I have chosen a scene from the movie, “A Chorus Line”. The story is about an audition for the Broadway show. The scene that I picked is a very beginning scene, and I think that in this scene, the editing is well-done and creates the energized and competitive moods in the audition well. This scene starts with an establishing shot of outside of the theater in which the audition is taking place. The camera first shoots the top of the theatre and moves downward, and then it shoots a long line of the dancers for the audition. This shot shows audience that how competitive this audition is by showing the long line for the audition. Then, the scene changes to the stage of the theatre and suddenly switches to a close-up shot of the choreographer who has just turned back. He is very serious and choosing dancers for the second audition. This close-up shot of the choreographer establishes the vigor mood overall. At the same time, it shows how serious his is and creates the nervous feeling of dancers. The establishing shot changes to the close-up shot all of a sudden, and the cut is obvious; however this obvious, sudden cut gives audience a strong impression and emphasizes the intensity of the audition. Thus, I thought it is successful. After the close-up shot, the camera starts moving away from the choreographer gradually, and it follows him wherever he goes on the stage, and it changes to a next shot: the camera angle changes to high-angle, so that the shot shows all dancers dancing on the entire stage. Even though the camera angle changes suddenly, this cut seems like that it is seamless because it keeps the same color feeling and creates the feeling of continuity. On the other hand, the cut from the establishing shot to the close-up of the choreographer changes the feeling of the color: the color feeling changes bright outside to darker inside of the theatre. The color difference makes the cut between these shots obvious and impressive.
The video clip of the scene:
