Table of ContentsFlashback and Flash ForwardContinuity and DiscontinuityJumpsEye-line MatchTimelineConclusionEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film that incorporates romance, drama, and science fiction. It is based on a middle-aged man called Joel Barish who falls in love with a girl called Clementine Kruczynsk. Later, their two-year relationship began to fall apart and Clementine erased all memory she had of Joel. After Joel realizes what Clementine did, he decides to follow the same process to erase his girlfriends' memories. In the middle of the erasing process, Joel decides that he is not ready to let the memories disappear. Valdís Óskarsdóttir, the film's editor, uses various editing techniques: chronology, flashbacks, continuity and discontinuity editing, jumps and gaze line correspondences. These techniques help develop the narrative and also balance the characters' perspectives while maintaining its simplicity that is easy for the audience to follow. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Flashback and Flash Forward Flashback is usually used to take the narrative back in time before the current story time. This helps build the story as well as the character. The film uses a flashback to reveal the couple's romantic history before Clementine decides to erase their memories together. When Joel decides to undergo a similar memory erasure procedure, he sees the memories fade, and that's when he realizes he doesn't want them to disappear. He tries to stop the process because he discovers that he still loves Clementine. At this point, the story is told through the erasure of Joel's memory, making it feel like it's being told in reverse. For example, one day Joel lays down to sleep and finds himself watching his dream. He sees himself talking with his neighbors who ask him about Valentine's Day and then mention Clementine. This makes Joel uncomfortable with the speech. The audience is overcome by the confusion that Joel experiences as their happy relationship moments disappear one after the other. This makes the storyline more interesting and unique from any other love triangle drama film. The author also includes a flash-forward montage at the beginning of the film. Joel and Clementine are seen together on the train, and they meet for the first time that they know of since their memories were erased. Continuity and Discontinuity They are a nice use of continuity editing in the film. This is the most commonly used style in video editing. Continuity editing is a cutting process aimed at maintaining flow and a clear storyline. Continuity editing is classified into two: temporal continuity and spatial continuity. In In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we see Joel Banish experiencing various fragments of reality. Some fragments are memories and others are made up of illusions of his imagination. Throughout the film, the audience is able to use and connect different clues to tell Joel's reality at different times. When Joel realizes that he does not want to continue his impulsive decision to erase the memories, he holds Clementine's hand and they run through different locations, at the same time as the doctor is still working on erasing Joel's memories. The locations eventually disappear as Joel and Clementine run from a drive-in movie theater to the doctor's office and finally to the library. However, even though the film shows Joël moving from one scene to anotherother of his life, the audience understands that it is a single continuous scene based on Joel's behavior and the ideas of the film. The continuity technique is used to explore ideas of memories and the unconscious. Even when everything faded: the face seemed distorted and the car disappeared, Joël continued to hold on to Clementine. He fights to save her and her memory from closure. We also see arguments and painful moments in their relationship in Joel's memories. Joel can use his imagination and mind while relying on his ideas from Clementine to move from different scenes, times, and spaces. In a continuous scene, regardless of the many changes in scenery, the audience knows that the scene is continuous because Joel continues the fight to retain Clementine's memories. At the beginning of the film, there is a gentle and noticeable rhythm. Later, the author incorporates both discontinuity and continuity editing in order to balance the drastic changes between memories and reality. Early in the film we see Joel approach his car and notice that it has been damaged only to leave a thank you note on the neighbor's car to suggest that the neighbor caused the damage, he does not remember. not since this scene happened the next morning. procedure. This scene is not very simple and the author has incorporated a discontinuous montage which can potentially confuse the audience. Without discontinuity, the audience would not have a clear vision of what the other actors are doing at any given moment. one scene to another. To achieve continuity editing, the camera must be rotated 30 degrees or even more, but jump cutting is achieved without this rule. Thus, the combination of different shots produces a jumping effect. In the film, the editor deliberately applied both jumps and crosscuts to show Joel's reactions to the procedure to erase Joel's memories. During this procedure, the film uses separate effects in each case of memory loss scene. Joel watches everything disappear before his eyes. Some scenes of memory loss seem to speed up; some shots are slowed down while others are reversed, sound and light are used to describe the harsh experience Joel is going through. As Clementine's memory begins to fade, the viewer sees darkness and two spotlights focusing on Joel and his girlfriend. The sounds in this shot are all irritating and depict the uncomfortable experience as well as the frustrations of the character. Eye-line Match Eye-line Match is another example of an editing technique related to continuity editing. This helps create reasonable consistency from shot to shot, creating a smooth narrative. Eye matching is an essential part of filmmaking. It's about what viewers can observe from the actor's point of view. It mainly applies to characters, but it can also apply to anything that is not seen such as the object, a character or a view. Sequences of reverse shots and eyeline matches are used in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to effectively depict Joel and Clementine's anxious dialogue. The film also uses visual correspondence as Joel's memory continually moves from one place to another and he must continue to refocus. Timeline Timeline is an element of editing that was used constantly in this film. Eternal Sunshine plays the story of Joel and Clementine in reverse. When Joel's memories are distorted, the audience sees them play out on screen starting with the most recent ones and ending with the beginning of their relationship. The Chronology integration makes it seem like their relationship is improving as.