In the beginning, the first known use of editing was attempted by a man named Edwin S.
Porter. Porter began using editing in 1896 with projections movies at first. With his engineering skills and interest in film making he was the first documented user of editing. Whilst working as a projectionist, one of Porter’s many duties included the illegal duplication of Melies films.
He would take apart one act reels and combine several of these into a fifteen minute program. (www. earlycinema. com) This is the birth of editing.Now we use techniques such as 180 degree rule, cross cutting, cutaway, and dissolve just to name a few.
(www. hubpages. com) More and more use of cross cutting editing is prevalent in today’s’ films because they are great for actions scenes especially. In Crash (2005) this is the editing practice used the most although it’s not an action packed movie. These seamless cuts from scene to scene make for the illusion of time passed and plot development. This film also uses quick takes a lot as well, cutting to the next scene almost instantly with no delay.
For this film, quick takes are especially useful to demonstrate the tension and direction from scene to scene. The director does an excellent job manipulating the viewers’ feelings by, in almost every scene, having very racially different actors and actresses portraying the racial indifference and stereotypes discussed in our society today. This intensifies almost every scene with tension and the feeling in some viewers’ eyes that “I’ve been there” feeling. In almost every scene the director utilizes the use of visible sound.The direct sound the audience needs to hear is doming mainly from characters in each scene. This movie also has a few scenes where invisible sound is used but it is at a minimum.
The music chosen for this film in some scenes illustrate the director’s intent on bringing out the drama in this film. In the scene where the black couple is harassed by the police, soft opera music is played to illuminate the tension on screen between the actors. This is just one example of many in which the director uses music and tone to illuminate to the viewer that climax or action on screen.
