Task Ten - Understanding Pace

Throughout the making of a film the pace of editing can be used to create a range of effects and to engage the audience. 

The pace of editing is helpful when trying to engage the viewer. If the audience is not engaged with what is going on then they are unlikely to sit and watch it, and will go on to tell others of their experience. A way to make sure that they are engaged throughout can be done through a number of techniques, for example Speed of Editing. In a film each scene may last a matter of seconds or could continue for minutes but the length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along. By using Speed of Editing the audience can determine the mood of what is taking place on screen. If you want the audience to feel anxiety and suspense then the editing is likely to be quick, with each scene lasting a number of seconds for example in an Action movie. However if you want the audience to feel more relaxed then the scenes are likely to be longer, lasting minutes instead of seconds and change less frequently, for example a Romantic comedy. An example where this is used is The Notebook.

Cross Cutting can also be used to create a range of effects. This is when you deliberately cut from one scene to another to create tension or similar effects. This is mostly used when the filmmaker wants to create a sense of drama, this is most commonly used in horror movies, an example is the opening sequence to Scream. Cross Cutting allows the filmmaker to cut from one shot to another, normally to show different things happening simultaneously. This is generally used to build up tension and lead to the climax of the film. An example of this is the opening scene of Scream.

A cutaway shot is an interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else. By itself the cutaway doesn't create a lot of tension, but the editor uses it to make a longer sequence. Switching to another shot that is related to the main storyline helps to make the sequence longer, helping with the Speed of Editing. This relates to the Creating of Pace, making the shots longer helps to make the scene more relaxed and the audience don't expect anything. At this point the pace will be slower. However, if you start cutting from shot to shot the pace will be faster and suspension will start to build. 

Finally, the pace of editing is extremely effective with the Development of Drama. Normally when a film has little drama going on then the shots tend to be longer and last a number of minutes. This doesn't create much of an effect within the audience as they don't expect anything bad to happen. This makes it easier for the Development of Drama to begin as the audience will be completely unaware. As the drama builds up, the pace of editing will be a lot faster, with scenes lasting seconds, this helps to create the drama which the director intentionally wanted to happen. Therefore the pace and speed of editing is extremely important when making a good movie.