Dawn Light
You never see dawn light on Coronation Street. But in the first scene of Wednesday’s episode, there was the gray of dawn. Not from fog or drizzle. Just that brief morning twilight before the sun fully rises.
It was a little disconcerting, due to its unusualness and the eerie spell it cast on a familiar street. It also matched perfectly with the consternation – then and imminent – of the characters.
Kate and Sophie were coming home from a night in the bars. Sophie didn’t know it, but Kate was distraught over Rana. She was totally fed up with Rana’s flip-flopping about leaving Zeedan. Sophie misread the situation totally and kissed Kate. Wrong move!
Alya is awake early too
So while they were uncomfortably sorting out a changed dynamic between them, the door opened. It was Alya, thinking the noise she heard outside was Luke coming home. The night before he texted her that he’d gone to a pub with a mate. He hadn’t come home. She was angry and worried.
He had gone to a pub, but not exactly to meet a mate. He was investigating the mysterious disappearance of Andy. So he went to the bar where Andy’s friend works. There, he saw Phelan having a word with that friend. When he confronted him, the guy admitted he had no idea of where Andy was.
That information led Luke to confront Phelan. A fight, a car chase, then Phelan’s handgun. He shot Luke, then shot the car’s gas tank. The car exploded, with Luke inside it.
Soon enough, the police were once again on Coronation Street with the news of Luke’s death. No one knows of Phelan’s involvement of course, so the confusion continues. First with the simple disbelief that Luke could be alive one evening and dead the next morning, then the questions of who did it. There are obvious suspects, but no one except Seb suspects Phelan.
By this time, of course, the winter sun has long been fully risen. The viewer’s sense of disorientation has dissipated, so we can pay closer attention to the confusion reigning on the street.
An effective use of time and light. It perfectly created a mood for the telling of the story. And technically difficult to do. That dawn light is very brief. Therefore a job to get all the takes needed before the light changes too much. If filters were used to smooth out the differences, it wasn’t noticeable. Thanks, camera people, it was beautiful.
