Dannielle Rochford BTEC Unit 16: Task 13: Manipulating Time and Space

Editing effects are a really important part of film making. They allow film makers to effectively manipulate time and space to show that a time period has changed. They can be used to for flashbacks or flash-forwards, to show a location is different or to show that time is moving quicker or slower than normal.

An effect can be something simple such as using a colour filter. An example of this is in a scene from Magic Mike shown below.

Or it could be altering the saturation of an image to either enhance colour or to remove it. Making an image black and white is often used for flashbacks. An example below from Memento.

In The Wizard Of Oz, it starts of with a Sepia effect and then changes to colour to give the affect of 'over the rainbow.

https://youtu.be/NA42WWfh1xQ

One common technique is to alter the speed of the footage. An example of where this is used is in the 'Time Machine.' The time traveller enters the time machine and he stays in the same position but the environment changes around him as he travels through time. It also happens in the third of the harry potter films.

https://youtu.be/M0qR7BiIWJE

https://youtu.be/lqTLETOYkQg

Our task was to demonstrate how editing can be used to manipulate time and space. We had to film and edit a short sequence that included either a memory or flashback and use post-production techniques to make it clear to the audience that the time and space in the sequence had been changed.

For my sequence I decided to include a flashback. I included a dissolve to show the start and end of the flashback and the flashback is in black an white. At the end of the flashback I decided to include a graphic match, matching the first image of the bottle lid, to the next image of the characters eye. My sequence features a flashback where the character drops her bag down the stairs and as she is picking her things up she gets pushed by another character.