Twin Peaks Season 3 (Updated)

The quality of image

Let's start with a quote from David Lynch from his book published in 2006:

The DV camera I currently use is a Sony PD-150, which is a lower quality than HD. And I love this lower quality. I love the small cameras.

One of the first thoughts that crossed my mind when I was thinking about new Twin Peaks was the choice of the camera and the quality of image. It wasn't difficult to guess that Showtime will insist on having the best quality possible. In general, people expect crystal clear image, they want high resolution to see everything. If you had asked me, I would have said that I'm in the same group but as I discovered later I couldn't have been much more wrong. It took me a while but finally I started feeling that the quality of image in S03 is too high. Why it is such a big thing for me? Let me elaborate later but first take a look at some screenshots.

Inland Empire

Twin Peaks S01

Twin Peaks S03

Of course, it is pointless to judge it by comparing screenshots in different qualities but I expect that you've seen it by yourself aaaaand I think you can notice the difference anyway.

For me, Twin Peaks is all about mysteries and while watching a new season I feel that too high quality makes the image too real (panning shots of douglas firs or a waterfall enhance an eerie feeling even in this superb quality though). In some scenes it's not so important but in other it changes the mood significantly. It's like a single bad sound in a great song, which you have to ignore to enjoy the listening wholeheartedly. I am really surprised by the fact that Lynch chose to record it in extremely high quality and I assume that it had to be a compromise between David and Showtime. In 2006 he wrote:

In the early days, the emulsion wasn't so good, so there was less information on the screen. (...) And sometimes in a frame, if there's some question about what you're seeing, or some dark corner, the mind can go dreaming. If everything is crystal clear in that frame, that's what it is - that's all it is.

Time flies thus the approach may change but I doubt it. Anyway, that is one of not so many problems that I have with S03. Is it totally spoiling my pleasure of watching? No. Does it really make a difference? Yhmmm, yes.

EDIT 27.09.17: Today I read an interview with Peter Deming - a longtime Lynch's collabolator, who was responsible for colour timing and choosing a camera. He explained some things about which I wrote earlier. I recommend reading the whole interview but if you don't have time there are some interesting quotes:

David went digital before anybody, at least in his mind, and he shot ‘Inland Empire’ [the one project in which Lynch served as his own DP] with a digital camera. He and I would disagree on the quality of [that camera], but he became very enamored with becoming a small self-contained unit and the sort of do-it-yourself situation. And he was still very much interested in that type of set-up for this.

And here you have some explanation from Chris O'Falt: 

The problem is that with the amount of special effects required for the new season of “Twin Peaks,” smaller, less expensive DSLR cameras have a “rolling shudder” and don’t supply a constant frame, which makes it extremely difficult for visual effects artists. In addition, Showtime, like Netflix and Amazon, wants its original shows to not only to deliver in 4K resolution, but shoot in 4K. This made Lynch’s preferred, smaller digital cameras an impossibility.

The most intense scenes

Season 3 is totally different from previous 2 to say the least. Counting the differences would take days but I want to analyse the one, which is the most important for me. As it's known, S01 and S02 undoubtedly thrived on really intense scenes, highlights from every film genre that one should know about. Funny moments were funny to the fullest (often crossing a kitsch line), sad scenes were broking one's heart and every time Lynch touched the camera you knew it even without checking credits because it was so surreal. The new season is different in its approach. The slow pace is being mentioned in every discussion, people are upset with the lack of clarity and worried that the story does not develop. I understand those concerns but the only thing I am worried about is that 18 episodes are not enough for the message Lynch and Frost want to share. 

For me it's working. I appreciate such an approach to building momentum. It's like a DJ set; slowly gaining energy and creating more dense atmosphere while mixing it with peak moments. And about these moments I desire to talk. It's is definitely not easy to balance between those two lines. On the one hand, you want to create an environment, in which you will be able and comfortable to tell your story, on the other, you have to keep your audience interested and give them some attention-dragging moments. Nevertheless, they cannot be too extreme and differ too much from an atmosphere that you care about and want to create. I have to admit that Lynch and Frost are able to find the fine line and are sucessful in fulfilling both goals. 

Thus far, my favourite peak moment was the accident scene from an episode 6. 

How can you create a peak moment, a really intense scene ?

1. Choose characters connected by probably the strongest bond possible - a parent(mom) and a child.
2. Show it from a perspective of an old and experienced man, who is sitting and admiring nature.
3. Let Badalamenti present (just for the second time as far as I remember but for the first in a full version) his new piece, which works perfectly as bridge between current atmosphere in the show and the peak emotional moment you want to introduce.
4. Make the accident brutal. Show it.
5. Send a message regarding the plot (a flying soul?, an electric post)

All checked but Lynch went even farther and I love it. Firstly, he prolonged the agony of a mother as much as he could. It was definitely longer than a normal scene, in which people are dealing with shock and pain just moments after the tragedy of losing someone close. Furthermore, he stopped the whole city to let people join the moment of silence. He allowed them to react and symphatize with a woman who has just lost her child. This scene was cut and paste from the real life. Shots of people's reactions imitated the breaking news concerning a car crash from a local TV station. It's one of a few scenes which were boosted by the quality by the way. In this case the realness of an image makes it even stronger. Summing up, sometimes it's challenging to get through not so in-your-face moments but it's worth the effect. I assume that this scene will stay with me for a long time. The definition of a peak moment for the audience.

David's rhymes

David Lynch is an aware artist. He's a musician, a painter, a writer and a director. And he constantly presents all of his faces. If he is not rhyming words and sentences (yrev, very from episode 4 with an explanation in episode 7) he is creating an anthem for his character (hip-hop beat accompanying the lady from the office in every scene) or he is rhyming images. 

After the accident scene mentioned above David does not forget to follow it up properly. When Richard Horne pulls his car away in the woods we can see a reflection of an electric post in a windshield. I am not ready to talk about the importance of electric posts but we know they are utterly important thus featuring a shot of one in the scene of cleaning evidences left from the accident was delightful.

An electric post from the accident scene

A reflection of an electric post in the cleaning scene