Community post
Edgar Wright and his "non-stop"
Hello there, Jekwimz here.
Today I want to show you about Edgar Wright's amazing film-making and his use of the music to enhance the story telling and comedy on his movies. Without further ado lets start!
1.- Everything is synced to the beat. Everything
Mr.Wright and music are two sides of the same coin. Actions, expressions and things are written down to the beat and directed that way. Here are some examples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnTR-cG5W1I
Movie: Shaun of the Dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcQMq4i_Y1w
Movie: Baby Driver
And also he uses sounds of the environment and sound effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLa0ew4CIuA
Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of the door closing at the same time Scott is moving his head.
Now you should be asking, Why is this so important? Maybe you wouldn't even realize if you are not told to but with this he makes us give all of our attention to where or what he wants our attention at. That's amazing story telling.
2.- Cuts, transitions and Visual comedy
Here is where I'm going to explain the expression that I used at the title of the post, why non-stop? Well, let me tell you, there's no moment in any of Wright's movies that you will get bored,well, that's because of the three things I just said in combination with the sounds and music.
He uses the "Longtake" technique, and What's that? it's a technique where the shot lasts much more than the conventional, this works so well because everything in the scene is scripted to make a really fun and action-packed shot. Here's an example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhbcgOEuF_s
Movie: Baby Driver
In that scene we can see how everything is, as I said before, synced to the music,also look at the walls, utility poles and shops they have the lyrics of the song that's playing at that moment, he delivers a beautiful shot that show us Baby's emotions. Also, all of this was made in one take.
Here's another scene I love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8dFK5nI1YA
Movie: Hot Fuzz
In this one you can see how his phone signal dropping out because he's moving from London to Stanford, in other words from a city to a town.
The visual comedy he uses is one of the best, like characters moving in and out from the frame and things happening on the background .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EDTWyQ5bm8
Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQAxKy3I3xs
Movie: Hot Fuzz
And of course this couldn't have happened without the help of his team, they were nominated to the oscars in the following categories.
Film Editing:
Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
Sound Editing:
Baby Driver, Julian Slater
Sound Mixing:
Baby Driver, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin
Well, that is all I have to say this time, enjoy movies, enjoy life.
Jekwimz' out. Peace
Sources and recommendations :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxw7LGGNLYY
konradnoises
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag
Every Frame a Painting
Replies (2)
Amazing content man, keep it up!
Great article @jekwimz, my favorite director is Christopher Nolan and i like Edgar Wright too from which I saw all the movies.I created a community on discord where we talk about movies and tv shows, and I want to invite you because you're a film lover and we need as many as possible as the community to grow and we can help each other.The invite is this https://discord.gg/ZggbwR and will expire in 24 hours.