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