Goal to watch the 75 best edited films with no sound-I started with Raging Bull.

I once read somewhere that the best way to becoming a good editor, is to watch and study a film in silence.

So i've set myself a goal to watch the 75 best edited films to understand, cuts and a director of photography decisions that make a film aesthetically what it is.

Starting with Raging Bull, Thelma Shoonmaker edited this film for Martin Scorsese, they met at NY and have been long time collaborators ever since. When I was watching the film in silence many things stood out to me and started to make sense.

I noticed and liked how when two people were talking (on occasion) , it wasn't filmed for coverage, but it was a single shot, held for as long as the scene took place, and there would be no cuts back and forth to get noddy's or tell the audience that two people are talking to each other.

My brain really liked this way of editing conversations that didn't' make my mind buzzed from too many Fast and Furious, MTV quick style of editing.

When I was watching the fight scenes, I couldn't believe that it was all edited together by hand????

Here's a good example of the fantastic way Thelma Shoonmaker was editing. Its the fight scene between Sugar Ray Leonard and Jake Lamotta, the speed of the cuts floored me, how did they do it with out Macs or PC's?? Niave I know, lol.

Its hard to watch this without sound since so much sound direction was added to it, when I watch it with sound its AMAZING, and like nothing else i've ever heard.

All the classic films I've watching it still blows my mind how they were edited, I really need to see this way of editing in real life.

Camera angles 1.0

One thing I really noticed and enjoyed was the way kitchen scenes were shot, inside such a cramped New York apartment: and economy of space.

Martin Scorsese will let the actors act an entire scene and only shot it from one angle, it really reminded me of acting on stage, where there are no cuts yelled by the director, but the story will unfold as you watched the play. Woody Allen has this style as well, of having very long scenes with no cuts to break your concentration; like in the film 'Hannah and her sisters'.

I think this approach really worked fantastically because it was just a slower pace to absorb all the information that was being said between the two.

Camera angles 2.0

One thing I learnt and have taken away with is that really tight shot that Scorsese likes to do when two characters are in a close enough position.

Scorsese will switch from a wide to a super-tight-close up and you feel, like woah, i'm way to close for comfort, and i just realized its about boundaries, we all have boundaries and if someone violates our certain valuable space we get upset by this, so that might be what Scorsese was aiming for.

Well, that's me for now.

Hope you enjoyed reading the blog, any feedback and if you make the time to do it, I extremely grateful .

Best wishes.

Adrian