Carter Thallon: On this episode
of "Pop Culture Decoded Daily,"
we explain why we think "Chernobyl" won the Emmy
for best cinematography.
We break down why the new "Rambo" won't be able
to live up to the original.
And, did you notice any Easter eggs
in the new "Birds of Prey" poster?
Nate Lee: Hi, welcome to "Pop Culture Decoded Daily."
We are producers and filmmakers here at Insider.
And we're gonna break apart some of the movies
and TV series that you guys love.
Carter: So, each episode, Nate and I are going
to take a look at a clip that's relevant in the news,
that's been trending, people have been talking about,
and get into what each of us really loved about that piece
and some of the technical aspects that went into it
that you might not have noticed at first.
Nate: Sounds good.
So, what are we talking about this week?
Carter: So, the clip that I brought in today
is from "Chernobyl."
"Chernobyl," nominated for 19 Emmy awards.
Already won a couple Emmy awards
in the Creative Arts Emmys,
which happened this past weekend.
Those are for the more technical side of the Emmys.
It won for cinematography.
Which is what I want to talk about.
Nate: So, which episode are we talking about, specifically?
Carter: So, we are talking about
the second episode of the series,
and it's at the very end of the episode,
the reactor's already exploded,
three men are going into the reactor to go turn on a valve
to prevent another explosion from happening,
and they're exposing themselves to a bunch of radiation,
essentially a suicide mission.
So, let's take a look.
Nate: OK.
[Geiger counters clicking]
Look.
Carter: Usually with cinematography,
people think of often, like, "Lawrence of Arabia,"
like, big, bright, beautiful landscapes.
And one of the reasons I brought it in is 'cause
you don't really think of darkness as cinematography.
Cinematographers have a lot of jobs,
but one of their main jobs, and most important,
is lighting a scene.
Filming for dark scenes is very difficult.
You need to balance it between it being too bright
and too dark where you can't see anything.
Nate: Right, to still be able to see things.
Carter: Yeah, exactly, so, for example,
right here, when his light is going out,
as you can see, this is the only light that should
be illuminating the scene, but in the background here.
Nate: Yeah, I see it.
Carter: There's some lighting.
And, again, up here with the top of the pipe there.
Nate: Yeah, where does that light come from?
Carter: Yeah, where's that light come from?
Nate: Right, right.
Carter: So, that's one of the important considerations
that cinematographers need to take into account
is how much lighting do I need to put in
where it's realistic,
but also enough lighting where I can see.
So, I can actually show some
of the behind-the-scenes photos.
Here's what the set looks like.
As you can see here,
there are two big overhead lights with diffusers on them
to make the entire scene a little bit brighter.
It's always gonna be easier to make a scene darker
in post-production than to lighten it back up.
Nate: Ah, so, you know, something that
is reminding me a lot of
is "Game of Thrones," you know,
there was that huge controversy about...
Carter: Yeah.
Nate: People saying, "I can't see anything,"
especially that "Battle of Winterfell" episode,
where it was just pitch darkness.
No one had any idea what was going on,
but, you know, this...not to throw shade,
but this seems to be a great example
that shows, like, you can still convey darkness
without actually being dark,
and still being able to see things.
Carter: Yeah, absolutely.
And I do think they were at a bit of a disadvantage
with a bit more actiony.
Nate: Right, right, of course.
Carter: But it was pretty dark.
Nate: Right, I mean, their sort of explanation was
that they were trying to use the lighting from that era,
which was, like, candles and fire.
Carter: True.
Nate: But, I don't know, I just couldn't see anything.
It was really frustrating.
Carter: Yeah, yeah.
So, anyway, what clip do you wanna talk about today?
Nate: Right, so, as you know, "Rambo: Last Blood"
is coming to theaters.
A lot of people aren't interested, I think.
Starting to dislike you.
Nate: Personally, I'm a big fan of the original,
so I gotta talk about it.
So, I don't really wanna talk about
the technical aspect of it,
I wanna talk more about the film itself.
Carter: Yeah.
Nate: 'Cause, you know, it is such a classic.
It is, like, a legendary-status movie,
so, you know, like, sort of, why is that?
So, here's sort of where I wanna talk about "Rambo,"
is, you know, if you've seen the first one,
it was a very message-driven movie.
Carter: Yeah, I feel like that.
Nate: Right, it was about, essentially it was about PTSD.
It showed Rambo as sort of like this really hurt hero
who was still a hero, but he was very hurt from, like,
the war and the memories of, like, genocide
and everything like that.
And all of a sudden, what's the first image
that comes to your mind when I say "Rambo"?
It is the mass killing, right!
Where he's like, has a huge machine gun and he's firing.
It's like, I think, most people.
Carter: Most people, yeah.
Nate: But that's, you know, that's actually not
sort of the image from "Rambo I,"
that's actually, like, more "Rambo II."
Carter: Yeah.
Nate: It is really weird, 'cause "Rambo I" is such a classic
and was, you know, loved by critics so much
because it had such a clear message,
and showing a story that we've never seen before
of, like, PTSD.
So, it carried on that, and many people think
sort of that message disappeared by the second one,
but that's not true, you know, if you watch the second one,
there's still a lot of that, like,
lines about the nihilistic side of war
and how, like, we're all products of the government
and things like that.
And then, by third.
Carter: Just action.
Nate: It was gone. Carter: Yeah.
Nate: You know, I think it's also, it changed how action
was portrayed, 'cause first one, if you see it,
Rambo's really, really tactical, he's always hiding.
And then, from second and third one, he's invincible.
Carter: Absolutely.
Nate: Which, yeah, I think it's mainly because
it changed that message, you know,
it changed from sort of focusing on the PTSD
and the damages of war to, like, yeah, action hero,
like, let's mow some people down.
I think it's very ironic that, you know,
someone who sort of represented, like,
the dark side of government and how we're sending
these people to wars and not really taking care of them,
then, after a couple movies, become, like, an American hero,
and he's, like, you know, the quintessential symbolism
of, like, that era, like, strong America,
like, we gotta go to other countries
and, like, protect our interests kind of a thing?
Carter: Yeah.
Nate: Which I always found really interesting and ironic
at the same time.
Carter: So, our team here at Insider can't wait
for the new "Birds of Prey" trailer to come out.
Nate: We need an official one.
Carter: Yeah, but in the meantime,
they dropped a poster the other day,
and we just wanted to point out a couple Easter eggs
that we were pretty excited about.
Now, they released an extremely high-resolution poster.
Nate: They knew we were looking.
Carter: Yeah, they knew that we were
looking for the Easter eggs.
So, if you look here, Harley Quinn,
she has crossed out
the references to Puddin,
which is her pet name for the Joker, obviously.
Jared Leto's Joker,
seems like he probably won't be appearing.
So there's that, and then another one that we found
was on Ewan McGregor's character.
He plays the Black Mask, but as you can see here,
he has a RS, a very tiny RS on his left glove there,
and that's a reference to his character Roman Sionis,
who then turns into the Black Mask later.
Nate: Well, that's it for this episode
of "Pop Culture Decoded Daily."
We will see you next time.
Carter: Oh boy.
[laughing]
Off to a good start.
Producer: You're doing great.
Carter: God.