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Fritz Lang's Use Of Editing Techniques In The Film Metropolis

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Directed by Fritz Lang, the silent film Metropolis (1927) served and still continues to serve as an inspiration to many successful filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers alike. The techniques and editing skills used for this film pretty much lead to the development of the skills and techniques used today. Other notable people who helped make this film a success include Lang’s wife, Thea Von Harbou as the screenwriter and author of the book, Metropolis, Karl Freund and Günther Rittau as the cinematographers, Otto Hunte, Erich Kettlehunt and Karl Volbrecht for their remarkable set design, Gottfried Huppertz for the music, and Walter Schultze- Mittendorf as the sculptor. The major characters in this film include Alfred Abel as Joh Fredersen, Gustav …show more content…

Parallel editing was present in the film wherein it was edited in a way that two scenes were alternating to make it appear that they were happening simultaneously (Lorber, 2010). High and low angled shots were also present, and panoramic shots as well. The editing that I liked the most was in the scene when The Machine Man was made to look like Maria. The surge of electricity in this particular scene and the orbits going up and down The Machine Man was what amazed me. It is shocking that in order for this to happen, the people responsible for editing had to film this frame by frame so imagine the hours, days, weeks or even months that were put into this particular scene. I would also like to commend the background music used in the film, for it was appropriate for the scenes.

Another thing that caught my attention was how the title cards were arranged at the start of the film when they were talking about how life was in both Metropolis and in Worker’s City. When the title cards were explaining the latter, the words looked like they were descending while when it was about Metropolis, the sentences formed an arrow pointing up. It’s not much, but I found it very clever for some sort of signs to be present (Dirks,

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Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is a cinematic classic, released in 1941. Citizen Kane challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema. Kane was narrated by several people that include their take on Kane’s life. The story unfolds by many flashbacks and is told by different perspectives over the years through different narrations. Charles Foster Kane was a millionaire, head of newspapers and died saying “rosebud”.

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