Paper Topic Brainstorming

After writing a few blog posts which have mentioned various aspects of post-production, specifically editing and how it effects the entire narrative process, I would like to explore the idea of a paper topic which focuses on the role of editing in respect to narrative through the use of particular texts, trends or perhaps a broader issue.  Clearly this is just the beginning of my topic brainstorming and I don’t have any tangible ideas but I’ve enjoyed writing on the blog about similar topics and think it would be valuable for me to try to develop it further.  

A few of the topics/ideas/questions I have come up with are as such:

-The idea of examing the effect of various chronological devices.  Such as comparing films which are chronolgical, films that use non-linear devices, and films that use non-linear construction throughout.  How does this effect the viewer’s first viewing and subsequent viewings.

-The examination of re-edits or directors cuts.  What is the idea behind re-editing a specific film? How can it help/hurt the exposition of narrative with it’s changes?

-How does editing border the line of syuzhet and style? (Will most likely be discussed no matter what topic)

 

I would really appreciate any suggestions from either you Jason, or other class members who might read this.  Any books or articles that could help me focus my ideas would be great or any idea of how to fit the theme of post-production/editing into a final paper topic would be great.  In the meantime I’ll be trying to focus some of these thoughts into a thesis and/or come up with a second paper option.

One thought on “Paper Topic Brainstorming

  1. Jason Mittell

    Matt – this is a good topic that you’ve clearly been mulling for awhile. I’d recommend looking at a specific film that has had an interesting history in terms of editing, such as multiple versions and controversies. The two that come to mind are Brazil and Blade Runner, both of which have been written about and there are multiple versions released – but there are certainly others. Or if you wanted to focus more on the general question of temporality and editing, you could look at the critical reception of films that play with time and consider how people view this as “editing” versus other filmic techniques (see Jared’s blog for a similar idea). Good luck!

Leave a Reply