It Felt Like A Kiss & Odessa Steps scene

For our next assessment we will need to use pace to get a good mark. We are going to be making a 4-5 minute Conspiracy film that needs to demonstrate a good pace. To help with this, we were shown some videos in Post Production Lecture which show pacing.

Adam Curtis - It Felt Like A Kiss - River Deep Montage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixPGcPxqDkg

This film is similar to what we are creating for our conspiracy theory edits. It's used completely of other peoples footage, it's used with a lot of historical footage. It has a good use of pace and this film uses juxtaposition to convey messages across to the viewer. The editing here is very fast pace and each cut looks very smooth because it's cut to motion, which helps the edit to look more professional. For example at 0:29 in this video the edit gets a faster pace but each clip looks like it flows well and it doesn't jump out at the viewer, the edit looks vey natural. It is important to note that every single shot has been cut to motion, cutting to motion is for editors because it's what creates pace and it adds to continuity.

For example, these two shots juxtapose because we are first shown what appears to be an interview where a political figure could be telling lies, and this shot cuts to a gun being loaded. Cutting to the shot of a gun shows that there is danger in the world.

Another example of Juxtaposition in this film, we are shown a shadowed figure hiding behind the door of an elevator and the shot cuts to a Policeman with his hand up as if he is telling someone to leave or not take pictures. I think that these two images show how things go on in the world behind our backs and when we question it we are refused to be told anything.

In this edit Adam Curtis is showing different events all at once and he cuts to clips which show things which aren't very nice to say something about the world. In my opinion I think he is trying to say how the world is corrupt, and he is trying to express what it would be like to see everything that goes on in the world including the bad parts. Below are some images of clips that stood out to me.

We are shown a cut of a chalk outline of a body, someone placing a gun into a drawer, a hospital stretcher. Armed soldiers wearing gasmasks and a nuclear denotation, all these shots are very historical today. As we can see from these images, they are all negative. The quick cuts of this video really give the impression that there is so many bad things going on, but we just don't notice them. By only showing the viewer negative images they become convinced that there is bad things going on in the world.

Looking into films like this will be important for starting our Conspiracy Theory Edit. We have been asked to create a 4-5 minute film focusing on a conspiracy theory and we need to use editing to make the argument convincing.

Battleship Potempkin - Odessa Steps scene (Einsenstein 1925) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps-v-kZzfec

We saw this scene in Post Production lecture and it was useful to see because of it's historical importance and this scene has had a huge influence on film today. At it's time, this would have been a huge advancement in film technology.

Here is an example of two images which juxtapose in this film, first we see the baby's carriage roll down the steps and the next shot is of the solider walking down the steps in unison. The baby's carriage represents fragility and fear, but the soldiers represent the opposite and they represent fear and danger. I find that it's quite interesting what Sergei Einstein has done with this film.

By looking at this film, this has helped me to further understand Juxtaposition. I will need use Juxtaposition in our Conspiracy theory edit.