Is there a name for this film technique?

January 24, 2008 7:57 PM

Is there a formal name for a part of a movie that shows the same scene 3 or 4 times, sometimes from different angles or in slow motion (or both)?

I thought that a film prof way back in the late 80s or so said that there was a formal name for this time of editing sequence, but I can't remember what it was and I can't seem to find it. Anyone know?

I'm talking about like when they show an explosion or something crucial/climactic to the plot several times right in a row, varying camera angles or speed in each shot.

posted by Addlepated to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

We always call them (#)shots, as in, "There's a quadshot of the explosion." Replace quad with howevermany iterations you want (and if you're only the screenwriter, expect the director to replace it with a four minute, inverted dollyshot.)
posted by headspace at 8:44 PM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Boomtown.

(great show, dearly missed, receiving the DVD recently as a gift helped)
posted by intermod at 9:41 PM on January 24, 2008

I always call it a Wild Bunch.
posted by Roman Graves at 12:21 AM on January 25, 2008

Wonder if the TV Tropes Wiki has anything on it. If not, you should add it.
posted by kindall at 8:16 AM on January 25, 2008

It sounds like overlapping editing. I honestly hated the shown sequence in MI2 because it was confusing as hell.
posted by JJ86 at 8:42 AM on January 25, 2008

I heard it was either called "Temporal Expansion" or it's simply one of many techniques for achieving same. Otherwise, I'd have to +1 on "Overlapping Editing"

And as a bonus, here's an example.

Not the most mainstream suggestion, but Brian DePalma actually made a sequel of sorts to "Carrie" called "The Fury". It's not about Carrie, obviously, but other people like her at an institution. I won't reveal what happens at the very end, but whatever it is happens from a ton of different angles for a comedically long time.
posted by Doctor Suarez at 10:19 AM on January 25, 2008

I'd call it a Zabriskie Point but I bet Antonioni used a different term.

This is different form Rashomon, right? Because although that film supposedly shows the same scene several times, each time the scene that's shown is very different.
posted by Rash at 12:21 PM on January 25, 2008