Middle School Media
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How editing controls text progress
Picture or graphic relationships between shots
An editor can make a connection between two scenes if there are any similarities in the actual content of the pictures. These similarities, say Bordwell and Thompson, could be in the scenery, the lighting, the costumes or what the characters are doing.
A famous match of picture action occurred at the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). A prehistoric man-ape hurls a bone into the air and we watch it spin over and over. The next shot is of a twenty-first-century space station spinning in space. The spinning bone and the spinning space station connect prehistory with the future.
Graphic matches are also used extensively in Baraka (1992) to link the imagery as transitions are made between the scenes. In one clear example an overhead shot of a circular group of men performing the traditional ‘monkey dance’ is followed by an over- head shot of the circular vents of volcanoes.
Rhythmic Relationships
Each shot takes up a certain amount of time on screen. A shot may range in length from one second to several minutes. Just as variation in the length of notes creates rhythm in music, shot length can be used to build rhythm into visual texts. A sequence of rapid shot changes gives an impression of fast, exciting action. A sequence of longer shots may create a reflective, romantic mood. Using cuts speeds up the transition, while dissolves slow it down. Filmmakers punctuate fast passages with slow ones, so that the variation in rhythm is accentuated. Accelerating the tempo creates a greater feeling of excitement than a constantly fast rate of cutting.
In the traditional Hollywood style, the rhythm of the shots also depends on the shot size. Long shots are left on the screen for longer than close-ups. This is because it is assumed the audience needs longer to read the greater amount of detail in a long shot.
Space Relationships
With clever editing, a filmmaker can make places that in fact are on opposite sides of the Earth seem to be next door to each other. For example, someone can walk out of the front door of a constructed set in a Hollywood studio and into a street in Egypt.
Placing shots side by side can suggest the action is occurring within the same space. The traditional progression from extreme long shot through medium shot to close-up is a device often used to create space relationships. An establishing shot sets the scene. All other shots in the sequence are much closer, allowing the filmmaker to return to the studio. The audience continues to believe the action is taking place within the setting of the establishing shot.
Time Relationships
A program can encapsulate whole lifetimes or just a few minutes in someone’s life. Time can be manipulated in both the filming and the editing. There are several ways this can be done. These include:
• Compressing time. Long passages of time can be shortened to just a few shots. For example, a five- day drive across a continent may be shown with a shot of the starting point, a shot of the road in between and a shot of arrival at the destination.
• Expansion of time. Prolonging the action can prolong the suspense or draw out the emotional response in the audience. Soap operas often use this technique, with the emotional responses of several characters shown one after another.
Simultaneous time. Cross-cutting from one event to another can give the impression they are occur- ring simultaneously. In the last-minute rescue scenes of silent-screen melodramas, cross-cutting had the audience on the edge of their seats. Classic D.W.Griffith films have the villain tying the heroine to the railway track, the train steaming around the corner and the hero rushing to the rescue. The excitement lies in the audience’s hope that the three events, apparently occurring at the same time, will converge in such a way as to create the most satisfying conclusion. A rule of simulta- neous time is that events in the two or more parallel locations must come together in some way.
• Flashbacks. Memories or past events can be shown by juxtaposing shots of the present with shots of the past, perhaps separated by a transitional device such as a fade.
• Flashforwards. In visual texts, flashforwards are rarer than flashbacks. This is because a flash- forward is a more obvious break in the logical order of a story.
Screen Geography
Screen geography is the layout and direction of the action within the frame and the point of view of the camera as it films. When editing and filming, attention must be paid to screen geography so the movement within each frame matches that in the next frame. A car chase in which one car is following another must have the shots of each car moving in the same direction. If the leading car is moving from left to right of the frame, then the following car must use the same screen geography. This sounds easy, but if the camera has the wrong point of view it can accidentally show a car moving in the opposite direction.
When simultaneous time is shown, it is common for the action in the two parallel locations to move in opposite directions. This suggests that the two sources of movement will converge at some point. Consider the classic simultaneous time situation of a car and a speeding train racing towards a level crossing. Ideally the car will move in one direction across the frame, the train in the opposite.
Bullet time from The Matrix (1999) as it is being filmed. Bullet time is an extreme case of expansion of time - a technique used to heighten suspense.
The German film Run Lola Run (1998) uses simultaneous time to explore how everything might be if just one thing, or one moment, was changed. In the movie, Lola is running to prevent her boyfriend Manni from robbing a supermarket at exactly midday.
The 180 degree rule
According to the 180 degree rule, an imaginary line exists called the axis of action. Imagine two people in conversation. The imaginary axis of action can be considered as a line between them — perhaps the line of eye contact. If you are filming them talking you should always place the camera on the same side of the imaginary line. It can be moved to any position to show one person, then the other, but it should always stay on the same side of the line. Crossing to the other side will disrupt the screen geography, as a character will appear to be facing the wrong way. Crossing the line can be done effectively if there is a neutral shot in between. This could be an overhead shot or a shot directly down the axis of action. After a neutral shot, it is acceptable to cross the line and film from the other side.
