Following the action/Manipulation of diegetic time and space

Following the action/Manipulation of diegetic time and space.

Following the action can be commonly used within crime/horror genres. An editor will use a following the action shot to follow a person being chased or to follow the action of a car chase etc. If there is any significant movement then a following the action shot would be the perfect technique to use when filming.

Manipulation of diegetic time and space is a technique used in film to elide or stretch time. For example, an editor might apply the editorial technique of ellipses to a process that would normally take a very long time in order to get through the action faster and not have it take up too much screen time. This can be used in films when something a character is doing needs to be hurried up so they would show days and days of footage and shorten it down into 5/10 minutes.

Within this car chase clip the camera is following the action throughout. The editor starts off with the camera looking up to the car at a worms eye view shot this shows that the car will be powerful throughout the clip. As the car sets of the camera tracks it around the corner at a long shot. In the next shot that gets used which is a bird’s eye view shot manipulation of time has also been used. This has been done by skipping some of the cars journey time as the last shot we saw we were still on the back roads but when the shot moved to a bird’s eye view shot the car was now on the motorway.  The scenes then continue to switch from car shots to character shots to build the tension within the scenes. The camera then moves back to a tracking shot continuing to track the action whilst the camera angles switch from the victim’s car to the people being chased.