The Secret Code of FilmingEditing

V.I. Pudovkin: “The foundation of film art is editing.”

Shots in film acquire meaning when they are juxtaposed with others and structured into an edited sequence– Eliminates unnecessary time and space

– Connects shots (and the ideas they express) causally and/or thematically

Theory of organic form: form and content are mutually dependent in any art form.

Continuity

• Cutting to continuity preserves the fluidity of an event without showing all of it, it condenses time– Movement occurs in the same direction– No breaks where other subjects or ideas are

edited in

Continuity Editing

Notice that the editing here is all of one main action, Vincent’s getting ready to go to work, but we don’t see every step of that process, just pieces from which we can construct the likelihood of the intensity of his preparations.

Classical Cutting• Editing for dramatic intensity and emotional

emphasis– Action is split into fragmentary shots– Point-of-view shots may be juxtaposed– Other scenes or shots may be cross-cut (parallel

editing)

• May sometimes use a master shot, an establishing shot of sorts– Eyeline Match Flashbacks– Matching Action Flash-forwards– 180° Rule

Classical Cutting

Notice how the inter-cutting of these simultaneous scenes ups the emotional ante of the film, as it stresses the precariousness of Vincent’s happiness.

Formalism

• Thematic editing, or montage, which Pudovkin called constructive editing

• Influenced strongly by Pavlov’s psychological theories

• Can link together unrelated fragmentary details to produce a unified action or message: the viewer constructs the meaning

• Pudovkin and Eisenstein

Realism• Realist aesthetic holds that photography,

television, and cinema produce images of reality automatically

• Technology allows objectivity, with minimum human involvement and manipulation

• Influenced by the philosophical movement of Personalism– Truth was individualistic and pluralistic and could be

contradictory

– Can use deep-focus photography

Sample Editing Techniques in Gattaca

Dissolve Fade