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The Art of editingConstructing Desire & Sculpting in Time

CLASS 4

+Scene Construction & CoverageKey Terms

+Establishing Shot A shot that sets the scene

+Master Shot Wide shot of the scene, in which all the action is in

frame. Usually the first shot to establish geography, and which all other shots conform.

+OTS “over the shoulder”

+Reaction Shot

+2-Shot

+3-shot

+Close Up '[T]he close-up does not tear away its object from a set of which it would form part, of which

it would be a part, but on the contrary, it abstracts it from all spatio-temporal co-ordinates, that is to say it raises it to the state of Entity', Gilles Deleuze, 1986

+Extreme Close Up

+Insert & Cutaway

+Point of View Shot

+“Happiness” Todd Solondz, (1998)

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POV & “The Gaze”The art of looking

+ Eye line Matching

Creating the direction of the gaze:

i.e. Rear Window, 1954 Alfred Hitchcock

+Constructing Desire

“The average public … are not aware of “cutting” as we know it, and yet that is the pure orchestration of the motion-picture from” (Hitchcock, quoted in La Valley 1972:24)

“Cinematic codes create a gaze, a world and an object, thereby producing an illusion cut to the measure of desire.”(1975:16)

+ The Gaze One of Mulvey’s arguments is that

classical Hollywood cinema, thanks to its illusion of reality – partly through seamless editing – is constructed around a triad of looks: the camera’s; the spectator’s (both implicit); and the characters’ looks between themselves (explicit). However, like some other critics, Mulvey believes that in Rear Window, “the male hero does see precisely what the audience sees … Hitchcock’s skillful use of identification processes and liberal use of subjective camera from the point of view of the male protagonist draw the spectators deeply into his position, making them share his uneasy gaze”(1975:15)

Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, 1975

+Rear WindowWe “identify” with Jeff. Emphasis on action: Jeff’s subjectivity Point of view Point of listening Telephoto lens

+Erotic gaze

“Jeffries is the audience, the events in the apartment block opposite correspond to the screen. As he watches, an erotic dimension is added to his look, a central image to the drama. His girlfriend Lisa had been of little sexual interest to him, more or less a drag, so long as she remained on the spectator side. When she crosses the barrier between his room and the block opposite, their relationship is re-born erotically. He does not merely watch her through his lens, as a distant meaningful image, he also sees her as a guilty intruder exposed by a dangerous man threatening her with punishment, and thus finally saves her. Lisa's exhibitionism has already been established by her obsessive interest in dress and style, in being a passive image of visual perfection; Jeffries’ voyeurism and activity have also been established through his work as a photo-journalist, a maker of stories and captor of images. However, his enforced inactivity, binding him to his seat as a spectator, puts him squarely in the phantasy position of the cinema audience.”

-Mulvey, Visual Pleasure

+“Blow Up” Antonioni

+POV

Shot A: Point/Glance

1. Point: establishment of a point in space (ie: Who do we see? are they human? animal? alien? visible? where are they situated in the frame?)

2. Glance: establishment of an object, usually off-camera, by glance from the point (i.e: what direction is the ‘point’, or subject, looking in?)

3. Transition: temporal continuity or simultaneity ( Cut or pan; occasionally a dissolve, in the case of a flashback for instance)

+POV

Shot B: Point/ Object

4. From Point: the camera located at the point, or very close to the point, in space defined by element A1 above (ie: the camera takes the assumed position of the ‘point’ who/which is looking)

5. Object: the object of element A2 above is revealed

6. Character: the space and time of elements A1 through B5 are justified by – referred to – the presence and normal awareness of a subject (This is the coherence inscribed within the structure, e.g: out-of-focus or upside-down point/object shot; movement, etc. In some cases, it is unmistakable.)

+Sculpting in Time“Just as from the quivering of a reed you can tell what sort of current, what pressure there is in a river, in the same way we know the movement of time from the flow of the life-process reproduced in the shot.”

Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time, p.117.

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+Sculpting in Time

As Tarkovsky suggests, in the movement inherent in the recorded images and sounds. This may be movement of the frame, movement within the frame, or movement of the eye around the frame, also be movement of events or emotions.

Movement in the rushes, its pulse, effort, speed, shape, size, causes, purposes, and so forth, gives information about the rhythmic potential of the film.

Examples: The Sacrifice, 1986, Andrey Tarkovskiy A City of Sadness, 1989, Hsiao-hsien Hou Last Year at Marienbad, Alain Renais

+When to Cut

Strangers on a Train, 1951, Alfred Hitchcock

Happiness, 1999, Todd Solondz

+When Not to Cut

The Sacrifice, 1986, Andrei Tarkovsky

The Piano, 1993, Jane Campion