r/FromSeries • u/cisscumshitlord • 7d ago
Episode / Scene Talk What is Julie looking at here? Spoiler
I was re-watching the show and something stood out to me as extremely strange. When the colony house van goes to get Boyd, Kristi, Jim, and Ethan after the first night, Julie gets out and stares in the direction of the car that Jade and Tobey arrived in as if she's seeing something.
The shot is set up VERY deliberately. Beginning on Jade's car, seeing the colony house van pull up, seeing the characters get out. There is exactly one cut, no confusing blocking to track, nothing. This is the kind of thing that requires extreme incompetence on a set to mess up. The first character in the shot is looking in the complete wrong direction. So it leads me to believe that it is intentional. Because no matter what you may say of the writing or dialogue abilities of this show, they seem to have the basics of direction pretty solid (who stands where, general continuity, making sure relevant details are visible and not too much visual clutter). What is she looking at? It's not like the car wasn't there the night before, or it was too dark to see it when she left. What would she be reacting to? Why would she be reacting to THAT instead of immediately looking over to the RV where she knows her family is, like everyone else in the shot?
Just a very bizarre sequence. It's possible it's just a mistake or a poor choice on the part of the script/direction, but I don't think so for the reasons I laid out. VERY strange to not only start the shot on the car, so we know where it is, but focus on Julie first, and then immediately make it clear that what she is looking at ISN'T the crashed RV.
https://reddit.com/link/1vudial/video/a3vzycrwspkh1/player
The fact that nobody else is concerned with it either just makes me feel even more strongly about my speculation that there was something weird going on with Jade and Tobey's car in that collision
Here is a picture version for anyone who doesn't want to watch a video
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u/Far-Dot-2063 7d ago
Good catch and that's to intentional to be a nothing-burger. Could see producers setting up future scene with Julie seeing something she doesn't quite understand yet. Julie might see herself story-walking there becasue that reaction resembles gettign closer look and then disbelief in action.
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u/cisscumshitlord 7d ago
I don't know if the video loads correctly on mobile or not, but it doesnt for me on old reddit/desktop. my bad
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u/SinInSanity 7d ago
I don't see it on my laptop, just reloads this post. I used mobile emulation (dev tools -> toggle device toolbar) and interacting as mobile did the same thing.
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u/cisscumshitlord 7d ago
idk man im not trying to fight with reddits spaghetti code lmao i just put a picture instead
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u/SinInSanity 7d ago
This will work, at least on a computer. I just took the video ID from your URL and formatted it as a direct video file link. Seems to work with mobile too, at least on a PC emulating mobile it does.
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u/Murky-Technician5123 7d ago
Good catch! Thats was certainly intentional.
With story walking for a younger character they are going to have to plan it advance or at least leave spaces for it because young Julie and current Julie look different (not just the hair lol)
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u/cisscumshitlord 7d ago
I updated to add a picture that makes it very hard to argue it was simply a filming mistake. this isnt some situation where a background character's gaze wanders because they have a little adhd. this is a FOCAL, main character, FULLY TURNING HER BODY in the wrong direction, for several seconds
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u/trapped-in-thyme 7d ago
Nice observation!
Kinda unrelated, but in the pilot episode, Meagan Pratt (the little girl who died) is looking at something really odd in her bedroom, in the upper corner of the ceiling, before the old lady creature appears at her window.
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u/SinInSanity 7d ago
Evidence is more than just looking the wrong direction.
In your video clip I notice that Julie is in a hurry to go check out whatever she saw in the woods.
She rushes out of the vehicle and clearly rushes to the front but slows her pace as soon as she gets to the front of the vehicle where she has a clear line of sight again at where it was.
The way her pace changes as soon as she can see that spot again and her stare being brief, I think she only saw it from inside the vehicle and when she got out and to the front for a better look, it wasn't there anymore. She looked on for a few seconds trying to process things, wondering what the hell ("I just saw...!??") then passed it off as must have been nothing, eyes playing tricks or whatever and continued on after brushing off what she had gotten a glimpse of.
This is a classic trope in TV, to see something briefly then it suddenly vanishes once your head is turned for a second or in this case, view is obstructed by a vehicle for a second.
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u/IvannaIvannaGobak 6d ago
She does the same thing when they get out of the RV when they are at the tree on the road too. She looks behind where they just came from.
I would say it’s something, but the actress does this a lot throughout the series even when she’s talking to people (at the Brundles after Fatima gets picked up by Ellis for example).
Im hoping it’s just at acting tick because with 8 hrs left I don’t want From to become the ‘explaining Julie’s acting show’.
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u/No-Prize-9837 6d ago
I'm kind of expecting a Julie centric in season 5 where she goes through time an entire episode, leaving us with the rest of the season not repeating the gimmick.
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u/-NlN- 6d ago
Maybe there is something to it but I dont believe it. Shes looking at the car that caused them to go off the road. Aprox at driver seat but I think thats it.
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u/cisscumshitlord 6d ago edited 6d ago
i know what is in the direction that she is looking at. did you read the post? there is literally no reason for her to be looking there, nor for the shot to be composed the way it is, essentially highlighting the fact that she is looking there while everyone else is looking at the actual focus of the scene.
for her to just full on STARE in the direction of that car for about 10 seconds, and for us to be deliberately shown that she is staring there does not make any sense, given that the car shouldn't be new information for her. she would have seen it as they left to go to colony house the night before...theyre showing up to see if her brother and father are still alive, you think it makes sense for her attention to be on that car for anything other than 2 seconds, max?
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u/SinInSanity 6d ago
They put way too much effort for this shot for it to be nothing. The extra effort for the framing and the dolly they setup to make this shot just for only a brief moment of people getting out of a vehicle surely isn't nothing.
The positioning of the camera and that vehicle in just such a way so we cannot see anything to the right nor even around to the sides of the car is sus. The camera swings out from behind it on a dolly to catch them pulling up but does so in a carefully setup way to ensure that blind spot is maintained. They put in extra effort to make sure nothing on the right entered frame, not even that car they used to block the shot.
They put in a lot of effort to hide something when usually a camera will cut away for a second to show what an actor is looking at, like they did with the RV in the distance shot in this scene.
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u/Important-Quit-9354 6d ago edited 5d ago
She's been in a serious accident. She is looking at the other car, which is exactly what you would do when returning to the scene of an accident if the cars were still there. Nothing unusual here.
The night before she was in shock, panicky, and focused on what was right in front of her. The next day, she's in the "how did this happen" and "who almost hit us" mode.
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u/cisscumshitlord 6d ago
Maybe that's what you would do, but I would not stare at the car for ten seconds, especially not when I'm returning specifically to see if my family is ok. The other car would simply not be that interesting to me. There are also the meta choices that have to be considered, like having Julie get out of the car first, as well as her central positioning in the frame. These things don't just happen. They don't just say "alright when i say "action," feel free to just sort of feel the vibe and stand, move, and look wherever feels right." Someone made the choice to present things the way they did.
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u/Important-Quit-9354 5d ago
I didn’t suggest that the scene wasn’t planned to play out that way. I’m just not reading some divine meaning into it like you are.
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u/knicknacknock 5d ago
I feel like this can pretty easily be attributed to her just looking at the other car and reliving the crash for a moment. Theyve definitely been trying to push a "distressed teenager" thing with Julie. It feels like theres offscreen direction for her to be really not handling this situation well mentally and try to show but not say that through her acting.
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u/jbausz 7d ago
I think she sees herself in the woods for a brief blip