Blog post #3: Media Cuts

The media I chose was the last sequence in the movie HappyThankYouMorePlease. What I really found intriguing about this last piece  the film was the blend of "live" performance intertwined with other shots of the main characters in the film. The sound and images meld well together. It's edited with the rhythm of the song along with the mood and lyrics that that character is singing. Starting with her speech about the happiness of the song and that it's just the kind of song she needs, juxtaposed with happy moments of the other characters really creates the mood of the sequence. You can see that every time she sings the word "sing" that camera cuts back to the shot of her lips against the microphone. A majority of the cuts are taken off of the rhythm of the song. As the the sequence jumps between the happy moments of the other characters outside of the time line of the performance all of the cuts within that sequence are to the rhythm of the song. When the song picks up in temp the cuts happen quicker and sharper, but as the tempo slows we go back to the live performance and linger in the shots of the singer as the camera pans and cuts to different angles of her, the stage, and lastly cuts between her and another character that has come to watch her perform.  When it comes to when not to cut, the beginning of this sequence is definitely a place to stay with a still shot. As the character explains the importance of the song and, pretty much, in dialogue sets up the ending of the movie it's good that we have time to just be with the character and listen to her. Especially because the cuts are mostly timed to the music and lyrics of the song it would take away from that technique if they began to cut before the music began. The one moment I think the cuts weren't smooth or to time is in the beginning as the music starts we get a long shot of her sining and then it cuts to a medium shot with the same angle and that cut just seems superfluous. However, I think this is a really subtle sequence to point out how interesting editing to music can be.