Editing transitions, dimensions, and systems Flashcards
Editing transitions
- cut, dissolve, fade in or fade out, wipe (examples from The Empire Strikes Back)
Dimensions of film editing: the four relationships of shot-to-shot
- Graphic editing:
- Rhythmic editing:
- Spatial editing:
- Temporal editing:
- Graphic editing:
- graphic match or contrast/clash between the purely pictorial qualities of two shots:
use of light and dark, color, line and shape, volume and depth, movement and stasis
- Rhythmic editing:
- accelerating or decelerating tempo of edits over time
- Spatial editing:
analytical breakdown of space (use a wide shot first to establish space, then cut to closer shots)
- synthetic construction of space (create an implied spatial whole from closer shots)
- the Kuleshov effect: viewers imply a spatial whole that isn’t shown onscreen
- crosscutting across two different spaces (often used in the melodrama convention of lastminute
rescue sequences)
- Temporal editing:
- shapes the film’s chronology/temporal order of plot vs. story, occasionally in cases when the
screenplay didn’t (The Godfather: Part II) - flashbacks and flashforwards
- temporal duration: elliptical editing (trimming story events) vs. overlapping editing (repeating
story events)
Clip analysis:
The Birds, Do the Right Thing, Notorious, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Mahogany
Continuity editing
The purpose is to create a smooth flow of shots across space and time, so that the editing seems
“invisible” to the viewer and story engagement is paramount
Spatial continuity:
the 180° system
- establishing shot:
delineates the overall space
axis of action / center line / 180° line:
an imaginary line that connects actors and enables
consistent screen direction
- shot/reverse shot:
after establishing the 180° line, one point of the line is shown, then the other,
edited back and forth (as in editing a conversation between two people)
- eyeline match:
a character looks at something offscreen in Shot A, then Shot B shows us what
he or she was looking at
- reestablishing shot:
resets the overall space that had previously been analyzed into closer shots
this can enable an editing pattern of establishment/breakdown/reestablishment
- match on action:
carrying a single action smoothly over a cut from Shot A to Shot B
Refinements to spatial continuity
- directors regularly alter the technically correct positions of actors and objects when necessary
- directors may cross the axis, often by including a shot directly on the 180° line before the cross
- an establishing shot is not strictly necessary, if utilizing the Kuleshov effect to connect space
- filming on the axis: in point-of-view (POV) editing, we see through a character’s eyes, which is
a tactic of including perceptual subjectivity in the narration
Clip Analysis
Vertigo
Temporal continuity
- story events are typically only presented once in the plot, rather than repeating them
- the narrative progression of the scene has no gaps
- seamless ellipses in the editing are used to trim story time from the plot
- montage sequences of time passing can condense time and preserve continuity (not to be
confused with discontinuity-style montage, which often does not tell a story)
Discontinuity editing
The purpose can be to intentionally disorient the viewer, draw attention to the filmmaking
process itself, or to make intellectual statements about the narrative from beyond the story world.
Spatial and temporal discontinuity
- explores purely graphic and rhythmic possibilities of montage, rather than story-driven flow
- makes an ambiguous use of space, including jump cuts (an image seems to “skip” over the edit
in a jarring manner) - nondiegetic inserts: disrupts continuity with a metaphorical or symbol shot, or use of text from
beyond the story world
Clip analysis:
2001: A Space Odyssey
