Hot Fuzz (2007)

Fundamental to film editing is understanding the ability and power it has on transforming the narrative progression of a film. This research project will closely analyse an editing technique that has been imbued within film since the 1920’s Soviet montage movement. Montage is an editing technique that combines a series of short clips together to create one continuous fast-paced sequence. It is a unique approach to cinema that enables filmmakers to condense large amounts of information, and compress space and time within a short span of seconds. With this, a particular film director that has fully embraced and heavily used this technique throughout his filmmaking career, is Edgar Wright. Montage has become somewhat of a trademark and recognisable signature that is implemented frequently throughout his films. His sequences tend to comprise of several cinematic techniques, that function to guarantee narrative continuity and enhance the comedic effects.

There is much to be learnt about the methods and role of montage in film. Given its relatively small amount of screen time for such an elaborate production, these sequences appear to be the most demanding of resources, camera movement and editing. Hence, why these short sequences appear to entail significant amounts of coverage and have the ability to impact the narrative. Through further research, two main approaches and classifications of montage have become evident. That is, narrative montage and expressive montage. As outlined by Morante (2017), expressive montage attempts to produce a specific effect and emotion towards the audience, by focusing on embellishment. Whereas narrative montage, aims to narrate a story or show a series of events by joining together different shots according to a chronological sequence.

With this, it is evident that Wright’s stylistic approach to montage in Hot Fuzz, follows the narrative classification. It is also noted that narrative mechanisms are expressed through interposed narration, flashbacks and also close-ups (Morante 2017). All of these narrative techniques are present and utilised throughout Hot Fuzz. In particular, the first montage sequence introduces us to Nicholas through voiceover narration, describing his journey of how he became a police constable. This sequence also incorporates several close-up shots and flashbacks that correlate with the narration. With this, we can now understand that the film’s utilisation of montage is to narrate, exceed the narrative and progress the story in a clear and orderly way.

The classification of narrative montage can be further divided into six areas that highlight specific ways montage sequences can act. These include repetition montage, expanded and centralised montage, parallel montage, intersection montage, illusion montage and order montage. However, I will be focusing on Wright’s approach to only two of these models of montage, as they are most evident and employed by Wright in unique ways.

The first of these models to analyse is repetition montage. Repetition montage serves to strengthen a specific action or important moment in the narrative (Morante 2017). In context, this montage sequence from the film consists of a total of five clips joined together sequentially, that repeats the same actions over three times. The first clip is a close-up of a money note entering into frame, followed by an overhead close-up of two full beer glasses sliding in and out of the frame, then a close-up of two glasses clinking together, followed by Nicholas and Danny sipping their beers, and lastly another close-up of two empty glasses sliding into frame. This sequence is repeated a total of three times just in the matter of ten seconds. Wright uses this certain approach of montage as a way to selectively reduce information of the action’s development. That is, he deliberately condenses time by shortening an event that would, in reality, take place over a much longer time period. Rather than watching two characters in real time play out this scene, Wright has control over the amount of information being shown and chooses to shorten this event to preserve key moments in the film. Despite its brevity, the ordering of the shots are accurate enough for viewers to still understand the overall message.

Another form of repetition in his film, although not a montage, but still worthy of noting, is the clicking of the pen. This is yet another example of how Wright utilises repetition, through the form of sound effects, to comically heighten the drama. More so, the purpose of this sound is to communicate the narrative of an object or action. The pen click ultimately becomes a reference point for action that is usually followed by a montage sequence. Hearing this sound is what informs the audience that Nicholas is about to start loads of research or paperwork.

The next of Wright’s approach to cinematic editing is the expanded and centralised montage. The expanded montage is when the camera shoots from a close distance and gradually expands to a greater distance. Whereas centralised montage is when the camera shoots from a greater length and gradually moves to a closer distance.

Within this thirty-three second montage, there are numerous examples of how Wright has utilised both expanded and centralised methods. Firstly, there are four expanded clips present. The first is at (0:02), where Nicholas is standing outside his previous police station that changes from a long shot to an extreme-long shot. The second is at (0:06), that begins with a medium close-up of Nicholas and proceeds to a medium shot. The third is at (0:11), where Nicholas is seated at the train station in a long shot and cuts to an extreme-long shot, and lastly at (0:32) we see a change that proceeds from a medium close-up to an extreme-long shot. There is also only one centralised clip shot at (0:14) which moves from a medium shot to a close-up of his face.

In this combination, Wright forces the audience to view the same action twice in the two consecutive shots, whilst acknowledging that they also contain new meanings via the difference in shot size. Here, expanded montage – moving from a close to further away distance, allows us to see more of the surrounding environment and details of the location. We see more of the scenery and are literally and emotionally withdrawing from Nicholas’s character. This gives us a sense of his isolation as he’s just been forcibly transferred from his workplace. Whereas centralised montage – moving from a distant to closer view, forces the audience’s attention on a specific area of the scene. Furthermore, this method of montage offers an effective approach to visual storytelling, where the deliberate modification of shot sizes brings audiences closer or further away from a character or location, both physically and emotionally.

In an interview, Edgar Wright revealed how he uses close-ups for something other than to focus the audience’s attention to a specific object or expression. He intentionally uses close-ups to keep the pace up of the film and lead up to action. He mentions how close-up montages function to mimic a ‘tooling-up’ montage. These tooling-up sequences are about building up to a true action scene, by mainly focusing on weapons.

In this excerpt, Nicholas is retrieving all of the guns from the armoury to prepare and gear up for a fight. He loads up numerous guns and straps them to his body. This sequence consists of various close-ups and crash-zooms, that make the timing and cutting of these shots critical to build up the intensity for an upcoming action. Wright has also mentioned how he spends hours on shooting close-up shots to make certain that he has enough coverage for these montages. This is a process he now closely follows, as his first ever film – A Fistful of Fingers (1995), did not have enough coverage for him to attempt these editing techniques.

Another method Wright utilises is montage for scene transitioning. Commonly, simple effects such as a dissolve or fade are used to transition between scenes and highlight the ending and beginning of a scene. Alternatively, Wright intentionally places a transition sequence here instead, which enables him to keep in control of the script and preserve the physical continuity of an event by avoiding interruptions in the narrative. Firstly, it is important to understand the context of the preceding shot before the transition montage is applied. Nicholas has come to a sudden realisation after reading the newspaper, of who the potential town murderer might be. In the transition sequence following this shot, several close-ups and dissolve effects are used to show Nicholas researching and highlighting articles.  Rather than omitting this entire action, Wright applies this sequence to successfully show the audience the hours of research and paperwork Nicholas has done. It successfully maintains continuity of the narrative and connects seamlessly with the preceding and following shots.

Furthermore, the power of narrative motivation through montage is a central component to the film Hot Fuzz. Edgar Wright has uniquely placed montage at the front line of the narrative, in ways that are able to condense space, time and character all within purpose for communicating and driving the narrative.