The Psychology of Film Editing | Creative Post Production Techniques
The clip below is a short film highlighting the variety of film techniques and camera angles, shots, framing, movement, focus, lighting and composition. The clip also looks at editing techniques, colour adjusting and sound editing.
The types of shots that are taken are shown in this clip which also highlights the importance of implied distance. It specifically looks at the long-shot, mid-shot and closeup. Shot types influence how an audience reacts to certain information as the viewer identifies with the lense. Closeups are often used where the greatest dramatic impact is needed within a scene. Significance, meaning drama and creating an emotional response from the audience can be deduced as a result of shot types.
Shots often include the amount of general and background information as well as the amount of subject information, the size and importance of the human figure as well as psychological and physical information. Long shots are often dominated by background information and films which use this technique considerably include Lawrence of Arabia and Citizen Kane. Subject information in these long shots often take up very little screen space. Long shots are often used to establish the location of the scene at the beginning or end of the shot as subject information has the ability to often be balanced with background information. It allows the audience to figure out what ios going on in a particular situation as well as showing where the cast are positioned onscreen.
Full shots show the subject from head to toe and background begins to be reduced. The subject can be seen in more detail and is therefore better equipped to dominate the frame.Full shots are often used when physical acts are displayed.
Medium shots frame the subject usually from the waist up. The subject takes a greater amount of importance over the background and the subject is able to display more detail in their acting ability. Medium shots often ddepict interaction amongst characters and usually only allow for 2 or 3 characters in frame.
Closeups focus solely on the subject where the face dominates the screen. Subtle shifts in expression from the subject in closeup can convey a lot more to the audience.
Extreme closeup fills the screen with only a fragment of the face (eg maybe just an eye or an object) Shot Types
Criticism has grown sharply regarding how the media influences our ideas of body image. Since advertising frequently uses our hopes or fears to sell a product or service, so many young people compare themselves to models in ads and are often left feeling depressed about their own self image. Idealised versions of female body shapes portrayed in magazines, posters, the fashion, cosmetics and dieting industries and celebrity culture has been known to cause in some instances excessive dieting or exercise or even eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Body imagerevolves around an individual’s perception of their own body and appearance as well as how others see us. Advertising can influence positive and negative ideas, attitudes and feelings of self worth. This generation of teenagers is more vulnerable than previous generations because since birth they are hit with images of so-called perfection on the internet, television, magazine covers and billboards.
Body imagerevolves around an individual’s perception of their own body and appearance as well as how others see us. Advertising can influence positive and negative ideas, attitudes and feelings of self worth. This generation of teenagers is more vulnerable than previous generations because since birth they are hit with images of so-called perfection on the internet, television, magazine covers and billboards.
Advertising’s Role With Women’s Body Image
Thin, tall models are frequently promoted in advertising to help them to sell copies of their product or service. Movies, music and magazines provide an unrealistic view of how women should look. The effect of exposure to multiple advertisements promoting beauty can leave many girls and young women with a distorted view of what they are worth. Concepts of beauty are pushed on girls from a young age with products such as Barbie and Bratz dolls. The measurements of a Barbie doll would lead to a serious disease and poor nutrition.
Photoshopping images on computer are also used to enhance a woman’s height and thinness. A nip and a tuck with the click of a mouse can give a vastly different impression of the model than in reality.
Case Study: Dove
Have a look at the advert below for Dove which shows how the beauty industry communicates to many women.
Exercise: Write down all the adjustments made to the woman's face in the Dove Beauty Evolution ad
Research Project:
Look up the following searches on Google
1-Kate Winslet GQ magazine. Write up about what happened in your copybook in your own words
2-Find a women's magazine cover off Google images. Write down what it is called
3-Look up Julia Bluhm and Seventeen magazine and write a paragraph mentioning what has happened
4-Look up Teen Vogue protests. Write a paragraph explaining what happened in your own words
5-Write 2 paragraphs about your thoughts on how magazines advertise to women. Think about who is responsible, the magazine or the people who purchase the magazine?
Here is a video entitled ‘Killing Us Softly 4 Advertising’s Image of Women’ by Jean Kilbourne, where it gives a snapshot regarding how advertising is influencing statistics of violence in the USA. We have already been exposed to many of these advertisements with our ability to access more globalised content through our TV subscription packages and access to the internet.
Split up into groups of 4. Each group takes a question to consider and report on in class.
Do you think magazines should take a more responsible role in the promotion of positive images of women? How?
A magazine is in the business of selling magazines. Much of their revenue comes from advertising. Would changing the policy of using idealised pictures of women help or hinder their sales?
Who is responsible for these images of so-called perfection, society, parents, the magazine, the manufacturer of the product, the advertiser, or the consumer?
Would you buy a magazine with real pictures of real people including all their flaws with no gender stereotyping when you wish to be entertained and amused?
Advertising’s Influence On Males
What does it mean to be a man?
For males ideals of masculinity are often advertised. Advertisements with males often display muscled men, sophisticated men in tuxedos, successful businessmen, cowboys and construction workers. Men are usually shown in these ads to be in charge, confident and alone or displaying their success with women. Many products’ adverts often play on male hopes and insecurities. The suggestion is that purchasing a product will make the man stronger, more successful and sexier.
Violence is an aspect often used in advertising targeting men. Many video games and films which are violent are used by advertising companies for product placement. Companies are beginning to put their adverts into violent video games that they know may appeal to males.
The issue of masculinity in the media is not discussed as openly as a woman’s perfect body image. Portrayals of what it means to be a man and more worryingly what it means not to be a man are discussed with frankness in this videoclip entitled ‘Tough Guise:Media, Violence and the Crisis in Masculinity’ made by Jackson Katz. It argues that widespread violence in American society, including the tragic school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and elsewhere, needs to be understood as part of an ongoing crisis in masculinity.
Class Exercise
Find a magazine cover or advert with a male prominently displayed. Write a paragraph mentioning what the advert/magazine is suggesting.
Pair Discussion
Choose one of the following questions for consideration and to report back to the class
How true do you consider the opening statements of the videoclip that a man has to be tough and violent to be a man?
Consider some recent high-profile murders. Do you think think there is a link between media violence and real life aggression?
What do you think about the topic raised in this video?
Just who is advertising to who here?
Women are often used to sell magazines aimed at males, examples would be magazines such as Loaded, Maxim and Nuts. Males in advertising are used to sell products to women. Relationships and commitment are often used in advertisements for jewellery for women. Sometimes adverts for males are in females magazines as they are targeting women to buy these products for a male. Children are being advertised to by hotels and car companies to pester their parents into making a purchase.
Look at this film ending for The Devils Rejects. What editing techniques do you notice? The Devil's Rejects
Film editing is the concept of displaying a combination of film shots in a sequence. This can add an added sense of drama as one shot is instantly replaced with another. Editing can determine the pace and feel of a movie. The process of editing can discover something that may not have been originally intended for the movie. Editing can help transfer film into more than a simple replication of reality. Through close-ups and long distance shots the audience's emotions can be played upon. It can enhance moods and feelings and show different perceptions of characters to give the film segment a greater depth of richness. Edwin Porter was one of the first to discover that the tying together of shots could help create a story.
In the clip below, Walter Murch, the editor of such films as Apocalypse Now and The English Patient, discusses his "Rule of Six" in a presentation for the Imaginox Online Creative Academy of Film and Television. the six things
Murch disccuses how to make the perfect cut are:
1-Emotional-does the edit give the emotion that the director wants to give the audience or does it subtract or distract?
2-Story-Is the story advanced as a result of the edit?
3-Rhythm-Does the cut happen at the right point with the music? Is it in keeping with the pace of the movie?
The first 3 points here are often interlinked. The other points which are considered by Murch to have lesser importance includes
4-Eye-tray- do we know where the audience is looking and is that being taken into consideration when the cut is made? Is the movement of the audience's gaze disrupted by the cut? Could a disruption of the audience gaze be deliberately interrupted to enhance the film (eg scenes of horror or violence)
5-2-D Plain (the problem of dealing with 3 dimensional objects in a 2 dimensional world). This deals with the concept of the stage line and do the characters appear to be looking at each other or not
6-Coherent movement of 3-dimensional people and objects
Anything can be conveyed in terms of editing reality tv as often controversial media commentator Charlie Brooker demonstrates. Apart from the cheeky humour of this video-clip there lies a serious point, that through editing any argument or viewpoint can be proposed. Although this clip is commenting on reality tv, it could also be used in the form of documentary film to influence a certain viewpoint. Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe - Reality TV Editing
Here is a clip from one of the world's best known film director's Alfred Hitchcock discussing his views on the editing and cutting process and how it can effect the movie.
Hitchcock explains about CUTTING
Here is a clip from the 1997 film Wag The Dog. The film tells the tale about how a war is sold to the general public to deflect them from a political sex scandal. This clip shows the power of how editing can help to influence public perception through media manipulation.
In the violent historical epic Braveheart, watch how director Mel Gibson uses editing to control the pace and tension of this very violent clip. Viewer discretion is advised.
Braveheart - Battle of Stirling Bridge - Cavalry charge
How do you think the editing affected the tension in this scene?
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter won an Oscar for Best Editing for the film The Social Network in 2011. This clip shows a boatrace from within the movie. How do you think the editing affects the pace of this clip? The Social Network / Henley Sequence
Can you spot any editing mistakes in the following clip? FUNNY MISTAKES in OUR FAVORITE MOVIES
Montage consists of a series of shots which are interlinked to reduce time yet give information. The clips are often short yet based around a certain theme with music to evoke emotion yet keep a continuity to the scene. One of the most famous montage uses are from the Rocky series. Here is a montage clip from the Rocky 4
Some film segments deliberately don't edit traditionally in order to immerse the viewer into that world. A case in point is one of the most famous scenes in Martin Scorseses Goodfellas at the Copacabana Club.
Goodfellas - Steadicam Shot
To see what the director of this film Martin Scorsese envisaged in creating this shot, please click this link
The film Children Of Men has alot of complex long takes with the intended goal of immersing the viewer into the alterntative future reality presented by the film.
Here is a trailer for the film and then a clip which shows how a long take has the ability to bring the world alive that the characters inhabit. Children Of Men Trailer The greatest camera work in movie history...
What do you think of this technique? What are the disadvantages of filming this way?
The concept of story versus plot does not always follow conventional structures. Often, visual imagery can say alot more than words as can be evidenced in this award winning student film below.
What do you think about how this film was edited? How is the story enhanced?
Describe your thoughts on the visual imagery used? How effective was this?
What effect do you think of deliverately puzzling the viewer at the start of the film has?
Exercise:
Create a blog and pick a scene that you think uses film editing well (2-3 paragraphs). Explain your reasons why and what techniques were used.
If you need help have a look at this blog to help you with ideas.
The cutting Edge The Magic of Movie Editing (Full Documentary)
