Extra Catchup

•Watch the following extract from The Godfather (1972), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

1.Discuss how the editing links the two narratives.

2.What is the effect on the audience of telling the story in this way

1) The constant cuts to different locations and events gives a sense of opposition and comparison as the christening of a child is almost the complete opposite of the killing action of other members of the Mafia. The pastor reciting prayer during the killings is contrapuntal and contradicts the act, emphasising the control the character has. However, the recital of the prayers during the christening is parallel.
2) The effect of this is that it gives the audience an insight to the power and control the mafia and the "Don" has. While present at a seemingly innocent event, he still has control to get what he wants and desires in killing rivals.

•Watch the following extract from Goodfellas (1990), directed by Martin Scorsese.

1.Comment on the decisions the director and editor have made with regard to editing.

2.Why do you think they decided to present the sequence in this way?

1)This was quite a long sequence with no cuts, making the shot seamless. Not alot of editing is required as there isnt any cuts so the quality of the scene is largely down to the shear cinematography. We see a range of pans, tracking shots and dolly shots in this scene.

2) This was done as it gives the audience a feel of really being there with one long shot. They get to see every detail of what the characters may be viewing which is sometimes lost with the cutting and editing. This is something we see in most vintage movies and Scorsese captures this well as the movie is quite vintage.