Pillow Talk Vs Fringe Essay

“How are the sequences from ‘pillow talk’ and ‘fringe’ different? Discuss the differences in pace and style of editing as well as the effect the editing has on meaning/the audiences reception of the extracts.”

Editing plays a very important roll in the TV and film industry. Without it, film would consist of boring and unenthusiastic shots.

Editing involves a variety of shot types and fast-paced scene changes. this technique cleverly joins together different sequences involved.

In the two sequences I compared, I noticed the editing in both, tries to alter the frames and shot types, to give us a different perception on certain characters. When the scene seems more up-beat the pace of the new frame comes sharper and more frequently, like in Fringe. Whereas in Pillow Talk, the frames come less often, and dissolve out less rapidly.

Pillow talk, directed by Michael Gordon in 1959, is a relaxed, intimate conversation that often occurs between a man (Brad Allen played by Rock Hudson) and a woman (Jan Morrow played by Dorris Day) through telephone line.

As it is mainly focused on the phone line between two characters, the director cleverly uses various camera shots and editing styles.

The main style of editing used is a split screen, where the camera dissolves from an original shot, into one containing the position of two characters in different setting. In this where someone answers the phone, and the other is calling.

The first cut is a simple dissolve from the two men talking, to mid shot of ‘Jan’ in the mirror. From then after, the shots seem to all be straight cuts. Beginning with the split screen effect.

During the split-screen, a zoom occurs to show the facial expressions of both characters. Where the cuts are not very frequent, we see the sequence to be very laid back, and not so serious.

When we see the man and woman out together, it is a very relaxed conversation with two typically good looking people on a date.  The shots differ according to the character that is speaking.

We do in fact see both characters in the frame, but the camera angle seems to be focused on that one character whom is talking. There doesn’t seem to be much editing used in this sequence, due to the fact that the conversation seems to be slow. This in the outcome would attract more of a female audience, as it is focused on love and being in the position of finding love.

In ’Fringe’, created by J.J Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, we are following F.B.I investigations of a series of unexplained often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe.

 Premiered in 2008, we already can see that the editing and style of this sequence will be more current, up to date, and more intriguing than such of in ‘Pillow Talk’.

The extract itself seems more mysterious, as there are so many more cuts according in the amount of time. The camera angle is shown many times at a worms eye view, this seems to give the person in the shot more power.

Having quicker straight cuts to a new shot, gives the audience a build up of tension, and I also found that to introduce other characters a ‘pan’ shot is used.

It begins showing a conversation between a man and another man whom is on video.

When we are introduced into the next set, which is outside showing what looks like an important building, we are drawn to the flying machinery in the sky. The editing used next shows the machine disappearing, then onto a pan shot.

After this we are introduced to another set, what looks like a serious interview maybe held inside this building. The pace and style of the shots are still more fast-paced then Pillow Talk, but come less rapidly at this point.

Overall, as the audience watching both of these extracts thouroughly, i most certainly enjoyed Pillow talk over Fringe. This is because i love a rom-com, and have never been very interested in the whole sci-fi thriller typed films. Pillow Talk was girlie and i can relate the situation between the two characters, and i liked how comfortable it was to watch. Whereas Fringe was very boring and gave me no interest, it also seemed a very fast-paced programme which you would have to watch thouroughly to understand. So after all my reviewing id much prefer to watch Pillow Talk again.