Editing Unit 12

The area of investigation that I will be writing about is how films use editing to help the
audience understand the storyline and how they use things such as transitions, effects and
colour grading to help set the scene and grab the audience’s attention. Hopefully by the end
of this research I will be able to understand many different techniques and skills that will help
my productions look more professional and become more advanced with my storytelling
skills via editing and effects. I have watched 3 films as well as 2 clips, the 3 films i have
watched i have written down timecodes of editing techniques and given my opinions on what
they have done in order to connect this to the audience and move the storyline along, the
three films i have selected from research and also recommendation is ; an american
werewolf in london, Dunkirk and Everything everywhere all at once, this is due to there
editing styles that i have researched and have good reviews about there editing and how
they emotionally connect to the audience via editing and effects.

I think that all of this research and analysis of the films will help me massively to become a
more professional producer and to improve my skill set when preparing for my final project. I
think that watching the films will help me get some ideas on what makes a production special
and to the next level and what creative editing techniques will help me adapt my productions
to enhance that emotional connection with the audience and make the audience find the
story easy to understand whilst making it interesting. I think that when it comes to becoming
a better producer and also a better film making you definitely need your editing and creative
skills to create a successful production, editing ties all of the work together and is a time to
become creative and tell the story through lots of transitions, effects and also lots more, you
need have a good understanding as a producer about editing in order to be able to piece all
of the clips and make them flow to the storyline as well as setting the scene and making
everything become understandable and to have some sort of purpose in the production so
therefore i think doing research and analysing many professional pieces of work and articles
will definitely help me learn, improve and adapt ready to put everything i have learnt to the
best of my ability in the final project.

I think that researching and finding out more about editing is extremely important for me as i
like to edit my productions with cool looking transitions to really grasp the audience's
attention as well as being able to create moods and the vibe of the storyline via editing so by
looking and getting information from professional editors and watching award winning editing
will hopefully expand my knowledge and help me get a better understanding when it comes
to editing my productions. Editing ties up the whole production and can determine the mood
you want in your production so it is vital to understand how to create certain atmospheres
and knowing how to flow a storyline and all of the clips to engage the audience and to make
the production exciting. I think that by analysing and learning more about editing it will
definitely tie my productions storys together and make them engaging for the audience to
watch and appreciate. This will make my storylines much more interesting if the editing is
more advanced and suited to creating an atmosphere that the audience can feel within the
narrative.
I have watched both an American werewolf in London and also everything everywhere all at
once which has a 40 year difference between them. When watching both of these films you
can massively tell the difference between the editing and how many different effects and
editing software has adapted as time has gone by. Transitions have changed massively with
an american werewolf in london using very basic transitions such as fade to black or just
simple fades and also basic cuts compared to everything everywhere all at once where there
are many different transitions such as speed ramping, zooms, reflections and lots more
different weird and quirky styles to match the weird vibe that are going for in the storyline
with all of the transitions to and from the multiverses. You can tell that american werewolf in
london didn't have as main editing effects and different effects to use, all of the editing
techniques are nailed on very well however they could only use basic transition s and really
relied more on the camera angles and shot types to tell the story rather than using editing
techniques, even things like the fade in fade out of the font at the start was very basic and
old style compared to now when watching everything everywhere all at once it it immediately
starts off tense with both happy and sad music to create confusion and set the strange tone
with a reflection on a mirror changing on and off, definitely more advanced to the older film
with it also using many different effects being used straight away which the older film
probably not have them sort of effects at their disposal. When comparing colour grading I
don't think that the American werewolf in London has any colour grading and is purely using
the authentic footage as they did not have that sort of editing software instead the focused
more on the lighting and the natural camera settings, compared to everything everywhere all
at once which has been able to use the latest technology and the best editing software which
has allowed them to capture a very mysterious and intriguing vibe to there production which
makes a big difference to the production compared to an american werewolf in london which
had to keep it all authentic and realistic.
An american werewolf in london is known famous for its wild costumes and how its been
made 100% practical making it one of the best for its time, i watched the film for myself and
wrote down some notes on the editing to get a good understanding on how they have
perfected the basics and how editing has adapted over time to nowadays. Right at the start
of the opening scene they use a very basic fade in fade out text with a very basic font
highlighting that the editing was going to be heavily relying on the lighting and the camera
work to tell the story and capture the emotion, the editing plays a part in this however with
them having to cut at the right time to keep the story moving and to keep it engaging
especially when the action happens as its a
horror film. In the first part of the action when the
werewolf attacks the man they use the cutting of
the footage very well as it shows off of the
emotion and panic of the character when he's
getting attacked. They also use the sound to
there advantage to create the suspense, the
sound is quiet basic but good for it time as sound
editing isn't as developed as it is now, they use
quite basic sound effects like at ‘11:15’ a thunder
sound effect was used to start off the weird vibe
and start the panic off of the 2 friends, things like
this have been executed well as it tell the story
and creates an atmosphere that the audience
can understand visually and also feel, in my
opinion an american werewolf is a great example
of perfecting the basics and also very creative
seeing as it's 100% practical however now
watching it from my perspective of 40 years later
it really highlights how they basics have been developed creatively in my various ways from
transitions to sound and how there is a lot more ways now to capture an audience and make
a specific emotion connection with the audience like everything everywhere all at once does.
This highlighted quote from the image next to this is from an article of an interview with John
Landis the director of an American werewolf in London where he talks about how he has
combined numerous animal sounds to make the wolf howl which I previously talked about.
This shows how they had to find numerous animal noises to combine and make one which
shows the effort they had to put in to find the best noise to create the atmosphere in the film
compared to today where it would be easy to find lots of different wolf howls or even can use
many different ways to use sound effects. I think that this also highlights the creativity i
talked about and how they had to be practical due to the times to create an atmosphere and
a successful storyline, this quote is just one of many examples that they probably had to go
through in order to get an effect which puts into perspective how much editing and sound
effects have developed 40 years later. In the next image they talk about how things have
changed with special effects since this film was filmed and how it's impressive that this film
was made 100% practical which i reflect on previously which highlights that i have similar
views to one of the actors in the film and how we both recognise how much editing has
adapted and changed since then yet i think that this film is a prime example of if you nail the
basics you can create something impressive so i will definitely use this knowledge to my
advantage by hopefully nailing the basics and then adapting and using all of the latest
editing software to nail the effects and transition and adapt the basics to make it an
impressive production. I think that an american werewolf in london sets examples and
principles that we see regularly used in today's films in the way they cut to and from clips to
help move the storyline accurately and and perfect timing to keep the audience engaged, an
example for this would be dunkirk and how they also use the different perspectives and cuts
to help tell the storyline, also the use of sound effects is a staplemate in telling the story and
creating certain moods and feels in films with an american werewolf in london nailing this
from the thunder changing the mood and starting the tension to the werewolf howling aswell
creating suspense.

Everywhere everything all at once is a prime example of modern editing and using all sorts
of editing techniques to their advantage to project to the audience a mysterious, creative and
strange vibe via lots of editing such as special
effects, cool transitions and lots more like sound.
They use all sorts of editing to tell the storyline and
to highlight the idea of the multiverse to the
audience to make it sort of make sense. From the
start (0:00 to 3:00) it opens with a strange
combination of sad and happy music to
immediately create confusion as well as the editing
visuals of the mirror reflection changing from
normal to something different maybe the
multiverse to create tension and immediately set
the tone, this small sequence in the film at the start
straight away really shows how much editing has changed since an american werewolf in
london and how much more you can do with effects and different things to create a different
and unique atmosphere compared to the basic editing and practical effects used 40 years
ago. When seeing how editing has adapted it will help me alot to become creative and use
these different effects and transitions to my advantage to home in onto a specific message I
want to send to the audience and for what I want them to know about the storyline. Another
big difference is things such as colour grading to tell the story in a different way and to move
the storyline along by setting a mood by colour grading is something I definitely will use and
take on board as I think it's a very effective editing technique for telling a story. In an article
made by inverse with the film editor of this film they talk about the editing and the behind the
scenes, one quote “each transition was treated as a unique thing” i agree with and think that
when watching this film you can tell that that the transitions are very weird and complex to
match the vibe of the storyline and also the editing techniques used for the transition are
different and well suited to the strange multiverse idea. (https://youtu.be/23TfH_xBNyY) This
video is perfect for understanding my analysis and the way I talk about the idea of using all
of the unique transitions and sound to tell the storyline. In the youtube video they go through
a bit of one of the scenes at the start and talk about why they used that specific sound or
transition to tell the story and to engage the audience, for example they talk about how the
shift in sound slowly changing and getting more intense captures the moment and change
into a sci fi and how they go into the multiverse and the action starts. I think this video is also
a great example of how much editing is advanced and how much more you can now do with
editing compared to 40 years ago. They talk about how they have used lots of different
effects such as speed ramping in the production to get the best out of the transition and the
concept of transitioning into the multiverse, the smooth creative transitions that are very
modern and produced to a high standard is what really moves the storyline and idea of the
weird tension going to and from the multiverse.

In Dunkirk to make the storyline make sense and flow the had to cut each scene perfectly to
make it make sense whilst keeping the audience engaged on the land, sea and sky journey
through the part of the war. They don't use flashy editing techniques or weird transitions as
that's not the vibe of the story however they nail the basics perfectly whilst also have very
smooth transitions from one journey to the
other of either land, sea or air. In a youtube
video with the dunkirk editor lee smith he
explains how he had to really think about
when he was cutting to and from the
different journeys to keep it making sense
with the audience as another one of his
priorities was making an edit the audience
could easily follow and understand to feel
the emotions. Lee smith says that he
created numerous edits till he got the perfect formula of cutting to the different perspectives
of land, sea and air and how trying to find the best flow was the hardest challenge of the edit.
In my own analysis of the film Dunkirk I think that the smooth transitions from perspectives
are really clever and work really nicely to keep the story following whilst also not going to
flash with the transitions so it still has a realistic feel to the film making the audience feel
emotionally connected. I think that the colour grade that the have used in dunkirk has given
a very realistic feel to the film that the audience can connect with and feel throughout the
film, this is a fairly modern editing technique that films previously analysed such as an
american werewolf didn't have to their disposal and had to use lighting and other different
elements to give the horror vibe, compared to dunkirk where they can use an accurate
colour grade that will instantly tell the audience the time period the producer whats the
audience to recognise, many other elements complement this idea as well that aren't so
much editing orientated. The audio is very crisp and clear in Dunkirk with all of the sound
effects having a purpose to the film and to tell the storyline, they would have had to be edited
extremely accurately in order to keep the audience engaged and to keep the realistic feel of
a war film. The film was shown in aspect ratio as well which I think is a really cool feature
that enhanced the mood of the film and puts more of a focus on the film that is being shown
but also I think it makes it look more professional and helps the audiences focus on the
storyline.

Overall I think that editing has definitely become much

more advanced since films such as an American
werewolf in London were made from software to the
ability to create amazing creative transitions that was
shown off perfectly in everything everywhere all at
once and all of the other cool special effects that wasn't
at an american werewolves disposal 40 years ago. I
think that things such as colour grading have advanced
and been used a lot more as films got newer. I think
the colour grading really adds emotion and atmosphere
to the film and has been perfected in recent times and
is used in almost most top level films, it added a lot of
emotion to dunkirk as it clearly told the audience what
the time period was and then also when it was used in
the flashbacks in everything everywhere all at once it
clearly told the audience that it was a flashback. Films
nowadays are much more technically advanced compared to 40 years ago and are much more
creative because of the unlimited possibility and creativity being at filmmakers disposal and are able
to tell stories much better because of this, everything
everywhere all at once wouldn't have been a good film if it
was made back when american werewolf in london was
made because they would have been able to use all of the
different effects and transitions to create the multiverse
storyline and wouldn't have had as clear of a storyline as it
does today due to the effects and editing used. This research
has been extremely helpful when thinking about my final
project and how i can tell a creative story complimented by
all of the editing techniques and transitions and effects i can
use, for example i am definitely planning on using colour
grading and aspect ratio to intensify the atmosphere and
storyline to emotionally connect to the audience the way
dunkirk grips there audience because of these features. I
also i'll definitely learn some cool transitions that match the vibe of my storyline and add them to my
final major project as it will make it more professional and help move the narrative along. I think that
the flashbacks in my last production could have possibly had heavier colour grading to create the
flashback narrative even better and also aspect ratio would have been a really nice feature to include
as I think it helps grip the audience and get their attention. I think that an american werewolf in london
has also showed me that i should use all the effects and other advanced editing techniques that i can
ue to my advantage as it will make my storyline even better and more modern, also i think this film
has made me understand how important the basics such as knowing when to cut from clip to clip at
the right time and also using sound to tell stories because once you have a great foundation of basics
like an american werewolf in london i can then adapt it and make it cooler with the modern editing
techniques. Overall this research has helped me to understand all of the editing techniques to a
deeper level and how to tell a story by using these techniques and is research i will definitely use to
my advantage and help it propel me to make a successful storyline that is creative and ambitious
whilst also not being over complicated and having a clear storyline