So I was reading an old interview with the director of 'Serial Experiments Lain'

I found out the show's budget was so tight they had to reuse the same background art for multiple episodes, which I read on a fan wiki last night. That actually explains a lot about the repetitive, dreamlike feeling I could never place. Does anyone know of other shows where a production limit ended up defining the whole vibe?

3 comments

3 Comments

max_schmidt7726d ago

That Lain budget fact gets passed around a lot, but I'm not sure it's the full story. The director and art team were very specific about that visual style from the start. They wanted a sparse, digital feel on purpose. Calling it a happy accident from being cheap kinda sells their vision short. The repetition was a creative choice, not just a corner they were forced into. It's a key part of the show's identity, not a flaw they had to hide.

dianawilson26d ago

Had you ever seen the behind the scenes notes on that? I always just repeated the low budget story, but your point about the director wanting that digital emptiness from the start makes way more sense. It fits the whole theme of the wired being a hollow copy of reality. I guess calling it a budget problem does ignore the actual artistic goal.

sagejackson26d ago

So the cheap version was the good version...