The Sound Editor works alongside the Editor in terms of adding and manipulating sound in concordance with the film itself. Their jobs will lean toward the technical aspects of sound, syncing, ADR, etc.

This isn’t the only job involved with sound in film however, as the Sound Mixer does the post-production and creative processing involved with the film’s audio; they will work with blending the score into scenes, and specific effects and processing of sound, like a music producer.

Film	Preference (/10)	Memorable Scene	Cinematic Focus
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)	9.5/10	Andrew playing a 10-minute-long solo of Caravan to the crowd, and finally gaining Fletcher’s respect.	Editing

Stanley Kubrick, as both a director and a photographer, has a very unique style to the way he directs. This is what is considered an ‘auteur’ style, as his own artistic flourish on the screen, along with the cinematographer’s work, of course.

ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE

Kubrick has a way of directing the eye to the most important thing on screen, through creating a single converging point in the center of the shot. This one specifically has an effective composition because the four characters which the eye is drawn to, along with the benches by their legs, create a horizon which draws together the vanishing point.

Alex’s face, despite being fairly plain, and half covered, is the main point of the screen our eye is drawn to, because every element of the shot points toward the centre of frame, even literally in some cases, such as the mannequins’ nipples. He uses this as a constant thru-line in all of his work, most notably in 2001 and The Shining, where corridors appear constantly through the film’s runtime.

SYMMETRICAL COMPOSITION

Directly related to Kubrick’s aptitude for one point perspective, is his love for symmetrical shot compositions; where the same image or images are replicated on both halves of a shot. This is often combined with the vanishing point, letting the converging elements frame the subject or subjects with a gaze which is drawn into the horizon through identical parts of the production design.

Making parts of a frame symmetrical in this way not only draws your eye into the centre frame, but allows for instances of uncanny, repeated subjects at the focal point of the shot composition; The Shining’s infamous twins, even the duo of Jack Torrance and Delbert Grady, or A Clockwork Orange’s uniform droogs, and many more. In all of these cases, the symmetry of a shot calls into attention not only the similarity between the subjects of a shot, but also the difference.

DEEP FOCUS

A holdover from Kubrick’s time as a photographer is his relationship with focus. Unlike more character-oriented directors like Fincher, Kubrick uses an extremely deep focus ‘wide-angle lens’ which keeps every element of the shot as clear and crisp as possible, which comes from his time in photography. Kubrick was heavily inspired by deep focus photographs from early wartime journalism, lending to his current style.

This feeds directly into the other parts of his auteur style, as he must use symmetry, lighting and perspective to highlight the important parts of the shot, as he can’t rely on simply sharpening and blurring points of the image.

LONG TAKES & STEADICAM

Another photographer-esque holdover that worms its way into Kubrick’s auteur director style is the use of a steadied, or tracking camera, often combined with the use of long, uninterrupted takes. His aptitude with both the still, framed and-painter-like shot and its moving, tracking counterpart both lend themselves to the lingering and voyeuristic presence of the camera inside his work – especially in films like The Shining where the watchful eye of the viewer goes an additional step to instill dread in the scenes.

The example above is perfect for this; as the camera swings back and forth, parallel to Jack’s ax as he breaks in the bathroom door to try and kill his wife and son. The motion in the long-take of the camera, coupled with Nicholson’s actual experience in ax-swinging from being a former firefighter, really immerses the viewer in the danger of Kubrick’s world, and lets us feel the ‘Shining’ that the hotel is manifesting against its residents.

CONCLUSIONS?

To capture Kubrick’s auteur style, or ‘Kubrickia’, as lovingly coined by film journalists the world over, would be to try and observe a pure and unadulterated experience. Kubrick’s style is at once a painting, panoramic and glorious, but also a stalking voyeur who follows the backs of real men and women. Kubrick’s camera is at once a phantom, and a living, breathing creature.

Kubrick’s style can be defined by turning the camera into a character in its film, giving the camera its own unique personality, way of moving, a more human way of seeing the world than most cameras are given – he lets the user fully enter the worlds he creates. The camera no longer simply views, but participates.

FILM	PREFERENCE (/10)	MEMORABLE SCENE	CINEMATIC FOCUS
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick. 1980)	9/10	Near the climax of the film, where the lift doors open to let loose a torrent of blood which near-destroys the hotel lobby. It’s especially memorable since we’ve seen flashes of it in Danny’s visions, but never paired with the powerful music (Utrenja – Kanon Paschy) we hear in the scene.	Cinematography

Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic, “Blade Runner”, loosely adapted from the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a masterful display of how the concept of Mise en Scene is to be used within film. Through the essay following, i will be exploring how Scott utilises the cinematic concept to build atomsphere in a single scene.

The scene under analysis is Zhora (Joanna Cassidy, Lee Pulford)’s retirement at the hands of Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), about halfway into the film’s runtime. Also in this analysis i may call reference to earlier and later scenes in the film to talk about specific cinematic parallels and mirrored metaphors, bookends etc.

This scene’s most iconic part starts as Zhora escapes her workplace, as her attempt on Deckard’s life is halted by the presence of her fellow dancers. Rick chases her as she attempts to flee through the crowded Los Angeles streets, before taking her out in a dramatic slo-mo sequence as she falls through a shop display window.

Every part of this scene’s presentation goes into a palpable atmosphere, the likes of which we only see once again in the runtime of the film; during Roy Batty’s death at its climax. The parallels drawn between these two scenes exist for the sole purpose of demonstrating the fear and panic of a life still ending. That is a concept we see play out a few times, bar the death of Leon, who is given nary a second to ponder his fate.

With Zhora though, we experience all of it. The initial panic, represented by the blaring ambient sounds of the city, the trampling march of footsteps, and the bark of Deckard and his gun. We are shown just how overwhelming that chase is through the technicolour neon-tainted haze of city smog, everything in the scene is coming to a ground swell.

Zhora, as a static character as well, is showing so much in the scene. Her clear plastic coat, for example, represents not only her inherent artificial nature as a replicant in the world of Blade Runner, but her role as a sex worker in the society of Los Angeles. This is further supplemented by her presence in a shop display window at the time of her retirement, exemplifying that part of her character.

And then, the infamous slow motion shot starts, as Zhora begins to die.

The way she stumbles through the shattering glass may look somewhat awkward, but the glass itself shattering in slow motion appears in a way to bring clarity, or reflection, to Zhora’s final moments. The music goes a long way too, as rather than a mellow death knell, or a terrified beat of panic, we are accompanied for Zhora’s death by a smooth number, incorporating jazz elements, simultaneously referencing the noir roots of the movie and emulating the mellow, early-synth tones specifically of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album, “Wish You Were Here”, as well as similar prog projects which came before the movie.

These creative choices surrounding Zhora’s retirement exist for one main reason; it’s supposed to represent the changes we see in mentality during the approach to death, especially so in replicants. Zhora accepts her fate, as it would have come soon anyway, like the Mayfly, which certain shots directly mirror using her contorted body and glass-like coat. She dies among her own kind in a sense, in the fake snow, in a shop display window, amongst similarly skimpy mannequins with glowing neon rings bordering their necks. This angelic imagery has a secondary and tertiary meaning of course; as not only the mannequins being ‘fake humans’ is a direct point of comparison, and a sick kind of kinship to Zhora, but the placements of the neon can be interpreted as the halos of her angels coming to rescue her spirit, or the nooses of her fellow minority, under the admonishment of Blade Runners and Tyrell’s work.

Many of the features on display here, not only the religious symbolism, or the strangely calm atmosphere, or the juxtaposed music contribute to this scene, but another in the film. During the death of Roy Batty. During that scene, we see him not only sending a dove to the heavens, but having a stigmata pierced through one of his hands at the moment of his death. And whilst that was a bit of a tangent, the similarities between the two scenes show a fundamental part of the themes of the film in relation to replicants; the tranquility of death, and the ambiguity of the soul of an android.

Especially upon repeat viewings, that parallel drawn between the powerful deaths of the two characters makes the atmosphere so much more tangible, and creates a greater feeling of Mise en Scene.

"In the cramped and dripping darkness her eyes are turning glassy. The intervals between the FALLING DROPS OF WATER accentuate the silence until there is no dripping and even the gurgling gutters have receded into silence as the life drains out of Zhora's face until it's frozen, dead."

-Blade Runner Screenplay, David Peoples and Hampton Fancher

Cinematography:

This refers to the art of creating visuals and capturing moments on camera, in the process of filmmaking. Everything that appears in shot, from the camera’s perspective, are works of cinematography. From the composition to the framing, the way the camera moves, and the objects and subjects on film are staged, all cinematographic concepts.

Cinematographer:

The filmmaker in charge of cinematography is referred to as a cinematographer. Similar in nature to a director of photography, a cinematographer builds the shot, and takes charge of the lighting and staging teams. It is the cinematographer’s job to actualize the director and screenwriter’s ideas in a tangible way. Cinematographers will often become a frequent collaborator of their respective director, as they form a strong workplace rapport.

Diegesis:

A concept in cinematography which revolves around the existence, or nonexistence, of the camera in a film. The reference for this in a text would be “intra-diegetic”, where the camera does exist, and it takes the place of a subject inside the scene, becoming the new frame of focus, such as the example above of a mysterious aperture pointed at James Bond, or “extra-diegetic”, where the camera is an intangible construct which watches in on a scene, neglecting to give the perspective of any one character in a scene, even to the extreme of characters acknowledging or addressing the audience, “breaking the Fourth Wall”. A good example of extra-diegetic gaze is Christian Bale in American Psycho.

FILM:	PREFERENCE: (/10)	MEMORABLE SCENE:	CINEMATIC FOCUS:
BLADE RUNNER (1982. Ridley Scott)	7/10, closer to an 8 than a 6.	Detective Deckard infiltrating the Bradbury Building to reach Roy and Pris, the last replicants on his list. Note that I do not mean the fight itself, iconic as it may be, simply Deckard’s anticipative time alone in the building before he fights Pris.	Mise en Scene

I think, like most things communicated between humans, this can be broken down into three major factors;

FLASH, 

TENSION/TORSION, 

and REQUIEM. 

These are the three factors, which in reality are a condensation of many smaller factors, which create the ‘good’ film. Three major pillars of filmmaking which could theoretically spell a shining gold paragon of perfection- the ideal movie. 

WHAT IS FLASH? 

FLASH refers to a few aspects of ‘good’ filmmaking which entices the audience. This extends to areas like cinematography, makeup, special effects and the like- it’s the ability to make your film stand out and appeal to people in a meaningful way. A movie with FLASH is boastful and proud, willing to flaunt every liquid ounce of talent that drips off its reel. 

As a concept, FLASH can mean more than simply what we see in the film itself however. FLASH can also appear in the way a film is marketed. This includes posters, trailer house cuts, articles, interviews, even simple casting choices. Anything in that vein that attracts people toward the film is a proper use of FLASH.

WHAT ARE TENSION/TORSION? 

TENSION and TORSION are the fundamentals of scriptwriting and acting that goes into a film. TENSION and TORSION are extremely similar, and in some ways intrinsically tied, hence their grouping in this factor. 

TENSION is as it sounds, the escalating stakes, and sense of importance inside a story. Whilst this is important to all stories, it has a special significance in horrors, thrillers and westerns, where the idea of the long scene is the ultimate flex of filmmaking talent. These kinds of scenes are the buildup that excites the viewer, the yin to the yang of TORSION.

TORSION, as the name implies, is how the story bends and twists, how it subverts, averts, and plays straight various film tropes. Whilst TENSION exists to pump the blood of the audience, TORSION exists to make them think or feel, through intriguing reveals, or interpersonal drama. TORSION is less suited to action movies, but still appears in them. Moments of TORSION will often occur at the major Act-points of a film to introduce new information or change the established dynamic. 

WHAT IS REQUIEM? 

REQUIEM is the culmination of the FLASH, TENSION and TORSION built up until that point so far, the idea of the release or climax of a movie. And whilst the main REQUIEM present in a film will most likely be the end of its penultimate sequence, with the final sequence being a cooldown or ending, the idea of REQUIEM can occur more than once, or at a different point in the movie. 

The pistol showdown between the bounty hunter and the outlaw Mexican, the final chase between the young girl and the masked killer, and the final sky-high fight between the superhero and his arch nemesis all end in similar ways. 

A piercing gunshot, which tears through the howling desert wind. 

The saving grace that puts the unkillable monster down for good. 

The knockout punch which sends shockwaves through the surrounding city area. 

All a moment of pure REQUIEM, a release of a flood of TENSION and TORSION energy, and the ultimate show of FLASH, with what should be an iconic bit of imagery, accompanied with a climactic bit of orchestration to sell the moment to the audience. 

In conclusion, whilst these ideas and terminology I’ve presented are heavily debatable and subjective, the idea of a ‘good movie’ generally does fall upon the concepts discussed.

When filmmaking, a filmmaker should evaluate what merits their work has according to these, or similar, criteria. This will ensure their film is captivating, exciting, and satisfying. 

A golden movie.