Editing (1)
Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948)

Soviet film of the 1920s: Cinema and the Russian Revolution
Eisenstein as filmmaker

Strike (1925)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
October (aka 10 Days That Shook the World) (1928)
The General Line (1929)

Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 (1944) & 2 (1958)

Eisenstein as film theorist: Montage

Montage = Constructivism
Montage = Conflict and dynamism

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Based on real events in the failed Russian revolution of 1905
Political inspiration, propaganda
Individual lives swept up in the larger drama of History
A drama of mass action (no individual heroes)
Nonactors, appearing against naturalistic backgrounds
Use of montage

Repeated images: the sailor smashing the plate
The lion statues
The Odessa Steps

The Odessa Steps (1)

Juxtapositions of shots from different angles
Intercutting of long shots and close-ups

The Tsarist soldiers vs. the people
The crowd as a whole contrasted with individuals

Conflicting movements and rhythms

Troops march and people flee, left-right, down the steps
Groups going up steps, right-left, to meet troops
Relentless precision of troop movements vs. chaos of people fleeing

Jump cuts, reaction shots

The Odessa Steps (2)

Average shot length is very short: 52 frames (just over 2 seconds, at 24 frames/second)
Dilation of time (the sequence is considerably longer than the actual event would have been)
Rhythm of the scene (fast and frenetic, with a pause in the middle)
Individual dramas, standing out from the crowd

Mother carrying injured son
Drama of the baby carriage
Woman with pince-nez

Basics of Editing/Montage

The relation of shot to shot (or of image to image)
Putting together individual pieces of film to create a larger structure
Editing as the syntax of film: creates meaning by combining or juxtaposing shots
Editing both divides (ruptures continuity) and unites (re-establishes continuity)
Optical effects: shots linked via fade-out, fade-in, wipe, dissolve
The CUT: the most common means of joining shots
Levels of Editing

Relation of individual shots
Shots together ===> Sequence
Sequences together ===> Scene
Scenes together ===> Narrative
Styles or systems of editing for organizing the film as a whole

Powers of Editing

Editing produces relationships

Editing can mimic the way we look at the world, directing our attention from one object to another
Editing can also give us forms of perception that go beyond what we see in reality

Consider the difference between:

Seeing an action in one continuous shot
Seeing the same action in a series of separate shots

Editing can analyze a complex action, breaking it down into separate parts
Editing can put actions and behaviors in relation to one another and to their environment
Context is (almost) everything.

Editing Relations

Analysis of an action: breaking it down into a cause-and-effect sequence
Show different perspectives on the same event
Leap from one space to another
Leap from one time to another
Unlike some other aspects of filmmaking, editing is radically different from how we "naturally" see the world...
...yet we have no difficulty in making sense of a film that consists of 800 or more separate shots

Basics of Editing: The Cut

The CUT: the break between two shots from two separate pieces of film
Cuts usually follow a logic of action, interest, or emotion

From subject of action to object of action
From act of looking to thing being looked at
Back and forth, as in a conversation
From the establishing shot of an entire scene, to close-ups of important parts of the scene

Crosscutting and parallel editing
Shock cut: a jarring juxtaposition of unrelated images
Jump cut: an abrupt cut that violates time continuity

Patterns of Editing: Space and Time

Spatial Relations

Cutting establishes spatial continuity
Sequences shot separately seem to fit together
The Kuleshov Effect

We mentally relate a reaction shot to the previous shot
Part for whole: in the absence of an establishing shot, we infer the spatial whole from the parts

Temporal Relations

Editing establishes time sequence (linearity, simultaneity, flashbacks and flashforwards)
Manipulation of time through editing (contraction or expansion of time)

Other Editing Patterns

Nondiegetic inserts
Flashbacks and flashforwards
Montage sequences
Abstract editing

Graphic editing: emphasis on formal patterns (shapes, masses, colors, etc.)
Graphic match: two otherwise unrelated shots linked by graphic continuity
Match on action: continuities of movement
Rhythmic editing: patterns of shot duration

The norm: a series of shots of similar duration
Effects of gradually increasing or decreasing shot duration
Fast cuts in action sequences
Rhythms of crosscutting or parallel editing

"Invisible editing" vs. Montage style

The Hollywood Continuity System (to be discussed next class)
Eisenstein and Soviet montage

The Art of Editing: Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds

Conversation in the cafe

Character definition
Relations between characters
Society in disarray

Watching the birds attack the gas station

Shot/Reverse Shot (the cafe, and the gas station as seen from the cafe)
Graphic contrast: directions of movement in successive shots
Alternation of mobility and stasis

The Art of Editing: Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho

Shower sequence
Surprise: violates narrative expectations
Rhythm: from quiet and slow to rapid and frantic, and back to quiet and slow
Heavy montage: 87 shots in 45 seconds
Cumulative power of fragments and repetition

We don't clearly see the murderer
Only one shot shows knife actually touching flesh
Motifs of eye, shower head, swirling water

Bernard Herrmann's shrieking staccato violins