The document discusses various techniques of editing shots together, including continuity editing, which aims to present a coherent story by maintaining spatial and temporal relationships between shots. It provides examples from films like The Birds and The Maltese Falcon to illustrate continuity techniques like shot/reverse shot and establishing spatial axes. The document also discusses alternatives like discontinuity editing, which can intentionally violate continuity for symbolic or abstract purposes, as seen in Eisenstein's October.

1. Chapter 6
The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing
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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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.
9
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10. Continuity Editing in
The 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.
10
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11. 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.
11
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12. 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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13. 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.
13
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14. 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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15. 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.
15
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16. 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.
16
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17. 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.
17
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18. 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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