AS Film - more examples of editing

Here you will find some more examples of interesting uses of editing techniques to support the previous blog.

Examples are taken from Up, Kill Bill 1, and Casino Royale.

Up - directed by Pete Doctor and Bob Peterson (2009)

Forget that it is an animated film, this sequence uses every cinema trick in the book to wring out the emotion.

A beautifully constructed montage of how Carl and Ellie's relationship from the innocent first meeting as small, adventure-obsessed children, through to their marriage, moving into the iconic house, planning a family and the miscarriage, through to retirement, old age, and Carl, finally alone with his memories of Ellie.

Kill Bill: Volume 1 - directed by Quentin Tarantino (2003)

Two sequences from Tarantino's take on the martial arts genre.

In the first sequence, The Bride (Uma Thurman) battles to the death with schoolgirl assassin, Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama). The action and tension of the battle is reflected by the changes in pacing of the editing.

In the second sequence, The Bride now faces surely insurmountable odds against the might of the 'Crazy 88' yakusa martial arts assassins (the yakusa is the Japanese version of a gangster, and there is certainly more than just 88 of them which The Bride has to face). Again, the pacing of the editing reflects the movement and speed of the action, taking the sequence to an almost 'cartoon' level of violence and bloodletting.

Casino Royale - directed by Martin Campbell (2006)

A new Bond film - and a new Bond - needs to have a memorable opening, and this one makes sure the audience is firmly enthralled as our hero and his target battle their way to the top of a sky-scraper construction site, and then down again, ending in a explosive sequence finale in a police station. The rapid pace of the editing and the amount of individual cuts, adds to the thrill and tension of the action.