I watched what may very well be the last Mark Gattis / Steven Moffat Sherlock tonight. It was riveting. I refuse to discuss the details of the plot as I think anyone with any interest in the show at all needs to see this one with no spoilers.
Instead, I want to explore an aspect of the show that both amazes and baffles me. How does one captures a strong visual passage in a screenplay? I think the montage at the end of this episode is an example of a visual passage that says so much more than words could ever say. How does one capture those images in a script? Or does one? Perhaps this is an area where the director and the cinematographer collaborate with the editor to create something that transcends words.
Was the idea there in the script? The episode would be unfinished if it wasn’t. I have to believe that the writer had the idea upon which the sequence was based. Did he sketch the images? Did he write pages of descriptions? Or was it all just a matter of shooting enough footage of the general topics that the screenwriter alluded to in the script and then trusting to luck and the brilliance of the editor to compose such a singularly beautiful statement?
Perhaps I’ll never know what happened in the creation of this episode. That only leaves it for me to appreciate it. If they ever produce another season of Sherlock, they have their jobs cut out for them. This season finale will be a hard act to follow.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.