kris haamer cloverfield

Editing CloverfieldHow Was it Done?

Piibe PaiIvan PavljutskovBirgit HatrmanKris Haamer

Narrative

Protagonist: Robert Hawkins (Bob). The guy who is supposed to move to Japan for business.

• Main conflict: Manhattan is being destroyed by a monster. Beth is trapped and hurt on the other side of the island and Bob wants to go and rescue

Cloverfield : Narrative Analysis

Protagonist wants to save BethProtagonist needs to express his love to

Beth

Cloverfield: Narrative Analysis

Protagonist changes, in the beginning he’s jelaous of Beth’s new boyfriend, doesn’t turn much attention to her.

• After the monster appears, starts to worry about Beth, after her phone call he’s very concerned and wants to rescue her.

• The rest of the movie he’s being very heroic.


Antagonist the monster• The wants and needs of the monster are

unclear and never revealed in the film• Antagonist changes, in the beginning we

don’t see the monster, only destruction and fear. Then we see more of him; small monsters attack people. Only in the last 10 minutes we see what he looks like.


Robert wants to get to Beth badly and he has difficulties getting to her


Act IMain characters in a flashback, and then jump to organizing a party for the protagonist. We see what is going on in the party and learn more about the relationship between Bob and Beth. The first act ends with the first explosions, and Beth calling Bob for help.


Act II Bob and friends try to get across town to save Beth while facing many difficulties. They escape into the subway from the army and the monster; emotionally slow moment. Then mini-monsters attack, and one dies. Still – they rescue Beth and reach the helicopter to be evacuated off the island.


Act III Monster destroys the helicopter, but all survive the crash; they try to get away by foot. Monster appears and eats Hud. Beth and Bob escape under a bridge where they give their final statement to the camera, and as the island gets bombed they declare their love to each other before they die.


Sequence 1

• Status quo. We see Beth and Bob together in the morning in a ‘flashback’ and organizing the party.


Sequence 2

• The monster attacks, everyone panics. Beth calls Bob and he decides to go and save her.


Sequence 3

• Bob tries to get to Beth. But he has difficulties. Instead of leaving to save themselves they go by foot through the city to save her.


Sequence 4

• They get into a subway, fight some small monsters, and eventually manage to escape


Sequence 5

• They heal their wounds, slow moments. Hud hits on Marlena, and then they come to the ground and meet the army


Sequence 6

• Marlena gets killed, they get to Beth and rescue her. (and she can still run like an Olympic sprinter)


Sequence 7

• They get to the helicopter, and start to evacuate from the island; the monster is bombed. But the monster doesn’t die, it attacks the helicopter and they crash.


Sequence 8

• Everyone is still alive... then the monster comes and eats Hud. Beth and Bob still escape under a bridge, where they also get killed.


Continuity Editing

Spatial editing and temporal editing have little releavance in this movie because they look too ‘edited’ or artificial.

• More emphasis is put on Logical, Graphical, and Rhythmical editing

Cloverfield: Editing

Logical editing

• Hud needs to rewind camera to show the monster – we cut to an earlier sequence, and the back again, example 00:23:54.


http://www.yaloco.com/out/2354.mp4

Graphical editing

• The camera often turns trough a black corner, a bright light, or some sort of a blur which creates a possibility for a cat, example 00:36:29.



Rhythmical editing

• The rhythm of the shots is irregular, creatong a feeling of unease

• There are long spans of time without any cuts, or ‘hidden cuts’

• The more actions there is, the longer the shots tend to be


Question / Answer editing

• Ex: you hear a sound and then the camera turns to show the explosion that just happened

• Camera is personalized, viewer is in the position of a cameraman.


Points of attention are not kept on purpose • Almost none of the cuts match by the

anchor point• Instead, the shots are matched by

movement in fast motion sequences, example 00:21:30.



Dramatic tension is created by using dramatic close-ups, emotion is emphasized using track and zoom.

• Ex: Hud dead on the ground, autofocus changes from Hud’s face to a piece of grass to the city in the background.


180 degree rule

• There is no violation of the 180 degree rule, because the film was mostly in one continuous shot.


Form based edit

• No form based editing was not used because it looks to cinematic and often creates an analytical mood which is not suitable for this horror movie


Concept based edit

• Cut to a street with empty carriage pulled by a confused horse (00:55:18)

• Cut to a completely destroyed skyscraper after that



Jump cuts

• Frenquently used troughout the movie to emphasize the reality of the story


Unusual editing techniques• Between two scenes camera falls down

and only shows a static shot until the next scene (00:28:38)

• Overall – special effects look really cool in this movie because they don’t use cuts to emphasize special effects; effects come naturally.



Conclusions

• Cloverfield demonstrates highly original and unusal style of editing

• Continuity is created trough ‘hidden cuts’ and logical editing


Thank You!

kris haamer cloverfield

Entertainment & Humor

narrative analysisprotagonist

robert hawkins bob

main conflict