Return to Intro to Film syllabus
Updated 12 November 2006
ENGLISH 114: INTRODUCTION TO FILM, Fall 2006
Section 3: Thursday, 6:00-9:30 p.m., Professor Larsson
Week 11, November 9
6:00-6:15
Quiz 5 (Acting)
6:15-7:30
Editing: Basic Principles and Continuity Editing
7:30-7:40
Break
7:40-8:50
View Man with a Movie Camera
8:50-9:30
Soviet Montage and Discontinuity Editing
Film Editing
Placing of two or more shots in relation to each other
§ Purposes and results can differ widely
§ Editing has the power to shape our perceptions of the “reality” presented by the film
Example: Film “trailer”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4_tS8VTtA&NR
Four basic ways of joining shots together
1. CUT
One shot goes to next immediately, nothing in between
2. FADE
· Fade in to shot from black or blank screen
· Fade out from shot to black or blank screen
3. DISSOLVE
Ending of one shot overlaps beginning of next shot
4. WIPE
Line moves across screen, “wiping” away one shot and revealing new one
underneath.
· Cut is most common type.
· Wipe is least common (almost disappeared after 1950s but has made a comeback in film and television).
· All types except cut are somewhat gradual, often imply transitions or changes of time or space
PRINCIPLES OF JOINING SHOTS
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SHOTS: How is the editing used?
1. Graphic Relations (emphasis on appearance of each shot in relation to the shots before and after)
§ Relationships may emphasize continuity/similarity of elements from shot to shot or discontinuity/clash/conflict from shot to shot
§ Elements may include composition (balance, direction, symmetry, etc.), lighting, color, any element of mise-en-scene, as well as shot direction, distance, angle, etc.
2. Rhythmic Relations (emphasis on duration of each shot in relation to shots before and after)
· steady (duration of each shot is about the same)
· accelerating (duration of shots becomes progressively shorter)
· decelerating (duration of shots becomes progressively longer)
3. Spatial Relations (emphasis on how the overall space of a scene is created through a series of individual shots)
· Hollywood filmmaking usually stresses spatial continuity—how each part of a physical setting relates to the others and to the whole
· Filmmakers may choose to violate spatial continuity for a specific effect or as a pattern within the whole of the movie
4. Temporal Relations (emphasis on how plot order, duration and frequency are handled in individual scenes and the film as a whole)
· Hollywood filmmaking usually stresses temporal continuity—how each shot relates to others and how each scene relates to others in terms of the story time implied by the narrative
· Filmmakers may choose to violate temporal continuity for a specific effect or as a pattern within the whole of the movie
Graphic and rhythmic relations play roles in almost any kind of film, including experimental, non-narrative films
Spatial and temporal relations apply mainly to narrative films (both fictional and non-fictional)
CONTINUITY EDITING
· Also referred to as “Hollywood editing” or “invisible editing”
· Developed in early years of filmmaking
· Highly developed as set of “rules” to be followed by early 1920s
· Still in effect today in film and TV despite some adaptation
· System has absorbed some practices once thought to be “violations” of “rules” of editing
· Purpose is to assure that the audience has a sense of continuity in
· Space
· Time
· Narrative
Some major devices used in continuity editing
(Each can work against continuity if the “rules” are not followed):
General Pattern:
1. Establishing shot
2. Breakdown of scene into closer shots
3. Re-establishing shot (if needed)
180-Degree Rule:
Keeps all action in all shots on one side of straight line (180 degree arc) in a scene (the “axis of action”)
C
C C
C C
ß-----------------------------------------------------------------------à
X
C=Possible camera position X=”Wrong” camera position
· Assures continuity of direction of motion
· Assures continuity of position of characters, objects
· Assures overlapping background space from shot to shot
· Allows shot/reverse shot setups in conversations, etc.
Eyeline Match
§ Shot of person looking offscreen, followed by shot of what he or she “sees”
Match on Action
§ Action in one shot is continued in next shot, even though camera has changed position.
Crosscutting
§ Cuts between shots of actions occurring in two or more different places (usually at the same time)
§ Creates links in time, cause-and-effect, theme among actions
Parallel Editing
§ Similar to crosscutting but used to create parallels between people, situations, etc.
Montage Sequence
§ Relatively long process or period of story duration is conveyed in short amount of screen duration by series of short shots.
Examples of Continuity Editing:
The Maltese Falcon (1): Opening
Shot 1: Fade in, ELS of San Francisco with Golden Gate Bridge in foreground
Dissolve
Shot 2: LS of Embarcadero
Dissolve
Shot 3: LS of Golden Gate looking toward Marin County
Dissolve
Shot 4: Aerial pan of city toward Oakland Bay Bridge
Dissolve
Shot 5: Window with view of Bridge and “Spade and Archer” backwards, tilt down to Spade in chair
Total time: about 20 seconds, average 4 seconds/shot
Dissolves allow transitions in space that establish the city and Spade’s location in relation to the Bay, stress on spatial relations
The Maltese Falcon (2): Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) (#7)
Shots 1-3: Consistent screen direction, continuous action create sense of office space
Shot 4: Reverse shot, secretary enters with Cairo’s calling card, camera crosses axis of action between Spade and secretary to left side of screen
Shot 5: Reverse shot on Spade from same side of axis, Spade sniffs card, looks up
Shot 6: Reverse shot, eyeline match on secretary
Shot 7: Reverse shot, MCU on Spade watching door
Shot 8: Reverse shot on Cairo
Shot 9: MCU of Cairo alone, with desk lamps for spatial reference, camera movement reframes to follow Cairo, bring Spade into view
Shot 10: Reverse shot as Cairo talks
Shot 11: Reverse shot CU of Cairo
Shot 12: Reverse shot of Spade with Cairo in foreground, cane on mouth provides continuity of action
Shot 13: Return to CU of Cairo
Total time: 115 seconds, about 8.8 seconds/shot
All shots joined with cuts to indicate continuity in time and action, spatial and temporal relations
The Piano: opening scene
Shot 1: Underwater low angle shot of boat hull
Shot 2: CU of hands reaching
Shot 3: MCU of Ada grabbing hand to come out of boat
Shot 4: LS of characters heading toward beach
Dissolve
Shot 5: ELS of characters on beach
Shot 6: MLS of Ada carried on to beach, camera tracks right to follow men, tilts down slightly to reveal Flora vomiting
Shot 7: CU, high angle (POV) of Ada’s feet in surf
Shot 8: MCU of Ada
Shot 9: ELS of Ada on beach, piano enters frame in CU
Shot 10: MS of men, tracking shot around men brings Ada into view
Shot 11: MS of Ada and man
Shot 12: Reverse shot of Ada and Flora, MS
Shot 13: Reverse shot, man turns away
Shot 14: Reverse shot, Ada and Flora
Shot 15: Reverse shot, man
Shot 16: Reverse shot, Ada and Flora
Shot 17: Reverse shot of man
Shot 18: Reverse shot, Ada and Flora, “She says no!”
Shot 19: Reverse shot, man
Shot 20: Reverse shot, man, Ada, Flora
Shot 21: ELS of beach
Shot 22: LS of breakers, Campion’s director’s credit
All cuts, except for one dissolve to indicate hastening progress toward beach. Opens without traditional establishing shot, but quickly establishes overall space of action and character’s spatial relations toward each other. Indicates how continuity system persists over time but also makes adjustments toward modern viewers and specific demands of the film project.
Continuity in Tootsie (# 20-21)
20: Montage sequence:
§ babysitting (includes shot-reverse shot sequence)
§ Episodes joined by cuts, disconnected in time but indicating ongoing struggles of babysitting
21: Continuity system at work
§ 180-degree rule
§ shot-reverse shot setups
§ axis of action realignment
§ eyeline matches
§ matches on action
Example of “invisible editing”: We have to look carefully to see where the shots and camera positions change. Our focus is on the characters, dialogue and action.
Editing for Spatial and Rhythmic Relations: North by Northwest, the cropduster attack
Rhythm for its own sake: Run Lola Run/Lola Rennt
§ Fast cutting between opposite ends of telephone line, Lola and Mani shown in consistent screen directions as though facing each other directly
§ Flashbacks in black and white for Lola’s and Mani’s stories
§ Compress time, alter order of events
§ Rhythm of editing enhanced by rhythm of music
§ Nondiegetic inserts of postcards of places where bum might go with money
§ After scream, cut-ins to CU shots in Lola’s room
§ Mani finally turns in different direction when framed in LS of drugstore
§ CUs of Lola thinking of who could supply the money
§ Montage of possible people, slows when she settles on father
§ Father has (impossible) eyeline match, shakes head
Man with a Movie Camera (1929); directed by Dziga Vertov
There was no time for discussion of this film, but here are a few notes:
§ Example of “Soviet montage” editing (similar to Eisenstein’s Potemkin)
§ Set as “city symphony” documentary—record of a day in the life of a city, but actually composed of shots from several cities
§ The film is also about itself
o The “hero” of the film is the man with the movie camera whom we see going about from place to place and recording various events from many different angles and vantage points
§ The film itself begins as the audience that is about to watch the film enters a theater and takes seats (which obligingly unfold for them through stop-action animation)
§ The documentary becomes a film within the film as the orchestra begins playing
§ The events follow the course of the day in the city from early morning to late night
§ Records the whole cycle of life: birth, death, marriage, divorce, workers in factories and offices, the unemployed sleeping on benches, children at a magic show, workers relaxing in the state-run workers recreation centers
§ Creates visual jokes through use of movie posters that seem to comment on the setting, freeze-frames and slow motion of horses and athletes
§ Also displays the film itself being edited, still pictures suddenly coming to life