Preliminary Research: Knives Out

In order to further explore the crime aspect of our film, I wanted to analyze a recent film with more crime elements so I decided to look at Knives Out. 

Unlike the previous films I analyzed, Knives Out immediately sticks out with its color palette. It feels a lot more lively compared to the other films. Nightcrawler was shrouded with darkness and minimal lighting and Drive had moments of brighter color but still had a darker tone to it overall. In Knives Out, characters either pop with color or are brightly lit which makes characters more distinct and the overall setting more fantasy-like. 

 

Still of Wanetta from Knives Out that shows diverse color (Left). Still from Nightcrawler showing darkness that is typical of the film (Right).

Nightcrawler grounds itself into a more realistic world than the one of Knives Out so it reflects that in its color grading just as Knives Out does so with its more unusual events.

Scene from Knives Out where Ransom exposes himself and gets caught

A big aspect of most crime or mystery films is the reveal. When I normally think of reveal I think of quick cuts to increase tension which the film does do once Ransom picks up a weapon. This is similar to the editing style in Nightcrawler and Drive in those high-intensity moments. However, this scene utilizes slow motion to further emphasize the events that are taking place. By making these scenes last longer, it has the viewer writing for what's next to come and more time to realize the reality of the situation. It overdramatizes events and with big mystery/crime films like this, the reveal should be one of the most dramatic parts. Drive does something similar where one of the robbers gets killed in an overly dramatic way due to the slow motion that was added to the shot.

Interrogation scene from Knives Out

This crime film also had an interrogation scene that I wanted to look closely at. In this scene, cuts are made once a character speaks in order to show that character speaking. There are also moments where it cuts between characters sitting in very similar positions in the same setting to reveal information about a specific character. The way that the characters are all cut to immediately following one comment and in a very similar visual position alerts the viewer that they are speaking on the same topic. Cuts are also present immediately after Blanc presses a key on the piano to see their reaction to his presence. Cuts aren't overly frequent and are kept tame as the scene doesn't evoke any high-energy emotions. 

My main finding from this research was the key differences and similarities in the editing between crime and mystery-oriented films and full-on thrillers. This film and the films I've discussed before use similar cuts when it comes to more mundane moments in the film such as the interrogation scenes. However, there is a bigger difference when it comes to the build up of and release of tension. In Knives Out these moments are long and drawn out to make the moments suspenseful while in thrillers they are more quick and rhythmic. The use of color grading is also very different. In crime/mystery films they seem to pop out more to make the large cast of characters that make them up stand out more. In the thrillers I've mentioned before, we see characters try to be hidden so a more dark grading is used. As the editor I now get it's my job to find a happy medium between the methods used in both of the genres. There are already some similarities between the two but depending on the direction our film goes, I could bring out the more fictitious elements from mystery films or the more grounded and anticipated parts of thrillers.