Remember the Godfather? Well, it is hard to forget, with the horse head in bed and the chill that Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is exuding in this top performance. But, I believe the movie is not as good as it is, just because the actors did their job good. No, the way they cut the scenes and the movement of the camera is extraordinary.
Let’s examine the Baptism scene in the Godfather with a fine tooth-comb
You can not ignore, the cutting from the church to prepare the gun. Back to church then other action is going on and back to church etc. This kind of film editing is called Cross-Cut or Parallel Action.
This sort of film editing is used to give a scene, which would be boring on its own (a Baptism in church), a thrilling and exciting effect. It is used to build up excitement.(GABE MOURA 2014)
To clarify the definition of each term, I found Reisz book Technique of Film Editing, 2nd Edition:
“CROSS-CUT. To intermingle the shots of two or more scenes in the course of editing so that fragments of each scene will be presented to the spectator’s attention alternately.
PARALLEL ACTION. Device of narrative construction in which the development of two pieces of action is represented simultaneously by showing first a fragment of one, then a fragment of the other, and so on alternately.” (Reisz 2009)
The previous Godfather scene is one out of the four basic techniques of the Cross-Cut in Gaudreault’s Journal Article Detours in Film Narrative: The Development of Cross-Cutting. Cinema Journal.
“Cross-cutting of simultaneous actions: By the sustained intercutting of
two actions, A and B, presented successively but alternately on the
screen, as: A-B-A-B-A-B, etc.” (Gaudreault 1979)
To compare other ways of Cross-cutting, we have a different scene of the Godfather
You see what they did there?
Instead of just talking about, who Sollozzo is and what he is capable of, he is getting introduced visually beforehand and the cross-cutting goes on until they meet face to face. Felt the excitement?
If you’re thinking about making a movie and want to make rather boring scenes more exciting, then this is one out of many ways to do it.
References
GABE MOURA, 2014. Parallel Editing [viewed 21.02. 2018]. Available from: http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/parallel-editing/
GAUDREAULT, A., 1979. Detours in Film Narrative: The Development of Cross-Cutting. Cinema Journal, 19(1), 39-59
REISZ, K., 2009. Technique of Film Editing, Reissue of 2nd Edition. 2nd ed. Burlington: Taylor & Francis
Solent Soldier 