Editing has been always a keen interest of mine since I started studying about media and film production. It is at the filmmaker’s disposal to arrange the shots and when to cut, fade, dissolve or wipe. The possibilities on how to edit a film is endless and it is based on an individual and how he visions the sequence of the film should be. Like what Boredwell and Thompson mentioned in the reading, it can shape the response of the viewer and the decisions can build film form.

The cut is the most common tool when it comes to joining 2 shots to form a sequence. As mentioned by one of the students from class, editing with the cut is almost like the blinking of an eye. It provides some change from a particular shot to another. Sometimes, a scene might have gone on for some time and it might seem a little too unnatural as there are no cuts in between. We as human have to blink our eyes every now and then, and the cut sort of simulates that in editing to keep the audience interested as well as anchored to the film. The cut also creates emphasis on a particular scene.

In the film that was screened this week, Enemy of the State, where it is a typical Hollywood action packed movie, exhibits many a wide variety of editing. We see, as in many action movies, many fast cutting scenes during the chase sequence between the federal agents and the IT man who happened to have gain possession of a video that shows the assassination of the Congressman Hammersley. Obviously during a foot chase, there is a lot of things going on and it all captures at different angles, locations, with different point of view from both the protagonist and antagonist, not to mention medium to close ups shot of the characters running. Therefore, it is only natural to have fast cutting scenes in order to fit all these into one sequence, with the occasional panoramic view of the setting where the foot chase is taking place.

The film also exhibits crosscutting, where it creates 2 different scenes that may or may not be happening concurrently. In this case, during that same foot chase scene, we see our main character, Robert Clayton Dean, (Will Smith) in a lingerie shop buying a gift for his wife. And eventually the 2 scenes meet when the young IT man meets Robert and plants the tape containing the video of the assassination into one of Robert’s shopping bag. This introduces some spatial discontinuity at the beginning, but resolves when both characters meet each other at the lingerie store. This also pre–empts the viewers of the upcoming death of the IT man shortly after he hands over the tape to Robert, and also resolves the foot chase scene with that character dying in a collision with a truck, as he no longer holds any significance to the main narrative of the film. It also, more importantly, puts Robert in the main spotlight and focus to the federal agents and also to the viewers, since he is now in possession of the tape, unknowingly.

Like most mainstream Hollywood action movies, the editor, Chris Lebenzon, for the movie, employs the continuity editing technique to deliver narrative information in a smooth and clear sequence of shots. It gives a moment-by-moment flow of that reveals more and more information to the viewers to unveil the story. It also keeps the viewers engaged and wanting to find out more to see what happens at the end. Will Robert get his life back to how it was? Will Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight) get away with the murder? All these questions and more, would have been raised while in the midst of watching the film as an audience member.

We also see the use of the 180 degree system throughout the film. The 180 degree system is where the filmmaker creates a space around an “axis of action”. The axis is an imaginary line that connects between 2 subjects. Almost throughout the duration of the movie, when there is a conversation between 2 or more characters, we observe the 180 degree system. It is to prevent the audience from being confused on the position and arrangement of the characters and mise-en-scene. Personally, as technical as it sounds, I thought this system was the logical and self-explanatory. It is to give the viewers a sense of actually being present in the room or venue and watching the subjects engage in a conversation. If a camera were to cross the axis, it would seem as though the we, the viewers, would have suddenly jumped or teleported to the other side of the room and suddenly both our characters have swapped positions. Like with most post-production tools, we want to have it