Film Editing

On the 11 th of December we were guest treated by a film editor named Laurie McDowell who came to talk to our media class about the illusion film art of editing for films and music videos. It was a very informal discussion on the concepts of editing itself such as how editing is used to tell the story using thetransitions of clever editing techniques like action match to smooth the audience from one cut to another and the important understanding of how editing is an illusionary film art that cuts to where it really counts of the drama in between the dialogue.

The most important comment that I found was to film a sequence several times from different camera angles so as not to bore the audience with a still frame of the performance and continuity editing.

He also explained the use of editing in music videos to engage and distort the audience but stressed the importance of cutting with the music, beat and lyrics with graphic images and creating escapism through the music with fast pace action.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Mise-en-scene/ Narrative

The opening sequence is an enigma because it draws the audiences attention to whats happening and put them into a state of mystery so the audience can suss out the story. It adds mystery to the story as the audience has had a taster on first impressions from the title scenes, it looks like a spy film because the opening credits are similar t that of James Bond.

One of the main narrative agents that drive the story forward is the magic trick part as it attracts the audiences attention as its a tense scene and gives a sense of danger as someone's life is in the balance. It conforms to the enigma formula as the setting of the first scene misleads the audience to what the stories about.

Setting
The opening sequence looks like it is set outdoors in a back garden. In the first scene the colour looks dated and old which gives the impression that its a passage in time. The opening scenes are abstract as they are animated and it tries to tell the course of the story. The opening scene setting is unexpected because it contrasts from the title of the film, when you hear Kiss Kiss Bang Bang you expect it to be more than a magic trick in a back garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjW95XLN9tE