Editing: Blog Task :)

 Your final analytical blog task is to find a film or television clip on YouTube that you feel has been edited in a distinctive way and write a 750 word analysis of the clip

Spider-man

In the first 30 seconds of this clip, we can see the evident demonstration of straight cut transitions which allows the audience to easily follow the narrative due to the logically placed shots. These logically placed shots allow the audience to automatically make sense of the shots and the order in which they occur which leaves no opportunity for confusion for the audience to attempt to figure out what is happening. After Peter Parker sees Mary Jane walk away, there is a wipe transition which has been done in a very clever way by presenting the image that is wiping across the scene as the newspaper that Peter Parker is looking through in the next scene. The specific use of this image for the wipe emphasises the significance of this newspaper on this character- this is soon after confirmed by the fact that it was the newspaper that inspired the Spider-man costume. As he is flicking through the newspaper, the pace of the editing becomes faster and perhaps this is to replicate quickening of pace of Peter’s heart as he becomes increasingly excited about buying a car to impress the girl that he likes. However, the most distinct editing technique in this scene is the montage of Peter Parker sketching costume ideas for Spider-man’s suit. This montage has a fast pace, and this perhaps reflects the rush of ideas going through Peter’s head and how he is rushing to get them all down so that he doesn’t forget anything. We are able to successfully determine that this is a montage because of the dissolve transitions between shots that signify that time is passing but we can also see that a message is trying to be conveyed- perhaps in this scene, the message trying to be conveyed is that Peter is trying to sketch ideas for his suit. After Peter has looked through the newspaper, we get a shot of Mary Jane (his crush) dissolving into the scene as well as the car that he wants to buy to impress her. This is relatively significant because it shows that Peter was thinking about her when he got inspired to create the suit. Again, this has been intentionally done in order to emphasise the significance of this girl on Peter’s life as she is the reason that he created the suit in the first place. 

In regard to other aspects of film and language, we are able to see the deliberate use of different camera shots- for example, as Peter Parker is looking through the newspaper, we can see several extreme close-ups which successfully emphasises the idea that the audiences’ attention is being brought to the prices of the cars. There is one specific extreme close-up that is very important for this movie which is the one of the advert that says “AMATURE WRESTLERS $3000!”. The extreme close-up on this particular advert strongly emphasises the importance of it (we see later in the film that this advert is very significant in the movie because it is the advert for the event that Spider-man’s name and costume is revealed). There is also a zoom into a different part of the same advert and perhaps this zoom in signifies the increasing significance of this event as the movie goes on. As Peter is trying to sketch ideas for his suit, there is a zoom on his face as the scene is getting closer to the end and perhaps this increasing close-up of his face replicates how he is getting closer to the final and perfect idea for the suit. Throughout the entire scene, there are only ever close-ups or medium close-ups on Peter Parker, so this is able to strongly indicate the fact that he is the protagonist of the movie and there is a constant significance and responsibility placed on him because he is a hero (referring to Propp's character theory)- this could also suggest the fact that there is always an eye on him (whether that is the antagonist of the movie keeping an eye on him so that he can try defeat the hero or the civilians that depend on Spider-man to help keep them safe). The parallel sound that is playing throughout the montage is upbeat music and perhaps this signifies the excitement that Peter is feeling as he is creating his suit because once he became satisfied with the product, the music carried on but was not as upbeat as it was throughout the montage which may signify a sense of relief that he feels that he created the perfect suit.