Lousnaps - Lousnaps

Gabz talks briefly about production design and how it represents and reflects characters and story, part 1/?:

CROWLEY’S FLAT/AZIRAPHALE’s BOOKSHOP vs. HELL/HEAVEN

Alright, so I’ve seen a couple posts about how Crowley and Aziraphale’s living spaces are contrasts of their respective head offices of Hell and Heaven. I also found this contrast to be extremely interesting and it didn’t occur to me at first until I saw Crowley’s flat.

Gabz Talks Briefly About Production Design And How It Represents And Reflects Characters And Story, Part

So let’s start with Crowley’s flat. It’s sparse and open. Hell is crowded and cramped. The very fact that he has a flat designed this way, his own space, speaks to his uncomfort with the confinement and claustrophobic nature of Hell’s environment. His flat is minimalistic, but it’s methodical. The climate of Hell is connected to the space it occupies, so for Crowley the way to separate himself from that is to use the power he has being on earth to design himself a space diametrically opposed to Hell. It’s a safe space, breathing room (well, until Hastur and Ligur try to disrupt that). It’s freeing and freedom is something Crowley craves constantly (his insistence on running away). It’s not that he likes the empty privacy of his flat because he clearly doesn’t like to be alone. It’s the sheer fact that his flat creates a physical and psychological separation from Hell.

And many of the same things can be said about Aziraphale’s bookshop. It’s very intimate and filled to the brim with books. Heaven, on the other hand, is empty and vast. There is a cold and clinical feel to Heaven that leaves Aziraphale feeling uncared about. He is an entity of love, after all. He has a genuine warm and friendly personality that has been dilated and warped by the need to maintain the Heaven facade in front of his superiors. His bookshop is an extension of the love he feels - for books, for knowledge, for humanity, etc - and it helps him to retain that warmth that is lacking in Heaven. His space is designed to shelter himself, relieving the anxiety that the environment and structure of Heaven consistently causes him. The empty space leaves Aziraphale feeling exposed and under observation where expectations can never be met.

Both Crowley and Aziraphale’s living spaces are important to the overall story because they represent the rejection of the environments that they have been forced into, and they reflect the emotional and psychological need for a safe space/escape. Another potent piece of this is choice. Their earthly spaces are designed according to how they want them to be, while they have no control over the spaces of their head offices.

So yeah, there’s some brief thoughts. I didn’t even get into location or color palettes of these spaces. I might have to write about that next…

1K notes View Post

lousnaps

3 years ago