When it comes to THE BOWL – A film by Peter McKinnon, it strikes with the outstanding quality of editing of the work. The director uses conceptual match cut plus graphic match cut, parallel editing, witness point, and wide angle to put as many aspects of life in Kenya as possible within the frame of his camera.
Conceptual match cut + graphic match cut are editing techniques where the editor successfully matches two frames, preserving the integrity of the action. Although two shots are apparently taken with a difference of several years, when watching the work, this type of cut creates the impression of integrity in time. When the grassland in the first frame begins to fade out, the next one shows this very place with the result of evidence from the first sight. In this video, the editor creates a visual bridge that does not allow the viewer to notice a cut or some kind of continuity error between frames.
Parallel editing is also used to solve problems when joining frames. With this method, the overall duration of scenes and episodes is significantly reduced, and the video as a whole becomes more dynamic, as the editor eliminates the routine and uninteresting actions of the characters without causing jumps in the development of the action. In each separate fragment, something exciting or significant occurs. To emphasize the relationship of events, the author uses a guide figure, voice-over audio, and continuity of action. Also, fragments of alternating scenes are made approximately equal in duration and matching close-ups to indicate the equivalence of actions.
The director has chosen to use a wide angle because it allows shooting more objects simultaneously. This factor is critical for the purpose of the video in general as it should communicate to the world the state of affairs in Kenya, that is what these people do to survive, what tools they use, what surrounds them, and what their living conditions look like. Wide angle is also the closest to the human eye in terms of the broad visual coverage. The primary objective is to represent life as it is without exclusion of details and selective approach to what should be removed from frames.
The Reveal is another high-efficiency tool implemented in this work. However, it is critical to mention that the director worked with it on the plot level primarily. Mainly, in the beginning, the video seems like a story about inequality of wealth distribution in the world and the African nations struggling due to such an unbalanced allocation. However, closer to the end of the video, the story reveals its actual message that the living conditions were caused by the actions of more developed nations who contaminated water and heated up the planet. Thus, it was possible to avoid the draught which killed animals, cattle and drove the population of the country to unemployment and starvation. The sequence of frames serves as pieces of evidence for this thesis.
Video reference:
McKinnon, P. (2017). THE BOWL – A film by Peter McKinnon [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HetzwxXCO4E&t=76s