Continuity editing, lesson #2

1. CLASS 2
THE ART
OF EDITING
CONTINUITY EDITING
SHANNON WALSH / SM2002 / SPRING 2014
SCHOOL OF CREAT IVE MEDIA, CIT Y UNIVERSIT Y HONG KONG

2. HISTORY OF EDITING II
INNOVATION &
EXPERIMENTATION

3. THE KULESHOV EFFECT
Film is editing.

4. THEORY OF MONTAGE:
SERGEI EISENSTEIN
• Metric montage
• Rhythmic montage
• Tonal montage
• Over tonal montage
• Intellectual montage

5. “ODESSA STEPS” SEQUENCE
The power of the cut, rhythm, juxtaposition, parallel action and montage.

6. EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA:
DZIGA VERTOV
“The Man with the Movie Camera” (1929)
• Vertov reminds viewers that cinema is not
reality
• Special effects and fantasy
• Playful clash of reality and illusion
• Visual associations
http://youtu.be/Iey9YIbra2U

7. EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA:
LUIS BUNUEL
“Un Chien Andalou” 17min,(1929)
• Destroys meaning, shock
• Surrealism, expressionism,
psychoanalysis
• Visual discontinuity: continuity
editing, but discontinuity in the
story plot and character goal
http://youtu.be/_DZ1x-xBtUM

8. EXPERIMENTS
IN CINEMA:
SOUND
TIME
PLACE
M, Fritz Lang (1931)

9. Modern Times Chaplin (1936)

10. BASIC TRANSITIONS
The basic 4 edits:
• Cut
• Dissolve
• Wipe
• Fade

11. ACTION CONTINUITY:
ASSIGNMENT #1
In the first assignment you will learn techniques of action continuity.
1. Match on action
2. Shot/Reverse-shot
3. 180 degree rule

12. ACTION CONTINUITY:
MATCH ON ACTION
“Match on Action” is when you
cut to a new camera angle at
the same point in time without
breaking the flow of the
previous shot.

13. ACTION CONTINUITY:
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
“Two shots edited together that alternate the characters,
typically in a conversation situation.”

14. ACTION CONTINUITY:
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT

15. ACTION CONTINUITY:
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT

16. EXAMPLES
SHOT/REVERSE SHOT
Editor Thelma Shoonmaker on Raging Bull (1980):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6enMrxbpI-w
Dirty Harry (1971) “Do you feel lucky?” Unlike most shot
reverse shots this isn’t over the shoulder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjr2hnOHiM

17. ACTION CONTINUITY:
180 DEGREE RULE

18. 180 DEGREE RULE

19. ACTION CONTINUITY:

20. ACTION CONTINUITY:
IMAGE SIZE FOR CUTTING

21. LONG TO MEDIUM SHOT

22. MEDIUM TO CLOSE-UP

24. THE RULE OF 6: WALTER MURCH
1) Emotion
2) Story
3) Rhythm
4) Eye‐trace
5) Two‐dimensional plane of screen
6) Three‐dimensional space of action
For Murch, an ideal cut,
•
•
•
•
•
•
Is true to the emotion of the moment;
Advances the story;
Is rhythmically interesting and “right”;
Acknowledges the “eye-trace”;
Respects “planarity”;
Respects the three-dimensions continuity
of the actual space.
But, he says, emotion “is the thing that you
should try to preserve at all costs.”
Murch, W. In the blink of an eye: A perspective on film editing. SilmanJames Press, 1995, pp. 17-20
51%
23%
10%
7%
5%
4%