TIME:

Beyond the obvious scripted flashbacks and flashforwards, film causes time to become an elastic and malleable element, and the filmmaker can either imitate time as we measure it or create a new experience of time altogether.

In film, time can be modulated in two ways:

• Changing the frame rate - slow motion, fast motion, high speed and lapsed time.

• Editing the images and sounds - into shots, montages, scenes and sequences.

During editing, TRANSITIONAL devices like cuts, dissolves, fades, wipes and freeze frames can be used to emphasize content and duration. The time it takes for an event to be completed can be shortened or lengthened. Acceleration and deceleration of the cutting rate modify the pace of a film and the spectator's experience, but they do not necessarily contract or expand time.

That said, the tempo and cutting rate can give a mundane act greater dramatic intensity, and by accelerating the cuts between images we can lengthen or compress time and add TENSION.

SIMULTANEOUS TIME: A series of shots can describe simultaneous action, transforming into sequential action incidents in different locations; e.g. the classic chase scene; cutting back and forth from pursued to pursuer, so that the rhythm of alternation and rapid cutting rate augments the forward thrust of filmic movement, injects suspense and enhances excitement.

The cutting rate accelerates as the distance between them closes, the rhythm developing until the last shot when it all comes to a rapid conclusion, with both figures in the same frame.

Aside from the frame rate and editing, time can also be manipulated by the content of the shots and the movements occurring within them, and so by implication the spatial configurations represented - both movement and spatial patterns effect our experience of filmic time.