EXAMINING THE SPECIFICITY OF TV EDITING IN CONTEMPORARY CRIME DRAMA A Dissertation submitted by Jonathan Berry In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the award of BA (Hons) Television Production The Media School Bournemouth University
EXAMINING THE SPECIFICITY OF TV EDITING
IN CONTEMPORARY CRIME DRAMA
A Dissertation submitted by
Jonathan Berry
In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the award of BA (Hons)
Television Production
The Media School
Bournemouth University
2013/2014
Words: 9485
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 2
CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW 3
CHAPTER 2 – CASE STUDY 1 12
CHAPTER 3 – CASE STUDY 2 23
CHAPTER 4 – CONCLUSION 31
REFERENCES 34
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
INTRODUCTION
“Six out of the top ten shows on US television in 2005 were crime dramas. As of June
13th, 2011 three out of the top five broadcast shows were crime dramas. Viewers in
the US and all over the world can’t seem to get enough” (Nielsen, 2011).
Television crime dramas are a form of programming that have captured audiences for
decades. It is a key market within the television industry and within western media as
a whole. This dissertation will examine the influence of editing in this genre and
apply various conceptual frameworks, theories and approaches to evaluate two
contemporary crime dramas – Criminal Minds (2005-Present) and True Detective
(2014). Whilst they compete in the same genre it is evident that there are a myriad of
differences between the two programmes that are due to their respective editing
styles. These will be analyzed, taking into account both external and internal factors,
technological influences, regulatory issues and creative controls. The overall aim will
be to discover the amount of creative control afforded to editors in meeting the
demands of the modern television production environment.
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
CHAPTER 1
Literature Review
This literature review will begin by looking at crime television editing theory and
conceptual frameworks from within the industry itself, as well as the television
market as a whole. Further research will focus on specific editing theory regarding
genre, narrative and rhythm, which will be compared, analyzed and synthesized.
One of the most prevalent conceptual frameworks for looking at shifts in market
trends is the Innovation Radar, a methodology that can be applied to a range of
businesses including the television industry. Its primary purpose is to determine the
need for innovation and value creation (Sawhney, Wolcott, & Arroniz, 2006). As a
conceptual framework it is effective because it examines four different dimensions of
innovation, namely “offerings, customers, process and presence” (Sawhney, Wolcott,
& Arroniz, 2006).
In relation to offerings, crime television has been popular for a long time – CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation (2000-Present) has been one of the most continuously
popular shows in the world for almost 14 years (CBS.com, 2002) – they are
considered “experienced goods” (Sawhney, Wolcott, & Arroniz, 2006). This means
an investor, such as a network or production company, feels they have security in the
proven track record of these kinds of shows. However, for a program to be watched
by a large audience there needs to be an understanding of the preference and lifestyle
of the target demographic. The customers have to be encouraged via new digital
media practices to access the product. Therefore editors have to design products that
will stand out amongst a library of hundreds of similar offerings. For example, by
making the opening scene something unusual or stylish that keeps the audience from
turning off. In Cutting Rhythms (2009), Karen Pearlmen agrees, urging “a television
editor, especially with the amount of choice and channels available to the average
viewer, has to grab his/her audience from the get-go” (Pearlman, 2009).
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
Within the actual programme itself there also needs to be innovation in regards to the
post-production workflow. This includes approaches to streamlined editing, allowing
for faster turnaround work. In Film Technology in Post Production (2001), Dominic
Case reasons that if post-production costs can be reduced, potentially more episodes
of a show can be made, or costs can be covered elsewhere. Perhaps most importantly,
improvements in post-production technology and techniques has lead to a general
increase in the quality of television, during what writer Robert Thompson has deemed
“Television’s second golden age” (Thompson, 2005). He outlines the idea that as
technology has become cheaper and more efficient, such as advances into HD editing,
television can compete with cinema and is no longer seen as the “gross aesthetic
inferior” (Thompson, 2005, p. 150).
There have also been other influences and changes in regulation within the production
process that have allowed television to compete with Hollywood. With the ever-
increasing popularity of cable television, “television editing has found a new freedom,
a freedom to experiment with style, tone, rhythm and story” (Crandall & Furchtgott-
Roth, 1996). During publication, presence is also important. Services such as Netflix
not only acquire programmes but also produce their own shows internally (Madrigal,
2014). This potentially gives editors a new freedom to work on productions that are
developed through a more linear and ‘in-house’ system.
Netflix is a good example of a different conceptual framework – disruptive
technology – which media theorist Arthur Lugmayr discusses in Digital Interactive
TV and Metadata (2004). He argues that disruptive technologies have played a part in
editing innovation more than the explanation given by the innovation radar approach.
The disruptive technology view of innovation argues that changes in editing have
occurred due to initially inferior products aimed at consumers who disrupt the
production industry’s market structure. A good example of this would be the
digitization of storage systems, which “allowed consumers to edit and create content,
something which breached the relationship between post-production and the
professional clients” (Case, 2001). Now television programs are being made on the
same software you can pick up for a three-figure-sum, so editors have been forced to
re-evaluate what makes an edit professional. In In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective
on Film Editing (2001), editor Walter Murch discusses what distinguishes an amateur
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
edit from a professional one. In his opinion, it is not an issue of software or hardware,
but rather knowing when to cut. He outlines a number of general criteria when
making this decision. He asserts that whilst rhythm is important, the two most
important decisions to be made when cutting are emotion and story. An editor’s job
becomes asking whether a cut mirrors what the audience should be feeling and
whether the cut in question develops the story (Murch, 2001). Murch’s analysis of
editing is an approach and framework that can be applied across numerous sub-topics
in editing, such as pace or narrative. Its adaptability makes it an invaluable tool that
has been developed through the lens of first hand experience.
Overall, both innovation radar and disruptive technology show that evolutions in
editing can move from being unconventional to being a key tool in the industry. In a
similar way, consumers can also move between existing in a disruptive market and
existing in a current market. It is clear that both external and internal factors have to
be given full consideration when looking at the specificity of contemporary crime
television editing.
TV genres are ways of grouping shows primarily by style and story – a ‘genre text’
can be easily recognized and categorized by virtually any audience. Genre provides
consumers an easy and focused way to choose between particular shows. This applies
to both live, recorded and on-demand TV. For example, Sky Television customers are
given “genre tabs in the TV guide to give you quick and easy access to the shows you
love” (sky.com, 2010). Western genre theory, as we understand it today, began at the
height of European classicism in the eighteenth-century. Genres were seen as
preferred forms for how artists working in music, theater etc. could express
themselves. During the 19th and 20th century, when Romanticism was culturally
dominant, a growing number of artists came to see the classic genres as archaic and,
most importantly, over-regulated. Throughout the birth of the motion pictures in the
late 1890’s, genre had become a shamed word amongst artists, via its inherent links to
mass-market publication. As “the Victorian gentle-reader became the centre of the
publishing world…genres were associated with popular culture and a brand name
system against which any authentic artistic expression must necessarily struggle”
(Toby Miller, 2004, p. 32). Critics of the era often saw genre as an object of derision;
it was not until the 1940’s that film theorists began to question whether genre had
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
become an integral part of a text’s production as opposed to a distribution tool applied
during the publishing process. During this revolution in film and television theory,
writer Lawrence Alloway stated in American Crime Film at the Museum of Modern
Art that “the majority of film reviewers write as a hostile minority primarily interested
in works that are above obsolescence…this book emphasizes…popular movies to be
viewed in sets and cycles rather than as single entities” (Stanfield, 2011). Alloway’s
mention of ‘sets and cycles’ resonates in television today due to the role of
intertextuality and reiteration in the structure of television programs. “Linking the
movies to car design, Alloway argued that the ‘annual style changes were sufficient to
entertain us with a comedy of newness but not radical enough to disrupt continuity
with earlier models’” (Stanfield, 2011).
When reviewing television over the last 25 years, it is clear that production techniques
available to editors have been adapted and become more sophisticated to offer this
“comedy of newness” (Stanfield, 2011). The result is a huge number of programmes
being offered to consumers, without compromising the economic model. In the
2010’s, with the advances made in on-line and on-demand technologies, genres have
become both more expansive yet recognizable and brandable. In other words, the
same conceptual framework that developed during European classicism and
Romanticism still exists today, but in a more expanded format. An excellent example
is the explosion of micro-genres in services such as Netflix, which has built upon the
well-established communal genres such as drama, thriller, horror, comedy, etc.
“Netflix has 76,897 separate categories…to my knowledge, no one outside Netflix
has ever compiled this mass of data before” (Madrigal, 2014). Netflix tags films and
television shows with “descriptors such as romantic, visually striking…fast-paced,
complex” (Sweney, 2014). This has a huge influence on the role of the editor,
primarily due to how Netflix and other content producers have monetized their micro-
genre data. The traditional TV series commissioning and producing model has been
revised drastically. Instead of making a show and then hoping it catches on with a big
audience, Netflix crunches its subscriber base data to identify fans of specific genres.
From there they can identify subscriber populations that gravitate around genre areas
such as horror, thriller and crime. That allows them to project a threshold audience
size to see if it makes for a viable project. (Sweney, 2014). Now producers utilise the
microgenre model to create more focused programming that can capture an audience
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
successfully and also maintain that viewership. To an editor, this only increases the
importance of genre. If content is commissioned to fit into crime subgenres containing
tags such as ‘visually striking’, ‘burner’ or ‘complex’, then the structure, pace, styling
and rhythm would be far different to crime genre content aimed at an audience that
identifies with tags like ‘fast paced’ or ‘action packed’.
Genre has never been more important to an editor, and in a market where crime and
police procedurals have become over-saturated, editors are being required to both
reinvent and rediscover a well-trodden genre, whilst maintaining its identifiable core
motifs. The idea of both aesthetic divergence (and convergence), and the inherent
dissonance when trying to cater to both is something crime television has to negotiate
constantly. In Dead Ringers: The Remake in Theory and Practice (2002), Jennifer
Forrest discusses remake theory in regards to television – “when a writer, an editor, or
any of the creative team, is working on a new episode they are in many ways
remaking the pilot” (Forrest, 2002). Forrest views an editor as someone who has to
repeat and converge certain elements of a production with every new episode.
However, this does not account for instances where episodes are drastically different
from the house style, which are frequently found in many crime TV series. Often
these are “bottle episodes” which are “designed to take up as little money as
possible…they are often a change for a slow, characterization-filled episode after a
big special-effects-laden action episode” (tvtropes.org, 2004). As police procedurals
and crime TV shows are typically of a faster pace, a bottle episode can allow for a
much larger amount of experimentation and less aesthetic convergence. While
Forrest’s argument that television is essentially a “remake factory line” (Forrest,
2002, p. 194) resonates with many successful programmes which have produced
hundreds of episodes, its limitations begin in its inability to account for production
factors such as budget, or changes in the creative team. The smallest change in the
organization of a television program’s production can mean changes to an editor’s
style and technique, which ultimately affects aspects of the finished product. To
summarise, it would appear that genre has deep roots within the television business
model but that the impact of the financial imperative can have a whole range of
effects on a programme’s editing and production.
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
Syd Field, an American screenwriter, outlined a framework called the “Three Act Plot
Structure” which can be applied to the story of any contemporary media, in particular
film and television. A typical Hollywood film, according to Field, can be separated
into three dramatic acts: the setup, the confrontation and the resolution. In The Fiction
of Postmodernity, Stephen Baker defines the set up as “the most important…it is vital
for the filmmaker to give the audience a sense what the picture is going to be about,
who the main character is, the nature of the problem facing the hero” (Baker, 2000).
The second act, confrontation, is “the longest act…we see the main character in a
number of more and more extreme problem situations where they confront their
enemies normally quite helplessly” (Baker, 2000). The final act, the resolution, sees
“the hero finally taking control…achieving a final, decisive victory” (Baker, 2000).
Field then goes on to propose the Causality framework. When a film’s narrative and
structure is being designed in the edit, Field believes that causality theory best
explains the choices made. Causality is the simple structuring “by which one thing
leads to another”. The claim here is that a narrative is not only an arrangement of
events, but also rather an arrangement of events that compose a mechanism. This is
supported by the work of psychologist Mark Turner in The Literary Mind (1998), who
examined the idea of an underlying mechanism, writing, “a narrative is a reproduction
of a mechanism in the cognitive domain” (Turner, 1998). Its relevancy in television is
that narratives themselves inherently consist of smaller meaningful parts, which
Turner classed as “units of meaning” (Turner, 1998). These form a mechanism, a
system that can then be repeated. Furthermore, when it comes to TV editing, there are
often important narrative choices to be made and such questions may arise as ‘Why
do certain scenes deserve to be arranged in a narrative?’ or ‘Do these scenes belong to
the same narrative?’
According to linguist George Kampis, the key to editing is “imposing order” (Kampis,
2003). Kampis, asserts that “order is artificial…it looks natural because it reflects the
actual temporal succession of events”. Narrative mechanisms are not only subject to
works of film editing, but also “on every level of human expression”, there must be
psychobiological factors – such as memory – that play a role in how we construct and
order a narrative. When an editor is working, he is trying to reconstruct this
experience in a film’s narrative as best he can. However, in Fine Cuts, Roger
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
Crittenden outlines the disadvantages to the cognitive approach, pointing towards the
“myriad of different ways a narrative can be edited and approached”. Crittenden gives
as an example the common narrative technique of “parallel events” (Crittenden,
2005). The amount of cognitive dissonance it would cause means that the human
mind will naturally construct singular narratives. In TV, parallel narratives are
common, especially in police procedurals, where you may follow the journey of
multiple characters in the same time frame. Crittenden argues that this is different to
how the brain approaches narrative, and that other elements play a larger role in
creating a natural feel to a motion picture.
One of the other factors Crittenden puts forward is rhythm, “the fundamental tool of
the editor; when a filmmaker adjusts the length of shots in relation to one another, he
or she affects the entire pace, structure, and mood” (Pearlman, 2009, p. 42). Once
again, one of the main approaches in the analysis of rhythm is the cognitivist
approach. David Bordwell, one of the most prominent film and psychology
researchers, described cognitivism in relation to rhythm as “the seeking out of an
understanding of human thought, emotion and action by appeal to processes of mental
representation and processes” (Bordwell, 1989). Essentially, the cognitivist
conceptual framework focuses on the psychobiological factors involved when we are
affected in any particular way by a film. It largely asserts that the audience are all
hard-wired by nature with certain knowledge and assumptions – Bordwell gives the
example of “the assumption of a three dimensional environment, the assumption that
natural light falls from above, and so forth. These contingent universals make possible
artistic conventions which seem natural because they accord with norms of human
perception” (Bordwell, 1989, p. 29). This includes conventions such as rhythm, which
cognitivism explains as something that is innate to every human. This is due to factors
such as attention, which dictate when a scene feels unnaturally slow on screen. In The
Hudson Review, Erik Neher examined the concept of “boring films…the lack of
viewer involvement, a desire for the work to be over, even a sense of exasperation”
(Neher, 2013) in relation to art-house cinema. Neher proposed that the fact we find
“almost universally, across multiple demographics…that audiences will find certain
films ‘boring’ is a trend that cannot be ignored” (Neher, 2013). He suggests that there
must be “at the very least” something hardwired into our cognitive processes that
determines when a rhythm is natural or not. However, Neher does not go as far in his
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
assertions as David Bordwell, or the cognitivist approach. He maintains that the
adoption of the term boring is inappropriate, instead focusing on the idea that
Modernist and art-house films “can feel slower when it is hard to follow…especially
at a deliberate pace, which can cause feelings of frustration” (Neher, 2013). The
nature of a deliberate or frustrating pace leans towards the idea of an innate sense of
rhythm. In the edit suite it becomes the editors’ job to therefore deliver a product that
comes as close to this natural pattern as possible in order to maximize attention span.
This obviously has huge financial implications – the longer an audience will watch a
single program, or weekly series, the higher the revenue from advertising or the
greater the value of the programme grows.
The importance of rhythm is also supported by an extensive research project from
Cornell Psychologist James Cutting who, in 2008, “measured the duration of every
single shot in every scene of 150 of the most popular films released from 1935 to
2005” (Herbert, 2010). What Cutting was analysing in his research was “patterns of
attention…specifically a pattern called the 1/f fluctuation” (Herbert, 2010). “The 1/f
fluctuation is a key part of chaos theory, it is a pattern of attention that occurs in the
human mind organically…it can be found in nature, in music, in economics and in
engineering” (Halang, 2006). Cutting’s research found that modern films and
television programs were much more likely to be closer to the 1/f fluctuation constant
than older films (films made before 1980) (Halang, 2006). Most interestingly, Cutting
also found that “overall, action pictures…usually in genres such as crime, thriller or
adventure, are those that most closely approach the 1/f pattern” (Herbert, 2010).
Cutting’s research shows that whilst there is an innate sense of rhythm, there is also
an element of evolution and refining that has occurred in editing. This is where other
methodologies such as the neurological approach are relevant. The neurological
approach considers that rhythm in editing is not just a ‘felt’ phenomenon, but rather
something that is learned. More recent theorizing by neurologists in areas of study
related to recognition and the functioning of mirror neurons during intentional
movement (in film this is cutting) have led to alternative proposals to our
understanding of editing rhythm. In Cinema 2: The Time Image, Giles Deleuze, a
noted supporter of the neurological approach, discusses “the sensory, kinetic,
intensive, affective and rhythmic” (Deleuze, 1989, p. 29) areas of cinema editing. It
proposes a model in which the body harvests, records, retrieves and reiterates
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evidence about rhythm. Whilst this concept appears to have validity, it is nonetheless
important to remember the strengths of other approaches, such as cognitivism.
Interestingly, James Cutting also found in his research that “individual films from
every genre and every era have almost perfect 1/f rhythms…such as Rebel Without A
Cause (Ray, 1955) or The 39 Steps (Hitchcock, 1935)” (Herbert, 2010). The fact that
films have matched this 1/f fluctuation since the birth of film is supportive of a more
cognitive approach.
To conclude, this literature review has investigated and documented some of the key
conceptual frameworks, theories and approaches that drive editing.
This includes scientific frameworks such as the cognitive approach as well as more
anecdotal approaches, such as Walter Murch’s criteria for deciding when to cut.
Outside of the edit suite, a number of frameworks such as the innovation radar will be
useful in understanding the production process on crime dramas. It is often forgotten
that editing is something unique to film (Pearlman, 2009), and is often coerced and
influenced by the impact of the industry business model. The nature of this coercion
and the level of influence is yet to be contextualised, and is something the two case
studies will help determine.
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
CHAPTER 2
Case Study: Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds (Davis, 2005-Present) is a police procedural that follows a specialist
team of FBI agents who investigate the most disturbing cases of violent crime all over
the United States. The aim of the team is to profile and catch the criminal before he or
she attacks again. The programme is a product of CBS, one of ‘The Big Four’
television networks in the United States and has enjoyed success for over 9 seasons
with a strong fan base (Jensen, 2012).
When applying the innovation radar framework to Criminal Minds it is interesting to
see how many external forces affected the editors who work on the show. In terms of
offerings, Criminal Minds was developed and released at a time when there were
dozens of series in a similar vein. Crime Television was a well-established genre, and
Criminal Minds offered a variation on this format without straying too far from the
formula, providing fast-paced action that was easy to pick up and follow (CBS.com,
2011).
According to creator Jeff Davis, Criminal Mind’s target demographic is 18-49
females, typical of police procedurals which “seem to grab a large female audience”
(Beele, 2009). This 18-49 female audience are what demographic researchers term
‘Generation V’. Generation V are a group of consumers who have radically shifted
their media habits to accommodate the range of new platforms that fit into their busy
lifestyles. They are the earliest adopters of technology out of any demographic, as
well as watching the least live TV, preferring to stream recorded broadcasts instead.
They require content that grabs them immediately and connects with themes such as
family, love and revenge (Google and YouTube, 2012). From an editor’s perspective,
this means a show like Criminal Minds requires an arresting opening scene that
emphasizes such themes, or the target audience will simply turn off. The result? In
Season 3, 12 out of the 20 episodes introduce in the opening scene the kidnap or
murder of a mother or son. (CBS.com, 2011). The method by which the editor has
constructed and ordered these scenes means that from the very first frame of most
episodes the target audience has a character they can easily connect with.
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
In terms of process, Criminal Minds has felt the effect of numerous external and
internal production forces. Externally, as a network television show, it is subject to
tight regulation by the FCC, and cannot broadcast content that could be deemed
obscene by the average viewer (FCC.gov, 2003). For example, in season 4, episode
“Cold Comfort”, there is a scene in which a character turns to make a lewd gesture –
i.e. ‘flipping the bird’ – but the editor cuts away to an angle which hides this
(CBS.com, 2011). This is a case where the edit may well have been compromised due
to regulation, which understandably has a large impact on the editing. With various
guidelines on what can and can’t be shown, it becomes the editor’s task to instead
imply mature content. However, in this case, an argument could also be made that the
editor cuts away from showing the gesture for another reason - to maintain the
lighthearted tone of the scene’s dialogue. By using Walter Murch’s criteria for
editing, it seems unlikely an editor would want to offend a programme’s audience
within the first 5 minutes.
When it comes to the violence in Criminal Minds, Murch’s approach to editing
doesn’t necessarily hold up. In violent scenes, it is probable that the editor wants to
emote fear and horror from their audience. But, like foul language, violence also has
rigorous regulation. Whilst Criminal Minds is a show that has often been criticized for
its high level of violence, the violence is not allowed to be lingered on for a
significant portion of time (FCC.gov, 2003). As a result, the editor is almost forced
into cutting a scene as he or she would an action scene. There are typically quick and
sharp cuts between shots that disorientate the viewer whilst minimising the amount of
time focusing on the physicality of the bloodshed. For example, examine the use of
cutting between extreme close ups, such as in the example given in figure 1 below.
Figure 1 - Scene from S07E02. Timestamp: 00:04:03:22 to 00:04:07:13
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
These three shots take place within 3.8 seconds, giving each shot an average duration
of 1.2 seconds. The extremely fast rhythm of cutting allows the editor to communicate
the nature of the violence without graphic detail. This editing technique is usually part
of something called a “blip clip” where the editor shows the audience around 10-15
seconds worth of the crime happening, followed by a hard cut away to a completely
different scene, allowing a quick transition straight into the driving narrative (Brown,
2012). The practice of ‘less is more’ is reinforced by Roger Crittenden in Fine Cuts
(2005), who explains that an editor’s job in television is to strip the edit down to its
bare bones of emotion…insinuating to the audience how they might feel, rather than
showing them” (Crittenden, 2005, p. 361). This approach applies very well to network
television shows such as Criminal Minds, which are subjected to much tighter and
rigorous regulation both internally and from the FCC. For the editor, it is more about
implying violence rather than showing violence. In a press release at the time of the
show’s premiere, The Mark Gordon Company, one of the show’s producers, insisted
that the shows instant success came from its focus on the criminals themselves rather
than the crime itself (Messer, 2013).
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
Criminal Minds is defined by its broadcaster, CBS, as a “procedural crime thriller”
(CBS.com, 2011). It fits into this genre well but has made changes from season to
season due to a number of reasons. Lawrence Alloway’s theory of the “comedy of
newness” has particular significance here because Criminal Minds has been making
the small and incremental changes Alloway discusses.Examine the changes made to
the cast over the show’s first to current (ninth) season in figure 2 above, for example.
Creator Jeff Davis explained that the nature of network television shows is such “that
scheduling and long shoots for up to 24 episodes worth of footage over 9 seasons can
be challenging amongst much of our creative team and talent” (Beele, 2009). This has
a direct impact upon the creative control of the editor. For example, Mandy Patinkin,
an actor who played the lead character of Agent Jason Gideon, left the show abruptly,
stating that he didn’t know the writers were going to “kill and rape all these women
every night” (Taormina, 2012). Patinkin only agreed to film one scene at the
beginning of season 3, leaving the writers and editors in disarray. As a result, the first
5 episodes had to be restructured and character arcs had to be edited out entirely
(Beele, 2009).
These same kinds of issues can also emerge during episode re-ordering too. This is
when the network decides to air particular episodes out of the order they were edited
in. There are a number of reasons for episode re-ordering, such as budgetary concerns
Figure 2 – Opening titles - Top left-right: season 1 and 4, bottom left-right: season 6 and 8
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
or issues with re-shoots or re-writes. Therefore, the editor has to create a finished
product that can be potentially shown in any order in relation to other episodes. What
usually results is a minimization of character storylines or development, and a heavier
focus on that episode’s particular case. Character arcs often then become secondary,
such as in Season 7 when one of the lead characters, Dr. Spencer Reid, begins to
develop signs of bi-polar disease (CBS.com, 2011). However, a writer’s strike
occurred during this time and this storyline was dropped and has not yet returned. One
of the show’s editors, Paul Jensen, described how they will “get about 20-30 hours
footage…then get 5 days to put together a cut” (Jensen, 2012).
What has become clear when looking at Criminal Minds is that editors are under huge
pressure from a number of different angles that seem to exist in network television
programme production. From regulation to writer’s strikes, it seems editors have less
and less control over the final creation. Instead, they are tasked with constructing a
product, week-after-week, in a process that Jennifer Forrest would call “remaking the
pilot” (Forrest, 2002). Due to heavy regulation, there has also been a small revolution
in the presentation of violence. Criminal Mind’s editors have the task of emoting and
implying high levels of graphic and sexual violence, without showing more than is
allowed - a skill and technique that a network television’s environment has helped
improve and develop.
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Syd Field used the “Three Act Plot Structure” framework in order to analyse
contemporary action-picture narratives. The problem that editors on Criminal Minds
encounter lies in the inherently commercial nature of network television – specifically
advertisement breaks. In US broadcasts of the show, there are 3 advertisement breaks
within each 60-minute broadcast, which forces a four-act structure upon the narrative.
It then becomes the editor’s task, during what Criminal Mind’s editor Paul Jensen
described as “the final revision of the script” (Jensen, 2012) to adopt Field’s approach
into a four act structure (see figure 3 below).
Figure 3 – 4 act structure (personal use)
What this adaptation ends up achieving is a commercialized restructuring to the edit.
Mark Lawson, a writer for The Guardian, argues in his article ‘Do Ad breaks make
for better dramas?’ that as a result “the body count, nine times out of ten, will always
rise” (Lawson, 2014). In Field’s 3-act structure this would only need to happen once,
but in the commercialized programme there is a need for multiple twists in order to
maintain the attention of the audience. “In TV fiction, the advertising industry is the
friend of the serial killer” (Lawson, 2014). These twists before the advertisement
breaks have become a staple of the crime genre, and are what Mark Turner would
define in his approach to narrative as cognitive mechanisms.
Act 1Same as act 1 in Field's Three Act StructureEstablishes the nature of the problem facing protagonists
Act 2
Same as act 2 in Field's Three Act StructureAnother problem occurs (usually another victim), unsuccessful attempt to confront enemy
Act 3Repetition of act 2 in Field's Three Act Strucutre, except stakes are higherTime is running out for the protagonists to confront the enemy
Act 4Same as act 3 in Field's Three Act StructureProtagonists take control and achieve a final decisive victory
17
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
In Criminal Minds, there are several stand-out mechanisms in the editing that weave
into the show’s ability to be recognized and branded. When repeated and often
sharpened they become essential tools for the construction of any given episode’s
narrative. For example, almost every Criminal Minds episode features the following
audio and visual motif, shown in figure 4 below. It is a long shot of the BAU’s private
jet as they travel to and from the location of each particular episode. Off-screen, the
audience will hear something called a bookend quote. This is a quote read off-screen
by one of the characters that appears at the beginning and/or end of the programme. It
usually reflects or hints at the theme present in each particular episode.
Key to genre theory and to many of the conceptual frameworks outlined in the
literature review was the term ‘action picture’. This was an audiovisual text that
adhered close to the 1/f fluctuation pattern, as outlined by James Cutting’s research in
relation to chaos theory. There are two noticeable types of scenes in which the editor
has controlled the rhythm of his/her edit in order to achieve the modern, action-driven
pace. These are the dialogue scenes and the action scenes. In the following analysis,
action scenes are any section of the episode in which the overall physical movements
are more dominant than conversational dialogue.
Firstly, the dialogue scenes are tightly edited. Take for example the first scene after
the opening credits from Season 3, episode “Children of the Dark” (2007). The
Figure 4 - Top left-right: S07E02, S04E18. Bottom left-right: S04E14, S03E04
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
duration of the first 10 shots, beginning on the first shot in which the dialogue began,
have been counted (see table 1 below).
Shot No. Shot Duration (frames) Shot duration (seconds/frames))
1 115 4.6
2 53 2.1
3 40 1.6
4 45 1.8
5 130 5.2
6 48 1.9
7 28 1.1
8 102 4.1
9 57 2.3
10 98 3.9
Average Shot Duration 2.8 (70)
Table 1 - Shot Duration from S03E04 "Children of the Dark" (2007) scene
An average shot duration of 2.8 seconds demonstrates the snappy rhythm of the edit.
There is also frequent use of J-cuts, an editing technique whereby the audio portion of
the next clip plays prior to the video cut. This audio lead-in transition allows the
editor to tighten the phrasing of the dialogue, reducing the pauses between line
deliveries and creating a sense of urgency and pace. (Robertson, 2012). As previously
discussed, this is essential due to a network television show’s actual running time of
42 minutes. The cognitivist approach to this style of editing would argue that the
editor has tightened the pace as much as possible to match the natural pattern of
attention.
Furthermore, a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information in 2014
found that the modern media audience attention span had reduced from an average of
12 minutes to an average of 5 minutes. A number of factors were cited in influencing
this, though the primary focus was on social media (NCBI, 2014). With this dramatic
change in a programme’s key demographic, editors are now under pressure to cater to
an ever-changing audience with ever-changing demands. This recent study also
supports cognitivisms psychobiological elements. The NCBI found in their research
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
that the chemical effect on the brain caused by hormones has also changed. “Stress
hormones and adrenaline respond faster to a change in environment, but don’t last as
long”, and oxytocin, the hormone that stimulates empathy, spikes more frequently and
in higher amounts (NCBI, 2014). As a result, editors on successful shows concentrate
on crafting an edit that fulfills the need for longer stretches of fast-paced, adrenaline-
inducing scenes. There is also a need to keep focus on characters that the audience can
sympathize with – the victims – which explains the need for parallel narratives.
Interestingly, as shown by table 2 below, the average length of a pre-credits scene
across the 3 episodes analyzed is just over five minutes.
Episode Pre-credits scene(s) total duration
Season 3 Episode 4 – “Children of
the Dark” (2007)
4’20” [4 minutes 20 seconds]
Season 4 Episode 18 – “Omnivore”
(2008)
6’25” [6 minutes 25 seconds]
Season 7 Episode 2 – “Proof” (2011) 4’53” [4 minutes 53 seconds]
Average duration 5’12” [5 minutes 12 seconds]
Table 2 - Pre-credits scene duration(s) and overall average across 3 case study
episodes of Criminal Minds (2005-present)
After the pre-credits scene and the credits themselves, the first advertising break is
taken (in US broadcasts) (Thompson, 2005). It cannot simply be coincidental that the
first act of an episode is almost identical in length to the average attention span of the
modern viewer. However, this recent research by the NCBI does have its drawbacks.
Many neurologists argue that it is impossible to draw these kinds of conclusions as
social media is such a new phenomenon and it is difficult to complete any meaningful
diachronic analysis. Therefore it may be many decades before evidence of changes in
attention span can be verified. (Goldacre, 2011).
Alongside the commercial imperative present in primetime television shows, the
editing approach in terms of action and storytelling is an attempt to grab the
audience’s attention. Furthermore, the structuring of the edit around commercial
breaks implies an understanding of the innate lapses in attention and the need for a
regular contrast of content – in this case the contrast between the programme itself
20
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
and the networks advertisements. If the cognitive approach to editing is valid, then the
approach predicts an above-average level of success, due to increased audience
longevity and attention. Erik Heher’s article on “Boring Films” (Neher, 2013)
maintains that if audiences find the rhythm of an edit frustrating or deliberate they
will simply turn off. When examining the popularity of Criminal Minds the prediction
made by the cognitive approach appears to hold some validity. From its debut in 2005
it has gone from strength to strength, eventually overtaking Lost (2004-2011) in
overall viewership. It then went on to be chosen as the post-Super Bowl spot in 2007,
a highly competitive scheduling slot, and is still one of the most watched US
primetime shows in 2014 (Turcuit, 2014). It is evident that there are a number of
factors that have allowed a large audience to connect with the show, and the rhythm,
narrative and structure is clearly one of these. However, there are certain assumptions
that have been made in this approach. There is an automatic assumption that the
consumer enjoys both the genre and action pictures in general. Audiences outside of
the “generation V” demographic of 18-49 females may well not have any interest in
the crime or thriller genre at all, and this alone is enough to influence their attention. It
is drastic to say that the editor is the only influence on a consumer’s decision to
connect and maintain consistent viewership
In summary, Criminal Minds is a show that has enjoyed an enormous amount of
success in a network television environment. It has found a sizeable audience by using
21
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
its genre to its advantage, and connected with its key demographic, 18-49 women. It
appears that the role of the editors on Criminal Minds is to produce a product that
achieves certain criteria. Firstly, it has to grab the audience from the very beginning.
The result is pacing and rhythm that you would find, according to James Cutting’s
research, in an ‘action picture’. The second criteria is regulation. Regulation has been
shown to have a huge influence on a show such as Criminal Minds, which deals with
horrific violence. It has become the editor’s function to communicate the emotion and
horror in such violence, whilst regulating and ultimately minimizing how much
graphic violence is shown on-screen. Finally, there is the commercial imperative
behind network television, which has had a massive impact on television editing.
They work to tight deadlines to reduce cost and streamline production and have to
create episodes in which the structure, rhythm and mechanisms are recognizable to
the consumer. In terms of specificity, an editor working on a show such as Criminal
Minds is subject to very detailed controls and criteria.
CHAPTER 3
22
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
Case Study: True Detective
True Detective (2014) is an original HBO-commissioned anthology crime drama
written by novelist Nic Pizzolatto. Taking place in 2012, Louisiana State Police
Detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart are brought in to revisit a homicide case they
thought solved in 1995. As the inquiry unfolds in present day through separate
interrogations, the two former detectives narrate the story of their original
investigation, reopening unhealed wounds, and drawing into question their supposed
solving of a bizarre ritualistic murder in 1995. The timelines converge in 2012 as each
man is pulled back into a world they believed they'd left behind (HBO, 2013).
As a content producer, HBO is a prime example of disruptive product becoming a
main market competitor. From HBO’s inception, it aimed to undermine and challenge
the Hollywood-controlled television industry. Initially airing content such as R-rated
movies, due to the lack of regulation of cable and subscription services, it grew into
financing it’s own productions. (Mair, 1988). A clear case of disruptive market
innovation, it eventually became a leader in “quality programming with exclusive
access” (Leverette, Ott, & Buckley, 2009). HBO also made a bold move in
distinguishing itself from the TV industry – or precisely, the image associated with
the TV industry. In the 1990’s, television was seen as an inferior medium in terms of
overall quality to cinema. HBO began incorporating into its promotional slogans “It’s
not TV. It’s HBO”, the implication being is that TV is everyone else (their
competitors). As a result, HBO’s demographic became the “quality demographic” –
ages 18-49, with the audience expecting “quality language, sex and violence”
(Leverette, Ott, & Buckley, 2009, p. 33).
For example, the scene below (figure 5) from episode 4 – “Who Goes There”
(Pizzolatto, 2014) - demonstrates the amount of graphic on-screen violence that is
allowed on channels such as HBO.
23
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
This opens up a number of opportunities for editors. Previously, Criminal Minds
(2005-Present) demonstrated how editors were required to imply violence rather than
show it. As discussed previously the two main reasons for this are regulation and
where violence is inferred rather than graphic. Criminal Minds is a show about
understanding why criminals do the awful things they do (CBS.com, 2011), and
ultimately holds an optimistic premise –if we can understand them then we can catch
them. In stark contrast, True Detective holds an incredibly disheartening philosophy
at its core – that humanity is “an error of evolution and ultimately meaningless…and
that we should stop reproducing” (Calia, 2014). As a result, the imagery, violence and
sex have to be appropriately lurid and explicit. The editor has to construct the same
set-ups and payoffs of violence that the editors of Criminal Minds have to, but use a
completely different technique.
In Criminal Minds the scenes of the violence are essentially action-scenes, featuring
incredibly sharp and quick cutting (see figure 1), with the average shot lasting around
1.2 seconds. It is about escalating tension until breaking point, and the release from
this tension comes when the blip clip or scene ends and transitions to a dialogue-
orientated scene centered usually around the protagonists. In True Detective, the
quicker cutting and build up of tension takes place prior to the actual violence. When
the violence occurs, this is the release. The editor lingers on the violence, taking
longer to cut away. Take for example this scene towards the end of episode 6, in
which the relationship between the protagonists Cohle (played by Matthew
McConaughey) and Marty (played by Woody Harrelson) comes to breaking point.
The lead up to the fight as Marty prepares to ambush Cohle is the real build up in
tension, the real action scene. There is quick, frenetic cutting between the same shot
(see figure 6 below) - the edit is unpredictable in the same way Marty’s mental state is
unpredictable.
Shots (edit moving top-bottom) Shot duration
31 frames [1.6 seconds]
24
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
49 frames [1.9 seconds]
26 frames [1.1 second]
59 frames [2.35 seconds]
81 frames [3.25 seconds]
Average shot duration 51 frames [2.04 seconds]Figure 6 – lead up to Marty and Cohle fight scene, Season 1 Episode 6 (personal use)
Now compare this to the scene that follows (figure 7), in which the violence breaks
out when Marty assaults Cohle.
Shots (edit moving top-bottom) Shot duration
102 frames [4.1 seconds]
25
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
93 frames [3.7 seconds]
124 frames [4.95 seconds]
151 frames [6.05 seconds]
113 frames [4.5 seconds]
Average shot duration 101 frames [4.06 seconds]Figure 7- Marty and Cohle fight scene, Season 1 Episode 6 (personal use)
The rhythm of the cuts has slowed down and upon the violence exploding, the editor
choses to move, for the only time in the entire scene, to a wide shot. It is this that
signifies the release from emotional tension the violence provides. The editor is
releasing the audience from shaky, hand-help mid shots and close ups into a
comfortable, still wide. The violence that follows lingers, as the editor re-introduces
the hand-held mid-shots. They cut between these only when the action dictates,
dropping the rhythm and pacing of the cuts significantly. Using Walter Murch’s
approach to cutting, it is easy to see why the editor has cut this way. It is primarily
about the build up and release of emotion, and the editor has cut based on emotion,
Murch’s most important criteria (Murch, 2001). On the other hand, Criminal Minds
26
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
(2005-Present) is a show where you could argue that the editing is more orientated
towards story. This is because the victims of violence are often new, little-introduced
characters, so there is no real emotional arc being completed in the violence. Instead,
the cutting in Criminal Minds is rapid, aiming to advance and set up the plot. During
scenes of violence, the frenetic editing style is designed to emote confusion and horror
from the audience, whereas as we’ve seen with True Detective, the editing of the
violence is almost ritualistic and sexual. It focuses on showing the audience the
emotion of the characters, but not necessarily telling the audience how to feel.
In a recent interview with Matthew McConaughey, the Film Society of the Lincoln
Centre asked him how True Detective was structured. McConaughey answered that
the whole production team treated the 8 episodes as “a 450-page film script…split
into three acts” (McConaughey, 2014). Creator Nic Pizzolatto is from a literature and
novel-writing background and in Kevin Macfarland’s review of True Detective he
praises the show for taking the same amount of time (eight hours) as it would take to
read a crime novel. This, alongside numerous “Lovecraftian horror…blended into
new-age Nathanial Hawthorne territory” has helped it attain a compelling cinematic
style, argues McFarland (McFarland, 2014). If True Detective is essentially cinematic
in structure, then it becomes the role of the editor to divide Field’s three-act narrative
over multiple episodes, as opposed to stuffing multiple acts within each episode – the
case with Criminal Minds. Below is a broad outline of how True Detective was
structured throughout all 8, 60-minute episodes.
27
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
Figure 8 - 3 act structure over 8 episodes (personal use)
Within each episode, there is a range of experimentation with the presentation and
telling of the narrative. There are three time frames in which True Detective takes
place: 1995 when the original crime was committed, 2002 – when Cohle’s breakdown
and obsession with the case begins, and 2012 - the present. The film is presented
through various narrators, some reliable, some unreliable, which work in parallel with
flashbacks. True Detective takes in this sense a very cognitive approach to narrative
editing. Parts of the characters testimony are often left out or twisted and distorted,
much in the same way time affects our ability to retrieve and recall memories. There
is a form of reconstitution and reconstruction happening on screen and the audience
only knows as much as the detectives up until the final episode. In the final episode,
the audience is fed information, such as the identity and activities of the real killer that
the detectives do not know. This results in the finale effectively becoming a
traditional police procedural. The change in narrative editing may well have been
made for a number of reasons, but it seems realistic to assume it was to help create a
definitive end to the show. In Criminal Minds, almost every episode ends with the
criminal’s identity being revealed after confrontation and capture. When True
Detective shifts its narrative to echo that of a police procedural, it is communicating
to the audience to expect a finite conclusion. McConaughey explained that from the
very start everyone knew that True Detective would be a “finite piece of work…that
Episodes 1-3 [ACT 1]Set-up: Victim(s) introduced, backstory of protagonistsAdditional set-up: Themes, tone and mysteries/red-herrings
Episodes 4-6 [ACT 2]Confrontation of villain(s)Success followed by immediate failure
Episodes 7-8 [ACT 3]Resolution of mysteryConfrontation of villain
28
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
we shot for three months” (McConaughey, 2014). Once again, it appears that virtually
all the production elements were designed to create a cinematic product. For a crime
TV editor this is a huge step in a different direction. Programmes such as True
Detective are the most novelist form of television. As Kevin Macfarland points out, it
can “air week-to-week in order to take advantage of the Internet publicity machine,
but remains blissfully unaffected by the demands of audience expectations”
(McFarland, 2014). This is where we can begin to see immediate differences between
True Detective and Criminal Minds in terms of the external factors that influence
editing. With Criminal Minds, there is a huge reliance on Nielsen ratings and
repetition of certain mechanisms and genre motifs. In True Detective it is almost
immune to these factors. It was made as a stand-alone piece to be aired in a shorter 8-
week span, and its primary selling point was not the genre, but rather the label of
“quality television” assigned to HBO’s productions.
However, it would be naïve to ignore the simple fact that HBO is a business.
Ultimately, there is still a responsibility upon the editor to create a marketable
product. Due to the fact that True Detective is designed to be an anthology series –
where each season features a different story and different set of characters (TV
Tropes, 2004) – it is the editor’s role to create mechanisms, pacing and tone that can
be replicated in further series. Due to the immediate success of the first season at least
two more seasons have been ordered (Littleton, 2014), and keeping the aesthetic and
tonal elements the same will be key to HBO in creating a recognizable and successful
product. Jennifer Forrest’s work in remake theory has particular significance here, as
the editor takes on the role of reiterating and reinventing the source material – in this
case the first season of True Detective. For future seasons the core motifs will likely
remain and the editor has to use rhythm, tone and cutting techniques to achieve a level
of aesthetic convergence. However, with the production of season 2 of True Detective
yet to begin, it is difficult to say to what degree the editing will vary. It is important
to remember that when talking about the remake theory in this sense it is significantly
different from the way Criminal Minds approaches its reiterations and cycles. In
Criminal Minds, each episode is a remake in its own sense, with the editor often
changing. In True Detective, each episode is not a remake but rather a smaller part of
what could well be viewed as a single 8-hour film. There are not many narrative
29
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
mechanisms that True Detective repeats from episode to episode. There is no pre-
credits sequence; each episode simply begins from where the previous episode ended.
As we have seen, HBO appears to be converging more and more towards marketing
itself as a cinematic experience. The implications for television editing as a whole is
huge, opening up a new industry of “freedom and authorship…from the industrial
process created by network television and its obsession with pleasing all” (Leverette,
Ott, & Buckley, 2009, p. 87). Many of the outside influences that a network show like
Criminal Minds suffers from are at the very least minimized and at the most a non-
issue. By looking at True Detective through narrative and rhythm theory, this freedom
and its effect on the editing process has become clearer. For example, the range and
contrast in the pacing styles shown is a key result of the greater control afforded to
editors. Additionally, the unconventional structuring of individual episodes and the
experimentation with various unreliable narrators is evidence of this greater creative
freedom. When compared to Criminal Minds, it also becomes clear that True
Detective lacks the amount of narrative mechanisms that the editing of Criminal
Minds relies upon. That said, True Detective is a new show, and future seasons may
reveal that editors do not have as much free reign as originally thought. It is important
to remember that when Criminal Minds began it was widely considered a fresh and
unconventional crime drama. Now, after 8 more seasons it is seen as a staple of the
crime genre that has an incredibly recognizable formula.
30
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
CHAPTER 4
Conclusion
Applying conceptual frameworks and theories to two case studies has provided an in-
depth evaluation of how different editing styles has resulted in two very different TV
shows that also share some similarities. Both True Detective (2014) and Criminal
Minds (2005-Present) are very successful TV shows that are of the same genre and
aimed at the same demographic. In the 2012-2013 season, over 12 million Americans
tuned in to watch Criminal Minds every week (Schneider, 2013). Likewise, True
Detective went from strength to strength, with the finale being watched by HBO’s
largest audience since 2010, and subsequently the on-demand catch up service “HBO
Go” was crashed by the volume of traffic trying to access the show (Christie, 2014).
Furthermore, both Criminal Minds and True Detective fight for the same coveted 18-
49 demographic – in which they both succeed well above expectations (Nielsen,
2011).
Analysis of the two shows using the frameworks discussed previously, as well as
taking into account narrative and rhythm, highlights some fundamental differences
between them. Criminal Minds has been designed to rigorously abide by the editing
conventions dictated by its genre. Its fast, no-fat approach to narrative editing allows
it to cover a four-act plot in which new characters are introduced regularly. In
contrast, True Detective’s pacing varies a huge degree, but is on the whole slower.
This disparity would suggest that the success of both shows in maintaining the
attention of their audience is due to a range of factors. Frameworks such as the
cognitive and neurological approach fail to acknowledge that there is no single pattern
of attention when it comes to rhythm. It is more likely that other factors such as tone,
style, presentation and marketing affect how viewers perceive rhythm.
31
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
There is also a distinct disparity in the editing of violence in both programmes.
Criminal Minds treats violence as an action scene, whereas True Detective treats the
violence as a cold spectator. The presentation of crime itself, as both a physical act
and as an idea is fundamentally different, and the editing is as responsible for this as
the writing, directing, performance and camerawork. True Detective begins by asking
whether humans are all essentially evil - that we are all monsters in the eye of
evolution. On the other hand, Criminal Minds draws a distinct line between justice
and evil, with the criminals being convicted in the eyes of the programme from the
outset and with the protagonists on the moral high ground throughout.
Approaches such as Walter Murch’s ‘Criteria for Cutting’ (Murch, 2001) have
provided insight into the semantic and emotional meanings of Criminal Minds’
editing style. This raises the question as to whether editors on tightly controlled
network shows such as Criminal Minds operate with this particular specificity due to
these tight controls, or due to aesthetic choices made on the show. Conclusions drawn
from using the innovation radar approach indicate that the restrictive nature of
network television production is most likely to be influential. Additionally, the
financial imperative behind a show such as Criminal Minds cannot be ignored as this
changes editing on numerous levels including narrative, style and rhythm – the most
prominent example of this being the effect of advertising breaks on editing structure.
The cinematisation of television is never more apparent than in True Detective, and it
owes this to its producer HBO. By treating HBO as a disruptive technology and
innovation, it is clear that True Detective was produced and edited in an environment
that makes an enemy of genre television such as Criminal Minds. Both Criminal
Minds and True Detective follow characters as they try to solve a case but this is
mostly where the similarities end. True Detective uses unreliable narrators and drops
more red herrings than clues, focusing on the emotional arc of multiple characters.
Criminal Minds focuses on the physical journey of the same group as they solve a
crime in a practical manner.
32
Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
In conclusion, this dissertation set out to discover the specificity of editing in
television crime dramas. It is apparent that the editor is working to produce a product
that meets the needs of the business model whilst producing a piece of programming
that will capture the audience. What this investigation, analysis and comparison has
determined is that there is a significant disparity in the specificity of crime drama
editing and that these can be categorized and quantified. Hence editing techniques
have been molded and controlled by both the internal and external influences of
network television production. The skill of the editor lies in managing both of these
factors to afford them the creativity to produce something the audience understands
and recognizes.
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Examining the Specificity of TV Editing in Contemporary Crime Drama
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