This video essay serves as an excellent lesson on how not to edit a scene, and in doing so highlights the mistakes you should avoid. The creator, Thomas Flight, breaks down the editing of a dialogue sequence from the movie Bohemian Rhapsody.
The three key mistakes Thomas points out in this scene are:
- Lack of motivation
- Broken spatial continuity
- Poor pacing
Lack of Motivation:
Thomas shows that many of the cuts in this sequence lack motivation, since they don’t provide new information. Instead, we see the same reactions or actions repeated, which makes the cuts feel redundant and unnecessary.
Broken Spatial Continuity:
This scene makes clear how crucial spatial continuity is. Thomas demonstrates this with the example of inconsistent eye lines: characters often look in the wrong direction, or appear to be looking at one person while the next shot reveals someone completely different. He also demonstrates how rearranging or simplifying the sequence of shots can create better spatial continuity.
Poor Pacing:
The scene is 104 seconds long and contains 60 cuts, resulting in an average shot length of just 1.8 seconds. For comparison, an action scene from a Transformers – The last Knight is 136 seconds long with 49 cuts, concluding to an average shot length of 2.8 seconds. Therefore, Thomas shows that the pacing of this normal dialouge scene is way to quick, making it feel unnatural and rushed.
The irony is that Bohemian Rhapsody actually won the Oscar for Best Editing. As this video essay illustrates, awards don’t always reflect quality in filmmaking.
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