Film Editing Techniques

Film Editing Techniques

Gone Girl (2014)

When Gone Girl released in the year 2014, everyone anticipated a gripping thriller movie with adapted screenplay from the eponymous book by Gillian Flynn and being the even more reason for the anticipation, directed by David Fincher. And the movie proved to stun us by grabbing all viewers’ attention and being a box office blockbuster. The movie had ensemble actors such as Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and many others who gave bone chilling performances exceptionally Rosamund Pike who was so amazing in her delivery and proved to be believable yet so scary.

The movie has a smooth pace transitioning and twisting into sub-plots. But the editing and screenplay was master craft. Of course being a Fincher piece it focused on various details yet unraveled the story in such a manner that the sublime theme gave us chills. It was the latest mysterious edition of a David Fincher but it had its share of firsts too, topically speaking it was the first Hollywood studio feature to be edited on Adobe Premiere Pro CC which is a pretty proud moment for Adobe Franchise. 

The movie has acute directional aspects and of course groundbreaking editorial. The credit of which goes to editor Kirk Baxter ACE along with his workflow with Fincher. He is a part of the ‘Fincher Team’ and has worked with him now in 3 movies. The masterminds behind the editorial were not just Baxter and Fincher but also assistant editor-Tyler Nelson, post production supervisor-Peter Mavromates and post-production engineer Jeff Brue.

There were a lot of transition shots in the film such as wide to close shots. Fincher especially shot lot of wide angle shots which used to help in stabilize and recreate or perfect the particular shots. A major task in the post production process was to edit a hoard of 500 hours raw footage which while compressing and being aware of the time yet letting the content naturally flow.

Something very unnerving about the cinematography is how the editor split the scenes which featured more than one actor to focus attention on the particular subject. There just purposeful shots without anything unnecessary which doesn’t add to the storyline which made the film pretty direct.

The town is introduced in extreme long shots with a monotonous score reflecting the recessive mood of the marriage. The score especially temps up and down along with the pace of the plot gripping and building your tension.

Intensity with the characters and their vulnerability were mainly focused on the shots with the frames being pretty minimalist. Hence many elements that disturbs the eye such as an extra or a reflection or movement was cut out.

One particular handheld shot is interesting which is where Affleck’s character Nick ducks away from the hounding press and the handheld camera movement added to the gravity of his character being assaulted in the chaos. The film’s theme deals a lot with our internal self and what we speak to the world and how when that rips of brims the insanity in oneself. The characters are very smart as they seem to be pretty likeable to the viewer even when they morally aren’t. There are dissolve and slow-motion sequences of brutal and violent shots making it more intense. We even see sharp camera shots in crux of tension which brims in the plot especially when the detectives blame Nick for betrayal.

The editing is cleverly done with the juxtaposition of different elements yet breaking them down from their complexity. There is a lot of voiceover used with different tones along with various flash backs and ping pong of plots.