The movie clip I picked as a linear media clip would be the
film recognized as The Wizard of Oz (1939). The scene I felt that the editing
has made a significant contribution to the storytelling and the feel of the
piece is the Tornado Scene.
In the beginning of the film Dorothy is very uneasy and
fearful by just seeing her body langue and facial expressions. The animals are
panicking and running around, people from the farm yelling and panicking as
they see the tornado approaching closer. Everything is being blown away, such
as, the haystacks, trees; the objects around the farm and house are starting to
break apart. Dorothy knocks out for a while after a window hits her in the back
of her head. The house is lifted by the tornado and the music begins to get
cheerful, some parts of clips show some comedy: you see an old women in a wheel
chair whose knitting and is calm and cheerful just as the mans on the boat
rowing smile and wave, a women bike riding in the tornado then turns into a
witch. All of this contributes together
making this scene very thrilling.
The shots in this film are organized through their content,
composition, color, and movement. In The Wizard of Oz the camera shots were
mostly wide shots, medium shots, close up shot, point of view shots, and two
shots. The camera angels in this film were in some parts high angle shots and
track shots. The cameras movements were in some cases tilt shot (bottom to
top), pan shots (left to right), track shots, dolly shots, and probably
stedicam shots. The Wizard of Oz composition through the scene had deep
composition and a balance such as asymmetry and the rule of thirds in the film
(the aligning of Dorothy and the scenery creates more tension, energy, and
interest in the composition than simply centering Dorothy). The film’s color is
black and white. The relationship of the sounds to the images allows the
viewers to feel terrified, urgency, panicky, very suspenseful, anxious,
nervous, and tense. The sounds in the film are perfectly structured, some
scenes you hear the leaf’s rustling through the wind and then the wind begins
howling and continues to get louder as the tornado approaches the house and farm.
What determines how long the shots are and what order they are placed in by
selecting the use of other transitions, creating a tone and mood. The shot
transitions throughout the film are fade in/out cuts, straight cuts, contrast
cuts, parallel editing cuts, and jump cuts. The question “is there a ‘right’
place to cut or not to cut?” Yes there is a ‘right’ place. The cuts taken place
is used as an artistic way to transition between subjects. The cuts are not
seamless they are very obvious. The reason why the cuts are obvious is because
you can tell by the shots throughout the film are being focused on
something/someone and the change of scenery goes from one shot to the next.
Overall, The Wizard of Oz (1939) is a classic film. The film
producers knew exactly what to do to create such an intense film that makes you
stay engaged. For this assignment I felt the Tornado scene was a perfect
section of linear media to examine the way it is constructed.
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