The editing affects used throughout the movie, Afronauts, was really practical and intentional. I say this because had this been a colorized film, incorporating clips from other historical sources would not have blended as well. Therefore, the practicality of creating this movie was clearly planned in advance. It is intentional because black and white footage creates an unspoken mood for the viewer that fit this film well.
The integration of editing clips from the US space launch into this film seemed like it fit the context almost perfectly. The film showed Matha’s small shuttle preparing for takeoff. Her team threw a torch to ignite the blast needed for takeoff into space. However, what happened next was showing footage of the blast. Except it was footage of the American shuttle, a much bigger shuttle.
Since the whole film was in black and white there was no obvious difference (in terms of color or setting changes) between scenes that it was the US shuttle except for the fact that it was a much bigger shuttle than Matha’s shown in the previous scene. The size was not the only indication it was the Americans because of the use of American announcements edited into this part of them film. The audio edits, like the use of recordings from the American launch allowed for some pretty cool inspiration in the video world because it was integrated so well that it confused me as a viewer it was footage from another launch. It also goes without saying, there is no way throwing a torch on such a small shuttle could create the explosion that was shown with the American launch.
Something interesting to note about the comparison of the Zambia launch and the American launch is the juxtaposition of the transition between scenes. It took me a second run-through to realize why this was incorporated. It shows the smaller shuttle igniting for blast off and then the blastoff of a much larger American shuttle immediately following. I think it shows the extent of how much is needed for a successful launch. Without using the side by side comparison of the smaller shuttle and the larger one during blastoff, the juxtaposition would not be apparent. There also would have been no need to use voice recordings. The film was short but these few seconds of editing and inserting film clips combined with the audio recordings and consistent black and white coloring really made for an interesting film.
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