2004.09.22 - SLIDE 1IS246 - FALL 2004

Lecture 07: Editing II

IS 246Multimedia Information

Prof. Marc DavisUC Berkeley SIMS

Monday and Wednesday 3:30 pm – 5:00 pmFall 2003

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/is246/f04/

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 2IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 3IS246 - FALL 2004

Dimensions of Film Editing

• Graphic relations between Shot A and Shot B

• Rhythmic relations between Shot A and Shot B

• Spatial relations between Shot A and Shot B

• Temporal relations between Shot A and Shot B

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 4IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 5IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 6IS246 - FALL 2004

Continuity Editing

• Graphic continuity– Smoothly continuous from shot to shot– Figures are balanced and symmetrically

composed in frame– Overall lighting tonality remains constant– Action occupies central zone of the frame

• Rhythmic continuity– Dependent on camera distance of the shot

• Long shots last longer than medium shots that last longer than close-up shots

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 7IS246 - FALL 2004

Spatial Continuity Editing

• 180 degree rule– Ensures that relative

positions in the frame remain consistent

– Ensures consistent eyelines (i.e., gaze vectors)

– Ensures consistent screen direction (i.e., direction of character movement within the frame)

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 8IS246 - FALL 2004

Use of 180 Degree Rule

• Establishing shot to establish axis of action• Sequence of shot/reverse shots

– Focuses our attention on character reactions

• Eyeline match reinforces spatial continuity (Kuleshov Effect)

• Match on action reinforces spatial continuity • Following 180 degree rule allows “cheat cuts”• Continuity of action can override violations of

180 degree rule

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 9IS246 - FALL 2004

Temporal Continuity Editing

• Temporal order– Forwardly sequential except for occasional

use of flashbacks signaled by a dissolve or cut

• Temporal duration (seldom expanded)– Usually in a scene plot duration equals story

duration– Punctuation (dissolves, wipes, fades), empty

frames, and cutaways can elide time in shot and scene transitions

– Montage sequences can compress time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 10IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 11IS246 - FALL 2004

Kuleshov

• “To determine the nature of montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema.” (Eisenstein 1949: 48)

• Kuleshov– First head of the Soviet State Film School after the

October Revolution– Lenin: “of all the arts for us the most important is

cinema” • Kuleshov experiments

– “Films without film”• Frame shots with hands• Re-edit existing sequences

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 12IS246 - FALL 2004

Pudovkin on Kuleshov Effect

• “Kuleshov and I made an interesting experiment. We took from some film or other several close-ups of the well-known Russian actor Mosjukhin. We chose close-ups which were static and which did not express any feeling at all—quiet close-ups. We joined these close-ups, which were all similar with other bits of film in three different combinations. In the first combination the close-up of Mosjukhin was immediately followed by a shot of a plate of soup standing on a table. It was obvious and certain that Mosjukhin was looking at this soup. In the second combination the face of Mosjukhin was joined to shots showing a coffin in which lay a dead woman. In the third the close-up was followed by a shot of a little girl playing with a funny toy bear. When we showed the three combinations to an audience which had not been let into the secret the result was terrific. The public raved about the acting of the artist. They pointed out the heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, were touched and moved by the deep sorrow with which he looked on the dead woman, and admired the light, happy smile with which he surveyed the girl at play. But we knew that in all cases the face was exactly the same.”

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 13IS246 - FALL 2004

Kuleshov Effect

• Kuleshov Effect– Neutral Face Soup (“Pensive” Face)– Neutral Face Dead Woman (“Sad” Face)– Neutral Face Child playing with toy bear (“Happy”

Face)– How do you describe the face?

• Video has a dual semantics– Sequence-independent stable semantics of shots– Sequence-dependent variable semantics of shots

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 14IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 15IS246 - FALL 2004

Isenhour on Context and Order

• A1:B; A2:C A1 NOT EQUAL A2– Shot context affects shot meaning

• The shot before affects the shot after

• B:A1; C:A2 A1 NOT EQUAL A2– Shot context affects shot meaning

• The shot after affects the shot before

• A:B NOT EQUAL B:A– Short order effects shot meaning

• (A:B):C NOT EQUAL A:(B:C)

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 16IS246 - FALL 2004

Metropolis Sequence

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 17IS246 - FALL 2004

Metropolis Re-Sequence

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 18IS246 - FALL 2004

Battleship Potemkin Sequence

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 19IS246 - FALL 2004

Battleship Potemkin Re-Sequence

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 20IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 21IS246 - FALL 2004

Burch’s Transitions

• Temporal transitions– Continuous– Discontinuous

• Temporal ellipsis– Measurable time ellipsis– Indefinite time ellipsis

• Temporal reversal (flashback, overlapping cut)

– Measurable time reversal– Indefinite time reversal

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 22IS246 - FALL 2004

Burch’s Transitions

• Spatial transitions– Continuous

– Discontinuous• Proximal• Radically discontinuous

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 23IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 24IS246 - FALL 2004

Barthes’ Action Sequences

• Consecutive– Temporal succession

• Consequential– Causal succession

• Volitive– Action results from an act of will

• Reactive– Causal succession based on stimulus-response

• Durative– Indicating the beginning, ending, or duration of an action

• Equipollent– Necessarily paired actions (e.g., asking a question and

answering a question)

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 25IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 26IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Kulsehov)

• Gökçe Kınayoğlu on Kuleshov– When two shots are stitched together via montage,

the resulting meaning of the sequence always transcends the individual meanings of the shots. Sometimes they transform and frame our perception to obtain certain meanings from the individual frames, yet mostly a third meaning arises which did not exist in either of the frames before they were joined together.

– How much of this new meaning relies on the cinematic context, how much of it on the cultural background of the viewer?

– Does watching the same sequence second time result in a change in its meaning?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 27IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Kulsehov)

• Gökçe Kınayoğlu on Kuleshov– An average feature film consists of 1,000 to

4,000 very short shots. As discussed in class before, a Tarkovsky film may consist of less than 250 shots and still be two times longer compared to a Hollywood film. Hitchcock and Warhol investigated the cinematographic potentials of making films with a single long shot. In which situations may a longer shot be more effective than a series of shorter shots?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 28IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Isenhour)

• Simon King on Isenhour– “The meaning of a shot varies when the shot

that precedes it or the shot that follows it—the context—varies.” Reminiscent of Saussure – the meaning of signs is determined by their relation to other signs.

– Does this theory explain subliminal advertising? Are surrounding shots affected by shots/images that are too brief to consciously register with the viewer?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 29IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Isenhour)

• Simon King on Isenhour– Can the meaning of a shot vary due to

repetition? (Think A, B, A, C, A) Usually there have been other intermediate shots between repetitions that also affect the meaning of shot A, but does the repetition alone affect the meaning of shot A? Can anyone think of good examples? (Groundhog Day, Solaris, M ?)

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 30IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Isenhour)

• Simon King on Isenhour– I found the attempt to quantify shot impact,

e.g., “The degree of change in the meaning of each shot is inversely proportional to the intensity of its original meaning”, a bit forced. Can we quantify subjective notions such as intensity and meaning?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 31IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Burch)

• Alison Billings on Burch– In thinking about creating a system to

effectively categorize pieces of media for storage and retrieval, how useful could the breakdown of space and time into the 15 possible combinations of articulation be for a multimedia information system?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 32IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Burch)

• Alison Billings on Burch– As people have become more media ‘literate’,

have the uses of spatial and temporal articulations in film changed? How?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 33IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Jaiwant Virk on Barthes– If “The principle of narrative art… it is a

matter of producing a discourse which best satisfies the demand for completeness…”, then how does one define the boundaries of the action sequence? How much cultural history does one pack to prevent the “horror of the vacuum”? Or should the sequence be completely abandoned to a subjective analysis of the reader/viewer?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 34IS246 - FALL 2004

Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Jaiwant Virk on Barthes– What are the possible factors that can be

considered to define/label an action sequence for media metadata purpose (motion, etc.)?

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 35IS246 - FALL 2004

Today’s Agenda

• Review of Last Time

– Editing

• Editing

– Kuleshov

– Isenhour

– Burch

– Barthes

• Discussion Questions

• Action Items for Next Time

2004.09.22 - SLIDE 36IS246 - FALL 2004

Readings for Next Week

• Monday 09/27: Semiotic Media Theory– Eco, U. Articulations of the Cinematic Code. in

Nichols, B. ed., University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976; pp. 590-607. (Yong)

– Metz, C. Film language: a semiotics of the cinema. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1991; pp. 92-146. (Rebecca)

• Wednesday 09/29: Film Theory Application & Assignment 1 Introduction– Eisenstein, S.M. Film Form: Essays in Film Theory.

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, San Diego, 1949; pp. 45-63. (Cecilia)