Editing Techniques In The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is an film noir, which was pioneering in crime drama tropes and style. The film utilizes editing techniques and camera work to convey a intricate narrative. One of the most interesting scenes to me was in the opening of the film when Marlowe is talking to General Sternwood which really introduces the main character through his interactions with the old man. The scene also makes good use of the 180-degree rule, shot/reverse shot, and eyeline matching which makes the dialogue between them feel natural and seamless, giving the audience a third person perspective. The shot reverse shot is used in coherence with the 180 degree rule to alter the camera’s perspective according to who is speaking or reacting. Another scene that stood out to me in this film was when Marlow finds Geiger’s body and Carmen. The use of exotic set pieces, specifically of reference to Asian culture was an interesting choice, that seemed to imply the inherent …show more content…
The shot is followed with a quick reaction shot of Marlow and Vivian looking towards the door. This creates a convincing sequence of events when Marlowe then goes to investigate and sees that Mars was shot dead by his own men. I think that this movie could have been better if it had made use of narrative segmentation to piece together the convoluted plot. I felt the film used very long, drawn out takes which slowed the pace of the movie. The average shot length in the movie is around 12.2 minutes which is not particularly long by 1946’s standards but is really long when compared to narrative films today. I wonder it this was because it was easier to edit a film with longer shots or if it is simply because people have a shorter attention spend when it comes to