Editing
A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way. An indecisive cut is cutting from a shot to another shot of a different shot size while framing the same subject and the difference in image size or angle must be decisive. These methods as well as hand held camera work gives the viewer an insight into the lives of Nikki and Al, as their lives are indecisive and jumpy, on the edge and ultimately gives what the director calls as a ‘dirty look’. It also lets the audience feel like they can relate to the characters because it is something extra apart from the film itself they can experience with the characters.
Relational editing is the editing of shots to suggest association of ideas between them. For example: The flame unites scene 1 & scene 2, the prologue & the body of the film. Together with hearing Nikki’s voice it confirms that the adult woman we now see was once the young girl who witnessed her mother’s murder. (It also suggests that the residue of that trauma is still with her). Along with a (one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character, presumably looking at each other), cutting between the young Nikki and her mother, Nikki’s experience of this horrible event is emphasised.
The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline in film making that states those two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. The 180 degree rule is broken during Kiss or Kill. It is most prominent and significant during the scene located at the dinner, and Nikki confronts Al about the murder of Stan. The rule has been broken and so from the viewer it looks as if Nikki is talking to herself as the camera doesn’t cut to Al. This technique emphasizes Nikki’s internal struggle and her ultimate trust issues.
Read more about this topic: Kiss Or Kill (film)
Famous quotes containing the word editing:
“In this century the writer has carried on a conversation with madness. We might almost say of the twentieth-century writer that he aspires to madness. Some have made it, of course, and they hold special places in our regard. To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It’s the drowning out of false voices.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)