Editing Post

Continuity editing. Continuity editing is of the basis that everything is in time order, and that it flows from scene to scene. The editing is continuous.

We undertook a session in class which allowed us to grasp the concept of continuity editing where we had images of screenshots from the TV show Spooks. We had to arrange these in order so that each scene was in chronological order. At first it was difficult as there was also parallel editing between two different locations which contained two establishing shots of both character and location and made it hard to determine which one came first. If we got any of these wrong it would mean that it would not run in chronological order and would not make sense so we watched the clip and corrected the mistakes we had made.

Continuity editing provides fluidity to the sequence, it also allows for a wide variety of different camera angles to be used.

There are specific key features of continuity editing; for example Match on action. This is were a different shot/camera angle is used to continue the action of what was happening in the previous shot.

There is an establishing shot which is usually either a birds eye view, long shot, or a pan which reveals to the audience the location in this particular scene.

Another effective shot is the POV- Point Of View shot which allows the audience to place themselves in the characters shoes, it can make us feel that we are there in the film it self and creates tension.

An eye-line match is where you can clearly see the character looking at something/someone but you do not know what, this part is effective as it helps create mystery and enigma. Then it cuts to the object/to the person the character was looking at.

Parallel editing - This is where the film is showing two or more events happening at the same time, they do this by cutting between the two different events, this often be two people travelling to a destintion where they will end up coming together, this editing style is used to create tension as we wait for these people to come together.

There is parallel editing here as the camera switches between shots with Max, Derek and Jack, but the in that context the time is still the same. We are shown what all three are doing at exactly the same time, which created an enigma to whom could be Kat's lover.

This video shows continuity editing techniques such as Match on action, eye-line match, time compression.

Representation

Menace II Society.

A film made in 1993.  A drama/hood film which follows the culture of a young troubled black youth and his friends. It highlights the struggle of the black culture in LA. How the black culture lived their lives during this time period. The film was controversial for the; Violence, Profanity and drug related contents.

Menace II Society was also described as an accurate portrayal of the urban culture and was said to have a strong emotional underlying message. The film is brilliant for representational devices; especially in the opening scene where there is an altercation between four characters. The female  shop keeper seems to be watching "O-dog" as if he was attempting to steal from the shop which represents the stereotype on the black culture, which then leads to "O-dog" pulling out a gun and murdering the women shop keeper and her husband. which re-enforces this point. In that way the film represents the culture of young black youth in LA at this time magnificently as the film goes on to highlight the world they're living in with scenes which extend the violence and profanities even further.

I think the directors made this stereotype on purpose to highlight the problems that the black culture faces with society in the fact that they're often sterotyped.

The way i will use representation in my opening sequence is by trying to recreate the stereotypical image given to certain ethnic backgrounds, like i have spoken above, i will try to recreate this because i think this will benefit my opening sequence as the genre also ties in with the stereotypical image.

Narrative

Todorov's structure applied to all narratives which consisted of five stages. He said that all films had this structure. The period when there is all calm, the start of the film known as the equilibrium. Then there is disruption as something goes wrong, this part is the 'disruption' then there is a moment where the characters recognize the situation 'recognition'. 'repair' is when the problem is resolved and the 'new equilibrium' is the calmness of before restored.

The Dark Knight Rises










1.equilibrium - All peace an calm as Batman is no longer needed to help Gotham.
2.Disruption - As terrorist Bane reveals himself and wreaks havoc on Gotham.
3.Recognition - Batman realizes he needs to don the cape once more and save Gotham by beating Bane.
4.Repair - Batman beats Bane and saves Gotham.
5.New equilibrium - Peace is restored to Gotham city.




Another example is one we went through in class.

Little Red Riding Hood

Equilibrium;Little Red Riding Hood makes her way to her Grandma's with a basket full of nice food and gifts.
Disruption; Wolf meets Little Red Riding hood and then runs to grandma's house and eats her.
Recognition; Little Red Riding Hood recognizes that it is not her grandma, when she gets to her house.
Repair; Wood Cutter kills wolf and saves both Little Red Riding hood and Grandma.
New equilibrium; Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma live happily ever after.

Distribution and production companies

Distribution companies are vital in the success or failure of a movie. Distributors are normally an organisation although you can get individuals. Their aim is to sell your film or to make sure it is has theatrical successful release. They may help with marketing. Distributors will make sure the film is heard about, depending on how much money they have to work with. For example if they have a lot of money to work with then the advertising campaign will be bigger and you may see ad's on buses, billboards and in the newspaper.

An  example is momentum pictures. a well known distributing company known for films such as "The women in black" "Law abiding citizen" & "The kings speech".

Production companies are responsible for producing the film. This includes scheduling, scripting, marketing and post production. A successful production company would be the BBC. They usually work within the UK. They are responsible for some successful British films such as Fish Tank, Bullet boy, The boy in the striped pajamas's and others.

As a group we had a task to create a film cast actors and choose who would produce our movie. We had the concept that our film would be a British gangster movie and would star actors such as Daniel Craig and Michael Caine who are well known, we said that we would use revolver to distribute our company as they're a well known British distributing company.


This relates to our opening sequence because if we were to carry this further onto a film or short film we know where we could look for production and distributing companies. For example i thought we would be more like to work with BBC FILMS than momentum pictures. I thought this due to the fact BBC FILMS usually works within the UK whereas momentum pictures would most definitely be out of our price range.
We also thought of Revolver entertainment as a possible distributor as they are also known for distributing British movies.

Spooks Analysis

What is happening?
We are shown a scene in the office where someone is 'encrypting' files on the computer as we can see on the screen of the computer, from this we can gather that the technology is quite advanced. You can tell that this is work of an high order due to the high technology surrounding the characters who are dressed smartly. You also see the location change to other characters where they are not shown as much they are dark and not a lot of information in shown on these characters, then a man exits with a briefcase.

What information are you given?

very little information is given throughout this clip as it lacks dialogue, However they do give us information without dialogue and from what you see you can decipher that there is a mission going on, we are also told that there is a high significance to this mission. We are also told that there are at least two groups of people involved, we know this because of the cutting between both locations showing both groups of people.

What information is withheld? 

 A lot of information is withheld, the most important which is the question why, we do not know anything but that something is about to occur of high importance, containing two groups of people with different intentions potentially leading to a clash.

Why is the scene important?

This scene is important as it creates a lot of suspense and creates mystery as us the audience are hooked as we wonder why?

Why do we need to see the other scenes between these scenes

We need to see the other scenes because it is essential in creating the mysterious atmosphere which surrounds the entire scene.  It also keeps the viewers hooked and keeps there attention.

Action B

Why do you think we cut between this action and the scenes at MI5?

When they cut between the scenes the location changes but time is the same, showing these scenes with the different people at the same time both getting ready at the same time shows that it is important.

What did you think they were doing when you firstly saw them? 

Firstly i noticed the warehouse and from the appearance i thought that perhaps they were trespassing and perhaps think through a plan, i also thought because of the cutting there was some sort of relationship to the other characters and that they were either working together or that they were enemies.

What clues do you use to make sense of their inclusion?

The dark warehouse is what gave me a sense of their inclusion as it is purposely done to suggest their inclusion without saying why.

Why do we see less of the thieves ?

We see less of the thieves because the less of them we see adds more to the tension and suspense which is being built.

How soon do we know what they're doing? why does it take so long?

It takes a while to realize that they're up to no good, it takes long because the suspense is purposely built up towards the climax which is realizing what they're doing.

Genre

Narrative, Characters, themes and iconography are four main features within genre.
ideas or issues which affect the story line.

The narrative  of the genre is the actual story of the film.

Characters  are the people who appear within the film.

The theme  or themes of the film are ideas or issues which affect the story line

Iconography 

The visual art of the film.        Example Typical Horror movie
Narrative: Teenagers murdered by serial killer
Characters: Teenagers; Young boy who thinks he is cool, blonde girl, other characters similar, murderer.
Themes: Murder, Hostage
Iconography: Abandoned house, night, one location.


Our film genre is Crime/Thriller.  The conventions

• Big cities 
• Glorifies drugs
• Glorifies murder 
• Small crimes 
• Rise to top 
• Rival gangs
• Big shoot out
• Money normally the cause 
• Big cities
• Ethnic rivalry/Ethnic gangs

 Here are examples that would relate or influence our opening sequence due to similarities in genre, resulting in a similarities in conventions.   Reservoir dogs, The Godfather and Menace II Society.

Individual Reflections

I feel that we have made slow progress and that we need to move alot quicker, we have a wide variety of ideas and we know what we want to do with our piece of work. We have some footage at the moment but we need to finish off and re-do some filming so we can start editing.