As we’ve watched bottle drama episodes this week, it really blew my mind how creative these construction of space is. There are just lots of ways to get around a little of cash left when crating a TV show, like the Community bottle episode where it took place only within one single location and focusing on dialogue and performances. Similarly, Coherence uses minimal cast in a small space within a house though successfully convey dark tense elements through it’s cinematography and editing. These bottle dramas may be constructed out of limited budget but became innovative in its own way. Belton (1988) explains that the space in Rear Window is “quasi-theatrical in its pro-filmic unity and three-dimensionality and yet also cinematic in the flat, multi-windowned design of the apartment…”. This signifies that bottle episodes resembles a series of clips of movie screens but with an importance to the performance yet also the overall aesthetics and compositions.

 

Belton, J 1988, MLN Comparative Literature, “The Space of Rear Window”, publish The Johns Hopkins University Press, vol. 103, no. 5, pp. 1121-1138, <http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/stable/2905203>.