This week we look at some of the basic concepts that developed the language and grammar of film editing. We spend a bit of time talking about Sergei Eisenstein and his theories around editing, and some of the innovations and experiments that were happening in the early period of film history. The second half of the lecture we learn about technical aspects of Continuity Editing.

1. CLASS 2
THE ART
OF EDITING
CONTINUITY EDITING
SHANNON WALSH / SM2002 / SPRING 2014
SCHOOL OF CREAT IVE MEDIA, CIT Y UNIVERSIT Y HONG KONG

2. BASIC TRANSITIONS
The basic 4 edits:
• Cut
• Dissolve
• Wipe
• Fade

3. THE KULESHOV EFFECT
Film is editing.

4. THEORY OF MONTAGE:
SERGEI EISENSTEIN
Metric montage:
the length of the shots relative to one another.
Rhythmic montage:
continuity arising from the visual pattern within the shots.
Tonal montage:
the editing decisions made to establish the emotional character of a scene.
Over tonal montage:
the interplay of metric, rhythmic, and tonal montages
Intellectual montage:
the introduction of ideas into a highly charged and emotional sequence

5. “ODESSA STEPS” SEQUENCE
The power of the cut, rhythm, juxtaposition, parallel action and montage.

6. HISTORY OF EDITING II
REBELS
INNOVATION &
EXPERIMENTATION

7. 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
• Many, if not all, editing techniques used
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1fxbcgptFA

8. EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA:
LUIS BUNUEL
“Un Chien Andalou” 17min,(1929)
• Destroys meaning, shock
• Surrealism, expressionism, psycho
analysis
• Visual discontinuity: continuity
editing, but discontinuity in the
story plot and character goal
http://youtu.be/_DZ1x-xBtUM

9. INNOVATIONS IN CINEMA:
CHINA & JAPAN
Yasujiro Ozu
& Kenji Mizoguchi
Ruan Lingyu
1910- 1935

10. ACTION CONTINUITY:
ASSIGNMENT #1
In the first assignment you will learn techniques of action continuity.
1. Match on action
2. Shot/Reverse-shot
3. 180 degree rule

11. 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.

12. ACTION CONTINUITY:
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
“Two shots edited together that alternate the
characters, typically in a conversation situation.”

13. ACTION CONTINUITY:
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT

14. ACTION CONTINUITY:
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT

15. EXAMPLES
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

16. ACTION CONTINUITY:
180 DEGREE RULE

17. 180 DEGREE RULE

18. ACTION CONTINUITY:

19. ACTION CONTINUITY:
IMAGE SIZE FOR CUTTING

20. LONG TO MEDIUM SHOT

21. MEDIUM TO CLOSE-UP

23. THE RULE OF 6: WALTER MURCH
1) Emotion
2) Story
3) Rhythm
4) Eye‐trace
5) Two‐dimensional plane of screen
6) Three‐dimensional space of action
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. SilmanJames Press, 1995, pp. 17-20
51%
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10%
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