https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D_cjgWsAAM (drag racing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KVmAagBsj8 (fairly legal)
Friday, March 28, 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014
My Thoughts On Linearity
Thoughts on
Linearity
Before non-linear editing started around the
1990’s, there was linear editing.
Linear video editing is defined as a “video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images
and sound in a predetermined, order sequence. Regardless of
whether it was captured by a video camera, tapeless camcorder, or recorded in a television studio on a video tape recorder the content must be accessed sequentially."
Non-linear editing (NLE) is
defined as “a method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip regardless of sequence in the clip. The freedom to access any
frame, and use a cut-and-paste method, similar to the ease of cutting and
pasting text in a word processor, and allows you to easily include fades,
transitions, and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing.”
For the most part video editing software has replaced linear editing; software programs such as Avid
and Final Cut Pro (FCP).
Being
able to juxtapose and manipulate images (NLE) helps us as editors create
stories and develop characters in film. Editors are the true story tellers.
Sure we have the director who directs the type of image and motions he/she
wants captured on film or the camera crew that captures the image that attracts
our eyes, but it’s the editors that sew together the story. With non-linear
editing you are able to pick and choose which scenes or moments you want to use
in your film. That way you can have multiple takes and choose which one you
think fits best. Being able to pick a choose from a plethora of images, rather
than taking one shot and trying to match it perfectly to the image you filmed
before and hand cutting it perfectly using film, and juxtaposing them makes it
easier to edit film. Plus you can create the perfect moment/scene. Say if the
actor says one line great and the others not so great in one take and they say
the other lines better in the other; the editor can just mesh the two together
to create a great scene.
In films such as Night and Fog (Resnais, 1955), a documentary, and JFK (Stone, 1991), a drama history
thriller, demonstrate the different possibilities linearity can create. In Night and Fog (Resnais) is a short
documentary film about “The history of
Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of
dehumanization and death contained inside.” By using archived footage and
juxtaposing them a certain way the editors created a powerful film. I felt
myself looking away from the screen for a brief second when the scenes became
too powerful. Images do speak louder than words. Sure they had a commentator
for the film, but when you see the piles of dead bodies being pushed around by
plows like they were garbage and the other decrepit bodies, it evokes different
emotions such as sadness. Rather than a documentary film, JFK (Stone), a feature length film, a film about “a New Orleans District Attorney discovers there's more
to the Kennedy assassination than the official story,” Stone created a
film by utilizing actors, rather than archived footage, to create scenes that evoke
different responses about a historical happening. Stone is
able to manipulate time by using flashbacks, going against linearity, to create scenes that are key in the film.
Night and Fog and JFK
Night and Fog, a documentary about the holocaust, and JFK, a film based around true events, both display how editing plays a major role in the outcome and overall feel of a film. For me I felt like night and fog made more of an impact on we while watching it and made me think a lot about the time period. The footage is so raw and real it takes you to a very deep and emotional place. Night and Fog was also much more fact based while JFK was built up with conspiracy theories. One of the most powerful images used in Night and Fog to me was the shot of the bodies being dumped into a hole like garbage. This film also had very light music in the background that made it seem like it wasn't going to get as graphic as it did.
JFK was a film made based around the assassination of John F. Kenndy. I have seen the film before and do quite enjoy it. This film uses more actors to recreate the time period unlike Night and Fog, but there are some clips from the actual time period thrown in which I thought brought the movie to the next level. This movie stars an amazing cast and makes you really think about the whole assassination from every angle. It is smart and well formed, so that us as the audience remain interested.
JFK was a film made based around the assassination of John F. Kenndy. I have seen the film before and do quite enjoy it. This film uses more actors to recreate the time period unlike Night and Fog, but there are some clips from the actual time period thrown in which I thought brought the movie to the next level. This movie stars an amazing cast and makes you really think about the whole assassination from every angle. It is smart and well formed, so that us as the audience remain interested.
Night and Fog
This was my first time watching Night and Fog, and i have alot to say about this film. First off it was a very powerful by using only videos to make you understand what pain and suffering those people when through. For those who haven't seen the film, Night and Fog is a short documentary on the views inside of the concentration camps that the nazis controlled. Still from this day on i can still picture so clearly all of the most powerful scenes in that short film, and i can only imagine the terror the people that survived the camps still see. Not only were the images powerful, the way they were cut also helps power the film even more. For example when the film shows where the trains full of crammed box cars come in to the camp in the present day and then switch over to when it actually happened. Cutting it this way really makes you feel scared just as the people who lived though it did. Aside from the cuts, the clips in general from when they pushed bodies into giant holes still are stuck in my mind forever. No matter if it was the way the editors cut the film or their clip selection, they still can get their point across in this film, and thats what they did. Night and Fog will always remind me of what happened in those horrible camps, no matter if i watch it again or not.
Night and Fog
It's unsettling to watch a movie with complete uncensored gore, but even more so when the footage is of true events. I think it's safe to say the majority of the worlds population knows something or another about the holocaust and with that said, I also think it's kind of a challenge for the filmmaker to produce the "story" of the genocide in a way that's unseen and will capture the full magnitude of the events. Night and fog depicts these events, personally for me, in a way that hasn't been told before. From past films and pictures I've encountered about the holocaust and about the concentration camps in particular, I always came away with a sympathetic outcome. You get a sense of the humanity among the people, you feel for them, and yet that's all that happens- merely feeling sorry for them and what they endured. What night and fog does, is it allows you to see actual footage from the camps when they were active, but also footage of the camps years after they closed. You see footage of living human beings in a perpetual state of fear, then all of sudden a barren field with sparse flowers is in front of you. Whether intentional or not, the editing of this film creates a foreshadowing, if you will, from physically seeing living human beings, to an empitness with zero humanity. It subconsciously prepares you for the scenes where the footage cuts back to those same people that were just breathing not 10 seconds before hand, to now, having their lifeless bodies bull dozed into a pyre- as if their physical being is no better than a pile of dirt. This is where I think the film is set apart. The non-linear editing allows to you create a sort of bond with the people, although the outcome is already known. You can sympathize with them, not showing their corpses can allow a "reassurance" that maybe they made it out- but then cut to a literal mountain of human hair, souls walking into a gas chamber and the piles upon piles of rotting corpses, you take away that sense of humanity and replace the viewers sympathy with utter horror. The magnitude of the events that took place actually become real. On another note, I think the black and white gives the film a sort of old, ominous feel. The absence of color can sort of detach the viewers reality of the scenes they're watching- add color and you get another- 'holy shit this literally happened'- moment.
http://youtu.be/j1VL-y9JHuI - the link is to a scene from Schindlers List, if you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend. This particular scene is one where people are literally being massacred in the streets, Jews are being lined up, one in front of the other, and shot in the head to see how many can be killed at once, as a game. It's literally sickening, yet with all that going on, a little girl in red is walking through the streets and it's as if she's the only one you care about. You see her and all that comes to mind is ' PLEASE don't kill the little girl in red '. I think this is a great example of how color too, can have a monumental impact on an already grave scene.
http://youtu.be/j1VL-y9JHuI - the link is to a scene from Schindlers List, if you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend. This particular scene is one where people are literally being massacred in the streets, Jews are being lined up, one in front of the other, and shot in the head to see how many can be killed at once, as a game. It's literally sickening, yet with all that going on, a little girl in red is walking through the streets and it's as if she's the only one you care about. You see her and all that comes to mind is ' PLEASE don't kill the little girl in red '. I think this is a great example of how color too, can have a monumental impact on an already grave scene.
Night and Fog
Night and Fog is a moving French documentary that moves through the concentration camps retelling the horrific events that happened inside their walls during World War II. The film itself switches from "current" footage of the camps as they were when the film was being produced, to images and old reels showing the raw documented footage of the horrors that existed inside the barbed wire. The documentary used the images to full portray the events that the narrator was recanting. As with most narrated biographies or documentaries like this one, the main focus of the editors and producers were on the images themselves and not the sounds. Through the use of images, the viewers brain saw the calm colored images of a compound with grass growing on the ground and vines climbing up the walls of the cold buildings. Then the screen would be cut and revert to different older footage from the time when the camp was in operation. Through this non-linear way of cutting the footage, the viewer would continuously have the awareness of the emaciated people who were once walking or working through unbearable conditions in the same area filled with color and plant life.
There was also a mixture of stagnant and moving clips giving a further enhancement to the pictures. Inevitably the picture enhanced and overshadowed the audio. Despite it's excellent work with image use, the audio was slightly overlooked and was definitely of a lesser quality than the image. The music is not composed as well as the video. For instance, when you first see the main gate entrance of the concentration camps the music is meant to portray horror. However, it comes of as just loud and off key, as if there was no real composition to the music clip. Throughout the rest of the film, there was no key musical timing that was as memorable as the images and maintained a relatively depressed tone. Even with lack luster audio, the film was brought up by the amazing quality of the footage taken. Night and Fog was truly able to immortalize the horrors of the concentration camps from World War II through it's memorable images and well composed narration.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Blog 2 Night and Fog
This was my second time watching the documentary Night and Fog. The first time I watched it
was when I was a senior in high school in my literature of the holocaust class.
Watching it for the second time was just as powerful as watching it for the
first time. Night and Fog was an
intense documentary during the Holocaust about the world inside the Nazi death
camps. The film showed a completely
different perspective with past and present images that were both haunting and
graphic. It’s still so shocking to me that this actually happened; that people
were starved, killed, and abused because of their views and beliefs. The film
opened up to present day at an abandoned concentration camp. All of the present
day shots were in color while the days in the concentration camp were in black
and white. It’s so common to use black and white to indicate the past with
images but it is still so influential on anybody who decides to watch. Just
staring at those images and knowing that they were once filled with innocent
prisoners was chilling. Then the film was so precisely edited with unsettling
pictures and footage. The first image that comes to mind when someone says Night and Fog is how the deceased were
treated. Their bodies never got to have a proper funeral; they were just tossed
away like garbage. I don’t understand how people can treat the dead like that.
It was a short documentary with a very large impact. The way the film was cut
and put together was one of the main reasons I believe it is so well known and
so powerful. The narration and the subtitles also helped the documentary reach its full potential.The images moved so fast but they will remain in my mind and never
be forgotten.
Night and Fog and JFK Documentary
The film Night and Fog, directed by Resnais, was an interesting and intense
documentary that really captivated and drew the audience’s attention. The use of real and raw footage from the
deserted concentration camps really made the documentary. The documentary is
haunting, but it is also a beautiful portrayal of the Holocaust. The use of
black and white images in the flashback of the concentration camps during the
Holocaust and the colored images of the deserted concentration camps really
draw the audience’s attention and have an impact of the destruction that the
Holocaust had caused. In addition to this, the use of both black and white
imaging and colored imaging made the documentary more intriguing and
captivating. The images used in the documentary were very powerful, and the
sequence of the images was very impactful as well. The sequence of the images was
powerful in its self that the narration, it can be argued, was in a sense not
needed. The narration of the documentary did not hurt the documentary, but it
did not help make the documentary more impactful or powerful. The narration of
the documentary was just simply a description of what the images were showing
the audience or quotes from the Nazis.
The documentary film about JFK is very
different in the use of editing and filming than the Night and Fog documentary. The JFK documentary was more like a theatrical
movie or film than real life footage. The footage still captured the real life
events and did an amazing job in doing so. The audience viewed it as if it were
filmed and screened right after the events. If this documentary were all real
or raw footage it would not have been the same or had the same impact,
arguably. The way the film was sequenced and portrayed helped in the
understanding of the film and played a big role in it. This was the same for
the Night and Fog documentary; the
sequence of the pictures enhanced and made the documentary powerful.
Sequence and music score has a lot to
do with the films and/ or documentaries as well. The score for the Night and Fog documentary for example
was rather upbeat at times and not sad or somber, like the viewer would think.
It contradicted the images that were displayed. If the music was sad and somber
it might not have had the same effect or given the viewer the same feeling
after watching it. The music score plays a part of the inner turmoil that the
viewer feels while watching the documentary because it contradicts at the end
of the documentary the viewer is left with feud of seeing horrible images and
rather upbeat music at times.
Night and Fog
The documentary Night and Fog is an extremely powerful and emotionally moving film that depicts the hellish horrors and terrors took place inside concentration camps during the Holocaust. The films images are what really create the sense of dread and pure sadness in the film. The films images by far over power the soundtrack of the film. The soundtrack to me seemed very contradictory. The music seemed out of place with the images that were being displayed on the screen. It seemed as if the music belonged in scenes where positive actions are being enacted. Since the music was out of place, it almost gave a creepy feel towards the film as well.
There were multiple times throughout the documentary that the disturbing images almost compelled me to look away. I think the most disturbing image was the forklift piling up the bodies and dumping them into a ditch as if they were garbage. It is horrifying that people were able to complete such tasks without any empathy whatsoever. There were multiple times where the images displayed on the screen made me overwhelmed with disgust and confusion. I was having a hard time grasping onto the fact that these things actually happened, and that's why this film was so powerful. The film acts a reminder of the tremendous amount of power a film can have on a audience.
An aspect of the film I found interesting was the use of color and black and white. The color was used during scenes from present day as the camera showed the concentration camps during the time the film was made. The black and white is then used for scenes showing the acts that happened during the Holocaust. This color usage has multiple effects, including that it helps distinguish past from present. When the film would change back to color, it almost gave me a sense of relief. The horrors being displayed during the Holocaust were so powerful at times, that the switch to color served as a reminder that these things were in the past. But, although the scenes brought relief, it also, in my opinion, carried another reminder that although the crimes are in the past, they are NOT forgotten. The abandoned concentration camps served as a basis to remember those who were brutally murdered there and that there deaths will never be forgotten.
This was one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. It's one of those films that has the ability to stick with you days after viewing. It definitely did so for me.
There were multiple times throughout the documentary that the disturbing images almost compelled me to look away. I think the most disturbing image was the forklift piling up the bodies and dumping them into a ditch as if they were garbage. It is horrifying that people were able to complete such tasks without any empathy whatsoever. There were multiple times where the images displayed on the screen made me overwhelmed with disgust and confusion. I was having a hard time grasping onto the fact that these things actually happened, and that's why this film was so powerful. The film acts a reminder of the tremendous amount of power a film can have on a audience.
An aspect of the film I found interesting was the use of color and black and white. The color was used during scenes from present day as the camera showed the concentration camps during the time the film was made. The black and white is then used for scenes showing the acts that happened during the Holocaust. This color usage has multiple effects, including that it helps distinguish past from present. When the film would change back to color, it almost gave me a sense of relief. The horrors being displayed during the Holocaust were so powerful at times, that the switch to color served as a reminder that these things were in the past. But, although the scenes brought relief, it also, in my opinion, carried another reminder that although the crimes are in the past, they are NOT forgotten. The abandoned concentration camps served as a basis to remember those who were brutally murdered there and that there deaths will never be forgotten.
This was one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. It's one of those films that has the ability to stick with you days after viewing. It definitely did so for me.
Night and Fog Documentary
The Night and Fog documentary is a very powerful documentary on the
Holocaust. It shows, by choice of image, the terrible things that have happened
to the people in the Holocaust. The narrator describes to the audience what is
being shown in each scene and image, but it isn't really needed in this film
because of how powerful the images truly are to the viewer. Image is an
extremely powerful medium. The images shown in the Night and Fog documentary were a very powerful and moving section
of the film. The images were more shocking and more intense than the audio
track itself. The fact that the documentary showed images in black and white,
and then in color and then back in black and white showed that although it
happened in the past, it can very well happen again; there is beauty in
everything even horrors such as the Holocaust. From most of the other
documentaries I've seen (mostly health food documentaries) the main story is
told by the audio track and spoken instead of this, which is shown. The
soundtrack of the documentary adds some creepy moments in the film. A beautiful
landscape in this documentary isn't what it seems. It has history, death and
sadness woven through it’s past. I wonder if the documentary didn't have any
sound at all, just how much more powerful the images would become because then
the viewer has to really think of what they are seeing, paying attention to all
of the fine details etc. Although in certain parts of the documentary, the
sound doesn't technically sound like it should be associated with the images
shown. For example, there are many parts where the soundtrack seems too “upbeat”
for what is actually being shown on the screen itself. Overall, the Night and Fog documentary was a very
powerful film that only really needed image to send its message across.
Linearity
Linearity
In a short scene of the movie M, directed by Fritz Lang, the editor demonstrates the parallel in time by using linearity and skillful juxtaposition. At first the editor establishes that it was the same time in both scenes. Several police officers were having a meeting to find a way to capture a murderer. At the same time a mafia and his crew had a meeting to catch the same murderer the police is looking for. With the manipulation of time, the editor skillfully juxtaposes between both scenes to capture the sense of similarity within both scenes. With this intercutting technique the editor was able to simultaneously capture the main points in each scene without seeming to lose time.
In the movie JFK there was also a strong sense of linearity. In the round table discussion scene the editor uses an intercutting technique to demonstrate several types of time period scenario. Throughout the discussion the editor cuts to a flashbacks that expresses the pass. At the same time the editor momentarily cuts to the present action of the round table discussion. There were also cuts that seem to be the present time, but a different scene where someone is putting together a photograph. This rapidly intense form of juxtaposition allows the audience to know what took place in the past and and what is takes place in the present at the same time. this process as one may see, represents the recollection process in someones mind. I felt like these cuts were rapidly place intentionally so that the viewer may not lose time and action.
In both movie scenes the manipulation of time was critical. As the editor it is your responsibility to keep the audience engage and on track of the action. Both scenes I believe surely demonstrates how important linearity is to filmmaking. This doesn’t only shows parallel times but also flashbacks, present alternate scenes and future actions. All of which is accomplished without losing the storyline of each scene.
Dananagelowe
Feel free to comment.
Also check out my Zero to Hero cut
http://youtu.be/75PjbFiM0ag
Night and Fog
Alan Resnais’ documentary Night and Fog is a hauntingly beautiful portrayal of the horrors of
the Holocaust. Unlike most
documentaries, the image track is much stronger than its soundtrack. The juxtaposition of the modern day color
footage and the black and white stock footage of the concentration camps are powerful
and show the destruction of the remnants of such an unimaginably horrible
place. In the majority of documentaries
the story is told rather than shown but for Night
and Fog, this is not the case. What
the narrator is saying throughout the film is somewhat insignificant in the
grand scheme of the film. He is merely
describing to the audience what we are seeing or what the Nazis for example are
talking about. Nothing more is really
added with the narration and the film arguably would be just as powerful, if
not possibly more, without it. The film’s
score on the other hand has a completely different meaning and purpose to
it. The score seems to contradict the
images the film shows and are at times completely ironic. For example, instead of a somber soundtrack
playing over the images of the dead concentration camp victims the film has an
upbeat, lighthearted, and arguably at times somewhat happy soundtrack. It is in complete contradiction of the viewer’s
own uneasy, and gloomy feelings while watching the film and the purpose of the
film score is probably to provide this complete inner turmoil. The viewer witnesses somber and completely
horrible images but is listening to a soundtrack that gives you a completely
opposite feeling and you are left with a feud of your senses.
While
Night and Fog may not be the norm for film documentaries, the way it was edited
makes it a complete work of art. Between
the juxtaposition of the color modern day footage and the black and white stock
footage, to the film’s happily eerie soundtrack, the documentary becomes
nothing less than completely memorable. Among
the film’s powerful images, what Night
and Fog leaves the viewer with is the most significant. In the end when not one perpetrator of the horrible
actions of the Holocaust claims responsibility it leaves the viewer with the
thought that what happened here can never happen again. For those who do not remember the past are
doomed to repeat it.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Resnais' Night and Fog
I think, Night and
Fog, perhaps unintentionally (perhaps not), captures, ultimately, the
problem of historicizing; this is, subjectivity, perspectivism—but,
furthermore, in extraordinary circumstances (the Holocaust being one of, if not
the most glaring), the signifiers of language cannot accurately represent
socio-historical moments the way in which film can. And, at times, it seems
Resnais does consciously address this notion: at the 26:41 mark, the narrator explains
that “words are insufficient.” His remark precedes six archival photographs,
close-ups of severed heads among them, before the dialogue returns: “from the
bodies they make soap.” Around the 27:00 mark, the narrator leaves his sentence
altogether incomplete: “as for the skin…” is completed (and, perhaps, can only
be completed) the way it is: panning across drawings upon dried-skin papers.
The film’s
release coincides with idealized post-war politics of progress—Germany is
prospering upon the illusion of temporal dichotomy, that the past has been
closed off and archived; and it has been archived—but Night and Fog subverts the notion that this archival footage signifies
closure—the binary bleeds. There are moments in the film, moments of
uncertainty, where the past/present, black and white/color dichotomy is broken
down, or at the very lease, blurred. At the 7:55 mark, Resnais presents us with
what appears to be his own footage, completely absent of the color which would
signify it as such. With this, as viewers, we’re placed “in one of those night
scenes so dear to a Nazi’s heart.” At this same moment, an apparent change in
the soundtrack occurs; so, while the image perhaps subverts this temporal
dichotomy, the soundtrack begins to reinforce it. Here, the change in
soundtrack is prompted (relatively speaking) by an edit-point. As the film
progresses, however, this isn’t always the case. More often than not, the music
begins to change within shots, and continues into the next edit (sonically
blending the archival footage with Resnais’ own).
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