INVENTED YET VIVID: MOVEMENT AND EDITING in SNATCH (2000), ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007), DONNIE DARKO (2001), AMELIE (2001), MEMENTO (2001), AND VANILLA SKY (2001)

Every story is a multidimensional being, with plot creating its underlying frame and thematic structure helping to organize a story's thoughts. However, plot and theme mean nothing without the figments of life within a story that move the plot and theme forward and whose lives unravel to create a work of art: the characters. A film often aims to explore a character and their perceptions of the world. Well-thought and subtly introduced character development is a powerful element to any story, and the medium of film has the potential for unique investigations of character type and development. Movement and editing are usually used in a film to help create a fluid and operational story, but in many cases techniques in movement and editing not only give consecutive structure to the structure of a film but also help establish its characters, lead an audience to sympathize with them or criticize their reliability, and develop the personas that a viewer will learn to hate or love over the course of a film.

Movement is often used to develop  characterization, since the actors on screen are often the most dynamic figures in the frame. Across genres as diverse as crime and gangster films, such as Guy Richie's Snatch (2000); heavily choreographed and active musicals such as Julie Taymor's Across the Universe (2007); and psychological reality-benders such as Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko (2001), the movement of the characters within the frame is used to give us insight into the most important parts of their character as well as to create people that the audience can sympathize with.

For instance, during the climatic peak of Snatch, the underdog and eventual victor of the story engages in a bare-knuckle boxing match. Mickey, played by Brad Pitt, is struck heavily and falls backwards across the screen in slow motion, apparently defeated. He falls across the screen from right to left, a less natural movement of the eye for the average watcher designed to unsettle a viewer. Then a surreal shot of Mickey falling through water is played, using a distortion of movement to show his body sinking in slow motion. The light behind him, his battered body, and the drama of the slow motion shot build to cast Mickey as a martyr figure-- so when Mickey snaps back up to deliver the blow that wins him the match, the viewer is on his side. 

The movement in Across the Universe, in contrast, is much more tightly controlled and used to create a harmonious and organized portrayal of the emotion in each scene. In one of the most striking scenes of the film, set to the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", (clip @ 0:45) the character Max is shuffled through a draft office in order to determine his eligibility for the US army. Long shots of Max and the other soldiers being dragged and shuffled through the process like puppets incite heavy kinetic symbolism, a propaganda-inspired dance number that paints the US government as ultimately oppressive and controlling and Max as a victim of the restrictive and violent system. In Donnie Darko, one scene meant to explore the setting of Donnie's high school employs heavy mechanical distortion of movement. As the scene opens, the camera swivels in a stunning tilt shot around a fixed point, swinging a sideways view of a schoolbus upright as boys jump out of the back and walk towards the school. This scene employs speeding pans of the school's scenery that eventually collide with the path of a main character and fixate on them, dying down into slow motion as the characters perform actions related to their plot arc or personality (dancing with the dance team, snorting cocaine inside of a locker, or reading alone by a fountain; for instance). This method of revealing character traits allows a viewer to become familiar with Donnie's life and builds the world of Middlesex, while still implementing an element of chaos from the changing speeds.

Similarly, editing techniques can also be used across a variety of genres to serve diverse functions. The editor of a movie wields great power in cutting film to evoke emotional appeal, or in many cases to simplify the film's complexity from a viewer's perspective. Often, important differences and contrasts in a film must be highlighted, and parallelism in shots across the time frame of a movie can be implemented effectively to accomplish a multitude of effects. In the 2001 romantic comedy Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, thematic montages factor heavy into the plot as flashes of images are brought to illustrate the voiceover narration regardless of the time or space in which they are occurring. This is especially prevalent in the opening scenes, in which Amelie and her parents are described and Amelie's past is established. Short shots of things that the family members like cut quickly across the screen, revealing important differences between family members within the repeated structure of fast, tight jump cuts. (clip @ 0:00-0:20). Memento (2001), a psychological thriller investigating memory and revenge, similar short fragments of film are used to stud the plot's forward movement with outside visuals. In this case, the protagonist Leonard's memories are used in quick succession. Throughout the film several fast shots are repeated, with objects and scenarios morphing near the end of the film to call the memories' accuracy into question. For instance, a repeated shot of Leonard pinching his wife's leg is later replaced by him giving her an insulin shot. Similar replacement of content in shots also factors heavily into Cameron
Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001). Many scenes were filmed twice, with Penelope Cruz and with Cameron Diaz, so that flashbacks could reveal inconsistencies in the main character David's perceptions. Both women posed for similar photographs and drawings, and the shots were cut and juxtaposed next to each other during David's mental breakdown. Cutting continuously between girls creates the illusion of Penelope flickering to Cameron and back again, dragging a viewer into David's confusion and panic.

Across the canvas of time in any film, the characters hold the brushes and create the life that moves a film forward. Fictional people captivate and enthrall audiences, creating their own fans, people who identify with other invented yet vivid personas. Techniques of movement and editing such as distortion of natural movement or parallel shots can assist in revealing those characters within a story, and bringing any film to its most human potential.