How to Cut
For my final project I will be expanding on the idea of the importance of the cut in film. Humor will be used throughout this piece as it is natural that when a cut is made incredibly incorrectly it can create the complete wrong effect and it will make the film look funny and out of place. Another reason humor is used is to make it easier to recreate some of the more intense action sequences. Where it is impossible for me to create intense action shots that are shown in some of the examples, I can use other techniques that will give off the same style and effect but will have more of a playful humorous aspect.
I will be basing the theories that I present, on the readings that have been discussed in class. Delueze will be a primary example through his book, Cinema 1: The Movement Image. Other resources that I am using are the documentary The Cutting Edge and the book “In the Blink of an Eye” by Walter Murch.
To exemplify these ideas I planned to recreate famous movie cuts. This will help to show the concepts that I am discussing so that the viewer can better understand what is being discussed. Famous cuts that are recreated are the match cut scene from Lawrence of Arabia, where the cut is made seamlessly while the character is lifting their arm to blow out a match. Another famous scene is the fast cutting used in Psycho, from the infamous shower scene. For the example of Eyeline match another Hitchock film will be used, from his famous film Rear Window. This film frequently shows the lead character looking off screen and then cutting towards what he is looking at.
