Blog #3 : Sequence Analysis

In this 30 second clip from the upcoming movie Avengers: Infinity War, Peter Parker sits on a school bus and suddenly realizes something is wrong.

The first shot ends with a pan to the window, focusing on trouble in the distance. The following two cuts connect the next moments with a shot, reverse, shot template. We are inside the school bus and see something is wrong in the city over Peter's shoulder; we are outside the school bus to get Peter's reaction; then, we are back on a medium shot inside the school bus to follow his next move. There is a match on Peter's action as he faces out the window that creates continuity.

We take Peter's POV with an eyeline match close-up on his friend, Ned. Ned is looking back and sharply up, where Peter is located in the previous shot. It then cuts to a wide shot of the bus to show the result of Ned's "distraction." This cut allows us to see students rushing to the back of the bus with Ned, while leaving Peter alone.

Abruptly, to match the speed of the action, it cuts in to a close up on Peter as he looks down. It cuts quickly again to his hands rummaging through his backpack, inferring that this is what he was looking down at in the last shot. The quick edits keep the pace of the scene and follow the specific action that is important for this moment.

In the backpack shot, the camera follows Peter grabbing and activating his web-slinger, and pans as he shoots a web on the emergency exit window handle. There is a split second where it cuts back to his hand yanking the web, then back to the handle which pulls open with the web. This also adds to the quick pace while supporting continuity. The next cut widens a bit and shows Peter entering the frame with the window and promptly exiting. This is a match on action, because the last shot showed a close up of the window without Peter in it. The editor avoided a jump cut by showing Peter entering into the space that had already been established.

Next, we are again outside the bus as he puts his mask on and leaps off. We stay on the same side of the 180 degree line inside and outside the bus, which keeps the audience mentally connected with events, despite the drastic change in scenery. This scene ends with an extreme wide shot of Peter diving and swinging off the bridge. The editor takes us farther and farther out as Peter leaves the normal morning school bus ride to conquer bigger world issues as Spider-Man. The editor establishes the difference by cutting immediately to this extreme wide shot.