How Different Films Have Used the 5 Master Edits

Contrast: Forrest Gump

               In the beginning of this film we are shown the main character, Forrest, talking with a lady on a bench. Towards the end of their conversation Forrest starts making a scrunched up face to signify he's thinking really hard about something. As he's talking about his past and his childhood the camera cuts to him when he was younger making the same scrunched up face from before. Only this time he is grimacing because he is at the doctor's office, not because he is having a flashback. This scene specifically uses contrast editing because it is highlighting the difference between young Forrest and present Forrest, they are both making the same face but the movie makes sure to point out that the reasons for their grimace are different and that it is at different points in time.

Parallelism: Pocahontas

                 In this film we eventually reach the climax of the movie where the Native Americans are going to execute John Smith. In this specific scene, the tribe is getting ready for the execution while the colonists are getting ready to go head to head with the tribe and rescue John. The film makers make sure to show the viewer how this two groups are similar although throughout the movie you might think they are nothing alike. They do this by showing them essentially doing the same things in different locations while highlighting parallel features. In one cut the natives lift up their spears and then it cuts to the colonists lifting up their bayonets. Then it shows the tribe dancing by a fire while the colonists lift up their torches also lit up by fire. The filmmakers also include a close up of both groups. By using all of these separate videos and editing them together they were able to show how similar these groups actually are and how they are all getting ready to go to the same place. In this way they were able to use parallelism.

Symbolism: Moana

                  During this movie, there was a scene between the main character, Moana, and her grandmother in which they both are dancing on the beach and manta rays swim up to them in the ocean. When this happens, the grandmother tells Moana that when she passes away she'll come back as a manta ray. As she says this, she also points out that that's the reason she got a manta ray done as her tattoo. From here on out the filmmakers use manta rays to symbolize the grandma and her spirit that lives on in the ocean. In this particular scene, Moana is talking with her grandma as she lays in her deathbed. Moana then leaves her grandma (at her request) to pursue her journey and save the island, as she's drifting away from the shore a giant glowing manta ray is seen swimming past her and then jump up and out of the water, because of the symbolism established earlier in the movie the viewer knows that Moana's grandma has passed on and that she is the manta ray that just swam by her.

Simultaneity: Stranger Things

                    During this episode of the show we finally find out what happened to Barbs, the girl that went missing shortly after Will did, and during this scene this specific style of editing was used to build up suspense. Up until that point we hadn't had seen Barbs or knew where she was, although there were hints. This scene would finally establish whether Barbs would escape the upside down or if she would perish. During this particular scene Barbs wakes up in Nancy's pool but in  an alternate dimension called the 'Upside Down.' She quickly realizes she's not alone and that she was in danger, they then show her being chased by this thing. Then they cut to Nancy and her boyfriend in her room in the real world, this showcases that while all three are technically in the same location very different things are occurring at the same time. They continue to cut back and forth between them to make the viewer wonder what is going to occur and to keep everyone on their toes. Showing these things happening simultaneously built up anticipation for the audience.

Leitmotif: Easy A

                      During this film the main character Olive, talks about how all she's ever dreamed of is having a relationship like the ones in cheesy 80's romance films. She mentions how she wants guys to romance her traditionally rather than take her out to some fast food joint and then ask her inappropriate things. At the end of the movie (in this particular scene), her love interest finds out what she's really been looking for all this time and shows up to her house and plays music on a speaker outside her window. Olive hears him and goes downstairs to be reunited with him. The two make up and look past their differences and ride off on a lawnmower. This scene uses the Leitmotif editing style because it is alluding to two past films released in the 80's. When her love interest plays music outside Olive's window the filmmakers are referencing the drama "Say Anything" and when they both ride off on a lawn mower at the very end of the movie the filmmakers are also referencing a coming of age movie known as "Can't Buy Me Love." By subtly referencing these two movies during the film, they producers are using allusion to create a Leitmotif edit which allows the audience to make a connection.