Lecture Week 2: The Edit
As we did not have a lecture today I thought I’d reflect on last week’s lecture.
The first part of the lecture focused on the edit, the history of and the purpose of. The lecture took us through a couple different examples. Including an early example of The Man with The Movie Camera. As well as a scene from Scorsese’s Casino.
The Man With The Movie Camera shows us an early example of editing techniques that we still use today. As it is a movie with no plot and more or less simply shots with no relation it is left up to the audience to create a narrative from them.
This made me think of last weeks reading Blood in the Gutter. Which discussed the different transitions that happen within comics and graphic novels. I loved the reading because other than it being fun to read a comic rather than a dense academic essay, I loved the relation between transition in comics and transitions within film. I enjoyed reading about the difference of storytelling between the east and the west..As the west tends to be a much more ‘goal-orientated’ culture our stories are heavily plot-driven and lead to something bigger while the east emphasizes the journey
As the west tends to be a much more ‘goal-orientated’ culture our stories are heavily plot-driven and lead to something bigger while the east emphasizes the journey. When reading about this difference I thought about some of my favorite movies. In particular, Clerks written and directed by Kevin Smith along with Dazed and Confused written and directed by Richard Linklater 1 . Both Clerks and Dazed and Confused lack major plot points, character arcs, and drama above trivial matters and despite this both films still succeed.
Another film that came to my mind while reading Blood in the Gutter was Melancholia. A film I will feel forever did not get that credit that it deserved (the film as well as its star Kirsten Dunst) 2. Melancholia is a film that may not make the most sense. It is filmed in two parts, with no precise plot. The entire film is for your interpretation. In Blood in the Gutter, the role of silence within art is presented (specifically in music). Melancholia is certainly not afraid of silence as its lack of much dialogue shows. But despite the lack of verbiage Melancholia still manages to take its viewer where it wants with the visual. I thought this film was a great example of where what is omitted is just as important to what is shown.
