FREE ESSAY ON VAMPIRES BY JOHN CARPENTER - W. GRIFFITH'S TECHNIQUES OF FILMMAKING

VAMPIRES BY JOHN CARPENTER - W. GRIFFITH'S TECHNIQUES OF FILMMAKING

D.W. Griffith's Techniques of Filmmaking Parallel editing, or the ability to make two
separate actions happen at the sametime, was innovated by D.W. Griffith and is exclusive
to films. Action films are a goodsource for these, as they give the impression of tensely
reaching a climax in the film. InVampires, by John Carpenter (1998), there are two
sequences which include parallelediting. The first example happens rather early in the
movie. At this point, a team ofvampire slayers commissioned by the Catholic Church are
having a party at a motel. thisoccurs after they slayed all the vampires in a nearby
nest, losing the head vampire, Valek. The parallel action begins when the three survivors
come back to the motel duringdaylight in order to bury the The sequencegoes as
follows:The jeep Montoya and Katrina are in drives onto the road. you see Montoya snaking
onsome foodJack is putting decapitated heads in a blood-stained white sheet.The jeep
continues driving down a small road.Jack sets the motel on fire, and buries the bag of
heads in a shallow grave. Shot of Jack ina truck. Some rosary beads with a crucifix are
violently swinging from the rearviewmirror of Jack's truck. He stares at it. It gives the
sense that Jack has done somethingthat he should be disturbed by, but he is successful at
blocking out his emotions.Montoya and the dazed Katrina check into a hotel room. Montoya
is made to be veryimpatient and unnecessarily vulgar. Jack is at a payphone talking to
someone. He says that his team was killed. In thebackground across the street is a large
brick wall with a very colorful mural of the VirginMary.It cuts to Montoya watching the
news in the hotel room, and he is watching the newscoverage of the burning motel room. It
gives the effect that although there is a definitesupernatural element, the incident was
very real and many innocent people were brutallykilled.Jack is at a church being treated
for his wounds at a church or somewhere religious. Thiscreates the feeling that Jack
turns to religion when he needs it, and he feels burdened by itat other times.The
sequence ends with a shot of Valek on top of a moving train. The whole sequencelasted
only a few minutes. The second sequence is towards the end of the movie. Katrina has been
infectedby the Valek, and she maintains a psychic link with him. Just before every shot
of thevampires, there is a shot of Katrina's face, signaling that it is being viewed by
her. Thesequence goes as follows:Jack, in the bathroom of the hotel, is asking Father
Adam what the vampires are lookingfor.Shot of Valek and his team of vampires awakening
from the ground and walking to amonastery in a desertous area.Jack argues with Father
Adam because he does not want to tell Jack. He violentlyconvinces Father Adam to comply.