Blog post- Representation

 One of my favorite shows ever since I was younger, is "A series of unfortunate events". It's a three season show on Netflix, the two main characters I chose to analyze are, Violet Baudelaire, and Count Olaf. Most of the scenes with Violet in them are shot with the usage of three-point lighting, it shows her kind and fun personality that we see used in the show along with her creativity to escape tricky situations. When Count Olaf is on screen we see the opposite, its often a darker sense over all with the lighting, and at times it is a low key lighting that represents him, because of all the trouble and harm he causes to the Boundaries whenever he shows up, with a new plan.

The locations in the show change often, as we followed the siblings on a never-ending escape from Count Olaf. Locations of any type would be used, from beaches to lumbermills, to circuses. Without the variety of locations in the show we would not be able to really understand how far they went to try and get away from Count Olaf, which is the plot being developed. The props paired with the scenes held a drastic importance to developing the background story of the Baudelaire family. Without the iconic spyglass from the secret organization the story wouldn’t be able to nurture the connection it did between the Baudelaire siblings and their deceased parents. Klaus (Violets brother) held on to the spyglass tightly whenever and wherever they were, never letting Count Olaf take what was the last of Klaus’s memories of his parents.

Furthermore, the usage of costume design on Violet often is associated with outfits that are very put together and have neat pastels. An iconic hairpiece of hers is her ribbon she uses to tie her hair up whenever she has a bright idea or needs to think of a plan. This creates a signal for us viewers, that whenever we see her pull out her ribbon, we know she is onto something. Most of the plot resides back to escaping from Count Olaf, and often the escapes are hard to plan. Violet uses her creativity and partners with her siblings to always make it out. For the costumes of Count Olaf, we rarely see him as ‘Count Olaf’ but more as a poorly disguised man. His costumes include doctor scrubs, a tracksuit, a ringmaster outfit, and more. He is seen from a perspective of never being put together, and often has hair going everywhere, untamed. It ties in to show his madman like mind, and almost scares you which is how the siblings feel. His disguise outfits are purposefully not good at covering his true identity, this is done to show that only the siblings are usually able to catch the fact that its him.

Tying back to the spy glass prop, we see a detailed eye on it. Which represents the secret organization the parents of the Boundaries where in. We also see this same eye on Count Olaf's left ankle, as a tattoo. The makeup behind this choice is because it ties Count Olaf into the organization, which he used to be a part of. It opens the story more and gives a deeper explanation to how he knows the children, and why he is after them, and their fortune. Overall, the show “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”, is able to develop its plot and emotions through the way they display their scenes on our screens.The eye on the spyglass. 

Count Olaf's ringmaster disguise. 

Violet Baudelaire tying her hair with her ribbon.