Thursday, March 12, 2015
Louie - Justin
Shot Number
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Video
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Audio
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1
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Louie emerges
from underground subway station walking towards camera and then turns to walk
on the sidewalk. On the left side of the screen is a window lit in a neon
blue.
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2
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Louie walks on
well-lit sidewalk. Camera tracks backwards as Louie walks. The lights from
the buildings near Louie’s sidewalk are a light blue color. CREDITS: “Louie”
appears on the screen next to C.K.’s head.
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“Louie, Louie,
Louie, Louieeee.”
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3
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Cuts to
different street with Louie walking toward the backward tracking camera (just
like shot 2). There are more colors in this shot, but no single color
dominates the frame. CREDITS: “Starring Louis C.K.” appears next to C.K.
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“Louie, Louie,
Louie, Lou-ahhh.”
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4
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Louie enters
pizzeria. Outside of the pizzeria is an ATM that radiates blue lighting.
CREDITS: “Costume & Production Design Amy Silver,” “Director of
Photography Paul Koestner”
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“Louie, Louie,
Louie, Louie-ee-eee.”
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5
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Jump cut to
Louie eating a slice of pizza in the doorway. One passerby gives the finger
to the camera. Blue ATM. CREDITS: “Casting by Gayle Keller Ann Goulder”
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“Louie, Louie,
you’re gonna cry.”
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6
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Subtle jump
cut—Louie has eaten a few more bites of pizza. Blue ATM.
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“Louie, Louie,
Louie…”
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7
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Jump cut to
Louie throwing away the crust of his pizza. Blue ATM. CREDITS: “Edited by
Louis C.K.,” “Producer Jon Stern”
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“Louieeee.
Louie, Louie…”
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8
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Louie walks on
another sidewalk with the camera tracking backward until it pans to the left
as Louie enters the Comedy Celler, matching the image of him leaving the
subway station in the first shot. No color in particular dominates the shot,
but the Comedy Cellar lights are a bright white. CREDITS: “Consulting
Producer Pamela Adlon,” “Executive Producer Dave Becky,” “Executive Producer
Louis C.K.,” “Executive Producer M. Blair Breard,” “Written and directed by
Louis C.K.”
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“Louie,
Lou-ahhh. Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie-ee-eee. Louie, Louie, you’re gonna die.
Louie, Louie, Louie…” Lyrics fade out to applause.
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Nothing much happens over the course
of the roughly forty-five second opening credits sequence to FX’s Louie. A quick summary of these credits
would merely be Louis C.K. emerging from the underground subway system, walking
to a pizzeria, eating a slice of pizza, and ending with C.K. descending into
the entrance of the Comedy Cellar. However, the opening sequence serves as a
short film that expresses the themes and ideas the show will more deliberately
and explicitly explore. Consequently, the narrative simplicity of this
introduction is deceiving, as it presents the tone of the series and the idea
that the show has a rare level of authorial control.
Despite that lack of events that
occur, the opening credits address three main key concepts central to the
series: life in New York City, the experiences of a professional stand-up
comic, and the malaise of middle-age life. The opening uses two distinctly New
York markers to bookmark the sequence. First, C.K. emerges from a distinctive
New York subway terminal, and at the end he descends into New York’s Comedy
Cellar. The beginning and ending of this intro mirror one another—he comes up
the stairs from the dark subway, and he descends down the well-lit stairs into
the comedy club. In between his stair climbing, C.K. walks among various New
York streets that are less identifiable as New York locations, but clearly are
due to the opening and closing shots. The only indication that this is a show
about a comedian is that he is going to perform, which the opening fades into
with the applause bridging the end of the credits and beginning of the episode
together. Nevertheless, this is a show that is more or less focused solely on
one character—a comedian—on stage, but more predominately about his life off of
the stage.
Most of the shots have the same
color scheme, which establishes the morose tone of the series. Because the
entirety of the opening takes place at night, an obvious darkness looms over
the sequence. Accenting the darkness in six of the eight shots is some kind of
prominent light force or fixture that colors the shots blue. The cool blues
accenting the darkness reinforces the glum nature of the series. Even further,
the color palette of the opening might even suggest that the black and blue may
come from the regular beatings the protagonist takes from friends, foes, and
strangers alike throughout the course of the series.
Like the visuals of the opening, the
choice of Hot Chocolate’s 1973 song “Brother Louie” as the theme of the opening
plays into the melancholic tone of the series, while it also establishes C.K.
as the undeniable center of the show. C.K. uses the chorus of “Brother Louie”—a
song about an interracial love affair—due to its repetition of various
inflections of the name “Louie.” Cutting out all of the verses and content
about the interracial couple, the opening becomes shots exclusively of C.K.
with the accompaniment of Hot Chocolate crooning his name. The chorus is
repeated twice over the course of the opening sequence, and only two short
lines are something other than the repetition of C.K.’s name. The last line at
the end of the first chorus is, “Louie, Louie, you’re gonna cry,” which happens
as a passerby at the pizzeria gives the camera the finger. Removed of the
racial component of the original song, this line becomes pointed directly at
the show’s protagonist. However, the second time through the chorus, a slight
change in the original lyrics represents something even more despondent, as the
lyric switches to, “Louie, Louie, you’re gonna die.” Given the series’ often-fatalistic outlook on the world, this
one word change in the lyrics exacerbates downtrodden tone for which the series
is famed.
In addition to the despairing nature
it provokes, the theme music reifies the authorial status of C.K. in the
series. Because of C.K. serves as writer, director, star, editor, and executive
producer of Louie, he boasts a rare
authorial level of control as a showrunner. In fact, there is rarely a scene in
the series that does not have C.K. in the shot. Over the course of the theme,
Louie’s name is repeated a total of thirty-one times in forty-five.
Furthermore, C.K.’s name appears on the screen intermittently throughout the
sequence. In four of the eight separate shots in the opening, C.K.’s name
appears at least once. In the font he has adopted as his own, “Louie” initially
appears next to C.K.’s head. As C.K.’s name keeps appearing in the credits, the
audience is flooded with sensory details of “Louie”; he is the focus of the
camera, his name appears almost constantly, and his name is continuously
repeated. By the end of the opening, there is little doubt who is at the center
of this show.
Repetition is prominent visually, as
well. As I previously mentioned, the end repeats the beginning in a sense. Yet,
this repetition exists throughout the entire sequence. The three shots of C.K.
walking down the street are nearly identical. They involve C.K. walking
forward, with an affectless expression on his face, as the camera tracks
backward keeping pace with him. Even though the sites at which these shots are
occurring are different, the shots are more or less the same. The remaining
four shots from the pizzeria are also repetitive, albeit in an entirely
different manner. All four exist in the same location, but C.K. utilizes three
jump cuts to break up the scene. In fact, one of the jump cuts was difficult to
catch because it was so subtle. Nevertheless, the camera focuses on C.K. as he
eats the slice of pizza, but keeps cutting through it, as if he is standing in
the doorway for a prolonged period of time. These various forms of repetition
express a monotonous tone of his character’s life, especially before he is in
his comfort zone—the stage.
In shot number five at the pizzeria,
a passerby gives the finger to the camera as he leaves the frame. C.K. glances
at the person briefly before turning back to his slice. This shot might be the
most effective way to summarize the series in mere seconds. The monotony and
melancholy of Louie’s opening
credits, as well as the constant establishment as Louis C.K. as the focus of
the show in nearly every way, tells a quiet, simple story that effectively
gives audiences an indication to the content of the series.
# posted by Justin Feit @ 11:00 AM 
