The series have passed, the fans are rather satisfied, but what made the series unique from the other side of the lenses?
You might know the series, maybe you watched all the seasons, but do you know what made the Friday Night Lights series unique? This series is probably the only one in the history of cinematography, which ended with late-night flag football game after filming the last episode. This tells usa lot about how passionate the crew was about the project.
There is also something extraordinary about the filming itself. Usually during filming the cameras stay in place and actors in their performances are limited to what camera can catch from specific position. In Friday Night Lights the cameras followed the actors, thus giving them more freedom and allowing them for more natural acting.
How reality influenced the series
For sure there were many inspirations, of which some we might know and some will remain a mystery. The series producer, Peter Berg, decided to tell us a story that goes beyond a simple aim-to-win-in-a-game goal. Inspired by tragical accident of a football player, David Edwards, who got paralyzed during November 2003 game, the producer decided to put the story of Jason Street into the series.
Usually when we go to apply for a Job, especially when it is going to be our first interview, aside from other preparations – in order to maximize our chances we care to look good, right? Well this does not apply when it comes to some real life success stores, as in how Kyle Chandler got his role in Friday Night Lights TV series. As Peter Berg mentioned in a 2001 roundtable with Grantland – Kyle was not looking good at all in time when he came to an interview, but that being in a bad shape made him look perfectly ”like a Texas high school football coach”.
Glitches only cautious eye could catch
”Quantum” beverage drinking loop: in the episode 2 of the 4th series, when Lyla drives the Santiago after he left the prison – we see him drinking the beverage. In the next scene he just starts to reach for it, just to suddenly have free hands in the next scene. And then, after next 5 seconds he drinks it again.
Back to the ”where is the rest of the movie?”: In the 19th episode of the 1st series Tim spends his evening with his new neighbor and her son, watching ”Back to the future”. In one take we see Marty going back home thanks to the thunder, and in the next take we see the ending scene of the movie.
The acting, the overall crew attitude and the story behind the Friday Night Lights convince us effectively that this is one of the series worth watching and worth getting the awards it earned during all of its five seasons.
Do you know any interesting facts about this series? Please share it below!
It really is a quite difficult to conceive a realistic approach for a TV Show and then earn the sizeable audience that the show actually deserves. Same has been the case with Friday Night Lights; it had the exceptional realistic plot that included the deep exploration of central America and also some very sound characterization of the cast but still failed to achieve the targeted number of audience.