Principles and Purposes of

Creating Meaning Through Collage, Tempo and Timing

CLIP FROM: ‘HITCOCKS’ PSYCHO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvPqSRLO5Ms

Joining images is a type of editing form in which, several clips are joined together to create meaning (like a montage). Alfred Hitchcock uses this editing style in this sequence of psycho to create tension, and make what would be a boring scene more exciting.

Joining Images (Montage)

CLIP FROM:CASINO ROYALE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJubOZLpp4A

Tempo

Tempo has do to with the speed in which a scene is moving, whether it’s fast pace or slow pace. Editors usually control tempo by altering the length of each shot, as a large collection of short duration create a fast tempo scene (usually used in action film and fantasy). Editors use the control of tempo to manipulate the audiences attention level depending on the feel of a scene, for example in the ‘James Bond, Casino Royale’ the chase scene is fast in tempo which makes the audience excited and anticipating the outcome.

CLIP FROM: MEAN GIRLS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awow8HpWNcg

Timing

Timing is the time and duration it takes to cut from one shot to another, timing also has to do with the stream of camera shots that create meaning. In the clip from ‘Mean girls’ the four way phone call tides together well as the spilt screen and close up shot are in sync with the words of the characters. This allows the audience to follow the storyline of the film easily in an stimulating and evident manner.

STORY:CENTRED EDITING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING

Editing And Spaces

Editing and spaces have to do with closeness of the shots, for example, if a scene in a film were consisting of a conversation between two friends talking in a small room, the shots they would be cutting between would mostly be close-ups and medium shot, this is to emphasise the small space and closeness between the characters. In the opening chase scene of James Bond, Casino Royale, the shots that are used are mostly long shots, extreme long shot and birds-eye-views, these shots create the illusion of wide open space.

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot Reverse is extremely important and exceptionally used in most films, this is because shot reverse shot is and editing style that shows a conversation between two or more people. Most shot-reserve-shot’s are over-the-shoulder-shots or cuts between eye-line-matches. A good example of this is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkUHZ1qips

Linear Storyline

None-Linear Storyline

Arranging The Order of Events

Films like ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Limitless’ are the perfect example of media res, which is a type of narrative that doesn’t follow the traditional conventions of a normal film narrative of beginning, middle and end. All of this has to do with a linear or none-linear editing arrangement of events, the arrangement of event can be altered from the traditional linear order for the reason that;

• It adds mystery and a sense of wonder to the film

• Film makes more sense this way

Eye-line Match

If you want to steal the audiences from the usual, fly on the wall perspective of a film and put them in the perception of the characters situation and emotional state, then you can use an eye-line match. For example, in the film ‘the hunger games’, there is a scene where ‘Katniss Everdeen’ is stung by bees, using eyeline match the editors where able to blur and make the scene shaky as if the audience where experiencing the same physical state that she was.

Cutaways

Cutaways are used to link inanimate objects or scenery with the current situation or characters state of mind, cutaways are usually used when there is a conversation between people and a different situation is happening in the same scene and moment, this allows the audience to receive two sets of information at ones. Cutaways are used very often in the movie ‘U-Turn’ by Oliver Stone.

CREATING MEANING OUTSIDE THE STORY

Continuity

Continuity is the method of trimming unnecessary footage from what would be a very long shot and only using the most key parts to keep the movement of the film engaging and thrilling. This also involve keeping the visual of the film consistent, this may involve such things as, lighting, wardrobe, mise-en-scene exc.

180 Degree Rule Wikipedia describes the 180 degree rules as In a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called crossing the line or jumping the line.

This rule is extremely important as it reduces continuity risks that would confuse and distort the audience watching the film.

Soviet Montage

One key characteristic of Soviet Montage movies is the moderating of individual characters in the centre of attention. Single characters are exposed as members of different social classes and are representing a general category of people or class.Soviet montage is important, as it conveys variety in characters and separates them, allowing the audience to tell apart the importance of each characters role in the film