Following the action

Following the action is a directing technique which captures all the movements a character makes when he/she moves form location to location. There will normally be more the one camera shooting the action from various locations. This provides the editor the range of material that he/she needs to make the sequence successful.

At the editing stage, the editor will switch camera angles depending on what the subject is doing and what coverage the director and editor decide best advances the narrative. This effect of changing distance and angles brings shape, texture and depth to the scene. The editor uses action matches to preserve continuity, making cuts invisible and the audience gets a multi faced perspective on events which engages them in the action. The wider the range of footage that you give the editor, the more likely they can make invisible cuts. 

In this scene you can see that the director chooses to follow the action in a 360 degree manor. Why is this effective? Due to the scene being packed with action it would be very confusing for the audience if each part of action was in a single shot. There would be too much going on for the audience to keep track of. Following the action in a 360 degree manor means that audience can feel what its like to have people surrounding the character. Also, it captures all of the action from every multiple angles that are synchronized together.

Manipulation of diegetic time and space

Manipulation of time and space is the editing technique used to show time unconventionally. This can be done by showing the audience large amounts of time that is compressed into a short piece of footage, or you could show the audience a situation that is longer than it would be in real life. You are probably thinking why would you do that? You would do it because it will create suspense for the audience due to their attention being attracted to what is happening.



The main type of technique you would use would be flashbacks. Flashbacks are when the character sees images from the past. Flashbacks can be used for characters to see the future however they would have to have a certain ability to do so.

It can also be used to show the location or and object changing over a period of time. An example of this would be the beginning scene of the film 'UP'.

In this scene the editor has used this flashback to set the scene with the audience. The audience sees the characters life compressed into 5 minutes before the film starts. You might think why? They do this because the audience can understand the characters features and mood in the present tense. All in all, it makes it easier for the audience to understand characters when they have background information on them.