Goodbye to the Normals

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004t

dm8

Learning the language of editing?

Sign Reads:
I am not in the office at the moment. Please

send any work to be translated

Learning the visual grammar of editing

To avoid mistakes Communication with the production team (director/storyboard artist/DoP etc) Invisibility of the editing functionwatching a continuous process (continuity of action and flow) To break the rules To understand the development of narrative in context

The basics
A cut joins two shots in a continuing action A fade signals some kind of change An effect calls direct attention to itself

The History of Editing (film)

1895-1930 In 1895 Editing did not exist or was very minimal. The novelty was such that not even narrative was necessary (actualities) The Lumiere Brothers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpKZx090U E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFdd k Mitchell and Kenyon http://video.yahoo.com/watch/236361/1868083

The History of Editing

Edwin S Porter (1903) The reorganising of shots could make stories more dynamic The Life of An American Fireman (1903) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4C0gJ7BnLc 20 shots using newsreel footage and performance Juxtaposition: two shots woven together could reveal more than the sum of the two parts Shift in Time and Space Continuity Also see- the great train robbery

The History of Editing

D W Griffith (c.1908) Dramatic Construction (Editing/Directing as a tool for drama) Use of Long Shots, close-ups and cutaways Concerned with IMPACT

D W Griffith
Experimented with the Fragmentation of Scenes Moved Cameras much closer than previously done- enabling identification/emotional closeness Enoch Arden (1908)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhs-

ez0JVdg Uses a common technique (closer as the emotional intensity of the scene unfolds)

D W Griffith
The Lonely Villa (1909) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEI18n _GcuQ

Parallel Action Developed Further (AKA

Cross Cutting) between family and burglars Experimented with shorter and shorter shots to increase dramatic tension

D W Griffith
Birth of a Nation (1915)

Experimented with film duration

Complexity in narrative

(personal/political/multidimensional) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPxRIF1c 2fI

The Soviet Filmmakers

Context? the young Russian directors felt they could take the film directors control over his material a stage further. They planned, by means of new editing methods, not only to tell stories but to interpret and draw intellectual conclusions from them Reisz (1968: 27)

V. I. Pudovkin
Developed a theory of editing to go beyond the tacit/intuitive Concerned with the translation not of just story but of ideas into narrative

He does not adapt reality, but uses it for the creation of a new reality, and the most characteristic and important process is that laws of space and time invariable and inescapable in work with actuality become tractable and obedient. The film assembles from them a new reality proper only to itself - Pudovkin cited in Reisz (1968: p89)

V. I. Pudovkin

The film director uses shots to create a new perception of reality.

Example (with Kuleshov) with actor Ivan Mosjudkin: Same Shot of actor juxtaposed with 3 different shots: A plate of soup on a table A shot of a coffin containing a dead woman A young girl playing with a toy

Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)

Attempt to translate Griffith and Marx into a single audience experience Understood the visceral and intellectual power of editing Interested in reshaping reality to incite support for the changes in Russia Developed a theory of editing with 5 components

Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)

1.

Metric Montage
Length of shots relative to each other
Shortening of shots increases tension as it speeds up the time the audience has to interpret them Close-ups also help create more tension

Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)

1.

Rhythmic Montage
Continuity arising from the visual pattern within the shots
IE Continuity based on Matching action or Screen direction Potential for portraying conflict- ie antaginisms of screen direction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps-vkZzfec

Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)

1.

Tonal Montage
Editing that establishes the emotional character of the scene
Ie death of mother and baby in Odessa steps sequence

Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)

1.

Overtonal Montage
Interplay of
Metric Rhythmic Tonal

Mixing ideas, pace and emotion to induce a desired effect from the audience- ie outrage/anger at oppression

Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)

1.

Intellectual Montage
Introduction of ideas
AKA relational cut EG In October 1928- Menshevik Leader George Kerensky climbs steps- cut with mechanical peacock cleaning itself- to make a political point Example from Strike (1925) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSYG90n 4iZw

Dziga Vertov
Radical? Realism- unmasking the reality of Cinema Man With A Movie Camera (1929) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid =-2809965914189244913# Overtly explores the artificiality of film as a process of constructing reality

Dziga Vertov
Free Association/Playfulness Clash of Reality and Illusion Forerunner of Cinema Verite (truthful cinema)

Other Important People

Alexander Dovzhenko
Visual Association
See Earth (1930)- poetic

Luis Bunuel
Visual Disconuity Surrealism Use of dialectic editing/counterpoint Setting an image as a reaction to another See (An Andalasian Dog- 1929) Non-linearity

Commercial Break

Psycho (1960) shower scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP

3K4
How are some of these techniques used

here?

Analysing the Edit:

What is the narrative function of the

sequence? What emotional response is it trying to achieve? Who are we made/what are we made to identify with How does it do this? What role has the edit played in this? Could it have been done differently?

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Shot-reverse-shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-bsf2x-

aeE When Harry Met Sally Staple shot for many a scene!
Match-Cut.
Compositional elements/objects match http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leOzWX

bQE9A 2001 Space Odyssey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypul7nPcMI I Lawrence of Arabia (at 1m00)

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Eyeline-match http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmDTSQ tK20c Flight of the Conchords Match on Action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdU SnaQM Reaction Shot

Show emotion/identify with an other Esp in Comedy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr7djGY1fhA at

1m14

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Cutaways- shots that are relevant to the scene, but not necessarily to the narrative function of the scene (ie showing reactions, or messages in the dialogue) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12264194 Common in news production. Often literal. Can be a good safety/concealing alternative (for continuity)- always consider getting plenty of cutaways to give you options but be careful as they Can be very cheap!!! Also known as filler, B-roll

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Cross Cutting (Parallel Action)- cutting between scenes to induce a certain response (tension) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLcTKCRf ryg (The Office) (4m30)

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Montage

(in modern sense) (seemingly unrelated shots that when combined produce meaning or a series of shots that lead the viewer to a desired meaning) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU9Uw hjlog8 Team America Parody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PUFJ msCZLE Donnie Darko End Thought Provoking- often done to a song Passages of time, of achievement Tying up multiple narrative elements

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Jump-cut

(a cut that breaks the continuity of time, or the traditional spacial continuity of the edit)
Z8 Breathless (1960)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diNUplP7G

A rule that is frequently broken!

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Sequence

shot- where a whole sequence occupies a single shot

A flashy example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2YelaGi5k

M Kill Bill Vol 1 Camera doesnt have to move though!

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Fades,

Dissolves and Transitions:

Fades generally denote a change in time and/or

space in film Other transitions include effect based:

Wipes Interstitials (ie Football)

Use them carefully.

Please dont use cheap wipes and effects!

Unless you know what you are doing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnixMJvOtpI

Useful Visual Grammar Narrative Techniques

Relational

Editing- editing shots together to suggest a relation between their ideas

Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)

The process of the edit

Where you at? 1. Logging Rushes and Deciding on Shots EDL 2. Capturing and Digitizing 3. The Assembly (based on storyboard/script) 4. The rough cut (reconsideration of the narrative approach/experimentation) 5. The final cut 6. Mastering

Fin