Unit 16 A03 ii

Unit 16 A03 i

Providing and witholding information

Providing and withholding information within a scene is when the editor doesn’t completely show a characters identity. Normally the main reason this is done is so that it gives the audience an opportunity to fill in the gaps of what this character may be like. People fear what they don’t know so overtime suspense and tension will build up in the viewers.

As an example of providing and withholding information I have used the fisherman from I know what you did last summer. The very first shot the director used was a medium close shot from behind the character, this shot is used as it does not show the characters face but it does show the characters hook. The reason the hook has been shown is to give the audience an inkling of what he might do with that hook.

The next shot shown is an Arial shot of the character walking; again the identity of the character is still hidden. The director has done this by dressing the character in very heavy clothing with a hood. The lighting in the shot is also very dark and gloomy which makes it harder for the audience to make out what the character looks like.

The final shot is a POV; this shows the predator closing in on the prey he is stalking. This shows a view of his prey but continues to hide his identity. It still creates a feeling of fear and terror in the audience.

Further on in the sequence there is a medium shot showing the fisherman stroll across the camera shot with someone hooked onto his hook. This shows the viewers that when there was an initial shot of his hook that he was actually planning to use it. It now keeps the viewers in suspense to what he might do next.

Cutting to soundtrack

When an editor cuts to a soundtrack it is almost like he is editing music as he would edit shots. A change in the music is made which stimulates a new visual idea. For example I have used run Lola run as an example, at 12:45 there is a beat in the music that signifies a change of scenery on screen. The shot cut from animation back to real footage.  It makes the audience feel as though they can follow what is happening on screen as the music helps the audience create a certain visual image in their head. One emphasises the other.

Another example of this happening in run Lola run presents itself at 16:51; Lola is running through the street, the editor has then cut the shot to someone’s reaction of her running and then them crashing their car. The soundtrack changes along with the change in shot. This helps the audience understand there has been a change in visuals on the screen.

Jump cutting

Jump Cutting

The idea of a jump – cut edit is to skip from one shot to another in an unsmooth motion, it shows a character from one angle and then from another unappealing angle.  In most cases jump cutting is not done deliberately and is actually an error in continuity from the editor. Some editors will deliberately put a jump cut edit in to challenge codes and conventions. Most jump cuts happen when the framing for a shot is not right so it may look like a continuity error. However, the framing just wasn’t set up to look like it is one shot into another. This is where the name jump cut comes from, as it looks more like the shot has just jumped forwards.

The video is  a clip from Taxi Driver it shows a prime example of a deliberate jump cut. The reason the editor has deliberately chosen to put this jump cut in is to show the fractured state of the characters mind, it shows the audience that the character is mentally unstable. The jump cut happens at 1:17

The pictures below shows an example of when a jump cut has occurred but was a mistake and turns into a continuity error.

Combining shots into sequences

This is the process of combining different footage together to create a clear linear storyline. For example there could be an establishing shot to a medium shot to a close up. A wide establishing shot establishes the background space and environment, it covers broad strokes of action. medium shots show body dynamics and close ups show facial reactions and for psychological conditions and states. combining the shots together it creates a sequence of shots which show continuity. When all of the shots are combined together you can tell if it is a good quality edit because you won’t be able to notice that anything has been edited. It will be as though the edit is invisible. Once you have finished editing all of the shots and footage together there will be a sequence of smooth flowing shots.

3:27 - long shot to establish  the scene  - flying across the space and hitting book shelf, this shows the force at which he is thrown and shows the speed he is thrown at, it establishes the energy that is happening in the shot.
3:28 - cuts to a medium shot- shows his body crumpling into the books, this shows the impact of his body and how many books are falling on top of him.
3:35 - it cuts to a close up - shows his concussion, you can tell this from the body language.

Development of drama

Producers of drama and film can choose between using cuts or more prolonged scenes to gain a reaction from the audience. Different shots and cuts are added in during the editing process to help the development of drama. The editor will put different cuts in depending on how he/she wants their audience to feel when they are watching a film. Western audiences tend to ‘need’ cuts to remain attentive to the text. Years of numbing from Hollywood has arguably established this need for cuts. In contrast non-western texts such as Iranian film do not rely upon editing to develop the drama. Rather they use prolonged static shots to make western audiences feel uncomfortable to ‘feel’ the drama. For example in the film Ten (Abbas Kiarostami ) the producers use longer scenes without cuts to make the western audience feel the oppression women are going through. The director does not believe that editing is required to develop the drama. In the case of most Hollywood and mainstream films narratives will have a combination of different scenes and a wide variety of cuts within those scenes to develop the drama. There are various reasons for this: the relatively young mainstream audience watching the film might become bored and unengaged if a wide variety of shots were not used; A list stars often expect a scene to lead to a close-up where they deliver their best performance; scenes in action films have a tendency to follow standard model, we start with big sequences with a lot of production value and we lead up to the intensity of action shots. An example of a film that has used a variety of different cuts would be CSI. This particular drama uses a range of shots and cuts; this is done to establish all the characters and the setting. If there were minimal cuts the audience would become uncomfortable with not being able to see all of the characters talking and engaging with other characters.

As you can see from this link there are a variety of cuts to establish all of the action happening and being able to follow it.

David Mamet an acclaimed theatre and film director in "On Directing Film" says that the way to develop a drama is through cuts, specifically through a "juxtaposition of images that are basically uninflected" images can be inflected or unrelated. Agreeing with the great soviet master of montage editing Sergei Eisenstein, he says that the best image is an uninflected image. He gives us the following example A shot of a teacup. A shot of a spoon. A shot of a fork and a shot of a door. Mamet advises us to let the cut tell the story because otherwise we do not have dramatic action we just have narration.