IndexFlashback and Flash ForwardContinuity and DiscontinuityJump-cutsEye Line CorrespondenceChronologyConclusionEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film that incorporates romance, drama and science fiction. It is based on a middle-aged man called Joel Barish who falls in love with a girl called Clementine Kruczynsk. Later their two-year relationship began to fall apart and Clementine erased all memories she had of Joel. After Joel realizes what Clementine has done, he decides to undergo the same process to erase his friends' memories. In the midst of the erasing process, Joel decides that he is not ready to let the memories disappear. Valdís Óskarsdóttir, the editor, highlights various editing techniques: chronology, flashbacks, editing with continuity and discontinuity, jump cuts and eye line matching. These techniques help develop the narrative and also balance the characters' perspectives, while maintaining its simplicity that is easy for the audience to follow. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Flashback and Flash Forward Flashback is usually used to take the narrative back to a time before the current story. It helps build the story as well as the character. The film uses flashbacks to reveal the couple's love story before Clementine decided to erase their memory together. When Joel decides to undergo a similar memory-wiping procedure, he watches the memories fade, and that's when he realizes he doesn't want them to disappear. He tries to stop the process because he discovers that he still loves Clementine. At this moment the story is told by erasing Joel's memory and this makes it seem like it is told backwards. For example, one day Joel goes to bed to sleep and finds himself looking at his dream. He is seen talking to his neighbors who ask him about Valentine's Day and then mentions Clementine. This makes Joel uncomfortable with the speech. The audience is taken through the confusion that Joel is experiencing as their happy moments of relationship disappear one after another. This makes the plot more interesting and unique than any other love triangle drama film. The author also incorporates a flash forward montage at the beginning of the film. We see Joel and Clementine together on the train, and as far as they know, they are meeting for the first time since their memories were erased. Continuity and discontinuity are a nice use of continuity editing in the film. It is the most commonly used style in film editing. Continuity editing is a cutting process to maintain flow and a clear plot. Continuity editing is classified into two: temporal continuity and spatial continuity. In In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we see Joel Banish experience various fragments of reality. Some fragments are memories and some pieces are made up of illusions of his imagination. Throughout the film, the audience has the opportunity to use and combine different ideas to tell Gioele's reality at different times. When Joel realizes that he doesn't want to continue with his impulsive decision to erase memories, he holds Clementine's hand and they run to different places, at the same time the doctor is still working to erase Joel's memories. The locations eventually disappear as Joel and Clementine are seen running from a drive-in movie theater to the doctor's office and finally to the library. However, even though the film portrays Joel moving from one scene of his life to another, the audience understands that it is one continuous scene based on theJoel's behavior and the ideas of the film. The continuity technique is used to explore the ideas of memories and the unconscious mind. Even when everything vanished: the face seemed distorted and the car disappeared, Joel continued to resist Clementina. He fights to save her and her memory from closure. In Joel's memories we also see arguments and painful moments in their relationship. Joel can use his imagination and mind while maintaining his ideas about Clementine to move between different scenes, times and spaces. In a continuous scene, despite many changes in the setting, the audience knows that the scene is continuous because Joel is continuing the fight to retain Clementine's memories. In the initial phase of the film there is a decidedly fluid rhythm. Next, the author integrates both discontinuity and continuity editing to balance the drastic changes between memories and reality. At the beginning of the film we see Joel walk up to his car and notice that it had been damaged only to find a thank you note on the neighbor's car to suggest that the neighbor caused the damage, he can't remember as this scene took place in the morning after the accident procedure. This scene is not very simple and the author has incorporated choppy editing which has the potential to confuse the audience. Without discontinuity, the audience would not have a clear view of what other actors are doing at a particular moment. Jump-cuts It is also difficult to ignore the use of jump-cuts in conjunction with continuity editing in order to achieve a smooth and subtle transition from one scene to the next. To obtain seamless editing the camera must be rotated 30 degrees or even more, but the jump-cut is obtained without this rule. Therefore, the combination of various shots produces a jumping effect. In the film, the editor deliberately applied both quick cuts and cross cuts to show Joel's reactions on the procedure to erase Joel's memories. During this procedure, the film uses distinct effects in each instance of memory loss scene. Joel watches everything disappear before his eyes. Some memory loss scenes seem to speed up; some shots are slowed down while others are reversed, both sound and light are used to portray the harsh experience Joel is going through. As Clementine's memory begins to be erased, the viewer sees darkness and two spotlights focused on Joel and his girlfriend. The sounds in this shot are irritating and describe the character's uncomfortable experience and frustrations. Eyeline Matching Eyeline matching is another example of an editing technique related to continuity editing. It helps create reasonable consistency from shot to shot, thus creating a smooth narrative. Eye line matching is an essential component in filmmaking. It's about what viewers can observe from the actor's eye. It mainly applies to characters, but can also be applied to anything not visible such as an object, character, or view. Shot-reverse shot sequences and eye-line correspondences are used in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to effectively portray Joel and Clementine's anxious dialogue. The film also uses eye line matching as Joel's memory continually shifts from one place to another and he has to keep refocusing. Chronology Chronology is an editing element that was used consistently in this film. Eternal Sunshine plays Joel and Clementine's story in reverse. When Joel's memories are distorted, the audience sees them play out on screen, starting with the most.