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Home , AR Murugadoss, Atlee (director), Bigil, Thuppakki

High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

Prevalence of Increased Rapid Editingin Action Sequences after the Advent of Sophisticated Film Making Tools in

S Parthasarathy1 and Dr. V. Sundararaman2

1Ph. D Research Scholar, 2Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, ManonmaniamSundaranar University, Abishekapatti, - 627012, , .

Abstract In Tamil movies centered on mass heroes, rapid editing helps the Filmmaker to make the audience believe the completely unrealistic action sequences into realistic presentation by engaging them. In action packed movies except few action sequences, which are in real, majority of the action sequences are built with intensified continuity editing with rapid cuts. In Tamil Cinemas in most of the movies, traditional Hollywood continuity style of storytelling are employed in representing space, time, and narrative relations in sequences. Largely action packed Tamil movies adhere to the premises of Classical Continuity with the intensification in Editing. Factors, whichfavour the intensified continuity editing, are the availability of NLE Softwares and tactics of different styles of camera work. To achieve this Continuity editing rules are strictly followed to hide the cuts and to give more emphasize on expression of the actors involved in action. Continuity editing is vital to maintain the perception of spatial and temporal ellipsis.

Keywords: Average Shot Length, Classical Continuity, Continuity Editing, Non Linear Continuity, 180o Rule, Action Continuity, Over the Shoulder Shot, Close-up Shot I.INTRODUCTION

The Evolution of Tamil cinema industry dates back to 1987 when the first ever cinematograph show in south India was screened by M Edwards in Victoria Public Hall near Cental Station in . Very significant abut this is that this was just a year after the Lumiere brothers had demonstrated their inventions in . Now Chennai nerve centre south Indian film Industry popularly known as Kollywood has developed as one of the major centre for production of Films in India. Kollywood has always been using the best available cinema technology for production, which make its one of the sophisticated centre for Filmmaking. With the advances, in camera Techniques and quality of production with the arrival of computer technology, Kollywood is successful in producing pseudo realistic scenes to create sense of reality in the Psyche of audience. By the sense of reality that is created by techniques employed in cinema to tell the story audience are taken to the realistic world. The heroes in action packed movies are portrayed as superman able to do unrealistic things on the screen, which a common person cannot do in the real world.

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One should understand the popular and commercially successful movies are constructed from thousands and thousands of individual camera shots and are then spliced together to give impression of continuous sequences to narrate the story in the screen. Information across individual shots filmed at different times and locations have little resemblance or no resemblance to the real world. Camera Techniques and continuity editing rules are strictly followed to make the audience believe in the actions happening in the screen space.

This research paper is intended to understand how Film Editors keep the Time and Pace of Editing to make the narration forward making the action on the screen believable and realistic to the audience. This study is limited to the measuring ASL of 5 different movies and measuring ASL in six action sequences in the recently released Black buster Tamil movie Directed by and actor with the huge fan following IlayathalapathiViajy who has done a male protagonist.

II.METHODOLOGY

To study the rapid editing in Tamil films the Average Shot Length of the five films were analyzed by the researcher. In all the five films chosen by the researcher to study the male protagonist role is played by the Mass Hero of the Tamil movies who have huge fan following. Directors who have proven record of directing Block Buster movies with commercial success rate directed all of these movies. The following are the movie Name & year of Release.

Table.2.0.List of movies and the year of Release Year of Movie Name Release Thalapathi 1991 2012 Petta 2019 Viswasam 2019 Bigil 2019

Series of discussion papers the researcher went through the Cinemetrics website, which has large data of Hollywood and other foreign language movies ASL data has interested him to do Intensified editing style in Tamil Movies especially in Action packed Mass Hero movies. The average shot length (ASL) has been the most widely used quantitative measure of film style, as we need to know only the duration of a film and the number of shots in it. To further study deeply in finding the Intensified Editing, the researcher has analyzed the commercially successful Block Buster movie Bigil where has played the lead role. The researcher has analysed six different action sequences in the movie to find the Average Shot length of the six different action sequences.

2.1 An Insight into the Movies Chosen for the Study First movie to analyse the ASL was Thalapathy released in the year 1991 Directed by legendary Director Maniratnam and acted by who has a huge fan following in Tamil Nadu as well as in overseas. Mammooty a leading Malayam Film actor shared the screen with the iconic actor Rajinikanth. This film also saw Arvindsamy a new actor who later acted in the movies

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directed by Maniratnam. The total duration of the movie is 9134 seconds and has 1568 shots and the ASL of the movies is 5.8 seconds. Unlike the recent movies that are, shot by sophisticated modern day digital cameras, which gives scope for taking more no of shots and diversified editing decisions in NLE edit rooms this movie was shot using film camera and yet giving the astonishing ASL value of 5.8 seconds.

Second movie to measure the ASL was Thupakki directed by AR Murgadoss and acted by Vijay who also has a huge fan following among the young Tamil cinema Audience. However, many individual shots of longer duration are present in the movie ASL of the entire movie is taken for our study. It is identified that some action sequences had more no of shots especially stunt sequence with coin flipping with light on/off technique had ASL value of 1.9 seconds which is well below against the ASL value of 4.6 seconds for the movie. This movie has a Total duration of 10817 second and 2327 shots. Lethal combination of Actor vijay and AR Murugadoss later who knows actor’s strengths and uses him quite effectively to pass on the message to an immensely wider audience keeping in mind the expectation of his fans. Thupakki is the movie most appreciated for its screenplay and stylistic making.

Third movie to measure ASL was Petta an Action Drama directed by KarthikSubburaj and has a Rajinikanth in lead role, co-acted by NawazuddinSiddiqui, Vijay Sethupathi, Sasikumar, MalavikaMohanlal, Trisha and in prominent roles. Story and plot of the movie which sticks to the Rajini’sfomula and reinvention of Superstars biggest hit Baasha is a successful movie and feast for his diehard fans. This movie has ASL value of 3.5, which has higher value of ASL when compared to the movies Viswasam and Bigil. The higher value is attributed to the lengthy shots taken by free ranging cameras, which had shot duration of more than 15 to 90 seconds at several sequences. Whereas in action sequences the ASL value of the movie is less than 2 seconds. This movie has total duration 10020 seconds and 2900 shots.

Fourth movie analysed for ASL calculaton was Viswasam acted by has a huge fan following comparable to Actor Vijay is the lead role directed by Siva. Sticking to the regular template for mass hero movies it is presented in such a way to satisfy his and family audience. This Stereotyped movie though has a predictable plot is kept moving forward by rapid editing techniques and has more close up shots which lasts for brief seconds to keep the audience engaged. This movie has a ASL value of 2.8 seconds.

Fifth movie to be analyzed for ASL measurement is recently released Box office hit movie Bigil acted by Vijay and Directed by Atlee. Director has paired up with Vijay for the third time after their ventures Mersal and . Atlee who has tasted success with Vijay in his last two ventures has presented commercial movie Bigil to satisfy the Vijay fans. This movie has also adhered to the Mass hero formula to engage the young audience. A predictable movie plot is packed with action, emotional and romantic sequences for the seamless flow of movie watching. This movie has a ASL value of 2.6 seconds which is slightly lesser than Viswasam movie with the ASL value of 2.8 seconds. This movie was taken for deeper study for research to understand how the action sequence in Mass hero movies undergo intensified editing style to engage the Audience. During analyses in most of the sequences rules of continuity editing are strictly adhered to make the cut invisible to the Audience with a few exception in some sequences where violation of 180* rule, Eye line mismatch, Directional Continuity and match action is noticed. Surprisingly in this movie, first opening song has an ASL value of 3.1 seconds which is much higher than ASL

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value of the movie 2.6. This gives us an assumption that action sequences may have very low ASL value than ASL value of the movie. This paved the way for the researcher to get deep into analyzing the different action sequence in the movie and as anticipated ASL values of action sequences with the lesser value were found out.

III.INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS Tamil Cinema directors started using intensified continuity in their movies for the past 10 years. The average shot length of the movies has become short in the past 10 years due to the penetration of sophisticated Film making techniques. Directors have started using more close up shots to construct a scene by using extreme focal lengths. With the advent and choice of Digital cameras Directors gives more option for the Film Editors to choose shots to construct a scene. After the coming of TV serials, which mostly has more close up shots audience is practiced to it, hence the same technique is adopted in cinema also. TV commercials, which convey the information in 30 seconds to 90 seconds has also pushed the Editors to choose quick edits in their movies. It conveys the meaning that today’s generation who are prone to computer games, audiences trained on watching TV serials and TV commercials have adopted to perceive rapid cuts in the movie. In recent years it has become the practice of Film producers to choose the Directors who have proved their skills in short Films to Direct the Feature Film. These Directors who make short films for TV and Web medium take close-up shots and test on different Narrative sequences apply the same techniques when they get a chance to make Feature Films.

It is observed in the films that were taken for study, basic rules of Classical Continuity are strictly followed in the Film making. All these traditional techniques are applied with intensified Editing to deliver fast cuts. It is also observed that there are at places where Spatial and Temporal Continuity is broken but it went unnoticed because of rapid cuts employed to build the scene. Editors and Film Makers believe that intensified editing can manipulate the Audience’s emotional responses and reactions to the quick movement of visuals in the screen. Rapid Editing and shaking hand held cameras makes the viewer to pay attention to what is happening in the screen. Spatial continuity a norm of Classical Continuity is compromised by the intensified editing style.

In the five films observed for study, dialogues involving two or three persons had Over the Shoulder shots to give more emphasize on the characters Face, Eye and Lip movements rather than the body to enhance emotions. To study and measure the Average Shot Length (ASL) of the movies I used Black Magic Davinci Resolve NLE Editing Software to count the number of shots in each movie. It is a freeware available in Black Magic Design Web site and hence no license is needed in using this software. All the movies available in the Youtube were analysed using scene detection tool available in the software except Bigil a newly released movie during the period my study which is not available in the youtube. To analyseBigil Movie I watched it on Amazon Prime OTT platform to count the shots. DavinciResolve helped me to analyse the ASL of the rest of the movies otherwise a tedious process. DaVinci Resolve’s Scene Cut Detection function can analyze a imported Video and cut it into multiple shots based on where it believes there are cuts in the Video.

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Fig.3.0 Scene Cut Detection Tool in BlackmagicDavinciresolve

Incorrect scene detection can happen because DavinciResolve may misinterpret transition effects applied at edit points, very fast motion, VFX effects or when a object or person cross in front of the frame. After the Scene detection is done one need to delete the incorrect cuts in the time line of the Davinci’s interface.

Fig.3.1 Windows showing Shot Length & Timeline in BlackmagicDavinciresolve Interface

Therefore, for all the 04 movies except Bigil ASL were calculated using Davinci’s scene detection tool and for the incorrect detection I went through the entire Timeline which runs for 02 hours and 30 minutes to 02 hours and 50 minutes. It almost took 03 to 04 hours to remove incorrect detection happened in each movie. The above said experiments were done successfully and the below were data were arrived at after careful examination.

Table.3.0 Average Shot Length of the Movies selected for Analysis Total No of Shots Year of Movie Average Shot S No Duration in used in Making Name Length Seconds Movie 1 1991 Thalapathi 9134 1568 5.8 2 2012 Thuppakki 10817 2327 4.6 3 2019 Petta 10020 2900 3.5 4 2019 Viswasam 8770 3112 2.8 5 2019 Bigil 10635 4093 2.6

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Average Shot Length of the Movies Yearwise 7.0 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 Average Shot

0.0 Length

Bigil

Petta

Viswasam

Thuppakki Thalapathi 1991 2012 2019 2019 2019

Fig.3.2Average Shot Length of the Movies chosen for Study

From the above-mentioned data it is found that Average Shot Length (ASL) for Tamil movies is declining from 1991 to 2019. From the chart it is observed that ASL of Ajith Kumar Starred movie Viswasam is close to Vijay’s Movie Bigil by margin of 0.2 seconds later being the lowest in ASL value.

In order to study the intensified continuity editing in Mass Hero starred Tamil Movie Bigil Directed by Atlee and acted by Vijay who has huge opening in Theatres and fan following was analysed. ASL value of the entire movie, which has duration of 10635 seconds, is compared with the ASL value of six different action sequences in the Movie. All the observations in studying the ASL value were done manually by viewing the movie in the TV screen that saw the release in OTT platform Amazon Prime during the period of Study.

Table.3.1 Average Shot Length of the Action Sequences in Bigil Movie Average Shot Average Shot Length of the Action Sequence In S No Length of Action Entire Movie in Bigil Movie Sequence Seconds

1 Action Sequence 01 2.0 2 Action Sequence 02 1.5 3 Action Sequence 03 2.6 4 Action Sequence 04 2.2 2.6 5 Action Sequence 05 1.6 6 Action Sequence 06 1.9 Mean Value of Action Sequence = 1.98

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Six different action sequences from the having different duration and shot count were considered to study intensified editing in Action sequences of the Movie Bigil. Except for the Action Sequence 03 ASL value of the rest of the sequences are well below ASL rate of the movie. ASL value of the Action Sequence 03 has a value of 2.6, which is equal to the ASL value of the entire movie. This is because in this particular sequence villain killed his father and most of the shots are speed ramped to slow to convey reaction and emotion to the Audience. Mean value of the ASLs of the six Action sequence is from the above table shows the value of 1.98 seconds that is well below the ASL value of the entire movie 2.6.

3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 Average 0.5 Shot Length 0.0 of Action Sequence

Fig.3.3 Graphical Form of Average Shot Length of the Action Sequences in Bigil Movie

Comparison of Average Shot Lengths of the Action Sequences to the Average Shot Length of the Bigil Movie From the interpretation of the above Table and Chart we come to know that Rapid Editing techniques were employed by the Director and Editor of the Bigil movie to convey the intended story to the Audience.

IV.Conclusion Decline in ASL value indicates that Tamil Film Directors have adopted rapid editing style to convey the Narration and keep the Audience engaged. It is evident that frequent use of more close up shots to express the emotion and reaction of the character are adopted to convince the largely trained TV watching audience. Rapid Editing when handled correctly will be the best form of Film Editing and Movie making Process. New age Directors supply with multiple number of shots to the Editor to choose and to test on various possible ways of Visual Narration. There is a strong relation and coordination between Cinematographers, Editors and Directors in Tamil Film Industry who work as a team and discuss openly in shaping the betterment of the movie.

References: 1. Bordwell D 1985, Narration in the Fiction Film. London:Methuen. 2. Adams B, Dorai C, and Venketesh S 2000 Role of shot length in characterizing tempo and dramatic story sections in motion pictures, in L Guan and RLK Liu (eds.) Proceedings of

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the First IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia, 13-15 December 2000, Sydney, Australia. Sydney: University of Sydney: 54-57. 3. Tim J. Smith, AnAttentional Theory of Continuity Editing, University of Edinburgh 2005 4. Bordwell, D. (1997). On the History of Film Style. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA:Harvard University Press. 5. Cutting, J. (2004). Perceiving Scene in Film and in the World.J. D. Anderson, & B. F. Anderson (Eds.), Moving image theory: ecological considerations. 6. Lang, A., Geiger, S., Strickwerda, M., & Sumner, J. (1993). The effects of related and unrelated cuts on viewers memory for television: A limited capacity theory of television viewing. Communication Research, 20, 4-29. 7. Alexis Leigh Carreiro,2010Script-to-Screen: Film Editing and Collaborative Authorship During the Hollywood Renaissance 8.The concept of average shot length derives from Barry Salt, Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis, second ed. (London: Starword, 1992), 142-147. 9.Barry Salt,finds a shortening in Mean ASL from 11 sec-onds to about 7 seconds in the period from 1958 to 1975 10.Joseph P. Magliano and Jeffrey M. Zacks, Nov 2011,The Impact of Continuity Editing in Narrative Film on Event Segmentation 11. Karen Pearlman, 2009, Cutting Rhythms Shaping the Film Edit, Focal Press. 12. Bottomore, S., “Shots in the dark: The real origins of fi lm editing,” in Early Cinema:Space, Frame, Narrative, edited by Elsaesser, T., with Barker, A., BFI Publishing, London, 1994. 13. Thalapathy, Tamil Cinema released in 1991, Directed by Maniratnam 14. Thupakkai, Tamil Cinema released in 2012, Directed by A R Murgadoss 15. Petta, Tamil Cinema released in 2019, Directed by KarthickSubburaj 16. Viswasam, Tamil Cinema released in 2109, Directed by Siva 17. Bigil, Tamil Cinema Released in 2019, Directed by Atlee Kumar 18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_167GmKslY 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHb0aAm1Tw8 20. https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/david-bordwell/205412/ 21. On the History of Film Style 2nd edition by David Bordwell 22. Charles O'Brien: Shot Length Statistics: National Differences across Multiple Language

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Version Films (1930-1933) 23. Baxter M. (2012a) Film statistics: some observations, http://www.cinemetrics.lv/dev/on statistics.php 24. Cutting JE, DeLong JE, Nothelfer CE. Attention and the Evolution of Hollywood film. Psychological Science. 2010 25. Baxter M. (2013b) Cutting patterns in D.W. Griffiths Biographs: An experimental statistical study. http://www.cinemetrics.lv/dev/on statistics.php 26. Baxter M. (2013d) On the distributional regularity of shot lengths in film. Literary and Linguistic Computing, doi:10.1093/llc/fqt041 [12] Baxter M. (2013e) Evolution in Hollywood editing patterns? http://www.cinemetrics.lv/dev/Evolution paper for Cinemetrics.pdf 27. Baxter M. (2014a) Cutting patterns in D.W. Griffiths silent feature films. http://www.academia.edu/5684527/Cutting patterns in D.W. Griffiths silent feature films

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