Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Thursday, 21 November 2019
Editing Analysis
The scene I decided to analyze was from the movie Rocky 3. In this scene, Rocky is a heavyweight champion and has his first fight with Clubber Lang, who beats him by knockout. Rocky is distracted because his trainer had just had a heart attack in the locker room. The use of the camera in this scene is important with the use of POV shots to place the audience in Rocky's position as he is being brutalized by Clubber Lang. This culminates in the slow-motion editing and the uproar of Lang as his last punch blasted Rocky and the use of sound effects to make the punch sound like loudening, such as artillery fire or a car crash. Throughout the scene, the filmmakers edited the scene to cut to Rocky's locker room where his trainer lay dying. The combination of these techniques makes Rocky's defeat more dramatic as the audience feels closer to the hero, Rocky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_bsE9B1LM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_bsE9B1LM
Thursday, 14 November 2019
Editing Analysis - Ad Astra
Ad Astra was a compelling space adventure that hold itself through magnificent visuals and great plot. My favorite part was when traveling to the moon was depicted as unglamorously as flying coach to LaGuardia. I would love to eat Applebee’s in Zero G’s. Visually impressive, narratively familiar, emotionally distant, but thankfully intellectually stimulating. Ad Astra is the best movie I’ve seen this year. Brilliant directing, cinematography, acting, and editing. I love the tender introspection in such a big story. The most “realistic” space movie I’ve seen, I loved the portrayal of the “near future”. The acting and sound editing & mixing was done well. The horrifyingly lonesome, grounded my realistic and emotionally loaded settings of it all was really harsh. One of the better space movies to come along in quite some time. I’ve heard it described as boring but I think you’d have to be boring to find it boring.
https://youtu.be/ykC_wu6ffOU
https://youtu.be/ykC_wu6ffOU
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Blog #3 Editing Analysis
The film that I chose to analysis is called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty(2013). The scene that I chose is one of my favorite scenes in this film, it is the beginning scene of the downhill longboard at Iceland. At the beginning of the screen, the camera is following the running protagonist in a medium shot. Then, there is a cut into a super-wide shot by the drone where the protagonist sees the boundless landscape, which also makes the viewer see how tiny he is when he compares with the landscape. The next shot is an eye-level, medium shot that shows the top half of the protagonist’s body with his confused eyes. After that, there is a low angle, long shot from the distance left, the backside of the protagonist, which shows the loneliness of the protagonist, and the question of how could he go to the place he wants. Then, the shot cuts back to the eye-level, medium shot of the protagonist. The next shot shows the protagonist’s point of view of the wide landscape, and then a close up of the landscape shot which shows the road towards the town where the protagonist needs to go. Then, the shot cuts back the medium shot of the protagonist again, and the protagonist leaves the frame. In the next 25 seconds of the scene, the shot shifts between the objective point of view and the subjective point of view with continuity editing to show the activities of the protagonist that he is preparing to slide down the hill.
Reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kurY9aSolo0 from 0:15-1:19sec.
Reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kurY9aSolo0 from 0:15-1:19sec.
Blog #3 Editing Analysis
For blog #3 I dissected a scene from Y Tu Mamá También, the scene takes place about two thirds through the movie and is about an altercation between two characters and another. I chose this film by Alfonso Cuaron because I’m a fan of his editing choices, which commonly feature longshots building either feelings of tension or intimacy from the viewer depending on the tone of the film.
The cuts are made following a continuity approach, with little match cuts and lots of matched action. The scene opens with two characters arguing outside of a car and cuts to a wider angle of them getting into the car. This matched action is followed by a long shot of them driving up the road to another character. Since most of the scene takes place within the vehicle continuity is easy to follow, as just by seeing a vehicle, we can likely infer it is their vehicle. As the two characters Julio and Tenoch drive up to Luisa there’s a cut from within the vehicle to a matching action of Luisa walking up the road as the car enters frame from the right. Following is a long shot of the three convincing her to return to the car. Between this scene and the next is a transitional matched action shot of the vehicle driving down the road, like I said before we don’t know it’s their vehicle because of the distance as well as not knowing who is in the vehicle, yet it can be inferred from the 180 rule not being violated by keeping the camera on the drivers side or the back of the vehicle. There’s another cut after where Luisa is now inside the vehicle and the camera is behind the driver’s seat facing her, she is addressing Juilo and Tenoch out of frame behind the camera. The next cut is an eye line match where instead of turning the camera around to see Luisa’s perspective from the back seat, the camera backs up and shows us the driver and passenger seat with Luisa in the back. More matched action of the car driving down the road, with the 180 rule being followed again by keeping the camera on the driver’s side, or the front/back of the vehicle. There’s a shot from inside the vehicle where the camera tracks with the passengers an arrest being made on the side of the road. After, is perhaps a violation of the 180 rule? A wide angle shot from a river, of a bridge that the vehicle is crossing, yet instead of coming from the right, towards the camera, or the camera following, the vehicle enters from the left side of frame. The last shot is a wide shot of the vehicle driving toward the camera. Continuity is followed because each previous shot has been near dusk, and this shot features a setting sun. Very good movie check it out if you haven't.
Blog 3: Editing Analysis
As I discussed each example, I gave the time stamps for them.
For this blog, I analyzed a scene from No Good Deed, a thriller film directed by Sam Miller and written by Aimeé Lagos. The movie is about a woman who fights to survive after an escaped convict targets her in a pursuit of revenge. The scene that I analyzed is the final fight scene between the woman Terri, and the convict, Colin.
The cuts in this scene are made in accordance with continuity editing. All of them come together to create a seamless flow of events. They clearly tell the story and do not leave anything to audience interpretation.
To begin with, there are many shots that fit together sequentially. For example, the first shot of the scene is Colin looking for Terri in an empty room and the next logical shot is Terri hiding from Colin (0:00-0:07). In addition, in the next series of cuts, Terri stabs Colin, Colin elbows her, and she falls, letting go off the knife she had. The expected shots would show Terri and the knife on the floor, and that is exactly what the viewer sees (0:09-0:13). A second sequence of shots shows Colin pointing a gun at Terri, then in the next few shots Terri gets up and tackles him, and lastly there is a stand-alone shot of the gun falling under a table. The next thing the viewer expects to see is someone reaching for the gun; thus the next shot shows Terri reaching for the gun (0:14-0:36). Another sequence of shots first shows Colin choking Terri, next Terri looking over, and then a shot with keys on the floor. The viewer expects to see Terri do something with the keys and she does. She takes the keys and stabs Colin (0:36-0:44). Moreover, there are match action cuts as Terri attempts to tiptoe away from Colin. The shots vary between medium, wide, and close-up as she struggles to get away. The shots show the progression of action as Terri attempts to get away (1:23-1:29).
Continuity editing is additionally displayed through point of view shots. There are many point of view shots between Terri and Colin (0:15-0:23) as they fight. When two people are fighting, it is often helpful to see what is happening from both sides. These quick cuts between P.O.V. shots demonstrate the perspective as well as back and forth struggle between the two characters. Secondly, there are two specific point of view shots that display what happened as Terri shoots Colin until he falls out of the window. One shot is from the ground outside looking up at the window. The other shot is Terri’s point of view looking down out of the window at Colin. Both of these shots display that Colin fell out of the window a certain distance (2:02-2:07).
The content of the shots are all similar to each other; as they relate to a one-on-one fight scene between two characters. However, there was that one uniquely different shot where Terri’s daughter walks in as Colin is choking Terri on the floor. This shot was specifically placed there to prolong the rest of the scene. As Colin is distracted by the little girl, Terri kicks Colin, and the fight for her life begins again. Furthermore, in thriller films there are several scenes where escape seems impossible and viewers are on the edge of their seats. So, this was good timing. As the viewer anxiously waited for Terri to escape Colin’s grasp somehow, the shot with her daughter led to her get away (0:24-0:27).
In terms of composition, I noticed that the setting of this scene is a house. Consequently, many of the shots have furniture in them. The creators of the movie use this to their advantage. Many of the shots include the area where Terri is getting weapons to fight back. For example, after Terri falls to the floor in one shot, there is a shot of her on the floor next to a fireplace. Because the fireplace is in this shot, it makes sense that in the next few shots, she picks something up from the fireplace and hits Colin with it (1:03-1:11).
Overall, the timing, rhythm, and pace of the shots were rapid. This helps create suspense, tension, intensity, and a constant flow of events; which thrillers are known for.
Thursday, 7 November 2019
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
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