Daily Blog 1/23/18

Glossary of Transitions
Fade in/out (to/from black)
Dissolve (blend shots)
Smash cut (abrupt transition)
Iris (old-fashioned; circle that opens and closes in camera)
Wipes (screen wipes from one side to the other)
Invisible cuts (impression of a single take)
L-cut (audio transition)
J-cut (audio of the next scene starts before you get to it)

Practical Purpose:

• Sense of illusion
• Preserve continuity

Narrative Purpose:

• PLOT: to further the story

Thematic Purpose:

• Fits tone/style/genre

Today in class, Mr. Rivers made it a point to continue analyzing how there are three types of purpose in editing whether it is Practical, Narrative, or Thematic based on what the film is about. We re-watched the steadicam scene from Goodfellas where we noticed how the tone of the clip was very relaxed and showed the main character’s persona as he makes his way through the restaurant. He says hello to many people and shows his power as a person, since everyone gets out of the way for him so he can get a table for two in the middle of this really busy restaurant. The elegant movement of the camera in one scene made it more apparent that his journey was a long one, done on purpose to show how his character had an impact on the whole restaurant. We also watched clips from Iron Man, where we talked about how there are many cuts to show the action and deceiving the audience of things happening that may not be real. The more cuts make the tone very intense and there are even 7 cuts to show Tony Stark getting pushed up against the wall. The more cuts, the more intense the tone can be. We also watched Of Oz the Wizard which was the entire Wizard of Oz movie except every single word was rearranged in alphabetical order, evidently making no sense. This type of editing allowed for a comedic approach to the movie and changed the original theme and problem, showing how different types of editing can completely alter the goal of the film. We also watched a japanese fight scene that was filmed all in one take, which had the similar editing style to Goodfellas however the purpose, theme, and narrative aspects were completely different. The fight scene proved how you cannot make something look realistic with one take, since all of the punching and hitting were staged and not as dramatic without cuts. All these different types of editing techniques are done in reference to the purpose of the film and what is trying to convey.

I relate a lot of these editing techniques to my daily life since I am constantly filming and editing videos for people to enjoy. These techniques help me transition one scene to another, and as we learned more I now understand how each one affects the film in a drastic way. These editing techniques are very subtle however they are important to the purpose of the film.