Gear Change in a scene is where the editor edits the speed of a scene at a certain point to give of a specific effect to a scene. This can be done by a simple sudden change of speed in a scene from slow to fast or vice versa, or gradually doing it in stages or going back and forth, like the fight scenes in '300'. An appropriate use for a gear change is for when big action suddenly happens on screen, but the main use for one is when something changes in general. For example, If there is a calm scene with not a lot going on it will be at a slow speed, but if something changes such as movement occurring then a gear change would be good to use. From researching gear changes, I have learned there must be a lot of planning before you start creating a gear change such as what is the purpose of the change? At what speed should the change occur? amongst other factors.
Here's what a gear change might look like on a timeline. The blue clips are indicative of the scene's original pacing, which is a bit slower, and the orange clips show the pacing after the gear change has occurred. Lastly, in order to emphasize the moment in which the dramatic shift in tempo happens, the pink clips are even slower. This is a technique that should be used in editing a film to intentionally highlight an important change in your characters, their journey, or their emotional state. I am looking into the use of a gear change for the final scene in 'Roadman' where a fight breaks out between Jimmy and Jase. The use of the gear change will help build up suspense for the action to happen and for it to be more interesting to the audience.
I have been researching more into different types of cuts. My reasoning for doing this is to know more about the different types of cuts that I could use in my edit. Even though my visual edit is basically done at this point in time, I felt it would be beneficial to look more into what I can do with cutting from shot to shot, to see if there were any different or better ways to piece my edit together.
I came across this video 'Cuts & Transitions 101' by RocketJump Film School giving a basic introduction into what different names of cuts and transitions are that have been used in films. Some of what I have learned from this are things I already knew, such as cutting on action, the invisible cut and jump cuts. But I have learned some new cuts such as match cuts, L-Cuts, J-Cuts and smash cuts. I have actually used J-Cuts in my edit already but did not know what it was called. At the beginning of the video the narrator says 'A lot of these cuts are so common you don't even think about it', which was the rough idea I had when making my first rough cut, putting together what I thought would be suitable without knowing what the names for the cuts are.
The transition part of the video was not really important for my research as there is no use of them in 'Roadman' at all. But this video has made me think more about the use of cutaways in my edit, some of the shots in the edit seem really long and may not keep the audiences attention, so I am planning to look over the footage and see if there is anything I can put in to one of the long duration shots to break it up a bit. The information I have learnt is invaluable for the rest of my edit and also for the future as well, by knowing what the cuts are called and what their purposes are and what feeling it gives off to the audience.
