Film Pitch

Film Pitch

Editing as Punctuation

Editing as Punctuation

• "If [two characters] are in the same shot, I can say that they are united (by being in the same shot) or separated by the space between them..." - David Bordwell, Making Meaning.
• Meaning is subjective, it depends on the context and reinforces it.
• vulture.com/2014/01/best-punctuation-marks-literature-nabokov-eliot-dickens-levi.html
• Punctuation in literature is used to show what the writer is thinking
• Therefore, film 'punctuation' -types of cuts mostly- can be used to create the same effects.
• (acting is also a form of punctuation but comes under theatre more than editing).
• "My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three..."
• In literature this would stop the reader in order to add the casual detail of his mother's death.
• In film, this line could be interpreted as a cutaway for "(" then a flash cut for ",", mirroring how it seems on the page.
• A cut between shots can be used additively: 
• e.g "knife + a heart = 'sorrow'" - Einstein Sergei, Film Form.
• "Montage is an idea that arises from a collision of independent shots" or "a concrete word next to a concrete word yields an abstract image - Einstein Sergei, Film Form.
• Ellipses can be narrative, such as a sudden jump forward in time, or suggestive of something missing, like a scissors insert, or an abrupt ending.
• An 'editing ellipsis' can also be showing a passing of 'pure time' -shown through a abnormally long take, or freeze-frames on points of extreme importance (e.g death).
• Most importantly the insert of a vase between the shots of a happy woman to sad woman in Late Spring.
• "One morning, some weeks after her arrival at Lowick, Dorothea - but why always Dorothea?"
• Freeze-frame for narrative intervention (although a true 'narrator' isn't always necessary)
• A 'reverse' of the film is also defined as a sort of hyphen - Sliding Doors.
• Caesura in literature is used to show discomfort through the break in the line. In film, the insertion of 'wrong' cuts can also be used to create disruption, such as;
• Jump cuts between what should be a constant shot- discomfort.
• Split screen between characters near each other- distant created between characters who should be 'closer'.
• Dissolves when a straight cut should be- monumental.


• “It is that which at this instant, issuing out of a labyrinthine tangle of yeses and nos, makes my hand run along a certain path on the paper, mark it with these volutes that are signs: a double snap, up and down, between two levels of energy, guides this hand of mine to impress on the paper this dot, here, this one.” - draws attention to the fact that it is a medium.
• Replicated by media through deliberately obvious transitions, e.g fade to red.
• Sans Soleil draw attention to the medium through the used of black screens interjecting clips, suggesting it is part of a thought process. "If they don't see happiness, at least they'll see the black".
• "A shot presents us with the idea, or a sequence of ideas, and the cut is a 'blink' that separates or punctuates those ideas" - blink punctuates thoughts, so cuts guide the 'blink' and so suggest the progression of these ideas, creating abstract thoughts.

Investigating Thrillers

Investigating Thrillers

Preliminary Evaluation

Preliminary Evaluation

From the audience feedback it is clear that there was one area of improvement shown in our preliminary, this being the stability of the camera during the opening tracking shot. This is an area we were already aware of prior to feedback and simply required re-filming, something we will be aware of next time.

Title Sequence Conventions