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Blog #3 - Editing analysis (or: How To Succeed in Action Without Really Trying)
In this scene from the action movie El Mariachi , director Robert Rodriguez uses fast-paced editing, precise match cuts, and audience preconceptions of genre to hide his production’s extreme budgetary constraints. The protagonist is in an apartment, trying to escape from gun-toting gangsters. He runs up the steps, throws his guitar case on a higher walkway, and then jumps to grab onto the edge of the wall, narrowly escaping the gunfire as he climbs in. He runs down the hallway, only to find a dead end. But wait—there’s a passing bus...and a cable! He rides the cable like a zipline, and drops down on the front of the bus. A typical action movie stunt, except that El Mariachi is not a typical action movie—it was made for $7,000. Rodriguez could only afford single takes, yet the scene uses what appears to be several cameras and an elaborate stunt. How did he accomplish this? Well, the frequent cutting creates a sense of intensity and chaos, but pay close attention and the tricks star...