Editing technique · used in 5 films
Dividing the film into named chapters with title cards on screen. Each title tells you what the next section will focus on and shapes how you read it.
Examples
Woody Allen · 1986
Allen breaks the film into chapters with title cards. Each one signals a shift in focus, like the sections of a novel. It helps you follow a large cast. The film is also meant to feel literary.
Where to see it: The title cards. Title cards between sections announce each new stretch of the story.
Quentin Tarantino · 2004
Title cards name each chapter, such as Massacre at Two Pines, so you know what the next section will cover. They give the film a pulp-novel structure. You are told where you are, which lets the story jump back to the past without confusion.
Where to see it: Chapter Six: Massacre at Two Pines: A title card introduces the wedding rehearsal massacre.
Brady Corbet · 2018
The film is split into titled parts, a prelude, two acts and a finale. The titles make the story feel like a legend with a huge gap in the middle. They also tell you how to read each part before it starts.
Where to see it: The prelude. A boy opens fire at a Staten Island school, and Celeste, 13, survives after talking with him.
Jordan Peele · 2022
The film is split into chapters named after the animals in it: Ghost, Clover, Gordy, Lucky and Jean Jacket. Naming the creature's chapter like the horses' tells you it is an animal too, something to be handled. It also links the chimp's story to the main plot.
Where to see it: The Gordy chapter. The film breaks into a short chapter about the sitcom chimp before returning to the ranch.
David Fincher · 2023
The film is split into chapters, each tied to a person and place, as the Killer travels from the Dominican Republic to New Orleans, Florida, New York State and Chicago. The chapters make the film feel like a to-do list he works through.
Where to see it: The New Orleans chapter. The Killer poses as maintenance staff to reach his handler, a lawyer, who dies under torture without giving up the names. His secretary Dolores then gives them.
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