Film as Literature: 1/22/18 Daily Blog

Editing Cuts and Transitions

Today's class started out with a quick review of Friday's lesson on editing and the importance of assembly in film. We found the definition of an eyeline match, which is an editing technique where a shot shows a character looking at someone or something, then the camera cuts to the object in question, before cutting back to the character and their reaction. Next, we learned about the three main purposes of editing in film: narrative, thematic, and practical. Narrative purpose is when the editing affects the plot, thematic purpose is when editing is used to emphasize a certain tone or feeling, and practical purpose is how the editing is used to retain continuity in the scene and film. Then we watched the video, Cuts and Transitions 101, (which is in the article posted on Google classroom) and copied down the definitions of the techniques mentioned in the video. After watching the video, we watched the famous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and tried to determine the different purposes for this style of editing. The class counted and found around sixty cuts in the scene, which are included to further the mystery of the narrative. The thematic purpose of the editing is to create fear and suspense because the scene started out normal and slow to lure the audience into a false sense of security, only to speed up during the murder. Since a majority of the cuts are placed right as the murder occurs and as the murderer is stabbing the woman, the raw emotion of this action can be felt. Practical purpose of the editing can be seen when the camera transitions from the murderer stabbing the woman and her screaming, creating the illusion that she is being killed, even though the actress was unharmed during filming. After watching this example of editing, we ended the class with beginning to watch a clip from Martin Scorsese's

Goodfellas.
Some other examples of film that incorporated various editing techniques, are Taken 3 and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932). While this is an example where the editing was shoddy, the intent for this scene in Taken 3 can clearly be seen, which involves the main character being chased and having to jump over a fence, which the film shows through an abundance of jump cuts. By incorporating 15 different cuts in this six minute clip, the scene was supposed to express a sense of urgency, but mostly fails in a humorous way. Although, the scene does accurately forward the plot in showing his escape, portrays how suspenseful the moment is, and shows the continuation of the main character's struggle to escape and get over the fence. An example of effective use of editing can be seen in the very opening scene of Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, where the audience watches and listens to the playing of an organ, through the organ player's perspective. This is shown through the use of a fade in to slowly set the tone and give a glimpse of the setting, which then uses an iris transition to show a character's actions and slowly pans around the room as the character does. The narrative purpose of the scene is to show the beginning of this character's day and how the letter he receives will bring him to meet his loved one, and the thematic purpose is to portray the mundane, normal beginning of the story before it gets darker. The continuous use of an iris transition shows the world from this character's perspective and introduces the audience to who he is and what he looks like.

Editing Definitions From The Video in Class

Glossary of Cuts

Cutting on action (cutting while there is movement on-screen)
Cutaway (cutting to an insert shot and then back)
Cross-cutting (back and forth between locations, ex: phone call)
Jump cuts (disjointed edits in the same shot or action)
Match cut (cut from one shot to a similar shot by either matching the action or composition)

Glossary of Transitions