Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The Shining- Dissolve Use
Stanley Kubrick is a great director. A Clockwork Orange and The Shining are two of the more notable works of film in the past 45 years. However, Kubrick uses the dissolve effect too much in The Shining. Although the dissolve effect can be a good, sometimes perfectly fitting, transition between scenes, Kubrick uses this effect to the point where the transition between almost every scene in the beginning of the film is a dissolve. When I am watching a film, I try not to be critical of how it is put together, shot and edited. However, I could not help but notice how much Kubrick used this effect. When a viewer is watching a film, they should not notice small things like a repetition of an effect or small issues with the film. The effect fit well in the film during most transitions, but while watching I felt as if Kubrick wanted to use the dissolve effect for every scene. I think the reason for his overuse of this effect is because it is a good way to tell a story or the beginning of a story very quickly. The director can dissolve transition quickly between scenes in order to get on to the real plot of the film, and then they will stop using it. The Shining did exactly that. The Shining rushed into Jack's downfall, and I felt that there was not enough time in the film before Jack begins to go crazy. This may have been how Kubrick intended it to be, and if it was, then the dissolve effect was the right way to go.
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I agree Loef. Kubrick used many cinematography geniuses to keep the viewer interested and horrified. I think that the dissolve transition plays a big role because it is a little ominous of a transition. You don't know what's coming next. I think that throughout the film Jack became more and more animalistic because of the hotels spell it had over him.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with that Kubrick uses dissolves too often. You call dissolving an effect, but I think calling it that indicates that it is special in some way, but I don't think it is appropriate to call it any more than a transition. Perhaps a star wipe could be called an effect, but not an editing method so typical as a dissolve. Dissolves were used in the beginning of the film for a good reason: Kubrick tried to indicate that time was passing between scenes while not making the transition too abrupt, as this was reserved for later in the film. One more thing to keep in mind is that dissolves have historically been decreasing in use for films. Films such as Citizen Kane use dissolves very often, but a typical film released today might not have a single one. Since this film was released 1980, nearly thirty-five years ago, it is fair that more dissolves were used than if the film were to be made today.
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