Film class]Editing analysis in Whiplash(2014)
Analyze the editing —both visual and sound— of the following two (2) scenes from Damien
Chazelle's Whiplash(2014), for which Tom Cross won the 2015 Academy Award for Film
Editing. (Max.1100 words)
- Deposition Scene
https://vimeo.com/266519602
- Movie finale "Caravan"
https://vimeo.com/266062602
Discuss each scene separately.
PARAGRAPH 1:
State the title of the film and the director in the opening sentence. Next, describe the premise of the film, i.e. who is the protagonist, what is her/his goal, what is hindering the protagonist from attaining the goal. Explain the subject of the story, and the director’s theme, i.e. what s/he wants th e audience to think/feel about this subject (i.e. the moral of the story).
BODY:
1] How is editing used to establish the rhythm, tempo, and emotional tone of the scenes? Use filmic vocabulary and terminology from the reading and lectures, including Eisenstein’s theory of montage.
2] Do the director and editor utilize conventional editing (e. g. shot-reverse-shot, 180° rule) and when do they opt for long, uninterrupted takes, or stylized montage? How do the different choices contribute to the narrative (storytelling)?
3] Discuss preferred transitions, e. g. cuts, dissolves, wipes (often buried in whip-pans), fade-outs, fade-ins, match-cuts, etc. Make note of the use of pacing, temporal (time) distortions, e.g. ellipses, intercutting, flashbacks, flash-forwards, slow-motion, etc., and use of non-diegetic sound.
4] The film’s finale —the performance of Duke Ellington's “Caravan”— took two days to film. Describe the coverage of the scene (shots used), various editing devices that editor Tom Cross used —including continuity editing, discontinuity editing (montage), transitions, inserts, cutaways, etc., to create the illusion that the actor portraying Andrew (Miles Teller) is really playing the drums.
CONCLUSION
5] Explain the explicit and implicit meaning of the filmmakers’ choices.
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- Refer to your textbook for key terms. Use imdb.com for characters, cast and crew names.
- Italicize titles of long works. E.g. Citizen Kane, Mi Familia, Whiplash, Bicycle Thieves
- Avoid writing about “the audience;” write about the filmmaker(s) by name.
- Use quotation marks for “content written by others,” followed by their last name and page number at the end of the sentence before the period (Bordwell, 324). Then list those sources on a separate page at the end of your paper in alphabetical order in MLA format.