Yotam Cohen Film Appreciation Essay #4

12/13/12

Editing is an integral part of the filmmaking process; in fact, the editor has almost as much influence on the final product as the director. Some would even argue that the editor has more influence. The director gives the editor the raw footage sometimes up to hundreds of hours of film so that he can cut it, pace it, and piece it together. The editor and director must work hand in hand and have the same vision in order for this process to work. Editing consists of managing the transitions, controlling the time of the film (pacing), and putting together the shots. Editing is also used to manipulate space and time, among other things. The editor can edit shots in a way that can completely alter our perception of space and/or time at that moment, which can have many uses in film. For instance, imagine a shot where a man is walking towards the camera, the editor can cut to a close up of the mans face or hands, thus slowing down the pacing and making the audience pay more attention to the man. This is a clue to the viewers that the man is an important character. By splicing short, quick shots together, the editor can compress time drastically. On the other hand, different types of slow motion techniques are also used to slow down time in films. The Matrix makes extensive use of time-altering techniques to do things like intensify emotion, exaggerate fatigue, suggest superhuman strength, and emphasize grace of physical action. The Matrix is a 1999 American action/science-fiction film directed and written by Andy and Lana Wachowski. The editing of The Matrix

trilogy was done by Zach Staenberg. In my opinion, The Matrix is a once-rarebut-increasingly-common type of movie in which not the actors, but the visual effects and editing are the true stars! Probably the most notable editing technique The Matrix is known for pioneering is bullet-time, which is a variant of standard slow-motion techniques. Bullet-time allows the viewer to explore a moment progressing in slow-motion as the camera seems to navigate the scene at normal speed. Staenberg uses this technique to emphasize the exceptional speed and agility of the main characters. The effect is introduced in the opening scene, when the camera orbits Trinity who is moving at near-normal speeds while everything else seems to be slowed down. Later in the film, in the scene where Neo and Trinity take on the entire squad of cops in that lobby, bullet-time is heavily used in all of Neos confrontations with the cops/agents to showcase his superhuman powers within the matrix. Bullet-time enables the viewer to see certain other shots in exquisite detail; such as the shot where Agent Smith is looking down at the path of bullets in the split second before it kills him, or the shot where you see the shower of empty casings raining down from Neos mini-gun fire. Its hard to deny that the extensive usage of bullet-time, well chosen visuals, and advanced editing techniques make The Matrix one of the most spectacular action movies of all time. The way Mr. Staenberg, along with many other assistant editors, created these effects was by modifying an existing photography technique known as time-slice photography. Briefly described, time-

slice photography is a process by which a large number of cameras are placed around an object and triggered virtually simultaneously. Each camera is a stillphoto camera, not a camcorder and so one round all the individual shots contribute to just one frame of the video sequence. When combined with some computer-generated-images and used in a motion-picture, the viewer sees all the collective two-dimensional slices of a three-dimensional moment. Pretty cool, huh? Andy and Lana Wachowski have established themselves as exceptional directors by pushing the boundaries of live-action films. They, along with the editors, have achieved this breakthrough by showcasing some visual effects never before seen to Hollywood, namely bullet-time in The Matrix, which was a highly innovative technique that they pioneered. I would give this movie a 10/10 and recommend it to anyone.