A few comments that can give an idea what the video is about
Watched this earlier this morning and it was a great in depth video. It’s not digital vs film. Biggest complaints seem to be everything being shot with shallow depth of field, which is the current cinematic fashion.
Biggest issue though is everything being shot as evenly, and blandly, as possible to make it easier to change everything in post, rather than making sure everything looks as great as possible in camera.
”We’ll fix it in post” is the worst thing that happened to cinematography. Edit: Yeah not just that but the same mentality has been detrimental to all creative work.
Great watch and fully agree. Always blows my mind that Jurassic Park from 1993 looks so much better than the modern day Jurassic World films.
Were you expecting them to look hundreds of years old, because that’s what all the castles you’ve seen look like?
Depending on the exact setting, some of the castles may well have been. Stone fortifications emerged by the late 10th century, full stone castles in the 12th, so a story set in 1400 might a castle 200-300 years old. By the late middle ages, it could be 400 years (although it will have moved on to more massive fortifications designed to withstand gunpowder artillery).
Outside of wartime, castles tended to be subject to the elements, and without imminent need, less effort was usually spent on their maintenance than would be required to keep them in pristine shape. Consequently, when the threat of war did loom, there was rush to restore or reinforce them where time had taken its toll.
So yeah, it’s absolutely reasonable for a castle to look “old” or at least somewhat weathered, depending on time period and status of its master.
Sure but if there’s still someone living in it then why wouldn’t they keep it clean and have new furniture every now and then? My house is over a hundred years old but I still have clean curtains.
There will have been different standards of “clean” when you don’t have our modern tools for keeping things clean. The exterior areas, for the most part, will have been as clean as a broom can get them.
Particular pet peeve of mine are stables ostensibly in active use, yet with floors as clean as if they’d just been powerwashed.
Of course, if they’re wealthy enough to have fancy furniture made they will want to display as much and keep their furniture in good shape. Still, there’s a difference between handmade furniture looking like it has been used, but well-kept, and brand new furniture made with modern machines.
Also, I find it hard to believe that the guardhouse or servants’ house or other buildings within or around the castle would maintain the same standard.
Either way comment wasn’t aimed at the furniture and equipment so much as the general shape of the fortifications, which is a lot more labour-intensive to keep in pristine condition than getting a new set of chairs.
Handspun, -woven, -tailored and -washed?
We take some amenities for granted, but making cloth was a lot of work before the Spinning Jenny came and made the most arduous part (spinning thread) a lot quicker.
As above, wealthy nobles will have displayed that wealth through conspicuous amounts of fabric in their clothing, tapestries, curtains and more, all kept clean and in good repair. That can be used as a visual device: a noble whose house is bare is in dire straits.
Peasants on the other hand tended to wear things for as long as they could, then turned them into cleaning rags or whatever other purpose they could find. You wouldn’t expect a white, unstained table cloth in a peasant home (partially because white is a lot of work to achieve and keep without modern bleaching and detergent).
The issue mostly comes down to a consistently clean and pristine presentation, even in places where that level of cleanliness would have been impractical to achieve and maintain. A castle that has seen battle will have some cracks or chipping in towers, maybe missing some “teeth” (merlons) in the crenellation that might have been replaced with makeshift wooden cover and never fully restored, you get the idea. When everything looks like freshly built, it just strains credulity.
It’s a place where people live and work, so while it shouldn’t look abandoned, it shouldn’t look continuously pristine, either.
no, I was expecting them to look like they’re actually lived in spaces, not pristine sets