Daily Blog 1/22

Greetings anonymous reader and welcome to my synopsis of class as of January 22nd, 2018. Today we began class with a review of the eye line match, a simple and commonly used editing technique. It is when a shot shows a character's face, cuts to whatever or whoever they are looking at, and then cuts back to the character's reaction to what they have just seen. It is important to understand that the first and third shots must be of the same composition- otherwise continuity will be disrupted. For example, if the camera angle is filming the side of a character, the reaction should be captured from the same angle and distance. We saw examples of this on Friday with the images of Alfred Hitchcock and the woman in the bikini. Next, we moved on to the various purposes behind film editing. This includes the narrative purpose, thematic purpose, and practical purpose. Editing can be utilized to form the narrative by piecing together important conversations/dialogue and creating a cause and effect. Scenes are rarely shot with both characters in the same frame and the editors do not use a lot of the lines that are said. The thematic purpose can create tension through music and set the tone with lighting and various other elements. For the tone I tend to think of a film set in the 20s about crime and noir which is dominated by low lighting and dark city streets. Music plays a large role in the majority of films, especially in the horror genre. The practical purpose behind editing involves managing costs/budgets, improving post production, and implementing cuts and transitions. Furthermore, we watched a video that introduced the numerous different types these such as a cutaway, dissolve, match cut, Iris, and so on. The video included examples from prominent films such as Predator, Full Metal Jacket, Lord of the Rings, The Shawshank Redemption, and more. After watching this entry level video, we began to examine the famous shower scene from the film Psycho. This Hitchcock classic is known for its suspenseful (and obnoxious) music and this particular scene included it. Everybody in class tried counting how many different shots were filmed during the scene but we all had different answers.

Editing can be applied to the real world in the form of propaganda. I think of World War II films or propaganda that is more recent such as The Interview or even Rocky IV. James Franco and Seth Rogen both star in The Interview, a movie criticizing North Korea, but their comedic routine was not the main component of the film. Kim Jong Un attempts to trick the reporter Franco by essentially editing what he sees. For example, he shows him a fake grocery store to make him believe that their economy and people are healthy when in reality it's the opposite. Unfortunately the real Kim does the same thing and North Koreans suffer daily in a communist country. Rocky IV on the contrary attempts to deliver a more positive message. The editors establish the narrative and thematic purpose to be one of unification between the United States and Russia. This film was released during the Cold War when tensions were extremely high between nations. Near the end of the film the Russians even begin chanting for Rocky instead of Drago and the two stop acting hostile towards one another.