Why Film Editing (Shot Assembly) Is So Important

In today's class, we went over Alfred Hitchcock's coined term "assembly" and what it means. Assembly refers to, during his time, physically putting together each shot in order to make a continuous scene. Today, assembly simply means the order of shots and how they affect the audiences perception. For example, at the beginning of class, we created our own assembly using our slides page "Assembly with Alfred". In each slide, we got to stick any black and white photo in between a blank faced Alfred and a smiling Alfred. These different shots went from making Alfred look like a friendly old man to a serial killer. This was just one example of the importance of assembly. We went an analyzed one scene from Psycho and one scene from Goodfellas. 

In the Psycho scene, we split the few minute clip into three different segments. In the first segment (approximately 40 seconds), we saw it only used eleven shots. These few shots created a "calm before the storm" mood, creating a suspenseful build up. In the next segment, the shots are constantly changing as the woman is brutally stabbed. These one second shots create a chaotic mood, scaring the audience. In the last segment, the film only uses a couple shots, using a blurring transition to shoot from a shower drain to the woman's eye. This creepy scene and few shots creates the "calm after the storm" mood.

In Goodfellas, the three minute scene is one complete shot, which creates a continuous, authentic scene. By using one long shot, it easily shows location, creates continuity, and helps to push the story along in a creative way.

By analyzing these shot transitions now, we are getting ready to create our own film at the end of the year. These lessons also help us understand what truly makes scenes compelling in the movies we watch on our own.