Editing blog task

The Baptism Murders - The Godfather

I choose a clip from the 1972 movie ‘Godfather’. It’s the popular clip of baptism where we see a great editing skills where Coppola combines the peaceful scene of baptism with

many dreadful scenes of murder.

The clip starts off with a close up on our main character. The priest asking him if he ‘renounce satan’ (the writer wanted to be ironic in some way) before it’s suddenly cut off by the middle shot of men in a lift, then he middle long shot of a man kicking them back to the lift and shooting them. We don’t actually see the people being shot, just a middle long shot of the murderer. That builds up the madness of the murder and leaves us with only the idea of them being dead. Also the music in the background is a diegetic  sound of the scene from the baptism and we can hear the volume increase when someone is being murdered. That builds up the tension and helps us understand that all of this is happening at the same time. It’s also a contrapuntal sound for the scenes of the shootings. After that we’re back with the main character saying ‘I do renounce them’ in the same close up. After that short cut we are introduced to an over-the-shoulder shot of  another character opening the door to a massage room. Then there’s a close up laying on a massage bed reaching for his glasses. This shot is a little longer then the rest and builds up the tension. When he finally puts on the glasses, that’s when the other man shoots him right through the glasses in the right eye. This shot was filmed all in a close up and had no cuts. This time we can’t see the shooter, but the victim, but we know who was the one that fired the gun. After that scene there’s just a two second shot on the main character maybe just to let us know that he knows what is happening or the opposite- that it’s so tragic that he doesn’t suspect a thing when a mass murder is happening at the same time. The shot after that is a long shot of a man smoking a cigarette, then putting it down and going up the stairs and changes to a middle/long shot of the other man coming into spinning doors.  The man from the stairs approaches him and traps him inside the doors. There’s a middle shot of the victim to see closely his frightened expression and a quick swops between this shot and a POV shot of the victim as he’s being shot. The POV shot at the end have an effect of the camera being shattered.  That makes the whole scene more dramatic and makes the audience feel more connected to the victim. Then we’re again back with the main character accepting the baptizing. Then the shot switches to a long middle shot of men busting through the door to a room. This is more of a jumpcut where the scene switches to a very unexpected, chaotic shot. Then we see the victims under covers there the bullets come through, leaving a hole with blood around, which makes the shot even more vivid and traumatizing because that’s how the bullet wounds look on their bodies. Then we’re back again with Michael (the main character) saying ‘go in piece’ which is, again, ironic, we swop to the long shot where a fake policeman shoots a few men on the stairs on the entrance of the building. After killing two men he aims for the third on top of the stairs shooting him in the back multiple times. We can see the wounds as the man collapses and falls down the stair.

At this point we can clearly see how Coppola slowly introduced us to the violence of this part of the film.  At the begging all we see is a man shooting to the elevator, but when we see the other scenes there’s more and more violent, where at the end we see blood and lots of bodies on the stairs. The point of this is to show how a mass murder increases the brutality and viciousness of a shooting and create a more effective presentence of the whole situation. At the point where Michael says ‘I will’ and we see the baby there are shots from various angles showing most of the dead bodies left after the massacre, with a very similar framing kind of showing the ‘before and after’ effect, leaving everything quiet and peaceful just as we see Michael looking deep in thoughts at the candle as if knowing what had just happened. At the very end the priest ends his speech with the word ‘amen’ as if for the people that had just died. 

If that's ok I also wanted to analyse one of my favourite movie clips that is exactly the opposite of the godfather montage but at the end leaves us with the same emotions. 

Ida by Paweł Pawlikowski (2013) - The suicide

This clip has only three shots: one is a middle shot of the woman's back, sitting in a bathtub, then a close up of the her face and the other one is a long/long middle shot of her in a living room. As we can see she disappears ones or twice in the last shot that lasts almost a minute. The lack of any action, even from the camera, makes us a little anxious and we can sense that something is wrong but it's still a surprise when after a minute and twenty seconds the woman jumps out of a window. The simplicity and directness of these few shots leave us speechless as we look at now even more empty living room, listening to the music. 

    These two shots are a great example of a completely different editing with the same result in the final seconds- the peace after death. 

Editing video

2) Discuss what your preliminary exercise will involve – location, sequence of events, who will act etc.

location: A house in west London
sequence of events: A cousin of Annie (Alex) comes back from a visit from Australia. He seems nervous and then after as argument tell Annie that he decided to move to Australia.
Actors: Julia Baginska and Eric Wong 
Filmed: Amber Harford

3) Write a short script for the preliminary exercise.

the script

4) Write a shot list of every possible shot (and a few extra) you will need for this preliminary exercise.

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
1	Shot of the face, extreme close up	Yes
2	Mid. Shot on Annie	Yes
3	Tracking shot of Alex	Yes
4	Big close up on the handle of the door	Yes
5	Mid. Shot od Annie and Alex	Yes
6	Med. Long shot on the characters on the couch	Yes
7	Over the shoulder close up	Yes
8	Mid. Shot/close up on Annie and Alex when they’re talking	Yes
9	Tracking shot when Alex is standing up	Yes
10	Mid shot/mid long shot on Annie and Alex	Yes
11	Big close up of Annie	Yes
12	Close up of Annie	Yes
13	Mid. Shot of Annie	Yes

5) Draw a complete storyboard for the sequence you plan to shoot - every shot should be in there.

Cinematography final blog tasks

Task 2

Three Colours: Blue (1993), directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. 


1.How does the use of close-up shots enhance our understanding of the narrative?

For me the most interesting closeup was the one where we see a reflection of a doctor in characters eye. This shot shows the Point Of View shot, but actually recording an extreme closeup. 

The closeups made us feel more connected to the little girl, and when we see the boy that saw a car accident, when it actually happens, we only see the toy in his hand and hear the diegetic sound of the car crashing into the tree. It makes us feel like we are the character. 

2.Discuss the emotional impact of the sequence. How do the close-ups contribute to this? 

There were a lot of closeups that shows fear, curiosity and it makes us feel like there's an upcoming danger. 

Task 3

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (2006), created by Aaron Sorkin.

1.How is camera movement used to communicate the excitement and drama of live television?

The camera movements on the set are very stable and smooth, although when we change the shot to the backstage and monitor room there's a handheld camera to build up the tension, and let us know what the producers think of this situation.  From time to time the camera movements goes from what we see on the small camera monitor to an actual characters on the set. That might even be the POV of other cast sitting behind the camera. 

2.How are long shots and medium shots used to give the audience clues regarding the drama’s setting, narrative and character?

 The medium closeups on the producers is like a physical representation of us waiting for their decision. The long shots  show us how the characters are introduced to this situation. There're also a lot of low angle shots on the main character to show the attention and power that he had at that moment.

Task 4

13 Reasons Why (2017) created by Brian Yorkey.

1.How are tracking or dolly shots used in the sequence?

The tracking shot at the beginning are just to let us see what the main character is showing to the external students, but then it changes and we see the POV of the students watching the boy to show the audience that everyone in the hallway is paying attention to him. Then the dolly shots in the middle of the clip are middle closeups on the character to build the tension and to show that everyone is listening to him closely. At the end there's also a dolly long shot on the character looking as the boy is waling away which shows us that they are 'frozen' in place.

2.How are camera shots and angles used in the sequence and what might they communicate to the audience? 

The shots in the clip are mostly medium long shots, closeups and medium closeups. The camera comes closer to the main character when he talks about the events that happened at the school to build tension and to let the audience know that what he says is really important. 

Task 5

Citizen Kane (1940), directed by Orson Welles.

1.Discuss the various shots and camera movements and their effects.

There were some closeups and two extreme closeups, they were used to show the the sign 'no entrance' or the lips of the mane who spoke his last words and the reflection of a woman coming into the room. There were a lot of long shots there we see the house, the window and all other places.

2.How does the cinematography work with other aspects of film language you have studied to create meaning?

The track in the background and diegetic sound mach some of the shots and the prop that he dropped on the floor was then used with the reflection shot. 

Task 6 

Moulin Rouge (2001), directed by Baz Luhrmann

1.Comment on how the various shots and camera movements help to introduce the story.

We see a closeup at the beginning  on the main character writing a story. Then there's an extreme closeup on the words that his writing. While he's writing there are a lot of medium and long shots of his memories or how how he imagined it to be. Then there's a scene where we get a wide shot.

2.How does the cinematography work with other aspects of film language?

There's a lot of diegetic sound and and music in the background. Also there's a song at the beginning that mach the words that the main character types on the typewriter.