The Basic Edit: When Two Clips are Placed Next to Each Other

What happen between these two clips?





The accidental edit happens when the camera jams.


• Jump Cut [Camera jams. Bus turns into hearse] (1:53) The History of Film Editing
  
  



What happens to time and space when one shot 'cuts' to another?



• Temporal Overlap [Fireman] (04:35) The History of Film Editing
  
  
  
  
  
• Compression of time [Great Train Robbery] (05:40) The History of Film Editing
  
  
  
  
• Traversing of Time/Space: Intercutting or cross cutting(09:39) The History of Film Editing
  
  
  
  Three time/space
  • woman in house
  • robber
  • husband

So cuts can modify space/time. That can be quite jarring
Q: How do we make edits feel "natural", less jarring or "invisible"?

Invisible Continuity Editing (Griffith, Kuleshov, and Pudovkin)

Hollywood perfected this sytle of editing where editing is invisible to the viewer.

This type of editing meshed together the different shots so seemlessly, that the fact that the audience were being 'moved' about in time and space was almost imperceptible to them.

For example, lets imagine you have these scenes and you wanted to edit them so that they were seemless:

1. A man is walking along Petrov street in Moscow.
2. A woman is walking along the Moscow river (about two miles away)
3. They see each other, smile and begin to walk towards each other - one is walking to the left and the other is walking to the right
4. Their meeting is filmed at Boulevard Prechistensk.
5. They clasp hands and look at the White House

How do you ensure that these scenes are meshed together so that it isn't jarring?

The effect can be achieved by making sure that the spatial and temporal relationships are absolutely clear and without ambiguity, and that continuity is maintained throughout.

Convensions of Invisible Continuity Editing

• Camera Use
  • Long (wide-angle) shot as establishing shot
    
    
    • Usually from one position.
      
      
      • Preserve the unity of the world recorded.
      • Contextualises subject.
      • Often used as the establishing shot.
      
      
      
    
    
    
  • Medium shots/close-up as analytical shots
    
    
    • Suggesting the overly interpretive and guiding presence of the filmmaker.
    
    
    
  • Transition never abrupt
    
    
    • Long -> Medium -> Close -> Medium -> Long
    • But NOT Long -> Close
      
      
  
  from https://harborvideo.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/continuity-editing/
  
  
• Match on Action
  
  
  1. Character stands up from chair in room
  2. Character leaving the room
     
     Viewer 'rejoins' action between 1 and 2
     
     
  
  
  
  1. Character stands up from chair in room
  2. Character walking in park
     
     This would disrupt the continuity
     
     
  
  
  
  
  1. A man is walking along Petrov street in Moscow.
  2. A woman is walking along the Moscow river (about two miles away)
  3. They see each other, smile and begin to walk towards each other - one is walking to the left and the other is walking to the right
  4. Their meeting is filmed at Boulevard Prechistensk.
  5. They clasp hands and look at the White House
  
  
  
• 180 degree rule
  
  Put the camera within the semi-circular space in one direction from the scene. This conserves spatial continuity.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Eyeline match
  
  Upward matched with downward conserves spatial continuity
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Character A looking upward having a conversation with character B also looking upward does not make sense (unless they are both looking up for some reason).
  
  
  
  1. A man is walking along Petrov street in Moscow.
  2. A woman is walking along the Moscow river (about two miles away)
  3. They see each other, smile and begin to walk towards each other - one is walking to the left and the other is walking to the right
  4. Their meeting is filmed at Boulevard Prechistensk.
  5. They clasp hands and look at the White House

Other possibilities of editing:
Soviet: Moscow Film School (state sponsored). Compare to the beginning of video.

Kuleshov experiement

1. Film facial expression of a well known Russian actor.
   
   
2. Then cut this shot of the actor's face against
   
   
   • a bowl of soup;
   • a woman in a coffin;
   • a child playing.
   
   
   Audiences read the face as meaning different things (hunger, pity, love).
   
   

Kuleshov Effect (04:07) and Creative Geography (05:44) The Soviet Theory of Montage


If continuity editing focused on space and time, Kuleshov focused on arrangement and meaning.
What happens if you put this and that together? ==> Montage theory

Montage/Assemblage (Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin)

• Montage stresses the discontinuities between shots. Creates collisions, conflict, clash between shots.
  
  
  • Established art was composed of tired and worn conventions. Such art was unable to articulate any fresh perspectives on life.
    
    It urged (shocked) the audience into reevaluating social relationships in the light of the juxtapositions and collisions of disparate elements which the work offered.
    
    
  
  Eisenstein's montage (08:25) and 5 methods of montage (09:23) The Soviet Theory of Montage
  
  
  
• 5 methods of montage:
  • Metric: cutting to the beat (length of the shot)
  • Rhythmic: concerning rhythm of action in the shot
  • Tonal: conerning with the tone of the shot (different aesthetic tones)
  • Over-tonal: concerning montage of large sequences
  • Intellectual or Ideological: concerning ideas (relationships between opposing/different intellectual concepts -- eg. inetercut between priest and officer)

Battleship Potemkin (1925) - Odessa Steps full scene

Montage and popular culture:

Audiences today are familiar with montage from the consumption of advertisements and music videos.
Thus, one can say they are competent readers of montage but at the same time, use of montage in a narrative/dramatic setting throws viewers off.
The Graduate 1967 Silence of Sound and April Come She Will SCENE



Parasite's Perfect Montage (start 1:09) --- have to go to Youtube to watch