The Development and Principals of Editing

Extract from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Edgar Wright, 2010)

Scene: Scott Pilgrim Vs. Gideon Graves (Round 2)

In this scene, Scott Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera, announces he's going to fight Gideon, not over the girl but for himself. He then kills a bunch of ninjas with a flaming sword before running up towards the top of the pyramid to fight the man in charge. There is a lot of editing cuts and the action is sped up. Scott knocks Gideon down but it isn’t over yet. He shouts to a girl to stop her from attacking the main girl, Ramona (green haired girl) and when she does attack, Scott tells them that he cheated on them, there is hardly any editing cuts in this part of the scene as there is no action going on and it’s mostly drama. Both girls forgive him before Scott jumps down to take on Gideon again in another duel. Scott’s sword is broken and Ramona saves him before he kicks her down the pyramid. Scott and the other girl, knives, now fight him together, with many action cuts with shots close up of their legs hitting Gideon or their fists making contact with him. He falls to the ground before Scott kicks him in the head and he explodes in slow-motion into millions of coins.

Obviously all these clips are edited in the non-linear format as they are all recorded and edited through the computer as it's uploaded all together and many of the frames in the footage have unique edits to them (for example, the part of the scene where both Scott and Knives are punching and kicking Gideon has a new punch for each frame).

There are many cuts on actions, as a lot of the physical hits from one character onto another cut onto the action. As previously stated in the last example, most of the punches and kicks are cut in such a way that we only see the foot and fist against Gideon, so that we don't see the movement but we understand what is happening due to the previous context of the sequence and the fast-paced editing.

The clip also follows the 180 degree rule a lot, along with shot-reverse-shot as the action sequences when both Scott and Gideon are duelling with the swords you see the camera occasionally go behind one of them so you see the other defending against a sword attack.

There is many jump cuts in this sequence, from the beginning we see it jump cut when he jumps down one step and then a jump cut when the drummer lifts her drumsticks, we also see jump cuts during the action sequences a lot and around 90% of the cuts in this movie are jump cuts, especially in this sequence.

The sequence also uses juxtaposition in the editing as we see Gideon standing in front of Scott, which causes the audience to compare characters and they're weaponry, physical strength and their posture on which shows their preparedness to fight.

The only transitioning in this clip is "cut" transitioning, as the action sequences are spliced together quite rapidly as the clip is an action sequence and fade transitioning would ruin the effect of the movies action.

The soundtrack is diegetic as it's played from the band members in the film. All the films cuts are edited with the music from the film, for example, 0:25 to 0:40 the band plays and all cuts are to the song.

The films cuts are slow when the non-diegetic slow soundtrack is playing when Scott is talking to Knives and Ramona at around 1:05 to 1:30. This is then changed when it's found out that Gideon is still alive and the fast cuts return when Scott jumps down in front of him.

From 1:48 to 3:00 the cuts are extremely fast as the action is going on, with the soundtrack now being fully non-diegetic as it is replicating music from the 8-bit era of video gaming. Between 3:05 and 3:15 the music is slowed down and the cuts and fast paced action is slow and dramatic, and slightly suspenseful before Ramona attacks Gideon and he kicks her down the stairs between 3:15 and 3:20, these cuts aren't as short as action sequence shots but shorter than the dramatic and slow sequences. Between 3:20 and 4:00 another action sequence plays, with some of the fastest shots in this scene, with many cuts and edits. 

Between 4:00 and 5:18 minutes, the shots are slowed down once again, with some of the longer shots in the scene taking place here. This is where Gideon is taunting Scott but knowing he has lost. Scott kicks him in the head and he explodes into millions of coins and the coins falling from the ceiling makes for a long running shot in slow motion, where we see Scott and Knives in wonder of their victory.

There are a few shot-reverse-shot in the film, primarily in the scenes where Gideon is taunting Scott. Like when he's lower down on the steps and he's talking up at Scott at 1:33. Also when Scott is talking to Ramona and Knives and apologising to them (1:10)

In conclusion, Scott Pilgrim - Scott VS Gideon (Round 2) has some of the most fast paced cuts and edits in the movie and in the film industry. It is known as one of the most underrated action movies and this scene shows how great the film really is, at least, from a filmmaker and media student perspective. The film follows common editing conventions such as "cut to soundtrack" and the fast-paced action of jump cuts in such a way that it captivates the audience from both an editing perspective and an action perspective.