Krystal Hadley

Intro to Digital Film

Comparative Analysis

Blink and Eternal Sunshine would definitely come off as being two separate pieces of

media that lacks a form of connection. While Blink itself does goes into the detail about editing

digital film and the importance of each layer of it, one can argue that Eternal Sunshines editing

seems to contrast the ideas that Blink itself set into motion. It is an idea that I would have

personally agreed with had I not took the time to actually pay attention to the editing style of

Eternal Sunshine or focused on what I have taught in Digital Film. The question does remain

what connection does Blink have with Eternal Sunshine? Watching Eternal Sunshine while

comparing it to Blink, it would appear that Blink allows us to be able to understand while the

Eternal Sunshine was set up the way it was set up through the use of the Rule of Six that was

used by the editors of the movie.

Before we talk about the connection between Eternal Sunshine and Blink, its best to

explain what exactly the Rule of Six is. In Blink, Walter Murch states that an ideal cut (for me)

is the one that satisfies all the following six criteria at once: 1) It is true to the emotion of the

moment; 2) it advances the story; 3) it occurs at the moment that is rhythmically interesting

and right; 4) it acknowledges what you might call eye-trace-the concern with the location

and movement of the audiences focus of interest within the frame; 5) it respects planarity-

the grammar of three dimensions transposed by photography to two (the questions of stage-

liner, etc); 6) and its respects the three-dimensional continuity of the actual space (where

people are in the room and in relation to one another) (In the Blink of the Eye 18). This can be

simply summarized as 1) emotion, 2) story, 3) rhythm, 4) eye-trace, 5) two-dimensional plane of

screen and 6) three-dimensional space of actions. This is being brought up in relations to

Krystal Hadley
Intro to Digital Film

Eternal Sunshine as the movie does the Rule of Six with the emphasis of the first three being

more important in making the film itself works. A good scene to show this is a scene where the

Joel is chasing after Clementine after hurting the females feelings. As Joel is chasing her, the

scene opens up into a wider shot and we are introduced to the concept of looping. As the

camera pans to the left and right of the area, we soon realize that the environment itself is

looping itself. We, as the audience, experienced the confusion that Joel himself feels when he

noticed the looping occurred. We can also feel his character feel the same frustration upon the

annoyance of continuous looping and crave a desire for the character to actually succeed in

pushing past the looping. This is essential as emotion is one of the key things that is essential

when it comes to the editing of film in the words of Murch.

The emotion isnt the only thing that looping helps us establish. Looping in the Eternal

Sunshine also helps in creating the story and the rhythm of the film. Murch states that the cut

represents a total instantaneous displacement of one field of vision with another, a

displacement that sometimes also entails a jump forward or backward in times as well as

space (In the Blink of an Eye 5). It should be noted that the displacement of the image is

neither motion nor change of context, and the collision of these two ideas produces a mental

jarring-a jump- that is comparatively disturbing (In the Blink of an Eye 7). A cut is simple but

essential technique in film making for a cut allows for a change in scenario or the movement

through an idea to another. A cut can be represented and used in many ways. For the Eternal

Sunshine, this cut is a quick one that drags the audience into the next loop. The loop and the ct

are tied together in a way it pulls up into what could be known as a seamless cut. This is due to

the fact that the idea of a Eternal Sunshine is that it represents memories. The loop is our
Krystal Hadley
Intro to Digital Film

recollection of memories while the cut is those memories being removed. The idea of

memories is a key plot point of the movie because we have Joel who initially wants his

memories removed only to find that he wish to avoid that after seeing how beautiful his

memories with Clementine are. This further can be explained with what the author of Blink

said. Walter Murch states that the goal of narrative films is much more complicated because

of the fragmented time structure and the need to indicate internal sense of being, and so it

becomes propositionally more complicated to identify what is a bad cut (In the Blink of an Eye

11). These fast cuts arent bad cuts and are cuts that aid in the fragmented time structure the

movie establish and build from the beginning of the movie and pulls together to the end. Its

what Eternal Sunshine relies on to tell its story.

What in the Blink does is to give the reasons why Eternal Sunshine was created the way

it was. Eternal Sunshine is build off the concept of memories and what its like to have those

memories removed. Some may argue that in a way its an experimental piece. This can be

shown by the fact the lightning doesnt quite feel polished when you compare it to films of a

similar time. This is not to say that the lightning itself is bad as there are moments where the

lightning does play with the mood and tone of the character within the scene. However, in my

opinion, the lightning doesnt really seem to be the center theme when it comes to the making

of Eternal Sunshine. It comes down to the editing technique pushing the importance of

emotion, story and rhythm to draw out the connection we have for Joel and the other

characters that are within the scene. Even with the almost fictional setting that centers around

the unrealistic nature of how memories can simple be removed, it does make it more of a

effective movie than a simple, linear one.