Advanced Editing Notes

The two short films: the "Arrival of a Train" and "Damsel in Distress" highly relate to aspects of Realism, Classicism and Formalism.

There is a high contrast between camera work including the composition of shots, their angles, and the movement of the camera. In "Arrival of a Train", we see a lonnnng, continuous shot of a train that is arriving at the station, hence the name. This is entirely one sequence shot as it is a single recording of time. The angle is static and does not change at all within the scene and this provides for one viewpoint and angle and offers the viewer a single perspective on what is happening in the shot. The camera is not moved at all the only movement in the shot is the entire train as well as the reaction of the people waiting to get on the train that are standing in the side area. In the short "Damsel in Distress", however, we see the exact opposite. shots literally last a couple of seconds and this duration plays a large role in how we see the movie because of the rapidness of the succession of events. There is a lot of movement, a wide variety of angles, and the majority of the shots are composed very differently.

Also, the edits of the shots in the films are differentiated. In "Arrival of a Train", there is no edit, cut, or jump in action throughout the entire scene. The entire thing is completely realist. On the other hand,  "Damsel in Distress" is the opposite as it highlights the ideas portrayed in techniques for fast, quick cuts that are very short in duration. In this film, there are two conjoined plot lines and we see both perspectives of the conflict while the protagonist is trying to get to the tracks to save the woman and the womans conflict of being very close to dying. There are many edits in this film to show the rising tension and conflict among the characters and their relationship.  

There are many interesting characteristics of how the story is being told in both short films. I found it highly interesting how the second film "Damsel in Distress" was told because it has a series of shots selection, angles, composition, characters, conflicts, and the plot was really well-developed and easy to understand although the shots didn’t have very long durations or slow pacing. This intensity helped to show the plot in a more beneficial way. In "Arrival of a Train", however, everything except for the people and train seems to remain completely static. It is very boring and there is nothing to truly anticipate. We see one perspective because the camera and angle do not move and this restricts the viewer from any further information so it is more boring and less informative about everything else happening.