Cutting Rates

In class we have looked into cutting rates of scenes and how it can affect the audience.

cutting rate is a term for the amount of camera shots used in an amount of time or a scene.

This clip from Christopher Nolan's,' Batman The Dark Knight' we see The Joker chasing after Police cars and the black van that Harvey Dent is being protected in, after a few minutes into the scene we see that Batman joins this chase to stop The Joker. At approximately 3:13 minutes Batman arrives, and from this point the cutting rate of that scene speeds up significantly. This is when The Joker blows up the Bat mobile, so there are more camera shots added in a small amount of time so that the audience is aware of exactly what has happened, as well as the effect the event has had. A fast cutting rate contributes to building tension and the engagement of the audience.

However, a slow cutting rate can also increase tension for example in the context of a horror or jump scare film. It can create great anticipation for the audience making the viewers expect the worse of the situation and fear what is to come next. which is of course what you want from a jump scare horror film.

I can apply this knowledge of cutting rate effectively to my main task as a way of gripping and setting  a scene for my audience.