5 Master Edits in Film Examples

5 Master Edits in Film

This first shot is from the movie Happy Gilmore, starring Adam Sandler. The movie is about a young aspiring hockey player that gets cut from the local team and has to find a way to make enough money to buy his grandmother's house back from the IRS. While helping his grandmother move out, the moving workers fine an old set of golf clubs and begin to see who can hit it the furthest down the street. Happy Gilmore (Sandler) comes over and tries to get them back to work so they set up a friendly bet. Without knowing his extreme talent, Happy hits the golf ball almost 400 yards down the street and the movers are amazed! This scene showing contrast cuts shots from the ball traveling down the street back to the expressions of the movers in shock of how far the ball is going. 

The next shot is from the movie American Sniper showing parallelism. The scene switches between two different events occurring at one time emphasizing foreshadowing that something is going to happen. In this case, Bradley Cooper is in one scene shown about to kill a terrorist who is going to be a suicide bomber near the american troopers. The other scene shows an american tank driving down the street with soldiers nearby. 

This next introduction to Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Last Ark shows a form of symbolism that is very unique. The scene transitions from the introduction of the film company paramount. Their logo is a mountain and the logo from the company fades into a mountain from the movie emphasizing the setting of the film.

Additionally, the next shot shown is an example of a simultaneity edit from the movie Inception. The scene shown below is an example of simultaneity because it cross cuts between the scene of the main actor walking down a hallway causing a sense of anticipation from the viewers and a scene of a hit man job occurring on the rainy streets of the city. This example of simultaneity causes a sense of foreshadowing that something may happen to the actor walking down the hallway.

The final shot that I used for my 5 master edits from films was an example of leitmotif. This example was used from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone where Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts wanting him to come to the school. Leitmotif occurs when repetitive music begins to play when the director is trying to emphasize something. In this case, Hedwig's Theme begins to play in the movie when an important event relating to magic is going to happen.