Chapter 6

The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing

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What Is Editing?

• The coordination of one shot with the next.• The duration of the shot and the way it joins

to the next shot can affect the viewer’s reaction.

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Graphic Relations Between Shots

• Has to do with the pictorial and cinematographic qualities of the shots.

• Can involve matching and contrasting these qualities.

• In The Birds, suspense is heightened by having movement conflict with countermovement and stillness.

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Rhythmic Relations Between Shots

• Varying lengths of shots can create a rhythm and set a pace.

• In The Birds, Hitchcock accelerates the pace at the beginning of a tense sequence, creating suspense while depicting the savagery of the attack.

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Spatial Relations Between Shots

• Involves establishing or constructing space.• The Kuleshov effect is a series of shots without

an establishing shot, but prompts the viewer to infer a spatial whole.

• Parallel editing is called crosscutting.

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Temporal Relations Between Shots

• Editing can cue the viewer to construct story time.

• There is an order to events in the film which can change story-plot relations.

• Editing can condense time through elliptical editing or expand time through overlapping editing.

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Continuity Editing

• A system of editing that allows space, time, and action to flow smoothly over a series of shots.

• The rhythm is dependent on camera distance of the shot.

• The goal is to present a coherent, clear story.

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Spatial Continuity: The 180-Degree System

• A scene is constructed over an axis of action, or 180-degree line.

• The filmmaker plans all the shots so that the camera doesn’t cross the line.

• This ensures consistency in positions of objects in the frame, eyelines, and screen direction.

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Continuity Editing in The Maltese Falcon

• The opening shot delineates the space of the office and establishes a 180-degree line between Spade and his secretary.

• The following shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, reestablishing shot, and match on action reinforce the spatial continuity.

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Continuity Editing inThe Maltese Falcon

• These shots advance the narrative by emphasizing the protagonist and linking him to his name on the window.

• Offscreen sound and the viewer’s expectation of what comes next motivates the following shots, which makes those shots less noticeable.

• Together, the cutting controls the viewer’s attention.

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Continuity Editing: Some Fine Points

• The 180-degree line may shift as characters move around.

• Sometimes a director will rely only on the Kuleshov effect and not have an establishing shot.

• A cheat cut lets a director mismatch slightly the positions of characters or actions.

• Point-of-view cutting gives the viewer a subjective experience.

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Crossing the Axis of Action

• Occasionally filmmakers will cross the axis of action in a symmetrical setting, or on the line itself and use it as a transition.

• Shots on the line often happen during action scenes such as chases.

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Crosscutting

• Editing can create omniscience for the viewer.• Alternates shots from one line of action with

shots of other events in other places.• Draws the viewer in, builds suspense, and can

create parallels.

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Temporal Continuity: Order, Frequency, and Duration

• Classical editing typically shows events only once and unfolds the narrative chronologically.

• Time is seldom expanded, but it is frequently elided.

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Alternatives to Continuity Editing

• Abstract and associational form often joins shots together based on the graphic and rhythmic qualities instead of narrative function.

• Occasionally narrative films will also do this.

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Spatial and Temporal Discontinuity

• Using space ambiguously, inserting jump cuts and violating or ignoring the 180-degree system can jar and disorient the viewer.

• Nondiegetic inserts can add symbolism or create a metaphor.

• These techniques can interfere with narrative clarity.

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Spatial and Temporal Discontinuity

• Shuffling the order of story events or using time ambiguously can block viewer expectations.

• Can force the viewer to focus on piecing together the film’s narrative.

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Functions of Discontinuity Editing in October

• Eisenstein was interested in the meaning that arose from juxtaposing disjunctive and disorienting shots, and creating conflict.

• The viewer is an active participant in the film.• The viewer is forced to make emotional and

conceptual connections and interpret the story events and implicit meanings.

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