whew. I had to go back into the series and look again. The empty bed was...so empty. No superficial 'friend' person on the other side of the room for Wilhelm. Also reminded me how people act after some tragedy has befallen. Wilhelm has lost his brother AND Simon so lets leave him alone, just what he needed, more loneliness. And his brother is DEAD. We've hardly seen him grieve. Needs to happen, maybe in the arms of his love.
Two other 'negative spaces' that stuck out to me. The first, when the Queen show up to ferry Wilhelm back to the castle to give his 'it wasn't me in the video' speech. Awful. They are in the back of their chauffeured car with a black space between them ( the middle seat). They are separated metaphorically by miles and miles. He wants to be with Simon. The Queen has a hard no to that nonsense. I see Erik's ghost sitting there, undecided what to tell his younger brother. But he's absent.
The other scene is earlier, when the Queen visits Wilhelm for the first time after the sex tape is released. She's come to do damage control, to tell Wilhelm to avoid Simon and deny the tape. As she drives away, there's an odd angle to the back of Wilhelm as he stands there alone with his hands in his pockets looking at the taillights of the retreating car. The scene is mostly dominated by the sulfurous sky at dusk, all sickly yellow and black with this lone figure, his back to us, all sad and defeated. It's almost as if the sky is mirroring Wilhelm's bleak mood.
Simon in the other bed. Yes please. Or push those beds together, or better yet, call Yan Olaf (sp?) and order a king-size.
Yes! Absolutely. That empty middle seat between the Queen and Wilhelm in the car is exactly that: negative space. If I were to guess, I'd say it's probably there to show us how divided they are by this issue. There is so much space between them; they're not touching anywhere. And there is no middle ground between their respective positions either, so to speak. (I mean, otherwise the showrunners could have easily made sure their conversation happened at the castle, with the Queen hugging her son, for example. Something a mother might normally do for her child in a situation like this. But that's conspicuously not how this scene was set up.)
And yes, to your second idea, as well. That's actually a medium long shot (that means we see the character from their head to about their knee-level). Long shots and medium long shots are absolutely brilliant for showcasing negative space. And you can see all that emptiness, all that negative space around Wilhelm in that frame there.
Negative space when it appears in a long shot or a medium long shot is usually there to highlight the character's loneliness and sense of abandonment. Sometimes it's employed to show us the character is feeling ill at ease. In this case, I'd think it's the former, but it might be the latter too, who knows.
In any case, that's a very sharp eye you have. Congrats! And you're, of course, absolutely right that the weather on a show usually mirrors the protagonists' mood, the sky in that medium long shot being a case in point.
Thank you for your lovely comment. It's always such a delight to see someone who has a sharp eye for details.
There is another memento mori linked with Eric's death in the show. In episode one of season 2, there is an empty glass on the table facing the view in Eric's room when Wilhelm goes there to reminisce his brother and hold onto his presence by his possessions and intimate space.