Cutting It - Technical Analysis

We watched a short, 4 minute clip of the TV show "Cutting It", where main character Allie Henshall is hit by a car when leaving the hospital to meet her new husband, Gavin Ferraday.

Sound
There a four different types of sound that we can look at when analysing a scene:

• Verbal soundtrack - this is essentially the dialogue between characters or a narration.
• Soundtrack - this is the natural sound such as pauses and silence.
• Music score - this can include stings, bridges and motifs to support the visual.
• Ambient sound - this is the general background noise and is used for realism and to establish a place.

In Cutting It, the verbal soundtrack is the main source of sound due to the dialogue that is shared by the characters throughout. It mixes with background noise to create the sense of realism that most dramas try to achieve, and shows the thoughts and emotions of the characters.

There a quite a few sound effects in this extract, mainly natural sounds, to intensify what is going on. for instance, there is the sound of cars driving past and the general hubbub of people around them. In order to make us pay more attention to a single moment in particular, there is little sound other than tyres screeching and the sound of a heartbeat. The sound of the heartbeat makes us focus all of our attention on Gavin and his attempts to get to Allie. The lack of sound other than the heartbeat suggests that he is blocking everything else out, which is proved by the fact he almost gets hit by a car himself when crossing the road.

The music score is a song with lyrics. It is melodic and pleasing to the ear, but is unhappy and melancholy in nature, and seems to foreshadow that something bad is going to happen. The final lyric of the song is "remember what you see", before it fades out as Allie leaves the hospital, which is almost symbolic, since Gavin will want to remember Allie looking happy as she goes to cross the road.
Climaxes within the music tend to make it obvious when there is something of significance going to happen, but there is not much of this in the tune played over the otherwise silent collection of shots when Allie is in the consultants office.

Ambient sound is quieter than the dialogue in order to keep us focused on the main characters.

Editing
There is not a lot of editing in this drama, mainly because it aims to keep the levels of realism high. There are differences in the lengths of shots and how they have been cut together - for instance, when there are close ups of faces, there a quick cuts between characters to keep up with the natural flow of dialogue, but there are slower cuts at the consultation when Allie is being spoken to by the consultant.

There is a fade to black at the end of the clip, which suggests to us that this is an end to a lot of drama and almost the end of an era - supported by the fact that it is implied that Allie and Gavin have had a lot of drama in the past.

In terms of visual effects, there is some slow motion when Gavin runs towards Allie from his place in the café. This instills a sense of how futile his efforts are, since it makes it seem like he has much further to travel to get to her.
The ring which Gavin twists around his finger appears to have been recoloured. The image has a blue tint to it, which looks rather dramatic and also creates a cold atmosphere despite the romantic connotations of a wedding ring. This could potentially be foreshadowing events which occur just minutes later.

There are sharper shots where the pair converse, and softer ones in the consultation room, which adds to how little we know about what has actually happened in there.
The moving slow motion shot when Gavin runs to Allie's body creates a lot of tension, made even more tense by the non diagetic heartbeat sound added on top; this makes it seem as though everything has stopped and Gavin cannot do anything to help her.

Mise-en-scène
In this piece, we can look at three different aspects of mise-en-scène.

• Location
• Objects & Props
• Lighting

The locations of the clip are all very significant. The pair being in the back of a taxi allows for continuous conversation as they do not have to turn away from eachother to look at the road as they would have to if they were driving.
The differences in location during the quiet moment in the middle when Allie is in the consultation combine to create a lot of tension - the atmosphere in the cafè is calm and although Gavin worries for her, the whole area looks rather serene. However, the consultation room creates a sense of worry, mainly due to the fact that we see the room firstly from an unusual aerial shot, and then do not see the face of the consultant once.

There are not an incredible amount of props in the clip. The main props is Gavin's wedding ring, which we see being twisted around his fingers in uncertainty. We see their wedding rings when they are discussing their pasts and when we are contemplating their future - for instance, in the taxi, Allie holds his hand when they talk about their past mistakes, and Gavin twists it around his finger when he is waiting for Allie.

When Allie has been hit by a car, she is laying with flowers in bunches beside her, which is ironic because of their connotations with funerals and wreaths, and consequently tragedy. Her dress is floral and her coat falls open as she lays there; her dress compliments these flowers and it is this what helps us to understand that she has actually died.

The lighting in this clip can be seen to be rather significant. In the taxi, the light is behind them, as if they are moving away from it and leaving it behind; that is, the light representing a good side to life and happiness.
Allie's face is shadowed as she sits in the back of the taxi, moreso than Gavin's, which almost foreshadows the future events.
The doctors office is lit with unnatural light which emphasises the cruelty of her death - she is given good news in a dark place but in the light, she is killed by a car.

Camera Shots, Movement and Framing
There are lots of different shots used in the clip in order to achieve a variety of different effects.

There is a two shot used when they are in the taxi. They are sat next to eachother, and the angle at which the camera is at allows us to feel involved in their relationship. It allows us to lok at them on a personal level - we are almost sharing their marital bliss.

The final shot, on the other hand, is an aerial shot which distances us from the pair completely and almost infers that this is something that we will not understand, as it an unusual position for someone to look upon others from. The camera shows us the two of them in a more exposed, vulnerable manner, and the height and the angle of the camera reinforces this as it makes them seem small and as though they could easily be hurt.

The shot where Gavin twists his wedding ring is an extreme close up. Although the main event of the sequence has not occurred at this point, it is foreshadowing in the sense that he is holding onto their relationship - similar to the way he holds onto her when she has died in the final shot.
The nature of the shot tells the audience that their marriage is an important aspect of the show that the extract is from.

There is a point of view shot when Gavin runs to Allie, where the camera moves quickly, and we see her face from his perspective. This is a shot type not used in the rest of the sequence, and hence this individuality creates a sense of urgency and makes this moment really stand out in comparison to other moments.

The crane shot used when Allie is in the consultants room is an interesting and unusual shot, because it allows us to be in the room but due to the height of the angle, it is expected that we will not be able to hear what is being said. It is slightly surreal too; it is a little like Allie is being given news which makes her feel detached from her body, as though she cannot believe it has happened to her. The angle also makes the desk a very obvious feature, making a barrier between the professional and the patient.

The close up of Allie's face when she is being given the news is to try and give us some notion as to what is going on, but it doesn't work like this because of the difficult to read emotions of her face. It succeeds in building a lot of tension because we do not know what news she has received.

There are exterior shots too, for instance of the hospital, which pans to show the ambulance, then pulls focus to the taxi as Allie and Gavin exit it. This successfully sets a scene and helps us understand what it was that they were talking about in the taxi moments before.

The alternating shots of the characters faces in the taxi swap quickly, and there is something interesting in the fact that in all of Gavin's shots, Allie is visible through part of her face being shown, but in Allie's shots, none of Gavin is visible. This could suggest that Allie is the main focus of the clip and who we should focus on, or that he feels more for her than she does for him, and that she is a little more independent than him.

Another close up is used in the taxi when the couple hold hands, which creates a sense of intimacy and helps us to fully understand the nature of their relationship, and what they mean to each other - the wedding rings are also visible.