I read Tom Reilly’s chapter on The Background Action: How to keep it real and get it right. Reading this made me think about the series I am currently rewatching, Orange is the New Black. The episodes I am currently watching are about the prisoners taking over and rioting in the prison. I have noticed many instances where the staging in the background of the shot has been impressive. Or at least I have noticed the staging, maybe impressive is not quite the correct word. For example the prisoners have a food fight and for every scene after, while the prison is still run by the prisoners, the food and trays are strewn on the floor of the dining hall. I’m not sure why this is something that stood out to me. But I thought about how no one was around to clean and no one telling this prisoners to clean it. So it seems like a good example of great continuity to me!

Another observation I had that related to this chapter was that I wondered how true the small nuances in the show were in terms of how realistic it is to real prison. But I remembered it was loosely based on a woman’s experiences in prison and her name appears first in the credits of each episode. I think that knowing this information, that the directors and writers have been closely talking to someone in the situation of what the show is about makes it a lot more convincing and more enjoyable to watch!