The Editing Process of To Have and Have Not

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Editing

The editing process of a movie is a very important part in which a film editor can proudly show his creative abilities. A lot work and effort goes into editing a film. Film editors can edit out a scene from a movie that they did not like. They can also shoot two scenes separately and then edit it together to make it seem as if it was shot together. The film editor works with many parts to make a finished movie; such as, sound, images and characters’ dialogs. Editing can be used in many different ways in a film and a film editor must edit all these aspects in a way that produces a coherent and smooth transition of the story.

The sequence of “To Have and Have Not” begins with a medium shot of people sitting in a cafe then it moves to Bogart as he sits at a table. Soon after that it closes-in on him lighting a cigarette. As he lights his cigarette, music starts playing. He looks up because something catches his eye so the shot cuts to where he is looking, which is across the room. The camera shoots the scene across the room in a long shot where we are able to see a crowd around a piano, people sitting around tables drinking and Bacall who is sitting at a table drinking with a man. Next, the shot cuts to a medium shot of Bacall and the man she is sitting with. Bacall notices that Bogart is looking at her, then the shot cuts to across the room to him looking at her and then back to her in a close-up. We know that Bogart was originally looking at Bacall because Hawks used eyeline match in order to make it clear. That is, when Bogart looks at Bacall the camera cuts to her looking back at him and vice versa. She then turns around to look at the jazz pianist when the camera moves to a medium shot of him. The shot then cut...

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...ogart and Bacall are about to start a romantic relationship. However, she is a bit defensive when he tries to compliment her. Bogart calls her slim, which is supposed to be a compliment; however, she prefers not to be called that because she is self-conscious about her body. In most of the shots of the latter part of the sequence, Bogart and Bacall are standing very close to each other, which implies that they are interested in each other. They also make a lot of eye contact, which can also imply interest.

Since Hawks follows the rules of continuity editing and did not use any other editing techniques that contradict that, the sequence was very easy to comprehend. This sequence portrays a perfect example of invisible editing. That is, Hawks' editing was seamless with no editing techniques that might take away from the plot and the actors.

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