Speed of Editing

In a film, some scenes may last a matter of seconds while others can last for minutes. The length establishes the pace of the film moving the action along which can help to determine the mood. A romantic film tends to have longer scenes to suit the mellow mood whereas action or thriller films will have shorter, erratic shots during action/suspense packed scenes to engage the viewer.

This is a scene from The Bourne Ultimatum to show how the frequent, short cuts make us feel anxious during the onset of the fight and involved throughout the duration of it.

Casino Royale opening

I liked how the opening of Casino Royale varies the speed of editing for different purposes. When Bond is introduced, the shots last longer to reveal information about his personality and outlook of the situation; we are under the impression that he is a serious man who isn't easily intimidated. During the action scene, the shots are much more shorter and dynamic to focus on capturing the viewer's excitement- little is revealed here about Bond other than the fact that he is a man of action.

Russian Ark: "In one breath"

In contrast to the countless, fragmented shots of the Casino Royale opening, Alexander Sokurov has completed an entire film in a single, continuous shot. For entire hour and a half, Sokurov required 2000 actors to maintain character through split-second timing and organisation. Although perceived as a piece of art and Russian history, a general audience could easily find Russian Ark tedious. This is due to the lack of involvement and action which is often developed through a varying the speed of editing.

The Man in the Iron Mask

Film trailers must pack in enough detail about the film to make it appear as appealing as possible to the viewer. In order to do this, the editing must be very fast.



I counted roughly 120 edits, each edit lasting an average of one second. However, the amount of information shared must be limited to some extent- trailers should not give too much away, only enough to capture the viewer's interest. Revealing too many vital parts of a film in the trailer alone can cause controversy for example, Fast and Furious 6.

Opening of a film

Scenes at the beginning of the film serve the purpose to create the setting and the plot and to introduce characters, therefore the edits must be slower than those in later action scenes. As the film progresses, the edits become shorter as there may be two or more story lines occurring simultaneously. This is called parallel editing.

Action scenes

The famous shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho creates the overlap between the speed of editing and the style of editing. Later, I will discuss Montage Theory and explain it's relevance to Psycho's shower scene. 

With regards to speed, Alfred Hitchcock presents how the speed of editing changes correspondingly to a change of scenario in a single scene.

At first, the cutting between each shot is used simply to follow Janet Leigh's movement. The speed isn't particularly slow or fast- it's purpose is to create a sense of ordinariness which makes her attack all the more shocking for the audience. The moment her killer tears away the shower curtain, Hitchcock increases the amount of edits accordingly to the frenzied slashing and the discordant music. The shots in this action scene are so cleverly collated; the shots vary to reveal the weapon, Janet Leigh's body, her petrified facial expressions and the blood which create the illusion of a bloody attack, the knife never actually pierces the skin.