The Arrested Development Pilot: One of the best pilots EVER

Arrested Development aired it's pilot on FOX on November 2nd, 2003. Since then, throughout its four seasons, the show has received 6 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and recognition for being one of the funniest shows aired on television.

In my personal opinion, the pilot of this show is one of the strongest pilots for a television series I have ever seen. Typically, pilots are ruled out to not be considered the best, but this show breaks that rule. In this episode, you are introduced to every important character in the series. The main character, Michael Bluth, played by Jason Bateman, narrates the episode and gives a detailed description of his highly dysfunctional family members. The fast paced editing and highly saturated coloring make the episode even more intriguing to watch. Lower thirds are used as well as many graphics to point to certain things and create different vectors.

Another aspect that I found interesting is that when they go from one setting to another, they don't just cut it, they create two different boxes on the screen and then bring the next scene into full. I have never seen that done on a TV sitcom before. The dialogue that is used is absolutely hysterical and the conflicts that arrive are so coincidental and unrealistic that they make you laugh out loud. The killer cast of Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, and many more add hilarious antics with each of their lines. Overall, this pilot was incredible and really set a high standard for situational comedies.

Visual Effects Breakdowns

The amazing part about TV shows and movies today is how visual and practical effects can expand the scope of a story. The abundance of this accessible technology allows TV shows to use what was, for a brief period of time, a costly technique that was usually reserved for movies. Like most things in cinema and film, the less obvious the CGI, the more power it gives to the scene. Good green screen use can make or break a scene and in a show like "Game of Thrones" the CG makes scenes more than the actors do. The show employs a company called Spin VFX for their visual effects needs. Spin VFX have created visual effects for a number of TV shows and films that include After Earth, Max Payne, and Titanic. The men behind the magic are VFX Supervisor Doug Campbell and Supervising Producer Luke Groves. Campbell has been nominated for 5 primetime Emmys and Groves has 3 nominations. The following video is a deconstruction of the visual effects that appear in the show during its third season.

Crazy right? They do such a good job that you don't even know where the effect ends and begins until they remove the key. In certain scenes it's easier to tell than others but for the most part it's pretty damn good. One thing I noticed that was interesting is that in scenes where the final shot needs to take place at night (such as the man walking up the stair case with the green screen behind him or in some of the wide shots of the castle and surrounding camps) the scene is well lit and then darkened by the VFX team in post. I can only assume this ensures that no matter how much the brightness is affected in post, the lighting off the actor's face and surroundings are well lit for the viewer. For further viewing and reading the link to Spin VFX website is right  HERE. What I find fascinating is the ability to peel back a layer of a tv show and have an entirely new appreciation for the work that goes into what we watch. For instance, the scene in the video where they are climbing the 700 foot ice wall was composed of 80 shots...whoever figured these techniques out is a gosh darn genius.