JJ Abrams is at it again
For the record, I am a huge Lost fanboy. So much that I have actually had “Lost-like” dreams where I am trapped on an island with several strangers and trying to find a way off the island. Building rafts, finding secret hatches buried underground, even smoke monsters...
Weird, yes I am aware of that, but I guess I am just a sucker for survivalist scenarios in fiction, film and now on tv. I have painstakingly watched every single episode of Lost (maybe more than once), contributed my ideas to theories on internet message boards with friends, I am a geek. You get it. For me the show is just a fun escape, and I really like all of the extra drama and character building. At times the pacing of the show can be really irritating, with filler episodes being a common occurrence, but over all I think (read: hope) that it will pay off in the end and the revelations that I am anticipating will be revealed and we will get some explanations.
Fox’s new show Fringe that started airing this fall is the latest project from award-winning film and television producer, writer, actor, composer, director (watch your toes) JJ Abrams. He is the co-creator of the show writer and producer, I have recently become a fan of JJ’s work, aside from Lost I really liked Cloverfield and look forward to the new Star Trek movie that he is currently filming. I saw a video of a talk that he did recently on the TED website and I thought it was really interesting to hear him talk about macs, his process for working, and what inspires him. Perhaps you will be inspired by his talk, if not there is lots of other content on that site worth checking out.
I find that Fringe uses a similar formula for their plot as Lost, almost too similar. From the eerie music during climactic scenes, to the style of cinematography that is used, there is even an actor on the show who is a prominent character on Lost. A lot of people have drawn comparisons to the X-Files, and I can see that too, however substitute cool original pseudo-science (Teleportation, Nanotechnology, Precognition, Artificial Intelligence, Psychokinesis, Suspended Animation, Cybernetics, Dark Matter, Transmogrification are just some of the subjects touched upon in the opening title) for old, tired paranormal plot lines, and you have yourself a fresh series. The show takes many cues from the mystery style of screen writing employed on Lost as well.
One of the things about the show that had me instantly hooked, is the main title, as well as the slick use of giant typography superimposed into the landscape to set the scene when the plot switches location. Really cool effect, I wouldn’t say that it is new or original in any way, just not something you usually see in television due to tight budgets. The opening title was designed by Andrew Kramer and his Video Copilot team, and the score for the title was actually composed by JJ Abrams himself.
If you want more information about the titles for Fringe, check out the blog post about it here.
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Best new show on TV. Hands down. Finally, something new to satisfy the X-files fanboy that I’ve spent the last half dozen years repressing. Great write-up man.
Just one question. What inspired you to use the word transmogrification (don’t remember seeing that in the title sequence) instead of shape shifting? Maybe it’s there and I just missed it.
Bummed that it wasn’t on this week.