Editing In Casablanca

     When it comes to the editing, Figgis mainly used cutting to continuity to preserve the fluidity of most events without the necessity to show them all. The director also uses flash-forwards a few times to give you an idea about the destiny of Sera, which is shown when she reflects about her encounter with Ben to an invisible therapist. Figgis also shot the movie using Super 16mm film to give it a tense, documentary feel. The music is also very unique because the jazzy soundtrack isn’t the usual music in a movie with such an emotional and dramatic plot. The actors have a great impact on the success of this movie because the extremely difficult roles were played by excellent actor stars. The story is done very well because it starts off showing us the situation of the two main characters as they are and as the will be throughout

     In Casablanca, the prominent themes of unhappy love and self-sacrifice set this romantic melodrama apart from most in its genre. These themes are best expressed in the interactions of the three main characters: Victor Laszlo, a heroic political leader; Ilsa Lund, an enigmatic femme fatale; and Richard (Rick) Blaine, a seemingly morally ambiguous night club owner. An unusual love triangle forms with the two men’s mutual love for the intermediary woman. Unlike the archetypal romantic triangle which includes the betrayed husband and the victorious lover, this situation results in unhappiness and loss for all involved. All three are willing to sacrifice for this love,

The movie Casablanca tells the story of Rick Blaine, a bar owner in Casablanca. His heart breaks when Ilsa, his sweetheart, fails to join him in his escape from Paris before the Nazis invaded. Rick’s relationship fall-out begins the movie journey depicted in an authentic World War II time period. It was on a stormy night that Rick received a letter from Ilsa telling him that she wouldn’t be coming with him to Casablanca. Realizing he has been dumped, he sadly hops onto the train and rides off to Casablanca by himself.

The 1998 German film Run Lola Run interestingly told three separate narratives of the same story and characters. Each of the narratives began the same way, however each one saw a slight temporal or behavioral difference in the lives of Lola and Manni, which caused drastically different outcomes for each of the separate realities. The film followed Lola and Manni’s journey to acquire one-hundred thousand dollars to make up for Manni’s loss of the money to his drug dealer. The same story was told three separate times, and each story illustrated slight changes in the characters’ timelines that drastically shifted the outcome of their situations. Through the use of editing, the film was able to jump through time and space and clearly portray the transition from one run to the next. The film also had a fast rhythm that captured the frantic nature and peril of Lola and Manni’s situation, with innovative editing techniques such as showing the two shots of Manni and Lola side by side. Altogether, the transitions were effective in telling the story with a unique, and clear sequencing pattern that made sense and contributed to the thrilling atmosphere of the film.

Almost every piece of cinema seeks to give the viewer an understanding by intricately assembling shots in a coherent, and a sometimes muddled, manner; the techniques used in editing places various shots in purposeful sequences, to emphasize certain relationships between shots. The shots can be arranged smoothly and logically, or shift abruptly from shot to shot; different methods of the aforementioned arrangement of shots are utilized in either discontinuous or continuous editing. Sherlock Jr. and The War on Drug’s music video “Holding On”, are two motion pictures that offer spatial relations, by applying techniques of both continuous and discontinuous editing.

In one scene, Michel is driving in a car with the American girl he tries to convince to go with him to Italy, Patricia. He is describing her beauty and the features that he likes about her, and as he gives each detail, the camera does a jump cut to a shot of Patricia’s face. In another scene, Michel is in Patricia’s apartment. As they are talking, the jump cuts make the entire scene appear to be a montage rather than one continuous scene. The jump cuts don’t add to the narrative or continuity of the scene in any way; they are

How are we made aware of the filmmaker's attitude towards change? Refer to three specific episodes from the film. (excl. concl. stages)In Pleasantville, the filmmaker, Gary Ross, conveys his attitude towards change through the characters of David and Jennifer who are transported into the 1950s sitcom "Pleasantville". He doesn't necessarily demonstrate change to bear a positive result; rather, he addresses that change is essential to the development of society and self and that it is important to understand and accept change. Ross contrasts the ignorance and mindlessness of the unchanged people of Pleasantville with the hunger for knowledge that the changed (or coloured) people possess, communicating to the viewer that change and knowledge

Editing is a true art form. The editor strives to impart visual variety to the picture by skillful shot selection, arrangement and timing. He recreates rather than reproduces the photographic event to achieve a cumulative effort often greater than all the actions in individual scenes put together. A motion picture is a custom-made jigsaw puzzle in which filmmakers fashion the individual pieces. Each piece requires special attention so that it will merge harmoniously with pieces surrounding it. Many editors prefer to make their cuts on movements so that the actual switch from one shot to another is masked by the action. The editing in Steel Magnolias uses wipes and fades to transition from one scene to the other. The editor uses

Early movies were shot and viewed as slide shows. With narrations like The Life Of An American Fireman, where instead of cutting we would see full clips linked together. When the filmmakers brought us from one action to the next they, repeated actions instead of cutting and letting

Six techniques of continuity editing are depicted in the film. These techniques are establishing shots, cross-cut editing, match on action, shot/reverse shots, re-establishing shots and eye-line match shots that give the movie structure.

In the interview, John Huston explained the function of cuts. Without moving our heads, human eyes will not pick up the information in between looking from one object to another. Basically, your eyes can juxtapose two or more objects. This is a cut. Film Editors use cuts to discard information that doesn’t push the story forward.

Another interesting use of camera cutting can be found in the in between scene where Cleo is roaming the streets of Paris. She is now becoming the one watching other people rather than being the one watched as she was in the beginning (probably because of her beauty and famous singer status). While she is watching the camera cuts between other people’s conversations and then while she is walking the camera is in essence her point of view. However during this walk, the people passing are watching her as well, thus proving that this is the transition time. The use of cutting between shots of her and shots of all these people passing her not only show this change in who is watching who, but also allows for a sense of time passing. Interspersed with these shots are images of people we have already met, the widow, the boyfriend, the piano player, as well as the images of a monkey resting on a clock and her wig resting on the mirror, these things conveying how the people who know her see her and how she sees herself. This is a genius montage because these two things represent the same thing, how people see her, how she sees people, and how she sees herself, and by interspersing them we see

Two of the most prominent aspects of editing that can be identified within this film are the flashforward and the flashback. At the commencement of the film, a flashforward is employed. It shows drums being played in a forest by the three characters that were yet to be introduced to the audience. Then the scene quickly cuts to the main character, Joe, in the shower at his house. This flashforward is used in order to provide the audience with an idea of what is to come in the not-so-distant future of the film. Another flashforward is utilized when Joe, Patrick, and Biaggio are living in the forest. This flashforward shows Joe and the female lead, Kelly, in the woods. It portrays the two in a romantic light, and includes a confession from Kelly that she wants to stay and live in the forest with Joe. This flashforward, unlike the previous example, does not come true. However, it is used to portray the deep emotions of Joe, and his longing for female companionship. These emotions become relevant when Kelly falls for Joe’s friend Patrick instead of him. During the conclusion of the film, a flashback is employed so the audience can relive the previous events that occurred within the film. When Biaggio is in the hospital, a flashback reminds the audience of when Joe and Patrick first entered the forest, at the onset of their adventure. This flashback brings the audience back to a happier and lighter point in the story line. In the film The Kings of Summer, flashfowards and

The main functions of Montage are “to control rhythm, to create metaphors and to make rhetorical points” (Bordwell 1972: 9). Rhythm is the series of movement perceived from the consistent juxtaposition of shots. Continuity editing usually forms the rhythm of a narrative. Continuity editing as the name implies is “a system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action” (Bordwell and Thompson 2012: 500). Sergei Eisenstein (1949: 47) claims that, “the quality of interval determines the pressure of the tension and the phases of its tension is the rhythm”.

The style of edit for this sequence and entire film is continuity editing which produces a logical and straightforward narrative. The sequence begins with an establishing shot of the city road setting, orienting the viewer. The editing follows real-time human experiences, for example, the Tramp enters the paddy wagon then it cuts to him sitting down on the benches with the rest of the convicted, minimizing the perception of breaks between cuts (invisible editing).