Realism, Classicsm, and Formalism

I had an incredibly difficult time finding a movie that incorporated realism, classicism, and formalism form of editing. When I found a movie that had incorporated one of the elements, it lacked one other or maybe even both. The problem is that I just haven't seen enough movies that use all three types of editing. After a bit of thinking, I began thinking about TV shows and the first to pop into my head was Breaking Bad.

Although this clearly is not a movie, it is ,however, incredibly artsy and unique in all aspects, especially the editing and cinematography.

Realism

Realism is all about showing the truth. This is done my not altering the sequence in any way. In other words, a shot is held for an incredibly longer time period than really necessary to convey a message. This preserves all the realistic factors we find in real life. When trying to preserve realism, the shot is just one long take and the there is no editing done to alter the reality.

In this scene, Jesse is explaining his situation to Walt. Through the entire dialogue between Jesse and Walt, the camera is fixed in one position. The reason for doing this is to preserve the mood and the realistic factors of the scene. In one long take, we can see that Jesse is struggling to explain what his new responsibilities are going to be and what the cartel expects him to do. If this was edited in separate shots, it would take away from the realism. When we talk to each other in real life or hear others talking, we are also fixed in one position and only see from one angle. Also, when someone is talking we can easily hear them stutter. A realism edit simply tries to reflect real life as much as possible.

Classicism 

Classicism condenses all of the action without leaving any crucial information out. It is quick and right to the point. This is the style of editing used in most productions. It tries the tell the story the best way possible and focusing only on the characters rather than the filmmaker's techniques.

This shot is great example of classicism in effect. The perfect example is when you don't even see the cut happen.  In this scene, Walter is telling Jesse to get a list together so they get begin cooking. This scene is edited in a way that it is quick and right to the point. The cinematographer does not try to to wow the audience; instead, he/she is keeping it focused on the characters. This quick style of editing is a great tool to glorify the humor in a scene, which is exactly what is being done here.

Formalism

Formalism is the director's style to bend reality. Formalist directors don't want to preserve reality; they want to show the world through their own eyes or the eyes of a character. Most of the time, formalist shots,scenes, or sequences make no sense to the common person so they come off as a bit disturbing. 

In this sequence, we can see a series of shots that make no sense at all. First of all there is a grown man, Gale, singing his own version of a song in front of a green/blue screen. Along with that, he is trying his best to dance, but can't seem to make out any moves. The lyrics are absurd, there are galaxies exploding behind him, there are cars driving behind him, there is a rocket, waterfalls, and animals; however, none of them seem to connect together in a logical way, just like lil Wayne's music. By using this technique, the director is simply satirizing people and what they do in their free times and also trying to keep a comedic tone throughout the entire song because how outrageous it is.