Prompt:
Analyze the editing style of Ava DuVernay’s award-winning film, Selma. W
Prompt:
Analyze the editing style of Ava DuVernay’s award-winning film, Selma. What are some of the most significant ways that DuVernay uses editing to enrich and layer our understanding of the film’s most important themes and meanings?
Tip: Be as specific as possible when discussing the film’s editing strategies. To that end, you will probably find it helpful to focus your analysis on the editing in a single (or at most two) specific sequence(s) that best conveys the film’s editing style and use of editing to shape our understanding of key themes and ideas. Although it is not required, you are permitted to consult the film during the exam itself.
Directions >>> Your analysis should incorporate at least FIVE of the terms below. Please type each term in ALL CAPS so that I can easily track them in the essay.
• editing
• storyboard
• cut
• crosscutting and parallel editing
• parallel editing
• classical continuity editing
• intensified continuity editing
• dialectical montage
• jump cut
• shock cut
• fade-out
• fade-in
• dissolve
• wipe
• verisimilitude
• continuity style
• establishing shot
• two-shot
• over-the-shoulder shot
• reestablishing shot
• insert
• 180-degree rule
• axis of action
• 30-degree rule
• shot/reverse shot
• eyeline match
• match on action
• graphic match
• reaction shot
• story time
• plot time
• screen time
• chronology
• flashback
• narrative
• narrative frequency
• flashforward
• narrative duration
• ellipsis
• cutaway
• overlapping editing
• pace
• average shot length
• long take
• sequence shot
• slow cinema
• rhythmic editing
• scene
• sequence
• segmentation
• disjunctive editing
• distanciation
• montage sequence
NOTE:
If you choose to talk about an image or sequence that was previously discussed in class, make sure that your analysis doesn’t just rehash the points we generated together in class. (That is, make sure you bring substantive new insights to the material).