- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 months, 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Topic
-
Hi all: I’ve got kind of a fun editing observation for you.
I recently discovered two VERY subtle hidden cuts in True Grit. I’m only a film fan and don’t work in the industry, so it’s very possible these kinds of cuts are a lot more common than I realize. (Because of how seamless they are, I like to imagine that the Coens were auditioning to edit 1917 without knowing it haha…)
Anyway, the cuts I’m referring to are in the morning bedroom scene where Mattie and Laboeuf first meet, and the only reason I noticed them was because I was watching True Grit on silent while listening to Team Deakins get interviewed by David Mullen about the film — otherwise I definitely wouldn’t have noticed the jump-cutting pipe smoke after Damon sets the pipe on the table.
Everything else in the shot (lighting, framing, Damon’s posture, etc.) matches up precisely enough that the cuts are BARELY noticeable — but, if you really look, they show up in the following way: Laboeuf sets the pipe down, there’s a pause, then a CUT, then L. says, “A saucy line will not get you far with me,” then another CUT, then L. says, “I saw your mother yesterday mornin’…” — all within the same shot.
This is so subtle and hard to notice that it’s surely intentional, not a mistake — the amazing thing (to me) is just how bold (and sly) of an editing choice it is — doing it not just once but twice within a few seconds.
More proof (as if we needed any!) that the Coens are the ultimate badasses (to quote another of their movies).
-
Replies
-
The Coen Brothers would occasionally cut into a shot to shorten a pause in the dialogue or action. I would sometimes know of these jump cuts before I began to time a film but, especially when we were making photochemical prints at the lab, I might only notice them when each section of the cut film negative had to have an individual printer light.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.