5030 Greg Bernstein: Editing (Stage 3)

Early Soviet Cinema

Next, we explored how we could put Early Soviet Cinema editing techniques into practice. To create the montage effect which incorporated the fast cuttings/splicing/editing of sequences and individual shots we used 5 main techniques:

1. Zooming in/cropping part of the shot

2. Flipping the image either horizontally or vertically

3. Altering the brightness/contrast/colour of the image

4. Increasing the speed in a part of one shot

5. Cutting a single shot into random separate sectors and re-ording the 'blocks' into an non-chronologial order

By combining the five techniques above, we were able to create our desired jerky/distorted shots like the sequence of images below:

By animating this sequence in the space of 2 seconds using splicing, we were able to create a creepy flashing sequence of the music box, that correlated to the beat and sound of the music.

Just Red

Like in 'I Am Not A Robot' by Marina and the Diamonds (a music promo that has inspired us during the research period), we want to use a consistent motif throughout the video of just the red colouring in an image to be highlighted whilst every other shade in the frame to be black and white. This is because we feel the colour red is a very strong and bold colour that leaves an 'imprint' in people minds, and the colour red itself has strong significance to our climax; the males bloody death. By regularly using this effect on important symbols and images throughout the video, we hope the audience will be able to link up those particular shots in a sense of narrative and understand their relevance in the lead up to the climax. To create this effect, several editorial tools and skills are needed:

1. Just pass red – enhances and isolates red colouring, leaving rest of picture black and white

2. Lighting distortion – highlights certain parts of the image leaving others in darkness

3. Brightness and contrast – increases natural wash of image

4. Dust and scratches – Sharpens and smoothens image from excessive editorial manipulation

5. Horizontal and vertical flipping – rotates, reverses, and flips the image

6. Crop and zoom – only certain part of shot in the frame, either enlarging or decreasing real size

7. Saturation levels – adjustment of colour strength and boldness

Below are still screenshot images of the outcome:

Finger Sequence