Lecture 6: Editing

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Lecture 6 Editing
Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein

• Professor Michael Green

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Previous Lecture

• What is Cinematography?
• Framing
• Focus and Depth of Field
• Camera Movement and Tone

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This Lecture

• What is Film Editing?
• Dimensions of Editing
• Continuity Editing
• Discontinuity Editing in Breathless (1960)

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What is Film Editing?
JFK (1991) Directed by Oliver Stone
Lecture 4 Part I
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The Key to Cinema?

• Since the 1920s, when film theorists and
  directors began to realize what editing can
  achieve, it has been the most widely discussed
  film technique.
• Some people have found in editing the key to
  cinema.
• Yet many films, especially experimental films and
  films made before 1904, hardly rely on editing at
  all.
• Watch the clip from Children of Men.

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The Power of Editing

• Some films famous for their editing include
• Birth of a Nation (1915)
• Psycho (1960)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• The Hurt Locker (2009)

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What is Editing?

• Editing is the coordination of one shot with the
  next.
• A shot is one uninterrupted film image
• Early films (from the 1890s) were typically just
  one shot

1896 Edison's film entitled The Kiss saw May
Irwin and John C. Rice re-enact the final scene
from the Broadway play musical The Widow Jones -
it was a close-up of a kiss.
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Viewing the Edits

• As viewers, we perceive a shot as an
  uninterrupted segment of screen time, space, or
  graphic configurations.
• Fades, dissolves and wipes are seen as gradually
  replacing one shot with another.
• Cuts are perceived as instantaneous changes from
  one shot to another.

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The Cut

• The most common means of joining two shots
  together is the cut.
• Until the rise of digital editing in the 1990s, a
  cut was made by splicing two shots together by
  means of cement or tape.
• Some filmmakers try to anticipate how they want
  to put shots together during filming but
  editing after shooting is the norm.

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Types of Edits/Shot Transitions

• These joins can be of different sorts
• A fade-out gradually darkens the end of a shot to
  black.
• A fade-in lightens a shot from black.
• A dissolve briefly superimposes the end of shot A
  and the beginning of shot B.
• In a wipe, shot B replaces shot A with a line
  moving across the scene, which wipes away the
  previous shot.

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Examples
A dissolve from Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
A wipe from Seven Samurai (1954)
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Editing within the Formal System

• An ordinary Hollywood film typically contains
  between 1000 and 2000 shots an action movie can
  have 3000 or more.
• This fact alone suggests that editing strongly
  shapes viewers experiences, even if we arent
  aware of it.
• Editing contributes a great deal to a films
  organization and its effects on spectators.

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Assembling the Footage

• Although many films today are shot with several
  cameras running simultaneously, throughout film
  history most sequences have been shot with only
  one camera.
• A film editor must assemble a large and varied
  batch of footage. To ease this task, most
  filmmakers plan for the editing phase during the
  preparation and shooting phases.
• Shots are taken with an idea of how they will
  eventually fit together.

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Editing Methods

• Storyboarding shots and transitions preplanned.
• In-camera during shooting
• On the editing table
• Now computerized
• Final cut goes back on the film negative.

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Dimensions of Film Editing
Bonnie and Clyde (1968) Directed by Arthur Penn
Lesson 4 Part II
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Shot Relations

• There are four principles by which to connect
  shots
• Graphic based on shots composition
• Rhythmic in terms of shots length
• Spatial to build space
• Temporal Relations to define time

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Graphic Editing

• Graphic editing is based on whats
• in the image.
• Graphics may be edited to achieve smooth
  continuity or abrupt contrast
• Graphic editing permits the interaction, through
  similarity and difference, of the purely
  pictorial qualities of those shots.

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Graphic Match

• The filmmaker may link shots by graphic
  similarities, thus making what we call a graphic
  match.
• Shapes, colors, overall composition and movement
  in shot A may be picked up in shot B.
• Approximate graphic continuity from shot A to
  shot B is typical of most cinema.

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Graphic Match
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Rhythmic Relations

• Each shot, being a strip of film, has a certain
  length that corresponds to a measureable duration
  onscreen.
• A shot can be as short as one frame or thousands
  of frames long, running for many minutes when
  projected.
• Editing allows the filmmaker to control the
  duration of the shot. When she adjusts the
  length of shots in relation to each other, she
  controls the rhythm of editing.

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Rhythmic Patterns

• The rhythmic possibilities of editing emerge when
  several shot lengths form a discernable pattern.
• A steady rhythm is established when the shots are
  approximately the same length.
• The filmmaker can also create a dynamic pace.
  Lengthening shots can gradually slow the tempo,
  while successively shorter shots can accelerate
  it.

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Clips Illustrating Rhythmic Editing

• Long shots can express contemplation.
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Shorter shots often try to approximate energy and
  speed.
• The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
• Shots have gotten shorter over time

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Spatial Relations

• Editing usually serves to control not only
  graphics and rhythm, but also to construct film
  space that is, editing permits the filmmaker to
  juxtapose any two points in space and thus imply
  some kind of relationship between them.
• The director might, for instance, start with a
  shot that establishes a spatial whole and follow
  this with a shot of a part of this space.

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Spatial Relations

• Editing can create story space.
• Spaces are juxtaposed to suggest theyre
  contiguous.

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Spatial Manipulation

• Alternately, the filmmaker could construct a
  whole space out of component parts.
• The possibility of such spatial manipulation was
  examined by the Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov,
  who conducted experiments during the 1920s by
  assembling shots of separate dramatic elements.

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The Kuleshov Effect

• Kuleshov established what is now known as the
  Kuleshov effect, which is any series of shots
  that, in the absence of an establishing shot,
  prompts the viewer to infer a spatial whole on
  the basis of seeing only portions of the space.
• Reservoir Dogs, Panic Room and My Dinner with
  Andre.

Lev Kuleshov
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Crosscutting

• Also called parallel editing
• We see simultaneous actions in different spaces
• Spaces linked
• Cause and effect relationship between actions in
  two or more settings
• First prominently used in The Great Train Robbery
  (1903)

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Clip 3 Crosscutting

• Crosscutting implies an unrestricted range of
  knowledge and omniscient viewpoint.
• Watch the example of triple crosscutting in
  Return of the Jedi (1983).

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Temporal Relations

• Like other film techniques, editing can control
  the time of the action denoted in the film.
• In a narrative film especially, editing usually
  contributes to a plots manipulation of story
  time.
• Specifically, the filmmaker may control temporal
  succession through the editing.

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Flashbacks and Flash-Forwards

• Such manipulation of events leads to changes in
  story-plot relations. We are most familiar with
  such manipulations in flashbacks and
  flash-forwards.
• Examples of films that include flashbacks and
  flash-forwards include Citizen Kane (1941), Stand
  by Me (1986), The A-Team (2010), and The
  Terminator (1984).

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Continuity Editing
Raging Bull (1980) Directed by Martin Scorsese
Lesson 4 Part III
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Continuity Editing

• Graphics, rhythm, space and time are at the
  service of the filmmaker through the technique of
  editing. They offer potentially unlimited
  creative opportunities.
• Yet most films we see make use of a narrow set of
  editing possibilities so narrow that we can
  speak of a dominant editing style throughout
  film history. This is called continuity editing.
  

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Narrative Continuity

• Around 1900-1910, as filmmakers started to use
  editing, they sought to arrange their shots so as
  to tell a story clearly and coherently. Thus
  editing, supported by specific strategies of
  cinematography and mise-en-scene, was used to
  ensure narrative continuity.
• So powerful is this style that, even today,
  anyone working in narrative filmmaking is
  expected to be thoroughly familiar with it.

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The Purpose of Continuity

• As its name implies, the basic purpose of the
  continuity system is to allow space, time, and
  action to continue in a smooth flow over a series
  of shots. All the possibilities of editing we
  have already examined are turned to this end.
• Since the continuity style seeks to present a
  story, its chiefly through the handling of space
  and time that editing furthers narrative
  continuity.

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The Axis of Action

• In the continuity style, the space of a scene is
  constructed along what is variously called the
  axis of action, the center line or the 180 degree
  line. This line ensures
• that relative positions in the frame remain
  consistent
• consistent eyelines
• consistent screen direction
• With the 180 degree system the viewers should
  always know where the characters are in relation
  to each other and the setting

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Shot one (cam. 1 below) sets up an imaginary
line between the actorsall subsequent shots
(cam. 2) stay on one side of line. Cam. 3 is a
mistake.
How 180 Degree Rule Works
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Other Aspects of Continuity

• The establishing shot, usually taken from a
  distance, shows the spatial relations among the
  important figures, objects and setting in a
  scene.
• Shot/reverse shot are two or more shots edited
  together that alternate characters, typically in
  a conversation situation.
• In an eyeline match, the first shot shows a
  person looking off in one direction and the
  second shows the nearby space containing what he
  or she sees.

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Establishment/Reestablishment of Space

• Establishing Shot Whole Narrative Space
• Breakdown (Coverage) Closer Views
• Reestablishment Shot New Character, Action

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
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Shot/Reverse Shot

• Pattern Used for Conversations
• Shot 1 First Character Talking
• Shot 2 Other in Conversation
• Part of Character Listening Shown Indicates
  Proximity

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Eyeline Match

• An eyeline match from Hitchcocks Vertigo
  (1958).

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Continuity Editing

• Dominant in Hollywood Films
• Directs Our Attention As We Watch
• Emphasizes Dialogue, Reaction, Cause and Effect
• Creates Clear Space and Time to Tell Story,
  Narrative Continuity

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1960- Present Films Seen on TV

• Faster Editing, Moving Camera Energize Smaller
  Image
• Holds Viewer Attention in Era of Distraction
• CUs Present More on Smaller Screens

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Discontinuity Editing
Breathless (1601) Directed by Jean-Luc Goddard
Lesson 4 Part IV
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Discontinuity Editing

• Connections between shots are foregrounded, not
  Invisible
• Objective is not continuous flow of story - but
  rather to push viewer out of involvement into
  critical distance

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Discontinuity Devices

• One Discontinuity Transition Jump Cut
• Cut from one shot to next jumps on screen
• Makes viewer aware of editing, ask--
• Why filmmaker presenting these shots in this
  way?

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French New Wave

• 1958-63
• Break with Cinema of Quality in France
• -Too Slow
• -Too Reliant on Literature
• 170 First Time Directors
• Truffaut and Goddard

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Liked Hollywood

• Its energy, action, genres
• But not to entertain, excite
• Rather to disturb, provoke
• Didnt adopt Hollywoods coherent, optimistic
  stories
• Favored Existential view of world as fragmented,
  absurd

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Breathless (1960)

• Michel (Jean Paul Belmondo)
• Patricia (Jean Seberg)
• Small time crook and his American girlfriend in
  Paris
• Clip The Bogart poster and editing

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Shot/Reverse Shot

• S/RS, but not a conversation
• Underlines artificiality of editing
• Michel imitates Bogarts outlaw hero
• Post WW II Existential idea of self creation
• But unlike Bogarts Hollywood characters, Michel
  doesnt create justice, happy ending

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In Breathless, Jump Cuts

• No Establishing Shot, No Eyelines, No
  Shot/Reverse Shots
• Discontinuity Transitions Jump Cuts
• This subversion of traditional editing suggests
  characters disconnection, lack of agency
• No establishing shots, jump cuts create spatial
  disorientation for viewers
• Watch the Clip

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End of Lesson 6

• Next Lecture Sound and The Piano (1993)