10 Genius Editing Decisions That Made Movie Scenes Great
2. Music Subtly Conveys The Passage Of Time - Boyhood
Richard Linklater's Boyhood was filmed over the course of 12 years, depicting the "real time" growth of a young boy, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), into an adult.
Given that Linklater chose to shoot the entire movie on 35mm film, there's an incredible visual uniformity to the project despite the length of time which passed during production.
And so, without using titles to signpost annual progress, Linklater had to get creative during post-production in order to subtly convey the passage of time.
This was primarily achieved through the use of period-accurate music, with Oscar-nominated editor Sandra Adair placing pop hits like Coldplay's "Yellow," The Hives' "Hate To Say I Told You So," and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" into the movie as transition indicators during the last few months of production.
A lesser filmmaker would've just used year titles or found an overt visual identifier for the next segment of the 12-year project, but the use of music was a brilliant way to depict the unstoppable march of time in a way our brains would immediately recognise.