THE ART OF EDITING
CONTINUITY EDITING
SHANNON WALSH / SM2002 / SPRING 2014
SCHOOL OF CREATIVE MEDIA, CITY UNIVERSITY HONG KONG
CLASS 2
HISTORY OF EDITING II
INNOVATION & EXPERIMENTATION
THE KULESHOV EFFECTFilm is editing.
THEORY OF MONTAGE:SERGEI EISENSTEIN
• Metric montage
• Rhythmic montage
• Tonal montage
• Over tonal montage
• Intellectual montage
The power of the cut, rhythm, juxtaposition, parallel action and montage.
“ODESSA STEPS” SEQUENCE
EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA:DZIGA VERTOV
“The Man with the Movie Camera” (1929)
• Vertov reminds viewers that cinema is not reality
• Special effects and fantasy
• Playful clash of reality and illusion
• Visual associations
http://youtu.be/Iey9YIbra2U
EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA:LUIS BUNUEL
“Un Chien Andalou” 17min,(1929)
• Destroys meaning, shock
• Surrealism, expressionism, psychoanalysis
• Visual discontinuity: continuity editing, but discontinuity in the story plot and character goal
http://youtu.be/_DZ1x-xBtUM
EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA:SOUND TIMEPLACE
M, Fritz Lang (1931)
Modern Times Chaplin (1936)
BASIC TRANSITIONS
The basic 4 edits:
• Cut
• Dissolve
• Wipe
• Fade
ACTION CONTINUITY:ASSIGNMENT #1
In the first assignment you will learn techniques of action continuity.
1. Match on action2. Shot/Reverse-shot3. 180 degree rule
ACTION CONTINUITY:MATCH ON ACTION
“Match on Action” is when you cut to a new camera angle at the same point in time without breaking the flow of the previous shot.
ACTION CONTINUITY:SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
“Two shots edited together that alternate the characters, typically in a conversation situation.”
ACTION CONTINUITY:SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
ACTION CONTINUITY:SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
Editor Thelma Shoonmaker on Raging Bull (1980): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6enMrxbpI-w
Dirty Harry (1971) “Do you feel lucky?” Unlike most shot reverse shots this isn’t over the shoulder. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjr2hnOHiM
EXAMPLESSHOT/REVERSE SHOT
ACTION CONTINUITY:180 DEGREE RULE
180 DEGREE RULE
ACTION CONTINUITY:
ACTION CONTINUITY:IMAGE SIZE FOR CUTTING
LONG TO MEDIUM SHOT
MEDIUM TO CLOSE-UP
1) Emotion 51%2) Story 23%3) Rhythm 10%4) Eye‐trace 7%5) Two‐dimensional plane of screen 5%6) Three‐dimensional space of action 4%
THE RULE OF 6: WALTER MURCH
For Murch, an ideal cut,
• Is true to the emotion of the moment; • Advances the story; • Is rhythmically interesting and “right”;• Acknowledges the “eye-trace”;• Respects “planarity”;• Respects the three-dimensions continuity
of the actual space.
But, he says, emotion “is the thing that you should try to preserve at all costs.”
Murch, W. In the blink of an eye: A perspective on film editing. Silman-James Press, 1995, pp. 17-20