Editing Nolan Hargreaves
In Katy Perry’s Rise music video and in the silent film Sherlock Jr. both films have shots of
continuity and discontinuity in order to supplement the story and characters. The use of spatial and
rhythmic relations better advances the characters’ personalities and plot. The use of shot/reverse shot
at the beginning of Sherlock Jr establishes a continuity that explains the characters’ desires even though
there are no words said to verbally explain what is happening. The camera angled behind the main
characters’ shoulder towards a box of candy for sale behind a window, then back to the characters face
from the box. This series of shots explains to the audience that the main character wants to obtain this
box of candy and that this particular box of candy may be out of reach for the character. Katy Perry’s
Rise music video establishes continuity in a different form of editing. Over the 3 minutes of song we are
shown a montage of shots where Katy is battling, struggling, and utilizing a parachute she cannot seem
to escape. This montage creates a story of a women being held back by something, but no matter how
much this thing (parachute) holds her down, in the end she will rise above it.
The rhythmic relations in these two films had great effect on our understanding of every shot.
When the main character of Sherlock Jr. was investigating the villain we had a long shot of the main
character almost acting as a shadow to the villain following the pattern of his walk almost perfectly. This
shot creates an uncut rhythm that tells us that the “want to be detective” is onto the villains’ schemes.
When the music video Rise opens Katy Perry is violently fighting the parachute that is attached to her to
not much success until it cuts to a scene of her quickly sprinting forwarded with an unimaginable
determination and ferocity. The rhythm of these shots gives us the idea that the character will continue
to rise and fight whatever it is that is holding her back.
The spatial relation in Sherlock Jr. shapes the audiences’ feelings in every scene. When the villain
and main character are standing near each other the main character seems much smaller and feeble
compared to the villain giving the story an underdog sort of context. We constantly see the villain
looking down upon the main character making the audience feel that the villain has an inflated ego and