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Video Production and Editing
Subject: VIDEO PRODUCTION AND EDITING
Credits: 4
SYLLABUS
Modes of Production
Understanding the Different Modes of Film and Video Production; Studio Process; Individual
and Collective.
Pre-Production
Understanding the Whole Process of Planning a Production from Developing a Concept and
Establishing the Program’s Objectives to Approach (Treatment); Writing a Script; Hiring and
Meeting the Crew Members.
Production
Understanding the Production Process; Production Roles of the Key Players in a Production;
Hierarchy of the Crew; Production Sound: The Importance of Good Production Sound, Role of
the Sound Crew and their Responsibilities.
Post Production (Editing)
Beginning of Editing: Cut, Shot, Scene and Sequence; the Basics of Grammar of Editing;
Transitions; Flash-Forward and Flashbacks; Time, Subjective and Objective Treatments; the
Classical Editing Style; Techniques of Continuity Editing; the Early Russian Cinema and the
Montage; the Role Played by Kuleshov; Pudovkin and Eisenstein in the Russian Style of Editing;
Eisenstein’s Montage Theories; Alternatives to Continuity Editing; Discontinuity Editing; Jump
Cuts; Dynamic Cutting; Elliptical Editing; Editing Processes: Logging, EDL, Rough Cut, Final
Cuts; Introduction to Nonlinear Editing: Starting with FCP, Learning how to Capture Video and
Start Performing Simple Cuts.
Suggested Readings:
1. Video Editing and Post-Production: A Professional Guide, Gary H. Anderson, White
Plains, NY.
2. Video Production Handbook, Gerald Millerson and Jim Owens, Elsevier Science &
Technology Books.
3. Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, M. D. Roblyer, Pearson/Merrill
Prentice Hall, 2006.
4. Single-Camera Video Production, Robert B. Musburger, Focal Press.
VIDEO PRODUCTION & EDITING
COURSE
OVERVIEW
The aim of this course is to introduce the student to the basics
Basics of Video Production aims to provide the student with a
of a video production stages-Pre-production, production and
rapid understanding of what is actually a complex process,
Post-production. The student will examine the production
making a foundation for the later semester where they actually
process from conceptualization to the final screening.
start working on their own projects. It is equipment non-
Before they consider films as aesthetic objects, it is important to
specific (except the editing on FCP in the last few weeks of the
realize the technical and industrial mechanisms behind filmmak-
semester) and references to technical matters are only included
ing in order to fully understand the many options that
where necessary to understanding. Much of what is contained in
filmmakers have. Machines don’t make movies by themselves.
this course will be directly transferable to camera, sound and
Film and video production transforms raw materials into a
editing courses in the coming semesters.
product through the application of machinery and human
labor. But human labor may be utilized in different ways, and
the options are affected by economic and social factors.
In this course you would learn about the three phases of film
production: preparation, shooting, and assembly. You would
be familiarized with such factors as the tasks of the producer,
screenwriter, director, and editor, what all is worked upon
during the planning stage of production and what constitutes a
shooting schedule, the division of labor during production, the
responsibilities of different crew members, postproduction
efforts, including visual and sound editing.
Like any other language, the language of film also has a
Grammar. You would learn about the grammar of editing.
Also you would get an idea of the way different films around
the world have been edited in the past.
i
VIDEO PRODUCTION & EDITING
CONTENT
Lesson No.
Topic
Page No.
Lesson Plan
v
Course Overview
vi
Modes of Production
Lesson 1
Modes of Production
1
Lesson 2
Video Field Production
9
Lesson 3
Pre - Production
16
Lesson 4
The Cut
27
Lesson 5
Production
36
Lesson 6
Production Sound
43
Lesson 7
Animation Production
52
Pre - Production
Production
Post Production (Editing)
Lesson 8
Grammer of Editing
57
Lesson 9
Classical Hollywood
65
Lesson 10
Continuity Editing
73
Lesson 11
The Early Russian Cinema & Montage
81
Lesson 12
Alternatives to Continuity Editing
92
Lesson 13
Editing Stages & Process
104
iii
VIDEO PRODUCTION & EDITING
CONTENT
Lesson No.
i v
Topic
Page No.
Lesson 14
Getting Started with FCP
109
Lesson 15
Three Point Editing on FCP
115
Chapter 1
Editing Devices
120
Chapter 2
Battleship Potemkin
127
Chapter 3
Citizen Kane
141
LESSON 1:
MODES OF PRODUCTION
UNIT I
MODES OF PRODUCTION
Introduction
Modes of Production The Studio Process
In this chapter we will talk about the classical studio mode of
film production. This will help us understand how a large scale
set up, with well-defined roles for the individuals in the crew,
works. Then in the subsequent chapters we can go into the
details of the other modes of production in both film and
video.
Machines don’t make movies by themselves. Film and video
production transforms raw materials into a product through
the application of machinery and human labor. But human
labor may be utilized in different ways, and the options are
affected by economic and social factors.
We can conveniently start by looking at the most detailed and
specialized division of labor-that present in the studio mode of
production. This will allow us to trace the amazing variety of
tasks that a film can require. We will then be in a better position
to understand how those tasks can be accomplished in other
modes of production in both film and video.
A studio is a company in the business of manufacturing films.
The most famous examples are the studios that flourished in
Hollywood between the 1920s and the 1960s-Paramount,
Warner Bros., Columbia, and so on. Under the classic studio
system, the company owned its own filmmaking equipment
and an extensive physical plant, and it retained most of its
workers on long-term contract. The studio central management
planned the pro-jects, and then delegated authority to individual supervisors, who in turn assem-bled casts and crews
from the studio’s pool of workers.
The classic studio system has frequently been compared to
industrial assembly line manufacture, in which a manager
supervises a number of workers, each repeating a particular task
at a rigid rate and in fixed order. The analogy suggests that the
Hollywood studios of the 1930s cranked out films the way that
General Motors turned out cars. But the analogy is not exact,
since each film is different, not a replica of a prototype. A better
term for studio mass-production filmmaking is probably serial
manufacture. Here skilled specialists collaborate to create a
unique product while still adhering to a blueprint prepared by
management.
Indian cinema received a new impetus with the emergence of
film studios. The introduction of sound, Indian film makers
zeal to emulate Hollywood in their production methods and
establish production, distribution and exhibition of cinema
under one roof, resulted in B.N. Sircar’s New Theatres Ltd in
Calcutta (established in 1930), Himansu Rai’s Bombay Talkies
(1934) in Bombay, and Prabhat (1929) in Poona. While most
studio in the 1930s were driven by chaos and disorder, Bombay
Talkies was all order and efficiency. Perhaps, Rai’s long association with the German film industry had something to do with
this. The board of directors comprised half a dozen baronets,
lending it an elitist aura. Its films, though supervised by foreign
technicians, were rooted in the real India.
The centralized studio production system remains viable in
some parts of the world (such as China and Hong Kong) and
for some types of film (especially animated films). But the
American production companies of today do not manufacture
films so much as acquire them. Each film is planned as a unique
“package,” with director, actors, staff, and technicians gathered
specifically for this project. The studio may have contractual
relations with a prized director, star, or producer, but any
particular film starts with the creating of a particular package
around free-lance workers. The production company may own a
physical plant, which can be used for the project, as some of the
Most films go through three general phases of production.
1 Preparation. The idea for the film is developed and usually
com-mitted to paper in some form. At this phase, the
filmmaker or filmmakers begin to acquire funds to make,
publicize, and distribute the film.
2 Shooting. At this stage, images and sounds are created on
the filmstrip or on video tapes(analogue or digital). More
specifically, the filmmaker produces shots and discrete
sounds (dialogue, noises, or whatever). A shot is a series of
frames produced by the camera in an uninterrupted
operation. We would go into the details later. In shooting,
the separate shots are often filmed “out of continuity”-that
is, in the most convenient order for production. They will be
assembled in proper order later.
3 Assembly. At this stage, which may overlap with the
shooting phase, the images and sounds are put together in
their final form.
Not every film goes through every step. A home movie might
involve very little preparation and might never undergo any final
assembly. A compilation documentary might not require the
shooting of any new footage, only the assembly of existing
clips from libraries and archives. On the whole, though, most
films go through these production phases.
The organization of production tasks at each phase can vary
signifi-cantly. It is possible for one person to do everything:
plan the film, finance it, perform in it, run the camera, record the
sound, and put it all together. With the coming of digital in to
the field this has become much easier now. More commonly,
though, different tasks are assigned to different people, making
each job more or less specialized. This is the phenomenon of
division of labor, a process that occurs in most of the tasks any
society undertakes. Various jobs are assigned to different
individuals. Even a single job may be broken down into smaller
tasks, which then may be assigned to spe-cialists. In the
framework of filmmaking, the principle of division of labor
yields different modes, or social organizations, of film production and dif-ferent roles for individuals within those modes.
The overall preparation, shooting, and assembly stages remain,
but they take place within different social contexts.
1
surviving studios do, but in most cases the producer rents or
acquires facilities for the project. The producer will also subcontract par-ticular tasks to other firms, such as special-effects
companies.
Despite the growth of the package system, however, the specific
pro-duction stages and the assignment of roles remain similar
to what they were in the heyday of more centralized studio
production.
The Preproduction Phase
In studio filmmaking, the preparation phase is known as
preproduction. At this point, two roles emerge as most critical:
that of producer and that of writer.
The role of the producer is chiefly financial and organizational.
She or he may be an “independent” producer, unearthing film
projects and trying to convince production companies or
distributors to finance the film. Or the producer may work for a
studio and generate ideas for films. A studio may also hire a
producer to put together a particular package.
The producer’s job is to develop the project through the script
process, to obtain financial support, and to arrange for the
personnel who will work on the film. During shooting and
assembly, the producer usually acts as the liaison between the
writer or director and the production company that is financing
the film. After the film is completed, the producer will often
have the task of arranging the distribution, promotion, and
marketing of the film and of monitoring the paying back of
the funds that underwrite the produc-tion.
Outside Hollywood, a single producer may take on all these
tasks, but in the contemporary American film industry the
producer’s work is further subdivided. The executive producer is
usually remote from the day-to-day process, being the individual who arranged the financing for the project or obtained
the literary property. Subordinate to the executive producer is
the line producer. She or he is the actual organizer of the film,
monitoring phases of production. The line producer is assisted
by an associate producer, who acts as a liaison with laboratories
or technical personnel.
The chief task of the writer is to prepare the script. Sometimes
the writer will set the process in motion by sending a script to
his or her agent, who submits it to an independent producer or
a production company for consideration. Alternatively, an
experienced screenwriter meets with a pro-ducer in a “pitch
session,” where the writer can propose several ideas that might
become scripts. And sometimes the producer has an idea for a
film and hires a script writer to work it up. The latter course of
action is particularly common if the producer, ever on the
lookout for ideas, has bought the rights to a novel or play and
wants it adapted into a film.
In mass-production filmmaking, the script writer is expected to
follow traditional storytelling patterns. For several decades,
Hollywood filmmaking has called for scripts about strong
central characters that struggle to achieve well-defined goals. It is
also generally believed that a script ought to have a “three-act”
structure, with the climax of the first act coming about a quarter
of the way into the film, the climax of the second act appearing
about two-thirds of the way through, and the climax of the
final act bringing about the resolution of the protagonist’s
2
‘problem. Writers will also be expected to include plot points,
twists that intensify the action.
The script will go through several stages. These stages include a
treatment, a synopsis of the action; one or more full-length
scripts; and a final version, the shooting script. Extensive
rewriting is common. Often the director will want to reshape
the script. For example, the protagonist of the original script of
Witness was Rachel, the Amish widow with whom John Book
falls in love. The romance, and Rachel’s confused feelings about
Book, formed the central plot line. But the director, Peter Weir,
wanted to emphasize the clash between pacifism and violence.
So William Kelley and Earl Wallace revised their script to
emphasize the mystery plot line and to center the action on
Book, who brings urban crime into the peaceful Amish
community.
Even the shooting script is not sacrosanct. It is often altered
during the shooting phase. During the filming of the 1954 A
Star Is Born, the scene in which Judy Garland sings “The Man
That Got Away” was reshot at several points in the production,
each time with different dialogue supplied by the script writer,
Moss Hart. Script scenes that have been shot may also be
condensed, rearranged, or dropped entirely in the assembly
stage.
If the producer or director finds one writer’s script unsatisfactory, other writers may be hired to revise it. As you may
imagine, this often leads to conflicts about which writer or
writers deserve screen credit for the film. In the American film
industry, these disputes are adjudicated by the Screen Writers’
Guild.
When the script reaches its final state, the producer starts
planning the film’s finances. He or she has sought out a director
and perhaps also stars to make the package a promising
investment. The producer must now prepare a budget spelling
out above-the-line costs (the costs of literary property, script
writer, director, and cast) and below-the-line costs (the expenses
allocated for the crew, the shooting and assembly phases,
insur-ance, and publicity). The sum of above- and below-theline costs is called the negative cost (that is, the total cost of
producing the film’s master negative). In 1991, the average
Hollywood negative cost ran to about $20 million, with
advertising and print costs adding $7 to $10 million more per
picture.
The producer must also prepare a daily schedule for shooting
and assembling the film. This will be done with an eye on the
budget. For example, since the film will be shot out of
continuity, all shots using a certain setting or certain personnel
can be filmed during one stretch of time. If a star is forced to
join the production late or leave it at intervals, the producer
must plan to “shoot around” the performer. Keeping all such
contingencies in mind, the producer and his or her staff are
expected to come up with a schedule of several weeks or
months that juggles cast, crew, locations, and even seasons and
geography for the most efficient use of resources.
The Production Phase
In Hollywood parlance, the shooting phase is frequently called
production, even though “production” is also the term for the
entire process of making a film.
Although the director is often involved at various stages of preprod-uction, he or she is primarily responsible for overseeing
the shooting and assembly phases. Traditionally, the director
puts the script on film by coordinating the various aspects of
the film medium. Within most film industries, the director is
considered the single person most responsible for the look and
sound of the finished film.
Because of the specialized division of labor in large-scale
production, many aspects of the task of shooting the film
must be delegated to other workers who will consult with the
director.
1 In the preparation phase, the director has already begun work
with the set unit, or production design unit. This is headed
by a production designer. The production designer is in
charge of visualizing the film’s settings. This unit creates
drawings and plans that determine the architec-ture and the
color schemes of the sets. Under the production designer’s
supervision, an art director supervises the construction and
painting of the sets. The set decorator, often someone with
experience in interior decoration, modifies the sets for specific
filming purposes, supervising a staff who finds props and a
set dresser who arranges things on the set during shooting.
The costume designer is in charge of planning and executing
the wardrobe for the production. Working with the
production designer, a graphic artist may be assigned to
produce a storyboard, a series of comic-strip-like sketches of
the shots in each scene, including notations about costume,
lighting, camera work, and other matters. Most filmmakers
do not storyboard every scene, but action sequences and
shots using special effects and complicated camera work tend
to be storyboarded in detail. In such instances, the
storyboard gives the cinematography unit and the specialeffects unit a preliminary sense of what the finished shots
should look like.
2 During the shooting, the director will rely on what is called
the director’s crew. This includes:
action scenes, and the like, at a distance from where principal
shooting is taking place.
3 The most publicly visible group of workers is the cast. The
cast will likely include stars, well-known players assigned to
major roles and likely to attract audiences. A screen test is a
procedure used to determine casting and to try out lighting,
costume, make-up, and camera positions in relation to the
actor. The cast also includes supporting players, or
performers in secondary roles; minor players; and extras,
those anonymous persons who pass by in the street, come
together for crowd- scenes, and fill distant desks in large
office sets. One of the director’s major jobs is to shape the
performances of the cast. Most directors will spend a good
deal of time explaining how a line or gesture should be
rendered, reminding the actor of the place of this scene in
the overall film, and helping the actor create a coherent
performance. The first assistant director usually works with
the extras and takes charge of arranging crowd scenes. On
some productions, more specialized cast members require
particular coordination. Stunt persons will probably be
supervised by a stunt coordi-nator; professional dancers will
work with a choreographer. If animals join the cast, they will
be handled by a wrangler. (Mad Max beyond Thunderdome
carries the memorable credit line “Pig Wrangler.”)
4 Another unit of specialized labor is the photography unit.
The leader here is the cinematographer, also known as the
director of photography or DP. The cinematographer is an
expert on photographic processes, lighting, and
manipulation of the camera. The cinematographer consults
with the director on how each scene will be lit and filmed. In
Figure below, on the sets of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles
directs from his wheelchair on the far right, cinematographer
Gregg Toland crouches below the camera, and ac-tress
Dorothy Comingore kneels at the left. (The female script
supervisor can be seen in the background left.)
a The script supervisor, known in the classic studio era as a
“script girl.” (Today one-fifth of Hollywood script
supervisors are male.) The script supervisor is in charge of all
details of continuity from shot to shot. The script
supervisor keeps track of details of per-formers’ appearance
(in the last scene, was the carnation in the left or right
buttonhole?), props, lighting, movement, camera position,
and the running time of each scene.
b The first assistant director, who, with the director, plans out
each day’s shooting schedule and sets up each shot for the
director’s approval. c The second assistant director, who is the liaison among the
first assistant director, the camera crew, and the electricians’
crew.
d The third assistant director, who serves as messenger for
director and staff.
e The dialogue coach, who feeds performers their lines and
speaks the lines of offscreen characters during shots of other
performers.
f The second unit director, who films stunts, location footage,
The cinematographer supervises:
a The camera operator, who runs the machine and who may
also have assistants to load the camera, adjust and follow
focus, push a dolly, and so on.
b The key grip, the person who supervises the grips. These
workers carry and arrange equipment, props, and elements
3
of the setting and lighting.
c The gaffer, the head electrician who supervises the placement
and rigging of the lights. In Hollywood production the
gaffer’s assistant is called the best boy.
5 Parallel to the photography unit is the sound unit. This is
headed by the production recordist (also called the sound
mixer). The recordist’s principal responsibility is to record
dialogue during shooting. Typically the recordist will use a
portable tape recorder, several sorts of microphones, and a
console to balance and combine the inputs from various
microphones. The recordist will also attempt to tape some
ambient sound when no actors are speaking. These bits of
“room tone” will later be inserted to fill pauses in the
dialogue.
clapboard up before the camera at the start of each shot. The
clapboard records the production, scene, shot, and take. The
clapboard’s hinged arm makes a cracking sound that helps the
editor to synchronize sound and picture later. (See the Figure,
from Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise. The white “X” marks this
as the exact frame with which the cracking sound should
synchronize.) Thus every take is identified for future reference.
The recordist’s staff includes:
a The boom operator, who manipulates the boom
microphone and conceals radio microphones on the actors.
b The “third man,” who places other microphones, lays sound
cables, and is in charge of controlling ambient sound.
Some productions have a “sound designer” who enters the
process during the preparation phase and who, like the production designer, plans a “sonic style” appropriate for the entire
film.
6 A special-effects unit is charged with preparing and executing
process shots, miniatures, matte work, computer-generated
graphics, and other technical shots. During the planning
phase, the director and the production designer will have
determined what effects will be needed, and the special
-effects unit consults with the director and the
cinematographer on an ongoing basis.
7 A miscellaneous unit includes a make-up staff, a costume
staff, hairdressers, and drivers (who transport cast and crew).
8 During shooting, the producer is represented by a unit often
called the producer’s crew. This consists of the production
manager, also known as the production coordinator or the
associate producer. This person will manage daily
organizational business, such as arranging for meals and
accommo-dations. A production accountant (or production
auditor) monitors expen-ditures, a production secretary
coordinates telephone communication among units and
with the producer, and production assistants (PAs) run
errands. Newcomers to the film industry often start out
working as production assis-tants.
All this coordinated effort, involving perhaps hundreds of
workers, results in many thousands of feet of exposed film
and recorded sound-on -tape. Every shot called for in the script
or storyboard or decided on by the director usually has several
takes, or unique versions, of that shot. For instance, if the
finished film requires one shot of an actor saying a line, the
director may make several takes of the speech, each time asking
the actor to vary the expression or posture. Not all takes are
printed, and probably only one of those becomes the shot
included in the finished film.
Because shooting usually proceeds out of continuity, the
director and crew must have some way of labeling each take.
During filming, one of the cinematographer’s staff holds a
4
In the course of filming, most directors and technicians follow
an organized approach. Assume that a scene is to be filmed.
While crews set up the lighting and test the sound recording,
the director rehearses the actors and instructs the cinematographer. The director then supervises the filming of a master shot.
The master shot records the entire action and dialogue of the
scene. There may be several takes of the master shot. Then
portions of the scene are restaged and shot in closer views or
from different angles. These other shots are called coverage, and
each of them may require many takes. Contemporary practice is
to shoot a great deal of coverage, occasionally by using two or
more cameras filming at the same time. The script supervisor
checks to ensure that continuity details are consistent within
coverage shots.
Postproduction
Members of the film industry today call the assembly phase of
filmmaking postproduction. Yet this phase does not begin
simply when shooting is completed. Postproduction staff
members work steadily, if sometimes behind the scenes,
throughout shooting.
Before the shooting has begun, the director or producer has
probably hired an editor (also known as the supervising editor).
This person has the responsibility of cataloguing and assembling the various takes produced during shooting.
Because each shot usually exists in several takes, because the film
is shot out of continuity, and because the master-shot/coverage
approach yields so much footage, the editor’s job can be a vast
one. A 90-minute 35mm feature, which comprises about 8000
feet of film( for 35mm 16 frames= 1 foot), may have been
carved out of 500,000 feet of exposed footage. For this reason,
postproduction on major Hollywood pictures has become a
lengthy process. Sometimes several editors and assistants will be
brought in.
Typically, the editor receives the processed footage from the
laboratory as quickly as possible. This footage is known as the
dailies, or the rushes. The editor inspects the dailies, leaving it to
the assistant editor to synchro-nize image and sound and to
sort the takes by scene. The editor will meet with the director to
examine the dailies or, if the production is filming far away, the
editor will call to inform the director of how the footage looks.
Since retaking shots is costly and troublesome, constant
checking of the dailies is important for spotting any problems
with focus, exposure, framing, or other visual factors.
As the footage accumulates, the editor assembles the shots into
a rough cut-the film loosely strung in sequence, without sound
effects or music. Some films are notorious for having gargantuan rough cuts: That of Heaven’s Gate ran over six hours, that
of Apocalypse Now seven and a half. Still, even the average
rough cut is significantly longer than the finished film. From
this the editor, in consultation with the director, builds toward
a fine cut or final cut. The material not used comprises the
outtakes. At the same time, a second unit may be shooting
footage to fill in at certain places, titles will be prepared, and
further laboratory work or special-effects work may be done.
Once the shots are arranged in something approaching final
form, the sound editor, also known as the sound effects editor,
takes charge of building up the sound track. With the editor,
the director, and the composer, the sound editor goes through
the film and chooses where music and effects will be placed, a
process known as spotting. The sound editor may have a staff
whose members specialize in recording or cutting dialogue,
music, or sound effects.
One of the sound editor’s principal duties is supervising the
rerecording of dialogue after filming. This has become known
as automated dialogue replacement (ADR for short). Although
dialogue is recorded on the set, this may serve only as a guide
track. Then the actors are brought into the sound studio to
rerecord their lines (a process called dubbing, or looping). In
addition, if there is a recording error or muffled line in the
original recording, dubbing is used to replace it.
Nonsynchronized dialogue, such as the babble of a crowd, will
also be added. In addition, the sound editor will loop alternative lines of dialogue that eliminate phrases that may be found
offensive; this sanitized track will be used in broadcast television
and airline versions of the film.
The sound editor also adds sound effects. Most of the sound
effects the audience hears in a studio-produced film are not
recorded at the moment the image is shot. The sound editor
may draw on a library of stock sounds, utilize effects recorded
“wild” on location, or create particular effects for this film.
Sound editors routinely manufacture footsteps, cars crashing,
doors closing, pistol shots, a fist thudding into flesh (often
produced by whacking a watermelon with an axe).
During the “spotting” of the sound track, the film’s composer
has entered the assembly phase as well. Reviewing a fairly
advanced cut of the film, the composer decides, along with the
director and sound editor, where music should be inserted. The
composer then compiles cue sheets that list exactly where the
music will go and how long it should run. The composer
proceeds to write the score, although she or he will probably
not orchestrate it personally. While the composer is working,
the rough cut will be synchronized with a “temp dub,” musical
accompaniment from preexisting sources that approximates the
sort of music that will eventually be written. With the aid of a
“click track,” which synchronizes the beat of the music to the
finished film, the score will be recorded and form part of the
sound editor’s material.
All these sounds are recorded on different pieces of magnetic
tape each person’s voice, each musical passage, and each sound
effect may occupy a separate track. At a final mixing session, the
director, editor, and sound-effects editor put dozens of such
separate tracks together into a single master track on 35mm
magnetic film. The sound specialist who performs the task is
the rerecording mixer. Often the dialogue track is organized
first, then sound effects are balanced with that, and finally music
is added to create the final mix. Often there will need to be
equalization, filtering, and other adjustments to the track. Once
fully mixed, the master track is transferred onto sound recording film, which encodes the magnetic sound as optical sound.
The film’s camera negative, which was used to make the dailies
and the work print, is normally too precious to serve as the
source for final prints. Instead, from the relevant camera
negative footage the laboratory draws an interpositive, which in
turn furnishes an internegative. It is this which is assembled in
accordance with the final cut and which will be the primary
source for future prints. Then the master sound track is
synchro-nized with it.
The first positive print, complete with picture and sound, is
called the answer print. Once an answer print has been approved, release prints are made for distribution. These are the
copies shown in theaters.
In contemporary Hollywood practice, the work of production
does not end with the final theatrical version. In consultation
with the producer and director, the postproduction staffs
prepare airline and broadcast television versions of the film. In
some cases, particular versions may be prepared for different
countries. The European version of David Lynch’s Wild at
Heart contained footage that was not in the American print, and
Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America was completely
recut and rearranged for its American release. At the same time,
laboratory personnel, often working with the director and the
cinematographer, transfer the film to a master videotape, which
will form the basis of videocassette and laserdisc versions. This
video transfer process often involves new judgments about
color quality and sound balance.
Many fictional films, such as Singin’ in the Rain, have been
made about the studio mode of production. Some films set
their action at particular phases of the process. Fedrico Fellini’s 8
½ concerns itself with the preperation, or preproduction, stage
of a film that is abandoned before shooting starts. Frangois
Truffaut’s Day for Night takes place during the shooting phase
of a production marred by the death of one of the cast.
The studio mode of production is characterized by a minute
breakdown of labor. With this comes an attempt to control
every aspect of the filmmaking process by means of paper
records. At the start there will be versions of the script; during
shooting reports will be written on camera footage, sound
recording, special-effects work, and laboratory results: in the
assembly phase there will be logs of shots catalogued in the
editing, and a variety of cue sheets for music, mixing, looping,
and title layout. Once planning and execution are committed to
paper, the production workers can control, or at least adjust to,
unplanned events.
This is never wholly successful. Every case study of a large-scale
5
studio production will attest to the compromises, accidents,
and foul-ups that plague the process. Weather may throw the
shooting off schedule. Disagreements about the script may
result in a director being fired. Last-minute changes demanded
by the producer or director may require that some scenes be
reshot. Studio production is a constant struggle between the
desire to plan the film completely and the inevitable “noise”
created by the sheer complexity of such a detailed division of
labor.
Not all films that use the studio mode of production are largebudget projects financed by major companies. Many so-called
independent films are made in similar ways, though on a
smaller scale. For example, very low-budget “exploitation”
filmmaking tailors its product to a particular market-in earlier
decades, fringe theaters and drive-ins. But such a production
continues to divide the labor along studio lines. There is the
producer’s role, the director’s role, and so on, and the production tasks are parceled out in ways, which roughly conform to
mass-production practices. Because of cost constraints,
however, many functions of the studio mode of production
are carried out here by amateurs, friends, or relatives. And in
such circumstances people often double up on jobs: The
director might produce the film and write the script as well; the
picture editor might cut sound as well.
The rubric of independent production also includes projects
that seek to go beyond the exploitation market, even though
their budgets are comparably miniscule. Often regionally based,
these projects may find success with wide audiences, as did
Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle and Joel and Etan
Coen’s Blood Simple. In these more ambitious small-budget
efforts, production functions of the studio model are approximated by a small staff and crew.
There are also more prominent Hollywood-financed filmmakers who are considered “independent” because they work at
budgets significantly below the industry norm. Oliver Stone’s
Platoon or Spike Lee’s School Daze (each of which cost $6
million) would exemplify this sort of filmmaking.
In this type of independent production, the director usually
initiates the project and works with a producer to get it realized.
As we would expect, these industry-based independents
organize production in ways very close to the full-fledged studio
mode. Nonetheless, because they require less financing, such
independents can demand more flexibility and control in the
production process. Woody Allen, for instance, is allowed by his
contract to rewrite and reshoot extensive portions of his film
after he has assembled and initial rough cut. In shooting School
Daze, Lee was able to create an off--camera tension between
performers portraying conflicting factions of African-American
college students. Lee assigned each group’s cast to separate,
living quarters, different meals, and different hairstyling
treatments. “It’s a very sensitive subject, class and color,”
reflected one actor. “And I think the majority of the people on
the shoot thought they were beyond it. They were forced to
examine it, though, and many realized they weren’t as far
removed from the subject as they thought.” Lee’s status as an
independent allowed him to control the production circumstances in ways that he believed would benefit both the film
and its personnel.
6
Some Terms & Roles in Film Production
The rise of “packaged” productions, pressures from union-ized
workers, and other factors in the US have led producers to credit
everyone who worked on a film. (The credits for Who Framed
Roger Rabbit? contained 771 names.). Indian filmmakers also
try giving credits to everyone who worked on the crew. Here are
some terms that you might see in a film’s credits besides the
one ones that we have already discussed.
ACE: After the name of the editor; abbreviation for the
American Cinema Editors, a professional association.
ASC: After the name of the director of photography;
ab-breviation for the American Society of Cinematographers, a
professional association. The British equivalent is the BSe.
Additional photography: A crew shooting footage apart from
the principal photography supervised by the director of
photography.
Casting director: Searches for and auditions performers for the
film. Will suggest actors for leading roles (principal characters) as
well as character parts (fairly standardized or stereotyped roles).
Clapper boy: Crew member who operates the clapboard that
identifies each take.
Dialogue editor: Sound editor specializing in making sure
recorded speech is audible.
Dolly grip: Crew member who pushes the dolly that carries the
camera, either from one setup to another or during a take for
moving camera shots.
Foley artist: A sound-effects specialist who creates sounds of
body movement by walking or by moving materials across large
trays of different substances (sand, earth, glass, and so on).
Named for Jack Foley, a pioneer in postproduction sound.
Greenery man: Crew member who chooses and maintains trees,
shrubs, and grass in settings.
Lead man: Member of set crew responsible for tracking down
various props and items of decor for the set.
Loader: Member of photography unit who loads and un-loads
camera magazines, as well as logging the shots taken and
sending the film to the laboratory.
Matte artist: Member of special-effects unit who paints
backdrops which are then photographically incorporated into a
shot in order to suggest a particular setting.
Model maker: (1) Member of production design unit who
prepares architectural models for sets to be built. (2) Member of
the special-effects unit who fabricates scale models of locales,
vehicles, or characters to be filmed as substitutes for full-size
ones.
Optical effects: Laboratory workers responsible for such effects
as fades and dissolves, as well as matte shots and other special
photographic processes.
Property master: Member of set crew who supervises the use
of all props, or movable objects, in the film.
Publicist, Unit publicist: Member of producer’s crew who
creates and distl:ibutes promotional material regarding the
production. The publicist may arrange for press and tele-vision
interviews with the director and stars, and for cov-erage of the
production in the mass media.
Scenic artist: Member of set crew responsible for painting
surfaces of set.
Still photographer: Member of crew who takes photographs of
scenes and “behind-the-scenes” shots of cast members and
others. These photographs may be used to check lighting or set
design or color, and many will be used in promoting and
publicizing the film.
Timer, Color timer: Laboratory worker who inspects the
negative film and who adjusts the printer light to achieve
consistency of color across the finished product.
Video assist: The use of a video camera mounted alongside the
motion picture camera to check lighting, framing, or performances. In this way, the director and the cinema-tographer can
try out a shot or scene on tape before committing it to film.
Modes of Production : Individual & Collective
Our survey of the studio mode of production demonstrates
how precisely production tasks can be broken down. But not all
filmmaking demands such a detailed division of labor. In
general, two alternative modes of production treat the preparation, shooting, and assembly phases differently.
In individual film production the filmmaker functions as an
artisan. He or she may own or rent the necessary equipment.
Financial backing can be obtained on a film-by-film basis, and
the production is generally on a small scale. The preferred
format is 16mm or may be super 16 but lot of independent
films are also done on both 35mm and digital video formats as
well. There is very little division of labor: The filmmaker
oversees every production task, from obtaining fi-nancing to
final editing, and will actually perform many of them. Although
technicians or performers may make distinct contributions, the
principal creative decisions rest with the filmmaker.
Documentary production offers many examples of the
individual mode. Jean Rouch, a French anthropologist, has
made several films alone or with a small crew in his efforts to
document the lives of marginal people, often members of
minorities, living in an alien culture. Rouch wrote, directed, and
photographed Les Maftres fous (1955), his first widely seen
film. Here he examined the ceremonies of a Ghanian cult
whose members lived a double life: Most of the time they
worked as low-paid laborers, but in their rituals they passed
into a frenzied trance and assumed the identities of their
colonial rulers. Other documentary filmmakers will work on a
scale only somewhat larger than that of Rouch. Frederick
Wiseman, produces, plans, and distributes his own films.
During filmmaking he often serves as sound recordist while a
cinematog-rapher runs the camera.
Politically activist documentary offers another example of
individual film production. Barbara Koppel devoted four years
to the production stages of Harlan County, U.S.A., a record of
Kentucky coal miners’ struggles for union representation. After
eventually obtaining funding from foundations, she and a very
small crew spent thirteen months living with miners during the
workers’ strike. A large crew was ruled out not only by Koppel’s
budget but also by the need to be absorbed as naturally as
possible into the community. During filming Koppel acted as
sound recordist, working with cameraman Hart Perry and
sometimes also a lighting person. Like the miners, the filmmakers were constantly threatened with violence from strikebreakers.
Some of these incidents were recorded on film, as when the
driver of a passing truck fired a gun at the crew.
The individual mode of film production is also exemplified by
the work of many experimental filmmakers. Maya Deren, one
of the most important American experimentalists, made several
films in the 1940s (Meshes of the Afternoon, Choreography for
Camera, Ritual in Transfigured Time) which she scripted,
directed, performed in, and edited. In some cases the shooting
was done by her husband, Alexander Hammid.
A comparable example is the work of Stan Brakhage, whose
films are among the most directly personal ever made. Some,
like Window Water Baby Moving and Scenes from under
Childhood, are lyrical studies of his family life; others, such as
Dog Star Man, are mythic treatments of nature; still others,
such as 23rd Psalm Branch and The Act of Seeing with One’s
Own Eyes, are quasi-documentary studies of war and death.
Funded by grants and his personal finances, Brakhage prepares,
shoots, and edits his films virtually unaided. For a time, while
he was working in a film laboratory, he also personally developed and printed his footage. The work of Brakhage, which
now comprises over 150 films, demonstrates that in the
individual mode of production the filmmaker can become an
artisan, a solitary worker executing all the basic production tasks.
There are other experimental directors, such as Bruce Conner,
Michael Snow, Robert Breer, and Ernie Gehr, who have likewise
fulfilled several production roles in the making of their films.
In collective film production several film workers participate
equally in the project. Like individual filmmakers, the group
may own or rent its equipment. The production is on a small
scale, and financing may come from foundations or members’
personal resources. But although there may be a detailed
division of labor, the group shares common goals and makes
production decisions collectively. Roles may also be rotated: the
sound recordist one day may serve as cinematographer on the
next. The collective mode of production attempts to replace the
authority vested in the producer and director with a more
broadly distributed responsibility for the film.
Not surprisingly, the political movements of the late 1960s
fostered many efforts toward collective film production. In
France, several such groups were formed, the most noteworthy
being SLON (an acronym for a name that translates as Society
for the Launching of New Works). SLON was a cooperative
that sought to make films about contemporary political
struggles around the world. Financed chiefly by television
companies, SLON filmmakers often collaborated with factory
workers in documenting strikes and union activities.
In the United States, the most famous and long-lived collective
unit has been the Newsreel group, which was founded in 1967
as an effort to document the student protest movement.
Newsreel attempted to create not only a collective production
situation, with a central coordinating committee answerable to
the complete membership, but also a community distribution
network that would make Newsreel films available for local
activists around the country. During the late 1960s and early
1970s, the collective produced dozens of works, including
Finally Got the News and The Woman’s Film. Newsreel
branches sprang up in many cities, with those in San Francisco
(now known as California Newsreel) and in New York (known
as Third World Newsreel) surviving into the 1980s. After the
mid-1970s, Newsreel moved somewhat away from purely
collective production, but it retained certain policies characteristic
7
of the collective mode, such as equal pay for all participants in a
film. Important Newsreel films of recent years are Con-trolling
Interests, The Business of America…(funded largely by
American public television), and Chronicle of Hope: Nicaragua.
Members of Newsreel such as Robert Kramer, Barbara Koppel,
and Christine Choy have gone on to work as individual
filmmakers.
The catchall label of “independent filmmaking” thus includes
not only small-budget filmmaking modeled on the studio
mode but also individual production and collective production.
The drawbacks of independent pro-duction consist, chiefly, in
financing, distribution, and exhibition. Studios and large
distribution firms have ready access to large amounts of capital
and usually can ensure the distribution and exhibition of the
films they decide to back. The independent filmmaker or group
has trouble gaining access to money and to audiences.
But many filmmakers believe the advantages of independence
outweigh the drawbacks. Independent production can treat
subjects that large-scale studio production ignores. Few film
studios would have initiated Sayles’s Matewan, and no film
studio would have made Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise
or Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. Because the independent
film does not need as large an audience to repay its costs, it can
be more personal, more unusual, and perhaps more controversial. The filmmaker need not tailor the script to the Hollywood
three-act, plot-point pattern. (Indeed, the independent filmmaker may not use a script at all.) Independent filmmaking is
thus often on the cutting edge of exploring new possibilities of
the film medium.
Like in the other parts of the world India also has many modes
of production depending upon the project, its budget and the
format that it is shot on. We have big production banners and
independent filmmakers. With the coming in of the digital
word sometimes it’s just one person planning, shooting and
editing an entire film.
Film and Video productions requires some division of labor,
but how that division is carried out, and how power is allocated
to various roles, differs from project to project. The process of
film production thus reflects different conceptions of what a
film is, and the finished film inevitably bears traces of the mode
of production within which it was created.
Notes :
8
LESSON 2:
VIDEO FIELD PRODUCTION
Flim & Video
Before we go into the other modes of production let’s talk
about the differences in the two formats of Film and Video. By
far the most significant nontheatrical means of exhibition is
video, in the form of broadcast, cable or satellite transmission,
or home formats like videocassette, VCD and DVD. Since the
mid-1970s the number of films seen on video has steadily
increased. By 1988, the American film industry garnered twice as
much income from nontheatrical video as from domestic
theater returns.
Film Camera
Certain differences depend on technological factors:
Film uses light and film emulsion technique to produce a
picture. The film, once exposed, has to be processed and
developed before you can actually see the images, either on a
photograph or moving images projected at 24 frames-persecond onto a screen. By its very nature, film has a “grain” to it.
It looks “alive” on the screen, all wriggling and squirming
around with pulsating colors washing all over each other on a
second by second basis. With the proper lenses it can be
projected and blown up to just about any size.
Video, on the other hand, uses electronic capture technology. It
records light onto magnetic tape and scans it back across a
moving playback head onto a cathode ray tube (TV set) at 25
frames-per-second( for PAL in India). Video images are created
by bombarding light-sensitive phosphors on the surface of the
monitor’s picture tube. A “gun” at the rear of the tube scans
the surface horizontally, rapidly activating the phosphors one by
one. Video tends to look “clean” and distinctly “hard”, and is
usually confined to a box no larger than 21". An exception
would be large-screen TV’s and Television projector systems.
In the United States standard established by the National
Television Systems Committee, the picture tube has 525 scan
lines, each with about 600 separate dots, or picture elements
(pixels). (In practice, the number of lines available on a home
television monitor is around 425.) In the PAL system the scan
UNIT 2
VIDEO FIELD PRODUCTION
lines are 625.
Motion picture film can carry far more visual information.
Estimates vary, but a 16mm color negative image offers roughly
the equivalent of over 1100 video scan lines, while 35mm color
negative offers lightness and color resolution equivalent to 2300
to 3000 horizontal lines. Moreover, while American-standard
video has a total of about 350,000 pixels per frame, 35mm
color negative film has the equivalent of about 7 million. The
number of lines and pixels decreases significantly when we
consider positive prints rather than negative film, but the film
image still remains far more infor-mationally dense than the
video one. Some of the digital formats today our striving hard
to come close the quality film formats offer.
A similar disparity exists in contrast ratio, a term for the relation
between the brightest area and the darkest area of the image.
The video camera can reproduce a much less contrast ratio than
that a color film negative can reproduce. As a result of these
factors, the 35mm film image can be far more detailed and can
display a much greater range of tonalities. When a film is
transferred to video, its detail and contrast ratio are sharply
reduced.
A film on video may fall prey to other defects as well. The
current, video image, projected at 25 frames per second in the
PAL system (or 30 frames per second in the US), has a pronounced flicker. Video color is likely to smear, with sharp-edged
reds and oranges particu-larly difficult to render. There is also
the problem of “comet tailing,” streaks of light that trail
movements of objects against a dark background. Highly
patterned clothing and strong horizontal stripes produce moire,
or “herring-bone,” striping on the monitor. Things have
improved with some of the latest formats like HDTV and
other digital formats.
There are other important differences between film and
television. An obvious one is scale. A 35mm film image is
designed to be displayed on a screen area of hundreds of square
feet. Video images look faint and stippled when projected on
even a 6-by-8-foot area.
Video Cameras
All said and done the video formats are highly used today
9
around the world to make low budget film. Most of the
programming in India for TV is done on video. Video copies
of films are very convenient to use, widely accessible, and
comparatively inexpensive. Video has aroused viewers’ interest
in a wider range of films than is available in local theaters. If a
film is no longer in circulation or is prohibitively expensive to
rent, watching it on video is usually better than not seeing it at
all. And then of course the introduction of VCD and DVD has
made it much easier for the consumer.
Video cameras are much lighter and easier to shoot. Video
cameras are cheaper to hire (or even buy), tapes don’t cost as
much as film stock, in fact much cheaper. The production crew
does not need as many people and the entire process of
shooting and editing is much faster.
As the television image improves, chiefly through the development of high-definition video, it may compete with 16mm.
Like all media technologies, video has its own advantages as
well as disadvantages.
Lot of television programming in India is done on video.
Indian soaps and sitcoms on the various channels are mostly
done on video. We do have a lot of advertisements and music
videos that are shot on film. Now in the previous chapter we
saw the big studio production setup and their functioning. In
this lesson lets try to see what all kind of programming is
dome on video and what kind of set up does it involve.
The Changing Nature of Video Production
When television was introduced to the U.S. public at the 1939
World’s Fair in New York, it thrilled those who saw it. The
display was impressive: Technicians, cameras, lights, and the
instantaneous transmission of a tele-vised image and sound
1 0
were all part of the event. Not only was the demon-stration
impressive but so was the equipment, particularly its size.
Televi-sion cameras and television lights were very large and
complicated pieces of equipment. Indeed, during the first
several decades of its existence, tele-vision production was
characterized by the large size of the equipment needed to
produce those images.
In the early days of television (and even today for large-scale
remote sports productions), a remote production-one staged
outside a studio- was an incredibly complicated event, involving
scores of technicians and an armada of equipment. When one
went on a remote, essentially one took the television studio
along and set it up at the remote location. The same equipment
used in the studio was often rolled into a truck and used for a
remote broadcast.
For many years, only two alternatives were available to a
producer who wished to incorporate remote material into a
production. The first al-ternative was a live electronic remote
broadcast, with the attendant prob-lems inherent in transporting huge amounts of television equipment to the remote
location. The other possibility was to cover the event on film.
And so, for many years, film had an important place in television produc-tion primarily because it was portable. Until the
mid-1970s, film was used extensively in television for news and
documentary production, largely because of the portability of
16mm film equipment. However, a revolution was brewing in
television that would change remote production. It started
quietly enough, but by the 1980s, the use of film for remote
television pro-duction was largely replaced by the use of
portable video equipment.
In many ways, the development of television paralleled the
develop-ment of film. Just as film depended on a studio
setting for recording in its early decades, so did television.
Television of the 1940s, 1950s, and 19605 was essentia1ly
studio production. Live television was studio television (unless
it was a sports event). The teleplays of the Golden Age of
Television (the mid-1950s) were live television studio productions. When the first videotape recorders were introduced by
Ampex in 1956, at the annual con-vention of the National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB), they also fol-lowed the
large format of studio television cameras. The videotape
recorders were behemoths, weighing hundreds of pounds.
Even though they came equipped with wheels, they could
hardly be characterized as portable.
However, in 1965, Sony introduced the first “sma1l-format”
record-ing system to the market, and the video revolution
began. This black and white videotape recorder used a 1/2"wide tape format (compared to the 2" broadcast format) and an
extremely sma1l camera pickup tube. Although the signal
quality was not technica1ly of broadcast quality, the
introduc-tion of the equipment was a boon for people
interested in video equip-ment and production. Video production equipment, previously accessible only to those with a large
amount of capital to invest, was now available to almost
anyone who wanted it. In addition, whereas television had
largely been a studio enterprise prior to the introduction of
portable small -format equipment, video makers now could
venture into the field with their electronic equipment. In 1970,
l/2" video formats were standardized, l/2" videotape editors
were introduced, and the revolution was truly under-way.
The introduction of portable 3/4" VCRs and automated
editing sys-tems in the early 1970s was of great importance
because the 3/4" format was suitable for use by both broadcasters and other videomakers interested in nonbroadcast remote
production. The portable 3/4" recorder-camera- editing
systems, along with the newly developed time base correctors
(TBC) that stabilized the video signal, paved the way for the full
develop-ment of broadcast electronic news gathering and the
acceptance of portable video equipment by the broadcast
community. Portable video systems have been significantly
refined in the three decades since their in-troduction. Portable
systems composed of a separate camera tethered by cable to a
portable VCR have been replaced by one piece camcorders, and
videotape editing systems have become smaller, less expensive,
and more precise. While much of the equipment used in video
field production and editing today is based upon conventional
analog signal processing and recording, a whole new generation
of digital camcorders and nonlinear digital editing systems is
poised to take their place as the current analog systems wear out
and are replaced.
It is important to note that video production no longer is an
expen-sive, labor-intensive activity available only to federally
licensed television broadcasters. The technological advance
involving the development of more flexible and less expensive
production equipment has become a communication revolution. Individuals can produce and present video tapes on topics
of their own choosing, small companies can produce
in-structional or promotional materials to fit their specific
needs, and television broadcasters can more frequently provide
on-the-spot coverage of community events. Today, a large
variety of small-tape analog formats (Hi8; 1/2" VHS and SVHS; I/2" Betacam); and the digital formats (DV, DVCAM,
DVC Pro, digibeta) offers video producers a wide range of
production choices.
Production Uses of Portable Video Equipment
As a result of the portability and accessibility of this technology,
video has found a host of new uses. Portable video is increasingly being used for personal expression, for independent
production, in educational institutions and corporations, as well
as in the broadcast arena.
Personal Video
Because of its relatively low cost, portable video equipment has
made video accessible to individuals in much greater numbers
than ever before. In many ways, video has supplanted film as
the primary medium for home and personal use. In the 1940s
and 1950s, 16mm film was used as a home recording medium.
That format was replaced by 8mm and super 8mm film m the
1960s and 1970s. Now, portable video has taken over. Although some of the other video formats never really achieved
the mass popularity with consumers that had been predicted,
the small cassette formats (VHS, S-VHS, 8mm, Hi8, digital 8
and miniDV) have made a significant impact on the home
market.
Personal uses of portable video equipment vary. Some people
buy player-recorders for use primarily in their home entertainment systems. That is, they are used to record programs that
have been broadcast or ca-blecast, or they are used to play back
owned or rented videocassettes and VCDs. A growing segment
of users have purchased portable video camcorders in ad-dition
to their home player-recorders. These low-cost camcorders have
the advantage of producing picture and sound color recordings
that are available for immediate playback. They used extensively
to record family events such as birthdays, special parties, and
weddings. Sports en-thusiasts use them to record and then
criticize their own sports perfor-mances, such as golf swings,
swimming strokes, and tennis serves. In addi-tion, they are
convenient for making visual and sound messages to send to
friends or relatives who live far away.
Independent Video Production
Independent video production refers to those organizations
and individu-als who use video to make their own programs or
who make their produc-tion skills and facilities available to
others who want to produce and dis-tribute messages via video.
A large group of independents has used video to produce
television documentaries. Almost any large or medium-sized
community contains individuals who are working on video
documentaries that focus on various community-oriented
social, economic, and political problems. These independents
may have a number of goals in mind. Some may try to gain
access to their local cable company or television station with
their finished program, whereas others may try to distribute
their ma-terial regionally or nationally or might be doing the
project for a local NGO. Whatever the distribution aim, the
avail-ability of relatively inexpensive equipment and facilities
provides an op-portunity for video production independents to
express alternative viewpoints on community and national
problems.
Independent artists have been using video for some time.
Video is becoming popular as a medium for artistic expression,
and numerous video experimenters have gained access to the
medium through the use of portable equipment. Whether the
artistic statement is dramatic or experi-mental, whether it
involves the manipulation of content or formal proper-ties of
the medium (such as lighting, editing, or sound), access to the
medium has been facilitated by the introduction and use of this
equipment.
Many independent producers produce videotapes for clients.
These may range from producing a videotape for a couple who
want to record their wedding, to producing tapes for a small
company that does not have its own video production facility
but that wants a tape that introduces a new product to a client
or trains employees in new sales techniques, new methods of
product maintenance, and so on.
Educational Uses
In the past decade, numerous educational institutions have
turned to video, primarily for nonbroadcast, in-house uses. For
example, video is often used in schools as a supplement to
instruction. Indeed, some actual instruction may be done via
televised lectures live or on videotape. Speeches in public
speaking classes are taped and then played back for a critique by
the instructor or class. Teacher-training programs often
video-tape student teachers to provide a record of their
classroom performance. Colleges and universities with programs in the broadcast or electronic media most frequently use
1 1
portable, small-format equipment in their labo-ratories and
cable television facilities.
Medical Video
One of the fastest growing areas of video use is in the field of
medicine. Many hospitals have their own video staffs and put
video to a variety of uses. It is used for the distribution of inhouse information or for instruc-tion in new medical
techniques as a part of an ongoing program of contin-uing
education. It is also sometimes used to provide infor-mation to
patients on various health problems and their treatment.
Institutions involved in providing therapeutic treatment, such
as counseling or other forms of therapy, to patients with speech
defects or mental or emotional problems often use video as
part of therapy or to record therapy sessions.
Legal Video
Video is finding increasing use in legal settings. Professional
guidelines have been established in most states for the recording of legal depositions. Legal video producers are in demand
to produce video reenactments of ac-cidents and crime scenes as
well as to design effective video presentations of critical exhibits
of evidence, such as photographs, maps, time lines, and so on,
for use in courtroom presentations.
Corporate Video
Corporate video is another significant growth area for the use
of video. Many large corporations use videotapes and VCDs to
distribute electronic corporate newsletters to their employees,
particularly if corporate offices are widely distributed. In-house
training or staff development is another common use, as is
video for use at the point of sale.
Government Uses
Local, county, state, and federal government agencies also are
significant users of video. Many government agencies produce
videotapes to inform their constituents of new programs,
policies, regulations, or accomplish-ments. In some cases, these
tapes may be cablecast or broadcast via local media outlets.
Broadcast Television
The move toward the miniaturization of broadcast equipment
is a strong and continuous process. Broadcast uses of portable
1 2
video equipment have centered in two areas: electronic news
gathering (ENG) and electronic field production (EFP). It was
in the area of ENG that portable video equipment first made a
significant impact in broadcasting. Prior to its in-troduction,
broadcasters relied on film for stories that took place in the field
or on the placement of live, remote television cameras. The
difficulty with film recording was the time delay involved in
returning the film to the station or network and in processing
and editing the film.
The introduction of lightweight, portable video cameras and
recorders changed the face of television news. Most local
television sta-tions, as well as the major broadcast networks,
made the transition from film to portable video for electronic
newsgathering in the mid-1970s. The availability of reliable 3/
4" portable VCRs and editing systems made large -scale
commitment to ENG possible among local broadcasters.
With the development and refinement of broadcast-quality 1/
2" tape formats (Betacam, Betacam SP, and M-II) in the 1980s
and the introduc-tion of the digital tape recording formats (D3
and D5) in the 1990s, and other digital formats now commonly
available (DV, DVCAM) professional broadcasters had access to
high-quality camcorder systems that were even more portable
and produced better quality pictures and sound than the twopiece systems (separate camera and recorder) that pre-ceded
them.
Similarly, the existence of portable broadcast-quality video
recorders and cameras made possible the growth of EFP. Before
the introduction of this equipment, much local programming
had been based in the studio or shot on film by those few
stations with a commitment to remote produc-tion. The
introduction of portable broadcast-quality equipment made it
much easier for producers to get out of the studio. Nationally
syndicated television magazine feature programs, such as Hard
Copy, A Current Affair, and Entertainment Tonight, relied on
remote production crews using portable video camcorders.
Programs such as 48 Hours, 60 Minutes, and 20/20 are
examples of network television programs that make extensive
use of portable television technology. A host of “reality-based”
programs, such as Rescue 911, Cops, and America’s Most
Wanted, relied as well on portable video technology for field
production and editing. These programs reflect the fact that
quality production no longer depends on studio-based
equipment. Portable video production equipment has proven
itself to be a reliable and cost-effective part of the professional
video production process.
Consumer, Industrial, and Broadcast Equipment
Manufacturers of video equipment are sensitive to the fact that
equipment capabilities and cost need to be matched to the
needs and budgets of different kinds of equipment users. As a
result, equipment is designed and marketed to serve distinct
segments of video users: consumer (or home) video users, the
professional corporate/industrial market of largely
nonbroadcast producers, and the broadcast market. A fourth
market niche, often called prosumer, falls between consumer
video and professional/industrial video. Generally speaking, as
you move up the scale from one category of equipment to the
next, the range of features, performance characteristics, and cost
of the equipment all increase significantly.
responsible for the visual treatment of the subject matter as
well as for the physical operation of the camera; sound recordist
and an editor. The editor has primary responsibility for
physically performing the edits, and, depending on the role of
the producer, the editor may have much or little responsibility
for actually making editing decisions. In many cases, work roles
overlap. Two or three people with each assuming several
responsibilities during the production may produce an entire
production.
The nature of single-camera field production and the small
produc-tion crew it involves often create a sense of excitement
and responsibility that studio productions often lack. Each
person’s contribution counts. There is often intense involvement by the crew on the production, and they can exercise
greater control over the final product than do their counterparts
in studio production. The challenge of recording in the field can
be excitement of instantly playing back images that were
recorded only minutes ago, and the intense involvement
demanded by the editing process all characterize video field
production
Shooting in the studio on the other hand has large production
crew. The shoot is mostly done with a multi- camera setup( 2 or
3 cameras). These would be usually fully or semi scripted. The
essentials crewmembers would be the Producer, Director,
Audio, Camera operators (2 or 3), Floor director or floor
manager, Technical director and VTR operator. Such a program
is usually live or live on tape; complete program or large
segments.
Multiple camera Studio and Single Camera Video Field Production Characteristics
Studio
Number of Cameras
Size of crew
Video as a Medium of Communication
Video is both a medium of communication and a type of
technology. The successful producer must understand not only
the components and opera-tion of the technology of video
communication but also the elements of the process of
communication via video. As we view the process of video field
production, five elements characterize this particular communication situation:
1 The unique elements of the production organization
(source)
Recording method
2 The fundamental importance of message design
3 The importance of the television medium as a channel of
communication
Amount of control
over environment.
4 The particular nature of the audience
5 Audience feedback to the program producer
Production Organization
The video field production group is often significantly smaller
than the studio production organization. Typically, the principal
roles involved in producing single-camera remote productions
are the producer, who is re-sponsible for the overall organization of a production and for delegating responsibility to the
other members of the production team; the camera op-erator,
or videographer (sometimes called the shooter), who is
Type of script
Multiple cameras (usually 2 or 3)
Large
Key crewmembers
Producer
Director
Audio
Camera operators (2 or 3)
Floor Director/Floor
Manager
Technical director
VTR operators
Usually live or live on tape: a
complete program or large seg
ments
Controlled Studio
Studio Lighting
Sound(acoustics) con
trolled
Assured source of power
Availability of technical
support staff
Usually fully or semi scripted
Field
Number of Cameras
Size of crew
Single cameras
Usually small]
Key crewmembers
1 3
Director
Cameraperson
Sound recordist
Production assistant
Recording method
Individual segments or shots to be
edited or inserted into a larger
program.
Amount of control
Uncontrolled remote location
over environment.
Available light
Ambient location Sound
Assured source of power
Less or no technical
support in the field
Type of script
May be fully scripted, often semi
scripted
This was a general comparison of the studio and field production for television.
Message Design
Message design is a critical part of the telecommunication
process. Ironically, one of the first elements that should be
considered is the desired ef-fect of the message. Who is to do
what with this information? Because the goal of most commercial television programming is to maximize the size of the
viewing audience at a given time, many program producers and
sta-tion program directors desire to design and distribute
entertaining and informative programs that will appeal to the
largest cross-section of the gen-eral viewing audience. Success is
typically measured in terms of program ratings, which provide
an estimate of the size of the audience and determine how
much money advertisers can be charged to place their commercials on air.
Producers of educational and industrial video programs
frequently begin the design stage of their productions by
thinking in terms of a list of specific objectives-things they
hope the audience will be able to understand or do after viewing
a particular program. Whether you are producing a program
designed to teach language or computational skills to children
or new safety procedures to employees in your manufacturing
facility, you I must have a clear understanding of the effects you
expect your program to have on the viewer before you begin to
produce it. Naturally, you will also need to consider your target
audience as well. A program aimed at children will be approached differently from one aimed at adults, even if the
subject matter is similar.
Message design is therefore concerned With the basic idea,
which in-volves the choice of subject; a decision about how that
subject will be I treated as it is presented through the video
medium; and an understand-ing of how to control the
treatment of the subject to achieve maximum impact on the
audience.
We would be going into the details of planning a production in
the later lessons. The stage also referred to as the Pre-Production stage.
The Video Medium
Perhaps more than anything else, the small screen characterizes
television and video. Unlike theatrical motion pictures, for
which the screen may be 30 feet high and 100 feet wide, in most
1 4
home, school, and institutional viewing situations television is
most often watched on screens measuring 27 inches or less in
diagonal. Until larger screen “home theater” and HDTV
television sets become the standard, television programs will
con-tinue to be designed in close-up detail for viewing on small
screens.
The audience has learned to expect close-ups and reaction shots,
and the successful producer will give the audience what it
expects with respect to these conventions. Close-ups provide
the magnification often necessary for small-screen use. Magnification, a key to visibility, is central to most television
production. Close-ups are also important because they are
means of focusing audience attention on a specific detail or
relationship by eliminating all other parts of the picture.
Reaction shots are important to messages designed to persuade
or generate an emotional response. The use of reaction shots
evolved as media practitioners learned that the effect of a
statement or action is determined by the receiver, not the
sender. The quick cut to the face of a person 1istening to a
speaker reveals how the speech is being received, whether it is
being accepted or rejected. In seeing how this person reacts, the
audience is, in turn, told how to react.
The Audience
The dictum “know your audience” is just as important for
video producers as it is for public speakers. Producers of
corporate and instructional video always include a description of
the characteristics of the program’s target audience in their
preproduction planning material and use their knowledge of
the target audience to guide production decisions at each step of
production process. Even though broadcast television is often
thought of as a form of mass communication, the successful
television producer realizes that communication takes place
between the message and an individual- in the audience. Even
though someone may be part of a very large audience, the
individual’s response to a program is always an important one.
For a message or program to be effective, it must communicate
individually to each person in the audience. This is no easy task,
given the variations that may exist among different audience
members.
The producer should also remember that the audience is
composed of individuals who most often watch alone or with
one or two other people. Although there tends to be little
audience interaction during programs-, the televised message
often has to compete for attention with distractions in the
home viewing environment. Therefore, the message must be
designed to catch and hold the viewer’s attention. In addition,
because the viewing is often done alone or in a small group, the
successful producer realizes that the pace of television is not
based on group response timing, nor is the purpose limited to
entertainment.
Theatrical production values dominate the business of network
television production, and the producer of drama or comedy
should note the techniques used. Video producers whose
purpose is to explore a phenomenon or provide specific
instructions or information must understand that producing
novelty or laughs instead is dysfunctional. The individual
at-tempting to use the program for serious purposes will not
appreciate the substitution.
Feedback
Feedback is that part of the communication process in which
audience responses to the production are transmitted to the
producers. The nature and extent of feedback is related to the
type of production and the way in which it is distributed to and
received by the audience. In commercial broadcast television,
program ratings-a measure of the size of the audi-ence-provide
one indication of the audience response to a program.
Tele-phone calls and letters from audience members to stations
and networks are also an important part of the feedback
process. For the home video producer, feedback might take the
form of comments by family members on the quality of the
videotape documenting a family celebration.
Feedback is extremely useful to the video producer because it
pro-vides important information about the audience’s response
to the program or videotape-information that the producer
needs to have in order to make subsequent productions more
effective.
Technical Factors and Aesthetic Factors
Video field production combines an understanding of the
technical factors of production with the aesthetic factors of
production. Technical factors relate to developing an operational
understanding of the way in which equipment functions. To
work successfully with portable video equip-ment, you must
understand how the equipment works. This does not mean
that you need to be an engineer or understand all of the
electronic and physical principles that govern the operations of
the equipment (knowing a little about that might help though)
but what it does mean is that you must have an understanding
of the way in which the system operates-the way in which
different technical elements interrelate and the way in which you
can control the technical compo-nents of production. It does
mean that you need to have a basic under-standing of what the
video signal is and how it can be controlled. All video equipment operates on similar principles. Because underlying
operational princi-ples vary little among brands of equipment,
you should have little diffi-culty in adapting the general
principles that you would learn during this course to the specific
re-quirements of a particular system.
Many handbooks on video production are nothing more than
man-uals of equipment operation. However, it is our position
that one must know not only how to manipulate the equipment but also how to manip-ulate the medium in which one is
working: video. This brings us to the area of media aesthetics.
Aesthetic factors refer to production variables and the ways in
which they can be manipulated to affect audience response to
the video message.
We see the process of video field production as a combination
of technical factors and aesthetic factors. Whether you are
engaged in video production for personal, artistic, educational,
or broadcast uses, the requirements of the technology and the
medium must be considered. The fundamentals of production
and the production processes discussed during the course will
be helpful to you, no matter what type of video production
you are engaged in. Especially when we know that the way
things are they come up with a new camera and editing software
every year. A better understanding of the fundamentals of
video production will help you to make the desired program
with any new technology that comes in.
Creative Problem Solving
If there is one phrase that expresses our idea of what is at the
center of video field production, it is creative problem solving.
Communication via video means that the producer/writer/
director must understand the medium and how to use it.
Finding the appropriate techniques to effec-tively express the
idea and content of a program presents problems that must be
solved creatively.
Video field production also presents a unique set of logistical
prob-lems. No two days of shooting in the field are ever quite
the same because no two locations are ever the same. The ability
to deal with the range of problems encountered on location is
the mark of the successful field pro-duction person.
Finally, video field production presents a set of unique technical
problems. People involved in field production simply must
know more about the technical side of video production than
must their studio coun-terparts. All manner of technical
problems arise in the field, and field pro-ducers must be able to
anticipate and avoid them or correct them when they arise.
Summary
Changes in video technology have greatly changed the way
television is produced. Portable video equipment is characterized by the small size of the cameras and videotape recorders.
Portable equipment has brought video production out of the
studio and into the field. Video equipment has been made
accessible to large numbers of people because it is relatively
inexpensive and easy to operate.
Portable video equipment has found widespread use in a
number of different production situations. It is often used to
produce personal and artistic video and is also used in independent production. Educational and industrial users include
schools, hospitals, corporations, and government agencies.
Portable equipment has also found significant use among
televi-sion broadcasters, as it is widely used for both electronic
news gathering and electronic field production.
All video production can be viewed as a method of communication, and the successful producer needs to understand video
technology as well as how to communicate effectively in the
medium. Important characteris-tics of the video production
communication process include the nature of the production
organization, the importance of message design, the characteristics of the audience and the video medium, and feedback to the
producer.
To be successful, the video field producer must understand
both the technical and aesthetic aspects of production and
possess an aptitude for creative problem solving. Technical
production factors relate to an opera-tional understanding of
the way in which video equipment functions. Aes-thetic
production factors concern production variables and the ways in
which they can be manipulated to produce more effective
programs.
1 5
UNIT 2
PRE PRODUCTION
LESSON 3:
PRE PRODUCTION
In the following chapters we will go into the details of the
different stages of a production. We would try to keep our
discussion to the video productions but whereever necessary
take reference from the film production setup as well. We start
with the pre-production hear in this lesson and then will move
towards production and post production in the latter chapters.
f everything else you forgot
Production Pyramid
b graphics
2 Production
field and studio shooting
3 Post-production
a audio narration
c rough cut
d final edit
e dubs
The world of Analogue or digital video productions operates a
little differently to traditional film production. Of course we use
the same visual language and communication techniques that
have been developed through the history of the moving
picture, but the nature of DV equipment has changed the way a
lot of developers approach the planning and production
process.
Traditional Film Making is a collaboration of many specific
disciplines as discussed earlier. There is a Producer, a Director,
Assistant Director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator,
Gaffer, Grip, Make-up, Wardrobe, Sound Recordist, Sound
Editor, Editor and about a hundred other positions. With the
nature of inexpensive DV equipment and desktop editing in
broadcast quality, there has been a trend towards multi-skilling
and the distinctions between different rolls often blur. But a
good video production team would still comprise of the four
different departments Direction, Camera, Sound and Editing.
And of course then there is the Producer. Most of the independent filmmakers many a times take up both the roles of a
producer and a director. The setup is quite different in the
production houses or various channels.
Pre Production
Production Pyramid: Text Description
The pyramid is divided into three main sections. The base is
“Pre-production,” which is divided into six subsections. The
middle section is “Production,” which consists of field and
studio shooting. The top of the pyramid is “Post-production,”
which is divided into five subsections. An arrow pointing from
the base toward the tip reads “Expense and difficulty in fixing
problems increases.” The sections are listed below numbered
from one through three beginning at the base. Immediately
following each section are its subsections, which are lettered.
1 Pre-production
a objective, research, concept
b script, visualization, storyboard
c location, talent, products
d props, equipment, crew
e travel music
1 6
Careful pre-production planning can save hours of headaches
and work-around during the production and postproduction
stages. For example, careful planning of your shots and angles
can prevent the editor from having to deal with shots that have
characters facing the wrong screen direction due to axis of action
line crossings. It can also prevent continuity inconsistencies, and
iron out communication weaknesses and ambiguities.
Pre-Production includes, but is not limited to, establishing
audience need, developing a concept, establishing a program’s
objectives and approach (treatment), writing a script, and hiring
and meeting with your principal players.
Since pre-production involves all aspects of planning your
program before actual production, it’s also known as the
“paper” stage of production. Your planning is done and
problems are anticipated before assembling talent, equipment,
and a full crew. It’s much easier and less expensive to correct a
problem on paper than it is during production itself. Despite
your planning, problems may still occur. But pre-production
allows you to anticipate them and find solutions beforehand.
Then if problems do arise during production you can easily
correct them.
Pre production could be broadly divided into the following
stages.
Discuss the target audience for your video and the reason for
picking that target audience. This will ensure your audience
understands your intent.
Often while submitting a proposal for a production you
submit a synopsis, treatment, storyboard and a script.
Objective, research, concept
1 A Synopsis is a brief, clearly defined description of the
project. It should communicate the essence and ‘feel’ of the
project
When you’re making a film, you usually start with an idea and
work out your concept and story. Lay out your ideas with paper
and pencil. This helps you formulate a clear idea of what
message your video is attempting to communicate.
Think about these questions:
•
Is it possible to turn your idea, investigation or concept into
a short movie?
•
•
•
What is the purpose of your movie?
•
•
Have you selected a genre and style for your movie?
What point(s) or point of view are you trying to get across?
Do you have the time and equipment to turn your idea into
a movie?
Who is your intended audience and will they understand
your production
Think of your movie as a story. When creating your story, keep
in mind the five W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why. This
helps you fill in the main body of your story.
Make a decision about genre. Every genre has its own unique
style or conventions that influence audience expectations about
how the story is told and interpreted.
Some broad genres or categories with which we are familiar
include…
comedy; adventure; drama; crime; horror; musical; thriller;
historical; romance; science fiction; animation; documentary.
Some interesting sub-genres or alternative categories to think
about as a starting point for a short movie production include…
a documentary; a mockumentary; an advertisement or infomercial; a training video; a music video; a comedy or sitcom; a
children’s video; a parody; a poem; a melodrama; a report; a
lifestyle video; a soap opera; a biography; an adaptation; an
event; a personal story.
Decide also on the narrative style of your movie, i.e. how the
story will be told, and from who’s point of view will the story
be told. Will it be told in the “first person” or “third person”
style. Some examples include…
confrontational; adversarial; issue based; persuasive; analytical;
reflective; fictional; factual; observational.
Be aware some stories require no spoken narrative at all.
Messages and points in short are communicated through visual
images, both static and moving, written text, sound effects and
music. Examples include silent movies, montages, and postcard
style productions.
Script, visualization and storyboarding
Once the objective and concept is clear you can start working on
brainstorming ideas and jotting down notes and thoughts
about your concept. This is the stage when you start to visualize
the types of shots, locations and characters in your production.
Write down a rough outline for your production (list all the
parts of your video).
2 A Treatment is a detailed outline describing the project as it
will unfold on screen. A treatment usually includes detailed
descriptions of elements but does not have dialog. Most of
any necessary research is done during the development of the
treatment.
3 Storyboard
A storyboard is a number of static visuals (photos or illustrations) organised into a preconceived sequence. It is created for
the purpose of planning and communicating a moving picture
concept.
A storyboard is an essential part of planning for most film and
video productions. Producing a storyboard has the following
advantages:
•
It gives the video producer a chance to experiment with
shots, coverage, camera angles, special effects and editing
possibilities all before setting foot on the set.
•
Pre-conceiving shots and coverage speeds up production
time.
•
•
Can solve many production problems before they arrive.
•
A storyboard is valuable when budgeting and scheduling. It
can really give you an idea of how long things are going to
take to shoot, and how much its going to cost.
A story board can be used to help unify the cast and crews
ideas and concepts about the visual direction of the
production. This way everybody involved is working towards
the same visual goal.
•
It can help in looking for funding, sponsorship or to sell
your idea.
Generally a storyboard consists of a series of simple clear
illustrations with each frame providing new information. (The
rules of good storyboarding follow the rules of video editing)
The pictures are usually accompanied by brief descriptions of
camera moves, subject directions and audio. The best way to
learn good storyboarding techniques is by studying comics.
Comic books are the best storyboards of all.
4 The script brings more life to the treatment. It usually
includes directions and dialog. A lot of visuals and words are
developed in the script.
In most cases your script will be formatted in one of two ways.
The split-script format separates the audio and video elements
into two columns. The related elements are positioned next to
one another for easy reference.
The screen play format groups audio, video and direction
elements in a staggered layout. This format is generally more
descriptive.
Split Script Format
Duration: 30 seconds
Video
Audio
1 7
Fade up
Old Capitol cr. 1900
DISSOLVE - Early class photo
DISSOLVE - 1930’s footage of
writing group
DISSOLVE - Van Allen Rocket
Footage
DISSOLVE - Dance footage
SUPER - various posters
DISSOLVE - Hospital Exterior
DISSOLVE - Patient care.
Looking at microscope.
CRT Monitor.
PAN - Sky to Old Capitol Dome
SUPER - Sesquicentennial logo
Music under
-NARRATION The University of Iowa.
The nations first state
university to admit
women on a equal basis
with men.
A unique writing program
which for 6 decades has
fostered Pulitzer Prize
winners.
A pioneer in space
exploration.
A center for the arts
attracting world renowned
performers.
One of the nations largest
university owned teaching
hospitals.
Paving the way to
breakthroughs in the
understanding of human
health.
For 150 years,
The University of Iowa: A
Tradition of Innovation
Fade Out
Screenplay Format
“IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL HEALTH THROUGH
RESEARCH”
The Agricultural Health Study
FADE IN:
1 CLOSE ANGLE - SLO-MO MOVING
Hot steaming coffee is poured into a cup.
2 CLOSE ANGLE - MOVING
Several television channels flip on the screen until colorful
weather graphics appear.
3 CLOSE ANGLE - MOVING
A pair of heavy worn work boots sit under jackets hung in a
mud room. A hand reaches in and takes the boots.
CUT TO BLACK
4 INT. BARN - DAWN
The large door of a barn swings open by the silhouette of a
figure. The landscape of a farm is revealed in the background.
-NARRATORAgriculture today is as much a business...
as a way of life.
5 WIDE ANGLE
Mother and son working with livestock are met by father.
Time has persuaded the farmer to adapt to the
realities of a changing profession.
6 MEDIUM ANGLE
Father repairing machinery.
Agricultural work can be demanding and
unpredictable.
7 MEDIUM ANGLE
1 8
Boy with livestock.
Yet as a profession...
agriculture has its rewards.
8 WIDE ANGLE
Family working together.
Families working together...
fresh air...physical exercise...
and strong ties to the community...
9 MEDIUM ANGLE
Grandfather working in field.
...all contribute to the fact that
farmers live longer and healthier lives.
Once a script is purchased, it often goes through a series of
rewrites before it is put into production. Once that happens, the
script becomes a ‘Shooting Script’ or Production Script. All the
scenes and shots of a shooting script are numbered and each
scene and shot are broken down into all the component pieces
required to film it. The production assistants and director can
then arrange the order in which the scenes will be shot for the
most efficient use of stage, cast, and location resources.
A general comment about script formatting: Although a certain
format has become more and more standardized in recent years,
there isn’t one way, one set of margins, one style. There is a
range of correctness. There are software program available for
writing scripts and their formats and measurements fall within
this range.
While the storyboard is useful to help you develop the actual
structure and parts of your film the shooting script is there to
provide: detailed directions to the camera operator on what to
shoot and how to shoot it, and the specific information about
what the audio track is to contain. It also includes details on any
graphics required and how they are to be
integrated into the video. If any special effects were required the
shooting script would indicate what type they are and how long
they were to last. The shooting script is a critical document to
the next stage that of Production, recording our video and
sound resources and even of Postproduction, editing it all
together. It does not limit the creativity involved with these later
steps but provides very important direction towards the
achievement of your overall objective. As you can see the stages
in the planning process have started from the general and
proceeded to a more and more detailed level of information.
Not all projects need to be approached with this level of detail
as part of the planning process but you will have to move
through this refining process as you take our ideas, capture the
video and sound, then select from that what you want and edit
it together. Any time spent in the planning stage is a good
investment which is paid back over and over again in the
production and post production stages. If you have a well
thought-out shooting script your camera operator can insure
that all of the necessary shots are recorded. There is no question
about what is required. When it comes to editing, you will not
have to create it or save it in the editing stage as can often
happen when there was insufficient time spent planning the
project and you discover that critical shots are missing.
Picking Locations for Your Film
After you’ve locked down your script — meaning there are no
more changes — comb through it and determine where you
want to shoot your scenes. Well they have actually come up with
software, which break down your script for you by pulling out
all your scene headings and generating a list of settings from
your screenplay. Of course, you can also go through the script
yourself and jot down all the locations without having to use a
computer. After you have a list of the settings for your film,
you can start looking for the actual locations that will fit your
story.
You’re casting your film with actors who have a lot of character,
so why not find locations with character, too? Don’t list generic
locations like a bookstore or a restaurant; you could go for more
options. Does your lead character live in a small, messy apartment or a lavish house on gated grounds with an
Olympic-sized swimming pool?
Managing location scouts and managers
A location scout searches out the perfect locations for your film
this person is your “reel” estate broker. Anyone can be a
location scout, but someone who does it for a living will be
familiar with every type of location, saving you weeks or even
months of searching for the right place. If you can’t afford a
location scout, you can hire someone who’s eager to drive
around, make phone calls, and search the Internet — or you can
do it yourself. Finding the right locations for a film takes time.
Contact your local film commission (if there’s one in your city)
and ask if it can recommend a location scout, or call your city
permit office and ask if it can refer you to a location scout.
A location manager manages the locations after you’ve found
them. He or she looks after getting the appropriate releases and
permits for your locations and makes sure that the proper
insurance is in place. Your location manager can also double as
your location scout on a lower-budget production. If you go
this route, make sure to find someone who is detail-oriented
and persistent.
Don’t forget to put the word out to friends, family, and
acquaintances that you’re looking for locations. You never know
who may have a great location that you can use for one of your
scenes.
Evaluating potential locations
Filming on a soundstage or in a warehouse is not always
practical — you just may not have the budget to do it. Sometimes you can find a location at which you can film for free or
for a price that’s within your budget. By shooting on location,
you don’t have to start from scratch and construct sets for every
scene in your film (not practical at all on a low budget).
Whether you’re in Delhi, Mumbai or a small town in say Kerala,
you’re sure to find some vacant building or aplce not in use,
which you can get permissions for and that, can work wonders
for your story. From an old restaurant that’s been shut down to
a bank that closed its doors, you can usually negotiate with the
building owner or the government to film on this existing set.
When deciding on locations, make sure that they’re appropriate
for sound as well. You don’t want a location that’s too close to
the highway or a construction site. Here’s a list of things to
consider when scouting locations:
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Is parking available for cast, crew, and equipment vehicles?
Is it near bathroom facilities (a public park or a local
restaurant)?
Is it in a quiet location (away from traffic, train tracks [unless
out-of-service], factories, and outdoor fountains)?
•
Is there available electricity to plug in your lights? (If not,
you’ll need a generator.)
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If you’re shooting out of town, are there overnight
accommodations nearby?
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Is there air-traffic noise if the site is on route to the airport?
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Can you get permission to shoot there? Do you need a
permit? Can you afford to film there?
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Does using the site require the hiring of a police officer to
stop foot or street traffic?
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Is there a photocopy store nearby (for copying the next day’s
schedule)?
Do you have space to set up a picnic area to feed your cast
and crew?
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Do cell phones work in the area? If not, are there public
phones nearby?
Finding the perfect location that works both inside as an
interior and outside as an exterior may be difficult. Remember
that you can film the exterior of a house and then use a
different house’s interior, or even construct the indoor rooms
on a soundstage. Doing so gives you a more controlled
environment.
Casting
Producer Auditions
The credibility of the project rests on proper casting. It cannot
be stressed enough how important it is to find the right actors
for the project. The actors are the words with which you will tell
your story. They allow the audience to enter the world of your
drama by bringing to life the scripted characters. No matter how
slick the camera work, it will be difficult for viewers to empathize with your story if they don’t be-lieve in your characters.
The young boy in Truman and the woman and homeless man
in The Lunch Date seem to inhabit their roles effortlessly. As
viewers, we experience the characters, not actors playing parts.
This illusion is due partly to their performances and partly to
their being physically right for the characters. Had the ac-tors’
physical types not suited the characters they were supposed to
play, no degree of performance could have overcome this false
impression.
No matter how many people participate in the casting process,
the final decisions should rest with the director. Not only must
the actors fit her vision for the project, but she must also feel
comfortable with their working relationship. The producer’s job
is to ensure that the director has the widest choices of tal-ent to
review. The producer also lends support by serving as a creative
sounding board when the direc-tor requires an objective
opinion.
The assistant director hires the background or extra players
based on the number requested by the director. The producer
must balance that number against the budget. Although it is
always better to have a fully peopled scene, extras are paid a
negoti-ated fee and must be fed and transported to and from
the set.
The Casting Director
An important addition to the creative team is the cast-ing
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director. After gaining an understanding of the director’s
requirements, the casting director sifts through many of the
submissions so the director sees only those actors who are
genuine possibilities. The casting director looks at a script and,
based on her ex-perience in the field, establishes a viable list of
actors for each part. The following are some of the elements a
casting director brings to a production:
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Valuable creative input
A solid resource bank (file of actors)
Awareness of new talent
Good working relationship with agents and managers
Ability to make deals with actors (understand-ing of SAG
rules)
A good casting director does all the setup work so the director
and producer need only make the de-cisions. If you can afford
it, this is a valuable and worthwhile person to have on the
production team. If you cannot afford to hire a casting director,
the pro-ducer and director assume these duties.
To find a casting director, inquire of other pro-ducers and
directors who work in the low-budget arena.
The Basic Casting Steps
Although the exact method used to cast a production varies
from project to project, the following steps pro-vide a useful
overview of the basic process:
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Advertise specific roles
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Arrange callbacks
Scout local theater companies
Scout acting schools
Organize submitted headshots and resumes. Arrange casting
calls
Negotiate with selected actors
Deal with rejected actors
Advertise Specific Roles
Use advertising to let the creative community-actors, agents, and
managers-know about your project and the specific parts
available. It is easiest to locate a vari-ety of talented performers
in major metropolitan areas. Actors are attracted to these areas
because of the op-portunities they offer for professional work.
Scout Local Theater Companies
If are in a major metropolitan area that has theater companies,
it can be use-ful for you and the director to scout out the
currently running shows for new talent. These cities have many
small and interesting theater groups, but don’t dis-count the
many community theaters all over the country.
Check the cast lists for the specific types for which you are
looking, and plan to see these actors in action. If you are
impressed by an actor’s per-formance and feel that he or she
might be right for your project, go backstage after the show and
intro-duce yourself. The actor will be flattered by the attention.
Scout Acting Schools
Many acting programs run their own theater groups, and these
can be a good source of talent. Keeping in touch with some of
the people at National School of Drama, NSD could help.
Don’t forget lot of the big names in the acting world have
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passed out from NSD, Naseerudin Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj
Kapur and Anupam Kher to name a few. Posting a flier may
work, but contacting the teachers personally might be more
ef-fective. Ask them about the best ways to approach their
students. They might allow you to sit in on a class.
Organize Submitted Head Shots and Resumes
When they hear that you are casting, interested actors or their
representatives will submit a photo-graph, with a resume. From
the resume, you can get the following infor-mation: experience,
height, weight, age, union affili-ation, and the actor’s contact
number. A single advertisement in a national daily could at-tract
hundreds of 8-by-10 glossies. Organize and file the glossies
according to the part.
From these head shots, look for actors you are in-terested in
auditioning. This is a tough call because you will most likely be
flooded with applicants. When choosing actors to audition,
base your decision on their “look,” their experience, and your
gut instinct. However, be aware that a glossy may be an
idealized version of what the actor really looks like.
Arrange Casting Calls
Find a space in which to hold the auditions. It should have
some kind of waiting area where the actors can study the pages
they will read for the audition. The audition space should be
large enough to allow the di-rector, producer, camera operator,
and reader to sit comfortably and to allow the actors to move
around with ease. The space you choose should also have
ad-equate light for video.
Set up a working schedule for the day or days you plan to
audition. Find out how many actors the direc-tor wants to see
each day and for how long. Start with a plan for 15-minute
intervals, and work from there. Call the actors or their agents to
schedule appoint-ments. If you can’t reach an actor, leave a
phone num-ber where he or she can reach you or leave a
message.
On the day of the audition, be sure to do the fol-lowing:
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Have a production assistant log the actors in at the door.
•
Arrange to have someone read opposite the actors. (The
director should not read with the candidates because it will
hinder her objectiv-ity.)
•
Have a pitcher of water and paper cups avail-able for the
actors.
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Keep the auditions as close to schedule as possi-ble. It is
impolite and unprofessional to keep actors waiting for long.
Be sure you have plenty of copies (at least one per actor) of
the sides to be read.
Arrange Callbacks
It is now that the casting process begins in earnest. The goal is
not only to look for the best actors for the parts, but also to
find the right chemistry or balance among the players. This is
especially critical when casting a love story. Your two lovers must
seem to be attracted to one another. To achieve the right
chem-istry, read actors opposite each other in different combinations. The best combinations can then be put on video.
Negotiate with Selected Actors
By the time you sit down with the actor you want to hire or
with the actor’s agent, everyone involved should already have an
understanding about your budget constraints. Be honest and
upfront at the be-ginning about how much money you have to
spend.
If you have no budget for talent, your only hope to attract
good actors is a well-written script with good parts that can
showcase performers’ talent. A video copy of the project might
prove to be payment enough.
If you are working primarily with “struggling ac-tors” who do
not earn a living from their craft, you might have to work
around their schedules. They usu-ally have day jobs to pay the
rent.
It is not uncommon for a talent to receive little or no compensation for work with beginning or student filmmakers.
Generally, their entire compen-sation consists of the following:
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A screen credit
A video copy of the completed film
Transportation to and from the set
Meals during the shoot
Dry cleaning of the actor’s personal wardrobe
Here in this course as you start working on your ideas, do try
getting in touch with people from different theatre groups in
Delhi, or start observing people amongst your friends and
families who you think could act in front of a camera. Of
course with many it might be a total different story once they
face a camera.
If you are obligated to pay one of your principal actors,
however, you should pay all of them (at least all the speaking
parts) to avoid resentment on the set.
Deal with Rejected Actors
The producer should be the “heavy” when it comes to breaking
the bad news to actors who have not been cast. It is emotionally
difficult to call an actor who has come in for several callbacks to
tell him that he has not been cast. A courteous phone call
thanking the actor for his time and enthusiasm during the
cast-ing session will be appreciated. Always strive to build good
relationships with good actors. What if you rudely reject the
next Dustin Hoffman or Amitabh Bachan?
Added Benefits of Casting
The casting process offers many benefits besides find-ing the
best talent for your project. Casting offers an excellent opportunity to audition the script as well as the actors. Hearing the lines
spoken will give the di-rector and writer a sense of what works
and what doesn’t. Scenes are often overwritten, and readings can
expose fat that might be eliminated.
Through the casting process, the producer can get a sense of
how the director works with actors. Is she comfortable? Does
she put the actors at ease? The ability to find a rapport with her
actors is a necessary part of the director’s craft.
Finally, the casting process offers the producer and director an
opportunity to meet and build rela-tionships with talented
performers. Once you have worked with an actor, if you feel
that the results and relationship were successful, you might
want to work with that actor again. The bond that results from
the actor-director relationship is very special. It might last only
for the duration of the shoot or for a lifetime.
Director Auditions
As a director, your relationship to the actor is ex-tremely
important. The producer is involved in cast-ing and is ultimately responsible for hiring the cast, but it is the director-actor
dynamic that breathes life into the characters that propel the
story.
The director, cinematographer, and art director exercise their craft
behind the camera. It doesn’t mat-ter how they look or how
they feel when they work because they are not exposed to the
camera’s eye. The actor, though, is the very instrument through
which the drama is played.
Actors must sometimes call on deep, personal feelings. Helping
the actor discover the emotional life of a character is a trying,
exciting, and sometimes painful process. When casting, you
want to find the actors who have the craft to make truthful
discover-ies about the character and the talent to reveal these
discoveries to others.
The life of an actor is not easy. Actors constantly audition for
parts they don’t get. Most work at acting intermittently. Many
work at other jobs to pay their bills. When an actor auditions,
he or she usually com-petes with dozens of other actors for a
single part. To help you understand something of the actor’s
work process, it is recommended that you attend acting classes.
This will help you discover how to draw out the best in the
performer.
Respect for Actors: We want to suggest a simple but ef-fective
credo: Treat all actors with respect and cour-tesy. Make each
experience pleasant and professional no matter how wrong for
the part the actor may be. They have made the effort to come in
and put them-selves on the line. Respecting that effort, you
create goodwill with that individual and show respect for the
whole acting profession. You never know-they might be right
for your next project. For those who are even-tually cast, this
first encounter represents a positive and congenial foundation
on which to build.
Casting
The audience attends a film or video to witness a story told
through actors. If viewers do not care about the characters, then
they will not care about the story.
The important creative relationship between actor and director
begins during the casting process. If the film- or video maker
makes an error at this junc-ture, it will affect the whole production. Choose wisely. Take your time. Be objective, and
remember that the casting process is not perfect. Some actors,
for example, audition better than others. This does not
necessarily mean that the actors who audition well are the better
actors.
Casting Children
Finding talented child actors can be particularly diffi-cult. First,
there are far fewer child actors than adults. Second, even trained
child actors can be difficult to control. Many children are born
performers. An un-trained child can often give a more spontaneous and engaging performance than a professional child actor.
When casting, assess a child’s energy and attention span as well
as his or her talent.
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Finding your lead actor is an exciting moment.
Audition Guidelines
For a successful audition and to make the most of the search
for the best actors, we recommend following the guidelines in
the next sections.
Before the Audition
The audition can be held in any quiet room. A rented rehearsal
hall is an ideal place to hold an audition. The space should
contain at least three chairs: one for the actor, one for the
director, and one for the per-son who will read opposite the
actor. Some additional personnel might be present at the
audition, including the producer, the casting director, and a
camera op-erator if the audition is recorded on videotape.
Beginning the Audition
Introductions. The production assistant ushers each actor into
the audition space. The director should at-tempt to relax the
actor and put him at ease. If the di-rector creates an atmosphere
that encourages the actor to feel confident, the audition will go
better. The actor will perform at his best, and the director will be
able to make an informed decision.
The director should greet the actor, introduce the people in the
room, and make small talk before be-ginning the audition. The
actor will bring to the au-dition a recent photograph, called a
head shot or glossy. Attached to the back of the photo will be
the actor’s resume, which contains information about the parts
the applicant has played. It also describes the actor’s talents and
interests and lists the teachers with whom he has studied.
This material can be used as a good place to begin small talk.
For example, you might say, “I see you studied with Mira
Rostova” or “Do you enjoy doing Pinter?” or “When you say
here you speak French, are you fluent?”
Depending then on how much of the script the actor has read,
you might briefly tell the story you plan to shoot. This will put
the audition scene in con-text, which will be helpful to the actor.
Only when the director feels the actor is ready should she begin
the audition.
Types of Auditions
Sides. The most common method used to audition actors for a
film or video project is to have them read a scene or part of a
scene from the script. These pages are called sides. When the
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actor reads the sides for the first time at an audition, it is called a
cold reading.
Auditions for the first call usually run at 5- to 15-minute
intervals. The material you prepare for the actor to read should
be short. This will allow you to make the most of the meeting.
The actor will need to act with a partner the pro-duction
provides. This individual should not be the director, because
she needs to observe and assess the performance. The reader
can be the producer, a pro-duction assistant, or another actor.
The reader should make eye contact with the actor. This gives
the actor someone to whom he can relate. Because the audition
is for the actor, not the reader, the reader should not “act” nor
read in a mo-notone, which would be equally distracting.
When the actor begins reading, allow him to read through the
scene with no direction. This reveals the actor’s interpretation of
the role, which might bring a unique slant to the character, one
you had not con-sidered before.
If you like the actor, ask him to read the scene again for an
emotional value different from that of the first reading. Ask
him to find the humor in the scene, for instance, or the irony.
This second reading is key because it gives you an idea of the
actor’s range and flexibility. During the audition process, it is
more important to discover whether the actor can take di-rection
than whether he already understands the char-acter.
Take notes on your assessment of each actor. Your notes will
help you decide at the end of the day which actors you would
like to use or which you would like to call back.
Monologue. In addition to or instead of the cold reading, you
can ask the actor to prepare a mono-logue for the audition or
the callback. A monologue is a speech for one person from a
play or film. It gives you the opportunity to witness a prepared
perfor-mance. The combination of the cold reading and a
prepared monologue offers that much more informa-tion on
which to make casting decisions.
Improvisation. Another useful technique is to have the actor
improvise a scene from the script. That is, to act like his
character, spontaneously, in a situation you create. Improvisation is a specialized acting form. Some actors, especially
comedians, are very adept at this type of performance. Other
actors do not have this facility. It is, however, an acceptable
request to make of an actor.
Evaluating the Audition
The primary goal of the audition process is to dis-cover the
actor’s range of talent and his ability to take direction. If the
actor reading for the part is ab-solutely perfect, indicate this in
your notes, but never offer an actor a part during the audition.
You never know who might come in later and cause you to
change your mind. If the actor is not ideal but has in-teresting
qualities, this, too, should be noted. After all, the ideal actor for
the part might never audition. You will have to cast the role
based on the talent available.
Keeping an Open Mind. The readings are an excel-lent opportunity to explore many different casting possibilities, and these
possibilities are as varied as the actors who walk through the
door. Remain flexi-ble and open-minded as to the many ways a
part can be cast.
Too often, directors have a set image of a charac-ter in mind
during the audition. If an actor matching that image doesn’t
appear, the audition is merely an exercise. Casting against type
often makes the script even more vital. It might be interesting
to cast as the villain of your piece an actor who has the appearance of a nice guy. This will create a doubt in the viewer’s mind
and add a tension that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Use your imagination when casting. If a talented blond actor
auditions but you see the character as a redhead, consider using
a wig or asking the actor to dye his hair. The director must be
aware of how the various departments can help shape an actor’s
look.
The audition process requires stamina and con-centration.
Reading actors all day with only a short lunch break can be
exhausting. Be sure to give ade-quate consideration to the last
few actors who audi-tion. Among them could be the actor who
is just right for the part. Remember, casting can make or break
your project.
Notes. If you write pertinent observations on the actor’s
resume or on a separate log sheet during the reading, you can
later review the day’s many audi-tions. It is also important to
note the actor’s schedule and availability.
Videotaping. Videotaping is an excellent way to re-view
auditions and helps in making a casting deci-sion. Recording the
audition on video gives the creative team an opportunity to
review the different combinations of actors at a later time. It
also allows you to see how an actor relates to the camera. Certain
actors have an affinity for the lens, and some don’t. Some very
talented people freeze under the scrutiny of the lights and the
camera. Therefore, videotaping is best used for the second
audition, or callback.
Using video during auditions is most effective with actors who
have little or no exposure on film or tape. It is vital that you see
them on tape before mak-ing any final decisions.
If you use a video camera during the audition, set up the
equipment unobtrusively. For example, the camera might be
placed in a corner, with a long lens at an angle, out of the actor’s
eye-line.
Video Operators: Make sure there is enough light for the video
camera. Shoot with lenses of several sizes. Start wide to see how
the actor moves and communi-cates with his body. Then move
in to a medium shot and finally a close-up to see the actor’s face,
particu-larly the eyes.
Callbacks
When the general auditions have been completed, the producer
arranges for callbacks. A callback is another audition, but with
actors who have already read for the director once and are being
considered seriously for the part.
The callback can be conducted in the same fash-ion as the first
audition, but with some modifications. The time periods are
generally longer; say 15 to 30 minutes, which permits the
director to work on spe-cific details in the scene. Actors are asked
to read op-posite other actors who are being considered to
determine whether there is the right kind of chem-istry between
them.
If the lead has been cast, you can ask that she read with all the
candidates who might play opposite her in the film or video.
This process, referred to as mix and match, is useful in casting
family members.
If you can’t find the actors you want, you might have to look
beyond the normal casting arena. Leave no stone unturned.
Things to Keep in Mind
Benefits of the Casting Session. The casting session is a learning
process for the director. How lines are read, how a character is
interpreted, and how a scene is performed all add to the
director’s excitement and enthusiasm during preproduction.
Although the cast-ing session is not foolproof, it is a timetested process that generally provides successful results.
Rehearsal
Rushing into a production without proper preparation results
in wasting more time than it would have taken to simply
rehearse before getting started? Whether you realize it or not,
every production requires some kind of rehearsal, set-up, or preshoot preparation.
Ideally, you should rehearse every shot before recording. But in
the wonderful world of video and film making there’s no such
thing as the “ideal”.
It’s always a good idea to gather all your key players for a formal
script reading. Producer, director, talent, writers, technical staff,
and anyone else whose input is valuable to the production
should attend. Script reading sessions help clarify the film’s
objectives. They allow the director and technical crew a chance to
formulate a method for achieving those objectives with the
equipment available to them.
And it’s through understanding the complexity or simplicity of
the script that the director can best determine in details his shot
and angles.
Your next step will be the walk-through. A walk-through is
nothing more than a brief orientation to the set or location
where the production will take place. Both technical crew and
talent will require separate walk-throughs to understand their
roles in the production. You might not always have a luxury of
being at the exact location with your entire crew before the
shoot but you could work upon some things that are as close as
possible to the scenario you have in mind.
The technical walk-through becomes extremely critical especially
when you’re shooting outside the confines of a studio. When
using remote locations for your productions, the crew must be
given time to familiarize themselves with the location and to set
up the equipment for maximum performance and flexibility.
The talent walk-through helps the actors and performers to get
comfortable with the set and understand the conditions under
which they’ll be working. This is extremely important when
using amateurs or people not accustomed to working in the
medium.
Video production can be very intimidating for the unseasoned.
The lights, the cameras, (the “Action”), the cables, and the
controlled chaos of the set can turn even the most eloquent
speaker into a babbling idiot. Corporate video speakers can be
the most challenging and amusing clients you’ll ever work with.
For the most part, they’re used to public speaking and sales
presentations in front of large audiences. They usually approach video with a “How hard can this be?” attitude. Twenty
five takes and countless applications of foundation make-up
later, he finds that speaking to a live audience is child’s play
2 3
compared to speaking to that invisible audience behind the little
red tally light. You can save yourself a lot of aggravation by
helping familiarize the talent with the set and the seemingly
chaotic atmosphere of a production.
The final step is what’s commonly known as the dress rehearsal.
A dress rehearsal is a full run through of scenes form your
production script with the exception that the cameras won’t be
rolling or might not be even there. Hiring equipment is
expensive. In every production you plan out the number of
days you’ll be hiring all the equipment. Even with non fiction
films its always better to get used to the location and the space
you’ll be shooting in.
Well a lot of filmmakers would rather have it otherwise. They
like their cast to be spontaneous so don’t prefer going in for
rehearsals before the shoot. Well that for you to decide but in
low budget productions you usually cannot afford a lot of
retakes.
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Have you permission to shoot at the locations
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How long do you estimate you shots will take to set up and
shoot.
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Which shots and scenes can you group together and shoot
on the same day / location. (you don’t need to shoot your
scenes in narrative order)
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Do any props / costumes / set dressings need to be found
or created.
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Is transport going to be an issue
The Art of Scheduling a Film
Even if you have a definitive budget, you need to break down
all the elements of your film to determine how to distribute the
money you have. These breakdowns also help you figure out
how many days it will take to shoot your film. You have to
make your budget fit your schedule, so be prepared to do some
juggling. If you’re on a tight budget, you won’t have the luxury
of shooting your film over a period of several months. Your
budget may only allow you to schedule a 12-day shoot (every
additional day is going to cost you money). Juggling includes
consolidating scenes. If you can shoot the scene in the cave in
two days instead of three, and the breaking-up scene in the car,
instead of in the shopping mall, you’ll be able to shorten your
schedule — thus, saving time and money.
The director and assistant director usually make the schedule
together. The process includes figuring out what scenes can be
shot together in the same day, scheduling actors to work
consecutive days, and how to tighten the schedule so the film
can be shot in fewer days. If you don’t have an assistant director
to help schedule and be on the set to help things stay organized, then you have to do the schedule all by yourself.
Scheduling your film includes
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Lining the script by going through and marking items such
as actors, props, wardrobe, and special effects.
•
Putting those items on individual breakdown sheets, each
representing one scene from the film.
•
Transferring the elements on the breakdown sheets to
production board strips.
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Rearranging the order of production strips to find the best
shooting schedule.
A calendar is your best friend when scheduling your film. You
choose the date on which to start principal photography and the
date on which the shoot will wrap. By looking at a calendar, you
see what days the weekends fall on and whether any statutory
holidays occur that the cast and crew will have off (like Diwali
and Memorial Day).
Working out the most efficient and effective shooting schedule
requires a lot of considerations, here are some more:
•
When are your desired locations available
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When are your subjects / actors / extras available
When is your crew and equipment available
What time of day and what lighting is required for your
shots
What if it rains
If time runs short, which shots are the most important ones
to get
Lining your script
You break down, or line, your script by pulling out elements
that affect your budget and schedule. With different-colored
highlighters in hand, start combing through your script (or have
the assistant director do it, if you have one), highlighting
important items with a different color for each category. You
end up with a very colorful script after the process is complete.
This process is intended to flag the script so accurate breakdowns can be made. The categories to highlight include the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Actors
Extras (background people)
Props
Wardrobe or special costumes
Sets and locations
Special effects
Vehicles
Animals
Special equipment
Special makeup
Optical effects
Breaking into breakdown sheets
After you highlight the various categories of items, transfer the
highlighted elements to individual breakdown sheets — one
for each scene in your film. A breakdown sheet contains separate
drawn category boxes to add the elements you’ve highlighted in
the script. You enter each element in the appropriate category
box, such as a hammer in the props area, either by hand or by
using one of the available software programs.
Each breakdown sheet should be numbered so that you can go
back and reference it if you need to. Every character in the script
is also given a reference number, usually starting with the
number 1 for your lead actor. You transfer these numbers to
the breakdown sheets and eventually to the individual strips on
the production board. Numbering saves space so that you
don’t have to keep writing the characters’ names (plus there
wouldn’t be enough space on a strip).
A breakdown sheet also has a header that includes the following
details:
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•
•
Scene number
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•
•
•
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Location/setting
Script page
Page count (length of scene divided into eighths — 1-1/2
pages would be 1-4/8)
Synopsis of scene (one sentence)
Exterior or interior
Day or night
Script day (for example, third day in the story when Mary
arrives at the plantation)
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Breakdown sheet number
Figure below shows a sample breakdown sheet from the film
The Dragon’s Candle. Scene 106 has Ghandlin the wizard
driving a borrowed police car and zapping traffic out of his way
with his magic wand. The breakdown sheet provides separate
boxes listing the elements that are needed for this scene.
includes a picture frame on a mantle or flowers in a vase on a
table. The baseball bat in Mel Gibson’s film Signs would have
been categorized as set dressing, but because the actors actually
interact with the bat (which is displayed on a wall), it is categorized as a prop. You address set dressing in your breakdown
sheets only if it’s crucial to the story.
Dressing up your wardrobe list
You add certain wardrobe elements to your breakdown sheets,
such as costumes, uniforms, or clothes that have to be sewn
from scratch. A character’s jeans and T-shirt don’t need to be
entered in the wardrobe box, but a gangster’s zoot suit does.
Because scenes aren’t usually filmed in chronological order, each
outfit is given a script day number to ensure that the actor wears
the correct wardrobe in each shot. Script days (the timeline of
your story) will be part of the breakdown sheets, and if the
story takes place over five days, you’ll sit down with the
wardrobe person and decide what clothing your actors will wear
each day if it’s not addressed in the script.
Locating locations
You can list your location setting in the heading of each
breakdown sheet. Locations dictate a lot regarding scheduling
and budget. You can cross-reference details about the locations
(Are they private or public property? Do you need to secure
permits or pay location fees, and how much do they cost?).
Keep your locations to a minimum; otherwise, you may end up
going over budget.
A “special” on special effects
Scheduling special effects on your breakdown sheets helps you
determine what kind of effects you can afford. Keep effects to a
minimum if you’re working with a lower budget. You may find
that designing special effects on a computer fits within your
budget better, depending on how elaborate the special effect.
Before you create your storyboards, you have to perform certain
tasks and make certain decisions. First, begin by evaluating your
screenplay and picturing it in terms of separate shots that can be
visually translated into individual storyboard panels. Then you
determine what makes up each shot and also which images
need to be storyboarded and which ones don’t. After you start
storyboarding, you’ll need to determine whether you’re
shooting for a TV movie or a theatrical release, which will
ultimately affect the frame dimensions of your panels.
Things to think about before a video shoot
The Production Team
Propping up your prop list
Every prop that will appear in your film must be pulled from
the script and added to the props category in your breakdown
sheets. A prop is defined as anything your characters interact
with, such as guns, cell phones, brooms, and so on. On a lowbudget film, try to borrow your props — especially if they’re
contemporary items. For hard-to-find props, you can usually
rent them from a prop house or rental house.
Often, props are confused with set dressing, but the difference
is that actors don’t interact with set dressing. Set dressing
•
Review your project plans as a team. Everyone should be
familiar with the overall production plan and the shots that
are needed.
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All team members should be sure of their roles and
responsibilities.
The Equipment - do you have it all?
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Make a list of all the equipment you will need. Prepare an
equipment checklist
The Equipment - is it working?
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Check the tapes. Make sure you have the correct tape, and
that it is rewound and labeled. Always take a back-up tape in
case the first one is damaged or breaks. Generally, the better
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the quality of the tape, and the newer it is (hasn’t been used
over and over again) the higher quality video you will get.
•
Check the camera. Do a test recording and play it back to
make sure the camera is working.
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Check the audio - this requires earphones, which are plugged
into the earphone jack. When you do your test recording, test
the mics you plan to use.
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Be sure you are using the right microphones for your shoot
and see that they are placed close enough to your sound
source to get good clear audio (4 - 6 inches away).
Remember, for interviews, hand- held mics and lavalier mics
are ideal.
•
Check the battery: For a remote shoot (away from electrical
outlets), be sure to check your battery to see that it has a full
charge.
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Remember to bring your tripod, and to check that it works.
The locking parts should lock in place (and also release from
being locked). The tilt and pan should operate smoothly.
Notes :
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UNIT 4
THE CUT
LESSON 4:
THE CUT
Video came later; film has been there much longer. That’s why
lot of our vocabulary in video has been taken from film. In this
chapter we will also understand certain basic terms associated
with video and film production, which will help us move to the
other lessons ahead. Before we go into the postproduction
process let us look at the beginning of editing.
In the beginning, there was the shot. You saw what you shot
and there were no edits upon the face of the land. People shot
some stuff with the camera and then showed the same without
any changes made.
The earliest movies were not really what we would call “narrative” (story) or “dramatic” films. They were not really designed
to tell stories—rather, they gave us little pieces of reality, slices
of life, and home movies for the culture. Just consider the titles
of the movies in the first Lumiere program (Dec. 28, 1895),
which included Feeding Baby, Train Pulling Into the Train
Station, Workers Leaving the Factory.
Nearly all the films made during the first 10 years of cinema fell
into the category of documentaries: travelogues, newsreels, and
bits of sporting events. For excitement, we would get dancing
girls, body builders flexing their muscles, firefighters putting
out fires, sharpshooters showing off their skill. We might even
be given snippets of filmed theater: Sarah Bernhardt declaiming
(silently) a scene from Phedre or a comic act from a vaudeville
show. But these early films were not really telling stories.
The first films marveled audiences precisely because of their
ability to reproduce reality, to bring the distant and the little
known to life. If one wanted stories, one could go to the
theater or read a book. Story-telling was not really considered an
essential property of the medium.
And then there came the CUT.
One of Edison’s directors, Edwin S. Porter, made some of the
first films to use properly cinematic techniques. The Life of an
American Fireman (1902) related the story of a mother and
child being rescued from a burning house. It stitches together
different segments to tell the story. We first see the firefighters
(played by actors) at the firehouse set. Then, after a close-up of
the alarm ringing, we get stock footage (archive, documentary
footage) of real firefighters racing in their horse-drawn fire
wagons to a fire. We then see a segment of the woman and
child inside the burning house (a stage set), eventually rescued
by a firefighter. Finally, we get a “replay” of the rescue, this time
from the perspective of the exterior of the house. To modern
audiences, this “replay” will seem rather strange and the splicing
together of staged action and documentary action also seems a
little awkward. What we have here, though, are the beginnings
of film narrative—the process of editing together pieces of a
story.
Cinema has two beginnings: the first, when the photograph
originally budged, the limbs uncoiled, the human being walked,
the single spool of film flickered into life - on whatever occasion
we choose to date this (whether in 1893 or 1895).
Yet the second, in a way equally momentous, beginning of
cinema could be said to follow some time later - if we want to
date it, let us say in the years immediately prior to 1900 - when
two strips of film were first spliced together to form: what?
Another mode of narrative? Or maybe narrative itself - film
narrative - for the first time? Stories may indeed be told without
editing - a little one-minute gem like the Lumière Brothers’
L’Arroseur Arrosé tells its story perfectly - but in an important
way the beginning of editing is the beginning of cinema itself.
Before we go any further let us understand these basic terms.
Cut
Cut (cutting) an abrupt or sudden change or jump in camera
angle, location, placement, or time, from one shot to another;
consists of a transition from one scene to another (a visual cut)
or from one soundtrack to another (a sound cut); cutting refers
to the selection, splicing and assembly by the film editor of the
various shots or sequences for a reel of film, and the process of
shortening a scene; also refers to the instructional word ‘cut’
said at the end of a take by the director to stop the action in
front of the camera; cut to refers to the point at which one shot
or scene is changed immediately to another; in the different
stages, or at the completion of editing the edited film itself can
be referred to as “the cut” or “the edit.”(e.g., rough cut,
director’s cut);
On television cuts occur on average about every 7 or 8 seconds.
Cutting may:
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change the scene;
compress time;
vary the point of view; or
build up an image or idea.
There is always a reason for a cut, and you should ask yourself
what the reason is. Less abrupt transitions are achieved with the
fade, dissolve, and wipe. We’ll talk about them a little later.
Shot
A shot is the film exposed from the time the camera is started
to the time it is stopped or a single run of the camera or the
piece of film resulting from such a run. A shot is one image. If
there’s a cut, you’ve changed shots. Shots can range from split
seconds, like in Terminator 2, to several minutes, such as in
Secrets and Lies or the opening sequence of Halloween. Shots
are generally chosen by the director although the writer can use
capital letters to suggest where the camera should be. When a
writer absolutely must have a certain shot at a certain moment
in a film, he has a few options each described in detail elsewhere
in this list: INSERT, and CLOSE ON.
SHOT is the basic building block or unit of film narrative; it can
also refer to a single film frame (such as a still image); shot
analysis refers to the examination of individual shots; a oneshot, a two-shot, and a three-shot refers to common names for
shooting just one, two, or three people in a shot.
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The EWS is often used as an “establishing shot” - the first shot
of a new scene, designed to show the audience where the action
is taking place.
Very Wide Shot (VWS) or Very Long shot
Example of a single film frame or shot, of Fay Wray rehearsing
the moment of meeting Kong, from King Kong(1933).
The one-shot Film: The film Russian Ark(2002) is a film shot
in one continuous 97-minute take. No cuts, no editing, no
second chance.
For the single screen, single take film, Russian Ark, director
Aleksandr Sokurov (holding script) and cinematographer
Tilman Bûttner (with camera), used a portable rig for the Sony
HDW-F900 24p HD camera.
The very wide shot is much closer to the subject than an
extreme wide shot, but still much further away than a wide
shot. The subject is (just) visible here, but the emphasis is very
much on placing her in her environment.
This often works as an establishing shot, in which the audience
is shown the whole setting so they can orientate themselves.
The VWS also allows plenty of room for action to take place, or
for multiple subjects to appear on screen
The subject is visible (barely), but the emphasis is still on
placing her in her environment.
Types of Shots
There is a convention in the video, film and television industries, which assigns names and guidelines to common types of
shots, framing and picture composition. The list below briefly
describes the most common shot types.
Extreme Wide Shot or Extreme Long Shot
WS Wide shot or LS long shot
In the extreme wide shot, the view is so far from the subject
that she isn’t even visible. The point of this shot is to show the
subject’s surroundings.
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The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as
possible.
In the wide shot, the subject takes up the full frame. In this
case, the girl’s feet are almost at the bottom of frame, and her
head is almost at the top. Obviously the subject doesn’t take up
the whole width and height of the frame, since this is as close as
we can get without losing any part of her. The small amount of
room above and below the subject can be thought of as safety
room - you don’t want to be cutting the top of the head off. It
would also look uncomfortable if her feet and head were exactly
at the top and bottom of frame.
As with most shot types, the wide shot means different things
to different people. However the wide shot seems to suffer
more from varying interpretations than other types.
MS Mid Shot
In the closeup shot, a certain feature or part of the subject takes
up the whole frame. A close up of a person usually means a
close up of their face.
ECU Extreme Close Up
The mid shot shows some part of the subject in more detail,
whilst still showing enough for the audience to feel as if they
were looking at the whole subject. In fact, this is an approximation of how you would see a person “in the flesh” if you were
having a casual conversation. You wouldn’t be paying any
attention to their lower body, so that part of the picture is
unnecessary.
The MS is appropriate when the subject is speaking without too
much emotion or intense concentration. It also works well
when the intent is to deliver information, which is why it is
frequently used by television news presenters. You will often see
a story begin with a MS of the reporter (providing information), followed by closer shots of interview subjects (providing
reactions and emotion).
As well as being a comfortable, emotionally neutral shot, the
mid shot allows room for hand gestures and a bit of movement.
The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail. You would
normally need a specific reason to get this close. It is too close to
show general reactions or emotion except in very dramatic
scenes. You might have a shot of just the eye or the nose.
Two Shot
MCU Medium Close up
Half way between a MS and a CU. This shot shows the face
more clearly, without getting uncomfortably close.
CU Close Up
There are a few variations on this one, but the basic idea is to
have a comfortable shot of two people. Often used in interviews, or when two presenters are hosting a show.
A “One-Shot” could be a mid-shot of either of these subjects.
A “Three-Shot”, unsurprisingly, contains three people.
Two-shots are good for establishing a relationship between
subjects. If you see two sports presenters standing side by side
facing the camera, you get the idea that these people are going to
be the show’s co-hosts. As they have equal prominence in the
frame, the implication is that they will provide equal input.
A two-shot could also involve movement or action. It is a good
way to follow the interaction between two people without
getting distracted by their surroundings.
(OSS) Over-the-Shoulder Shot
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Looking from behind a person at the subject, cutting off the
frame just behind the ear. The person facing the subject usually
occupies about 1/3 of the frame.
This shot helps to establish the positions of each person, and
get the feel of looking at one person from the other’s point of
view.
A variation of this shot can be a bit wider and include the
shoulder of the person facing the subject.
Camera Angles
The relationship between the camera and the object being
photographed (ie the ANGLE) gives emotional information to
an audience, and guides their judgment about the character or
object in shot. The more extreme the angle (ie the further away
it is from eye left), the more symbolic and heavily-loaded the
shot.
The Bird’s-Eye view
This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and
strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from this angle might
seem totally unrecognizable at first (umbrellas in a crowd,
dancers’ legs). This shot does, however, put the audience in a
godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be
made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of
things. Hitchcock (and his admirers, like Brian de Palma) is fond
of this style of shot.
action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend
to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting
adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of
the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer,
who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.
Oblique/Canted Angle
Sometimes the camera is tilted (ie is not placed horizontal to
floor level), to suggest imbalance, transition and instability
(Titanic!!). This technique is used to suggest POINT-OF-View
shots (i.e. when the camera becomes the ‘eyes’ of one particular
character, seeing what they see - a hand held camera is often used
for this).
Dutch Angle: A specialized camera angle that does not employ
the normal horizontal and vertical axis. Often the primary axis
becomes a diagonal with the intent of eliciting a disconcerted
effect in the audience. Psychologically the effect can be used to
bring the audience into the uneasiness or anxiety of the
character and the situation depicted on the screen.
Camera Movements
Moving the camera can be a very effective way to reveal details of
a shot or to change from one subject to another. Here is a short
guide to basic camera movements. The shots with a certain
camera movement then get the same name. A shot with a
camera pan in it is quite often referred to as the Pan Shot.
High Angle
Pan
Not so extreme as a bird’s eye view. The camera is elevated
above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High
angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less
significant (or scary). The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting - they become part of a wider picture.
Panning is when the camera is stationary and is moved on the
tripod, sweeping across the action or scene from side to side, as
when the shot is following a character or moving object in a
horizonal direction.
A pan can also be used to move from one subject to another in
a large scene, like this scene of Wenceslas Square in Prague. The
camera moves from one group of people to another. A pan is
also useful to reveal more of a wide view without having to
back away from it. For instance, one could pan across the Czech
National Museum in the background to reveal its length and
intricacy of architecture or to show how many windows it has!
Eye Level
A fairly neutral shot; the camera is positioned as though it is a
human actually observing a scene, so that eg actors’ heads are on
a level with the focus. The camera will be placed approximately
five to six feet from the ground.
Low Angle
Tilt
These increase height (useful for short actors like Tom Cruise)
and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a
sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the
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TILT Like a pan, a tilt is done with the camera stationary, and
the joints on the tripod are used to tilt it up or down from one
angle to another to follow a subject, as one would have to
move to tape a launching of the Space Shuttle. A tilt can also be
used to reveal new information or to show detail as in the
picture below. The tilt may be done either way - up or down.
The shot might start on the statue of Saint Wenceslas to set a
mood in the scene and then tilt down to the two characters who
have met at the base of statue to head out for an evening on
the town. Or the shot could start on the characters and - as they
talk about the majestic landmarks in Prague - tilt up to show a
detail of the old statue. Note that, due to the placement of
objects in this photo, this tilt has a slight angle to it, which is
sometimes necessary to keep the new subject of the shot
centered in the frame. If it is possible, set the camera or the
action so that a tilt doesn’t require any other movement besides
simply up or down. In most cases it is possible.
This is the one where the camera movies closer or farther from
the subject (instead of merely zooming in or out). Actually
changing the camera’s position is very effective, but often tricky.
The change of the relative positions of objects in the shot
caused by a moving camera makes a shot look much more
natural.
At this stage these are a few that you have to keep in mind, you
would be learning about the others as you move forward in this
course.
Take
A single continuous recorded performance of a scene. A director
typically orders takes to continue until he or she is satisfied that
all of his or her requirements for the scene or shot have been
made, be they technical or artistic. A continuity report or a
continuity sheet stores the status of each take.
Scene
A scene usually takes place in a continuous time period, in the
same setting, and involves the same characters. If we go outside
from inside, it’s a new scene. If we cut to five minutes later, it’s
a new scene. If both, it’s a new scene. Scene usually a shot (or
series of shots) that together comprise a single, unified dramatic
event, action, unit, or element of film narration, or block
(segment) of storytelling within a film, much like a scene in a
play; the end of a scene is often indicated by a change in time
and/or location;
Zoom
It is usually used in place of actually moving the camera in and
out on the subject, which can be a pretty complicated matter.
The pros in and out of Hollywood will always opt for moving
the camera if it is possible. The zoom control on their big
expensive lens is used simply to make that one lens more
versatile. A zooming mechanism makes one lens able to act like
many different kinds of lenses, so that lenses don’t have to be
changed for different kinds of shots.
If you are unable to devise a way to move the camera in and
out, and if you feel it is just more effective to “move in” on
something or “move out” from it, instead of cutting to a closer
or wider shot, a zoom is definitely the easiest way to do it.
Actual Camera Movement
In short educational productions the need for actually moving
the camera is fairly non-existent. In the case of a field trip/
documentary situation where shots cannot be planned, this will
probably not be the case. But in such cases where movement is
required but cannot be planned, the camera often has to be held
and carried, which must be practiced and done with care.
In other cases, such as shooting in a controlled situation where
all shots can be planned, moving the camera is usually done on
a wheeled device called a dolly. Dollies come in all shapes and
sizes and orders of complexity, but their main function is to
move smoothly. A professional dolly is often put on a set of
metal tracks in order to assure a smooth motion.
Dollying & Trucking
There is a type of shot called a DOLLY wherein the camera is
moved parallel to the action, often following a character - much
like in a pan but without the physical limits to one camera
position. The other major moving shot is called a TRUCK.
Example: The classic love scene of John Wayne and Maureen
O’Hara caught in a drenching rainstorm in a graveyard, and their
rain-soaked embrace in The Quiet Man(1952)
Sequence
A scene, or connected series of related scenes that are edited
together and comprise a single, unified event, setting, or story
within a film’s narrative; also refers to scenes that structurally fit
together in the plot; sequence usually refers to a longer segment
of film than a scene; sequences are often grouped into acts (like
a three-act play);
Examples: The wedding sequence in The Godfather (1974), the
drug-bust sequence in GoodFellas (1990)
The Great Train Robbery
Now that you are acquainted with the basic terms associated
with film making lets get back to our discussion about the
beginning of editing.
A year later after Edwin S. Porter’s The Life of an American
Fireman (1902) he made The Great Train Robbery (1903),
considered the first Western and the first real story film. Porter
directly cuts from scene to scene to show action that is either
sequential or parallel. He cuts in the middle of a scene, thereby
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maintaining a very dynamic feel.
Edwin S. Porter’s work was not the first to use editing or the
first to use a popular play as its source, but Porter certainly
advanced the art of editing, and his film illustrates a transition
in audience expectations. Porter’s editing helped to free film
from the strictly linear story and showed, among other things,
that different simultaneous time strands are part of its power.
The transition embodied in Porter’s film is fascinating: some of
the fourteen scenes are patent theater imitations, with painted
scenery and with actors playing profile, while others are as ’real’
as anything done today. Some scenes, for instance, are on top of
a rushing train, with the actors moving as naturally as the
moment requires. Porter clearly was counting on an audience
conditioned by a lifetime of theater-going, expecting scenery
that looked like scenery, yet eager for the new. (This paradox
continued for years. In 1920 Griffith made Way Down East, in
which there are scenes shot in an actual blizzard, yet the
heroine’s bedroom has snow painted on the windows.) Porter
dramatized the transition further. The interior of the railroad
depot, which has a window, is a patent canvas-and-paint job
with a window, yet at one point a real locomotive goes past the
window drawing a real train. (Double exposure, of course.)
Porter assumed, correctly,
that audiences would welcome the contrast. Imagine being a
member of that audience. People could have had as much as
eight years of film-going experience by then, mostly of nonfiction films, but now they were entering a dimension in which
everything in the world could become a character in a story. A
breeze, a leaf, a raindrop, a ship at sea could become a member
of the
cast. (Even today those facts have not lost a tickle of the
metaphysical.)
Here is a scene breakdown of the film:
1 Interior of the railroad telegraph office: two bandits enter
and bind and gag the operator while the moving train,
visible through the office window, comes to a halt.
2 Railroad water tower: the other members of the gang board
the train secretly as it takes on water.
3 Interior of the mail car with scenery rushing by through an
open door; the bandits break in, kill a messenger, seize
valuables from a strongbox, and leave.
4 Coal tender and interior of the locomotive cab: the bandits
kill the fireman after a fierce struggle, throw his body off the
train, and compel the engineer to stop.
5 Exterior shot of the train coming to a halt and the engineer
uncoupling the locomotive.
6 Exterior shot of the train as the bandits force the passengers
to line up along the tracks and surrender their valuables; one
passenger attempts to escape, runs directly into the camera
lens, and is shot in the back.
7 The bandits board the engine and abscond with the loot.
8 The bandits stop the engine several miles up the track, get
off, and run into the woods as the camera tilts slightly to
follow them.
9 The bandits scramble down the side of a hill and across a
stream to mount their horses; the camera follows them in a
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sweeping vertical movement, or panning shot.
10 Interior of the telegraph office: the operator’s daughter
arrives and unties her father, who then runs out to give the
alarm.
11 Interior of a crowded dance hall; a “tenderfoot” is made to
“dance,” as six guns are fired at his feet; the telegraph
operator arrives and a posse is formed.
12 Shot of the mounted bandits dashing down the face of a
hill with the posse in hot pursuit; both groups move rapidly
toward the camera; one of the bandits is killed as they
approach.
13 Shot of the remaining bandits examining the contents of
the stolen mail pouches; the posse approaches stealthily
from the background and kills them all in a final shoot-out.
14 Medium close-up of the leader of the bandits firing his
revolver point-blank into the camera (and, thus, the
audience), a shot which, according to the Edison Catalogue,
“can be used to begin or end the picture.”
Each of these scenes is told by means of a single shot—still a
fairly primitive storytelling technique, but clearly a marked
advance beyond Life of an American Fireman and earlier films.
A fairly substantial story is told in a mere 12 minutes. Porter is
able to tell so much because of the dramatic cuts between
scenes. For example, we in scene #11 we see the posse being
formed, then in #12 the posse is already in pursuit of the
bandits. A big chunk of time has been cut out. We presumably
are missing out on a lot of scenery, hard riding, perhaps a horse
or two going lame. Instead, we cut from essential information
to essential information.
This strategy of cutting out the non-essential in order better to
highlight the essential will become central to the practice of
making films. In a similar manner, within a few years the closeup and careful lighting will be used to eliminate the
non-essential parts of the body or the room in order to focus
on the essential emotion-bearing feature: usually the face.
The Great Train Robbery also uses camera movement (tilts,
pans, and tracking shots of the train) both to help tell its story
and to make the story visually exciting. The interior scenes look
as if they were filmed on a stage set (they were), but the exterior
scenes are fresh and dynamic.
Another interesting moment in the film is when the robbers
stop the train out in the countryside. (Porter cleverly films the
train at an angle, not straight across the screen, to give the
composition perspective.) At gunpoint, the passengers are
forced to disembark and line up against the train, hands raised,
while the robbers go down the line taking money and jewelry.
One of the passengers, a man in a derby, is apparently eager to
protect his belongings. He runs. One of the robbers shoots
him in the back. He falls. This, might be considered by some as
an evolutionary moment in the history of film, one that revised
concepts of space in drama. That passenger doesn’t run right or
left: he runs, at a slight angle, directly toward us, toward the
camera. If this had been a scene in a play and the actor had run
toward the footlights, the audience would instantaneously have
expected him to leave the fiction and join the facts—themselves.
Equally swiftly they would have thought that the actor or
director was out of his mind.
When an actor leaves the stage, he steps out of the play. When
an actor leaves a film shot, in any direction, we simply assume
that he is continuing on in the rest of the world. Even when an
actor walks out of a set in a studio, we don’t envisage him as
walking ’off-stage’ as we do in the theater. We don’t think of
the camera as seeing only what it ought to see at any moment,
with something quite different bordering it on every side. We
conceive that the camera at any moment is focused on one
fragment of immensity. Porter’s fugitive wasn’t heading toward
the end of anything: if he hadn’t been killed, he might still be
running.
The theater has its own powers, some of which are shared with
film, some not (like a centrality in language). But the theater has
never been greatly concerned with verity of place and has rarely
used such verity successfully. Eisenstein began his career in the
theater, and in 1923 he
staged a play called Gas Masks in the Moscow gasworks, but
this production only signaled to him that he belonged in the
cinema. The stage lets a play concentrate on matters other than
’placeness.’ Film always has ’placeness’ at its careless command.
Getting back to our discussion about The Great Train Robbery,
the film uses editing to convey the two basic elements of
cinematic syntax: continuity (“And then . . .”) and parallelism
(“Meanwhile . . .”). It is by no means a polished film—within
the next few years other filmmakers would refine Porter’s
techniques and improve the flow of narration. But no one until
D. W. Griffith would be able recapture the excitement, the shock
of discovery, that Porter was able to create in this film. Audiences knew that they were seeing something radically different,
even if they couldn’t articulate why the film was so exciting. It
would be the most popular film until Griffith’s controversial
masterpiece The Birth of a Nation (1914), more than ten years
later.
Between 1905 and 1910 movies followed Porter’s lead and most
were constructed as a series of scenes stitched together (what we
call continuity editing). This was the case for films made both in
the US and other countries. In England a group of filmmakers
who have come to be known as the “Brighton School” were
making story films that were quite compelling and dynamic;
probably the best known of the Brighton School films was
Rescued by Rover (1905) by Cecil Hepworth. This tells the story
of a young family whose domestic bliss is disrupted when a
gypsy steals their baby. Fortunately, they are blessed with Rover,
their faithful and ingenious pet dog, who is able to sniff out
and find the beloved baby, then lead his master to the ultimate
rescue. As you can see, it tells a simple, sentimental story, but it
is technically quite advanced. It breaks the rescue up into a series
of shots, so that we are led easily and seamlessly from one place
to another. In fact, The Great Train Robbery’s chase scene of
two years before seems quite primitive in comparison.
Story films also proliferated in France, made by two rival
companies: Gaumont (whose chief director, the very talented
Alice Guy Blache, is hailed as the first woman director) and
Pathe (the most important film company in the world for the
first two decades of this century). However, the real impetus for
change, with respect to film art, would again come from the
United States, in the person of David Wark Griffith (18751948).
Griffith was a Southerner who initially planned to be a playwright and stage director, found himself in movies almost by
accident. He was out of work, unable to sell any of his plays, so
he took a job as a bit actor in Porter’s 1908 film Rescued from
the Eagle’s Nest (an imitation of Rescued by Rover). Although
initially embarrassed to be associated with the “flickers” (as was
generally true of most actors and directors working in the early
days of film), Griffith soon fell in love with the medium and
began to dream of expanding its artistic potential. He quickly
became a director (for the standard pay rate of $5 per day) for
Biograph, one of the most important career moves in film
history.
Even the best films of Porter, Hepworth, and Alice Guy Blache
were fairly low on the aesthetic register. Many, if not most, were
shot in sequence, in the consecutive order in which they would
appear in the final film. They were generally shot out of doors,
where there was plenty of light, so lighting effects were kept to a
minimum. Retakes of flubbed scenes were rare, rehearsals were
even rarer, and in general films rarely took more than a day to
make.
Griffith wanted more. Fortunately for Griffith, audiences were
becoming sophisticated to the point that they began to demand
more. His films for the Biograph Company became tremendously successful, and Griffith felt encouraged to experiment.
David A. Cook writes both of Griffith’s importance and the
controversial nature of his contribution:
In the brief span of six years, between directing his first onereeler in 1908 and The Birth of a Nation in 1914, Griffith
established the narrative language of the cinema as we know it
today and turned an aesthetically inconsequential medium of
entertainment into a fully articulated art form. He has been
called, variously, and, for the most part, accurately, “the father of
film technique,” “the man who invented Hollywood,” “the
cinema’s first great auteur,” and “the Shakespeare of the screen.”
It would be a mistake to say that Griffith “invented” techniques
such as the close-up, the pan, or expressive lighting; one can
find earlier films in which such techniques appear. But in those
earlier films the close-up, for example, is just a one-time effect, a
gag, something used randomly. Griffith began the systematic
use of such effects in order to shape the audience’s response
and express emotional subtleties. Between 1908 and 1912 he
made hundreds of one-reelers. None is a masterpiece, but each
provides a step in the creation of a unique language system for
cinema.
Most crucially, he shifted the basic unit of cinema from the
scene (a piece of the story occurring in a particular place for a
particular duration) to the shot. Remember, before Griffith the
most advanced story films were a sequence of scenes edited
together. The camera stayed on until a scene was finished. If
two characters were having a conversation, the scene would be
shot in a frontal two-shot, appearing much as it would appear
on a stage, until the conversation was over; then we would cut
to the next scene.
Griffith began to cut within a scene. Thus, if two characters
were having a conversation, he would start with the two-shot,
but then move to a medium shot of one character making a key
confession, then cut to a medium shot, or perhaps a close-up
of the other character, showing his/her response, then perhaps
3 3
back to the two-shot. None of these shots was dramatically
complete in and of itself. Rather, these different camera setups
were used as jigsaw pieces edited together to present the
complete scene.
The Biograph executives were initially appalled. They felt that
audiences would never accept close-ups—Why would someone
who had paid to see an entire actor be satisfied to see just a piece
of the actor? But audiences loved the close-ups. They could
finally really see the actors; receive the full impact of the actors’
emotional responses. They could identify with the character’s
plight in a way that simply did not happen when the camera
was kept back. Also, the variety of setups and variety of shot
duration within a scene made the films more visually exciting.
This method of breaking scenes down into a number of shots
came to be known as the “classical editing style” or what the
French called decoupage classique.
After Griffith, the scene would continue to be an important
element in story construction. The best scenes were miniatures
of the film as a whole—with conflict rising to some sort of
climax, which might be temporarily resolved or not. Technically
speaking, however, the shot became the basic building block.
A number of other changes flowed from the creation of this
new editing style. With the use of close-ups, acting styles began
to change. Since the close-up could register subtle nuances of
emotion, actors had to “unlearn” the techniques used in stage
acting. They had to learn to underact, to use slight eye movements and posture changes to register internal states.
Otherwise, their acting would appear ridiculously artificial. To
achieve these subtleties of acting, Griffith found it necessary to
rehearse his actors extensively. The investment in time paid off,
as film acting became an art in its own right, and audiences
began to feel a real attachment to their favorite actors—who
were becoming movie stars.
Griffith began to use fades, irises, and dissolves as transitional
devices to link scenes. The straight cut would be used for
editing within a scene, and these other devices used to move
from one scene to another, usually showing passage of time.
He also used these devices to open up flashbacks, another
narrative dimension that Griffith brought to film.
Griffith was probably best known for his refinement of the
technique of parallel editing or cross-cutting, where he would
edit between two simultaneous lines of action—e.g., a woman
being abducted by an evil suitor and her boyfriend trying to find
out what has become of her. He would cut back and forth from
one scene to the other as a means of building suspense and
excitement. In fact, this style was known by many as the
“Griffith last-minute rescue,” since he used it so often in rescue
films. He used cross-cutting in a similar way in his film A
Corner in Wheat (1909), which juxtaposes shots of a tycoon
living the high life with scenes of poor rural workers dealing
with unemployment and poverty. Thematic meaning is created
by the contrast between these two story lines. (A more modern
example of this technique can be found in The Godfather
((1972)), where Coppola cross-cuts between a scene showing the
baptism of the baby of the new Don Corleone and the
gangland executions of various gang rivals.)
Griffith also experimented with dramatic camera angles (both
high angle and low angle), expressive lighting, split screens, and
3 4
use of soft focus. He also influenced the expansion of film
length—by 1912 he was making two-reel films, by 1913 he had
made the feature length film Judith of Bethulia, and in 1914 he
made his epic The Birth of a Nation
Still, we have to ask ourselves, what is so “momentous” about
this joining or splicing that impels us to pause on it and puzzle
out its meaning? After all, in the theatre we are used to the
division of the play into acts, which operate through a principle
of ellipsis. Thus, at the end of a given scene, the lights go
down, the set is invisibly whisked away and, when the lights go
up again, we are in a different place (surely by magic), while time
has moved on, sometimes by decades (this too is magic).
But the splice, in cinema, has more dialectical properties. It
serves not merely as a pause or caesura - something that
separates or provides a brief breathing space - but on the
contrary something that joins: “syntactic” in the root sense of
the word. And if we are talking about magic, the magic of
cinema is surely sensed to lie here: in the strange alchemy arising
out of the juxtaposition of images - images that cut through,
or rather dispense with, pages of theatrical dialogue to achieve
their effect instantaneously: a subliminal effect in the best
instances, too swift to be put into words, though when we do
take the trouble to find words for the experience we see that
what we are dealing with is the imagistic equivalent of a
metaphor. Such and such a thing, says the film, is “like”
something else - in ways that we might never have thought of;
only once there (placed there, by chance or by the genius of the
editor) understood as rich, suggestive, inevitable or (when it
needs to be) satirical.
The theorization of these properties of filmic syntax is the
legacy of the Russians: Kuleshov for example (in the famous
“Kuleshov effect”) and above all, of course, the great
Eisenstein. These men and their colleagues practiced this sort of
cinema (“the cinema of attractions”, “the cinema of shocks”)
and wrote about it extensively. Yet to mention such names at
all, since they lived so long ago (in the epoch, precisely, of the
silent cinema) is to wonder if their conclusions are still valid.
Perhaps it was just because, for the first 30 years of its life,
cinema had no spoken word that the juxtaposition of images
in the way we are describing was sensed to be so fundamental.
The major breakthroughs in editing technique are conventionally attributed to Griffith and Eisenstein. Griffith, whose
achievement, of course, is stupendous, the hesitation crystallizes round the idea that the viewer has to be thrilled by the
speed and the frenzy of his chases. The climax of so many
Griffithian films being the ride to the rescue, the adult viewer
can’t avoid feeling, I suppose, a certain boredom and impatience
at the mechanical way Griffith cross-cuts between the doughty
rescuing party forging forward on the one hand, and on the
other hand, the imprisoned heroine (it is usually a heroine)
awaiting her last minute deliverance. Editing, in Griffith’s
hands, confirmed the genius of cinema for excitement, thrills,
and suspense, along with the pleasures of audience identification. But in doing so it cut out, or rather forced underground,
another strand of film-making (beautifully exemplified in early
Russian and Scandinavian cinema) whose characteristics are
thoughtfulness and languor. The case of Eisenstein is different.
Without being excessively pious: the stature of the great
Russian - like the stature of Griffith - is unassailable.
So what is editing? Classical editing involves cutting: there is an
image, and then there is another image. A choice is made as to
how and when they combine, but until they do so they are
discrete separable entities, stored on separate pieces of celluloid.
Modern editing, by contrast, is increasingly electronic and digital,
and the images in question are not so much joined as fused
together, or “morphed”, in a process that comes closest, in the
vocabulary of classical editing, to a continuous optical dissolve.
It’s all done within the frame, and not, as it were, between the
frames. It’s impossible now speak of editing, in short, outside
the context of the whole aural and visual revolution in postproduction - paintboxing, image manipulation, the drive
towards “special effects” - that cinema, aided by the advertising
industry, is currently going through.
As we move into the lessons ahead we’ll try to go into the
details of both the Classical Editing Style started by D. W
Griffith and the Russian Montage. Also we would try to
explore other alternatives to continuity editing.
8 Similarly repeat the same for an advertisement and a music
video.
Notes :
Assignment
Try the following exercise while you’re watching a movie: 1 Record the movie as you’re watching it or you can issue one
in the library.
2 Get a piece of paper, a pencil, and a watch.
3 Rewind the tape (or get the cursor) to any particular section
of the movie.
4 Play the movie and make a mark on the paper each time a
new shot appears. Don’t look at the paper while you make
the marks, or you’ll miss what’s happening on the screen.
(The marks don’t have to be beautiful, only clear.) Don’t try
to follow the story; you’re looking for edits.
5 Do this for two minutes, then count the number of marks
on the paper and divide that number by two. The result is
the average number of edits per minute. Depending on what
you’re watching, the edit rate can vary from 10 to 30 or
higher.
6 Calculate how long the average cut lasts by dividing the
average number of edits per minute into 60 (60 seconds per
minute). If the edit rate is 30 edits per minute, then the
average cut is only 2 seconds long. You’ll probably be
surprised at how short an average cut lasts. That’s because
when you’re casually watching television, you are following
the story that’s being created in your head, not the individual
shots that help create that story. Now rewind the tape and
watch the same section again, only this time don’t make any
marks. Instead, try to notice each edit and try to follow the
story. It’s hard at first, but it gets easier with practice. You’re
now analyzing the video instead of just watching it. You’ve
broken the illusion and are seeing the individual parts that
make up the story. Practice this new way of viewing
television/films by looking for the different kinds of shots
used in a scene. Try to notice the editing pattern used.
7 Do this exercise for two pieces from two different paced
scenes.
3 5
LESSON 5:
PRODUCTION
Running the Set
The hierarchy of the crew is a pyramid, with the di-rector on
top. Her goal for production is to shoot the script within the
schedule and to walk away with enough shots to tell the story
adequately. Achieving this task depends on the director’s ability
to commu-nicate her vision confidently to the cast and technical
support personnel who will execute her ideas. A strong director
creates a tone, attitude, and pace on the set that allows the team
to respond to whatever problems and challenges arise. An
insecure director, on the other hand, brings down morale and
slows the natural pace of a well-oiled and capable crew.
On the set the director’s word is law. Her talent, intelligence, and
drive are applied to the script and the resources available to her.
Her choices and swift decisions can be made because she’s spent
hours and hours of formulating and interpreting the script in
her mind. A director often seems to function by intuition. Her
decisions might be right or they might be wrong, but they are
for her to make. She is free to consult whomever she chooses,
and she can al-ways change her plan for a scene. Ultimately,
how-ever, the vision of the piece is in her head. It is the
director’s job to impart that vision succinctly and suc-cessfully to
the cast and crew through her words and performance.
A Typical Day
This is what happens on a typical day during pro-duction.
CAST AND CREW ARRIVE ON THE SET. The director
often arrives at the location before the cast or crew begins to
arrive. It is a good idea to walk around the set to get a feel for
the location. It might be the first time you have been on the
fully dressed set.
The call time, indicated on the call sheet, tells each cast and
crewmember when to arrive. If a particular department needs
lead time, the call times can be staggered. For example, if an
actor has to undergo a lengthy makeup application, the location
manager, makeup artist, and actor will be called before the rest
of the crew. The assistant director makes these arrangements.
Call times should be arranged so that when the actor is ready,
the crew has arrived and he need not wait to begin rehearsal.
SHOT IS BLOCKED FOR THE CAMERA. As soon as the
actors arrive, it is customary for the director to conduct a short
run-through rehearsal of the first scene scheduled to film for
the DP, gaffer, and first AD. The director and DP then make a
plan for the day’s photography, based on the storyboards or
floor plans as well as information gleaned from the rehearsal.
As the director and DP talk over the shooting plan, they decide
on the first setup and where the camera will be placed. On the
basis of the rehearsal, the director might decide to shoot the
scene differ-ently than originally planned. Seeing the completed
set or dressed location might inspire her to reveal the environment or characters in another way. This is the time to discuss
any changes.
MARKS ARE PLACED ON THE FLOOR FOR THE
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UNIT 3
PRODUCTION
ACTORS AND CAMERA. If the blocking of the actors or
camera is complicated, the key grip will put tape on the floor to
mark the actors’ and camera’s positions. Any camera move, such
as a dolly, is rehearsed for smoothness.
THE FOCUS MARKS ARE SET. The assistant camera
operator sets the focus for the actors’ move-ments. Each time
the camera and/or actor moves, the operator adjusts the
footage ring on the lens to maintain focus.
THE SET IS LIT. The D P directs the gaffer to set the lights
and the grip crew to set the camera. As the lights are being
positioned, turned on, and aimed, the DP moves around with
his light meter, checking light readings from each unit. Once the
lights are in place, a stand-in sits or stands where the actor will
eventually be placed so the camera team can reestablish focus,
lens size, and lighting. During these tech-nical rehearsals, the
gaffer tries to keep the lighting instruments out of the shot and
tries to block, or flag, any glare from hitting the camera lens.
The time it takes the camera team to light the set to the
director’s satisfaction is critical for meeting daily schedule. The
director’s estimate of the number of scenes or shots for a day is
based on the DP’s projected setup time at each location. The DP
bases his setup time on the location scouts and final
walk-throughs. It is the assistant director’s job to monitor -the
DP’s schedule. If it appears that the lighting team will fall
behind on their projected schedule, adjust-ments to the shot
list might be required.
REHEARSAL. While the set is being prepared, the director may
feel it necessary to rehearse the scene further. She can then take
the actors away from the set to another room.
ACTORS ARE DRESSED AND MADE UP. The actors are
then sent to be made up and fitted in their wardrobe.
A RUN-THROUGH IS HELD FOR THE ACTORS AND
CAMERA. Once the technical aspects of the shot have been
finalized, the actors are brought back to the set for a final dress
rehearsal.
ADJUSTMENTS ARE MADE FOR THE ACTORS AND
CAMERA. Between the rehearsal and the lighting period,
technical adjustments or new cre-ative ideas might require
altered or additional blocking for the actors and camera.
THE SCENE IS SHOT. When the director deter-mines that
everything is ready, she shoots the scene. Each time the scene is
shot from a particular angle with a specific lens, it is referred to
as a take. The director shoots as many takes of each shot as she
feels are necessary. Between takes, the D P walks into the shot
and checks the light to see if the readings are correct.
A word of advice: Don’t act as though the production company
can return to a location should the footage incomplete. Get it
right while you are there.
THE director might request a retake for any num-ber of
reasons. The director or an actor wants adjust-ments in the
performance, technical problems occurred with the camera or
lights, an actor flubbed or misread a line, an actor doesn’t hit his
or her focus mark the dolly doesn’t hit its mark, a microphone
dips into the frame, the boom shadow enters the frame, a light
bulb pops during a take, or an airplane loud noise buries the
sound.
Even if the director is satisfied with the first take, it is wise to
take each shot at least twice, with one of the takes acting as a
safety. Unforeseen mishaps often necessitate a safety shot being
used in the editing room to get around a problem.
THE CAMERA IS MOVED FOR THE NEXTSET UP OR
SEQUENCE. When the director is satis-fied that all of the
required takes from a particular camera angle have been shot, she
requests that the camera be moved to the next camera position.
This way, the director works her way through the script
Camera Moves
If the shot must be terminated because of a technical error
from the cast or the crew, the script supervisor marks the shot
as a false start. Out of 10 takes, there might be only two
complete takes.
Every time you decide to use a moving camera, even for a small
pan or tilt, you’ll need time to re-hearse the camera and the
actors. Each member of camera team has a particular function
that must be performed properly. In a long dolly, crane, or
Steadicam@ shot, the DP must light the entire area the actors
and camera travel along and must make sure that everything is
in focus(unless of course they have planned otherwise). These
moving shots often require that precision moves by the dolly
grip or Steadicam@ operator be repeated exactly for each take.
This increases the chance of something going wrong.
Static shots, where the camera does not move, are generally
easier to set up and less risky to shoot than dolly or
Steadicam@ shots. They also require less rehearsal time.
You can attempt elaborate camera moves, but consider adopting an alternate plan if you face too many technical hurdles in
getting a satisfactory shot. Don’t give up unless it becomes
obvious that time is being wasted. If the dolly shot you are
attempting is taking too long, consider breaking the scene down
into individual static shots (basic coverage). Your goal is to get
into the editing room with something to cut.
Video Tap
During film shoots as you can’t just rewind and check a shot
many directors use a video assist (also called a video tap). The
video tap diverts some light from the film camera to a small
attached video camera that allows the director and others to
watch the take as it hap-pens on a monitor. The video tap can
be recorded, en-abling the take to be studied immediately
afterward. This can be helpful for reviewing takes for framing
and performance, for logging or even editing footage before
processing. It is especially useful for continuity when staging a
complicated camera move. A video assist is crucial for
Steadicam@, crane, or car shots in which the camera operator
cannot look through the viewfinder.
Video tap is also extremely helpful when the di-rector is acting
in the project. Being objective while acting is difficult. After the
take, the director can watch the playback on the video monitor
and judge for herself whether to move on or shoot another
take.
There are, however, potential problems. Having the director or
others look at each take can slow the production process down.
The image quality is usu-ally poor and can misrepresent what
the film will eventually look like. And because you are not
seeing the actual film, the tap can’t inform you about other
problems such as scratches or even a run-out.
Finally, those who are watching often become in-stant critics. As
mentioned earlier, the only audience during principal photography should be the director.
In video productions of course you can rewind and watch the
last shot taken but doing this more often can slow down the
production process. Since videotapes digital or analogue are
much cheaper than a film stock you sometimes do end up
taking a lot of takes. But then this means more time spent on
the editing machine, which you would be paying for by the
hour. Lot of directors are known to rewind the tape in case of
too many NGs. But then the quality might go down depending
on the format that you are shooting with. So all said and done
there are too many parameters taken into consideration while
on a shoot and with practice the director becomes quite skillful
at taking the right decisions at the right time.
Slates
In film, it is necessary to identify each sync sound take with
clapboard. This is also referred to a slate; clap sticks, or simply
sticks. Written on the clapboard, or slate, is pertinent information about the take for the editing process. Information on the
slate can include the name of the film, director, DP; scene and
take numbers, sound take number (if any), cam-era and sound
roll numbers, and date. A small gray card may also be included
to assist in color correcting the work print or video transfer.
When the sound and the developed film arrive in the editing
room, the assistant editor matches the clap of the slate on the
sound track to its corresponding film image. This is called
syncing up the footage. This ensures that all the sound will be
perfectly in sync with the picture. The editor must be able to
read the material on the slate so she can relate her logbooks to
the script supervisor’s notes.
In video on the other hand audio and visuals are recorded on
the same tape and are in sync. But you still need the information about the take for the editing process. It makes the things
much easier. Even in documentaries you might want to record a
slate before certain shots. For example you might want to
record a slate with the name of the person who will be interviewed, which goes in as a record on your tape.
Tail Slates
When an opening slate would be impractical or in-convenient, a
tail slate can be used. For example, the opening shot might have
a very tight frame and then pull out to a wide one. In this case,
slating the scene at the head of the take might prove difficult. It
would be easier to start the scene without a slate, and when the
director calls “cut,” keep the camera rolling, and slate the take at
the end, or tail , of the shot. Other appropriate uses for tail
slates would be emotionally acted scenes or unstaged documentary filming, since they don’t disrupt the beginning of a take.
When tail slating, the clapboard is usually held upside down
and the person announcing the slate calls “Tail slate” or “End
sticks.”
3 7
Video Slates
Slating is used in video for identification purposes only (unless
a separate audio track is being recorded-the sound will then have
to be synced up, just like film). There is no need to create a
“clap,” as the sound is recorded directly onto the tape stock. It is
wise to log each shot into a notebook to keep track of what you
have photographed.
Action! Cut!
After the slate has been clapped and only when the di-rector
feels that everything is ready, she calls, “Ac-tion!” The scene plays
as long as the director deems necessary, and then she calls,
“Cut!” The director will ask for as many takes as needed or as
time allows to get the best material in the can. The cast and crew
make adjustments after each take. Hair, makeup, and continuity
must be maintained from take to take.
Script Supervision
The script supervisor keeps track of the slates, main-tains the
continuity within each scene and from scene to scene, and makes
notes in her script about each shot. Besides taking notes about
each shot, her duty is to ensure that the material delivered to the
editing room can be cut together. The script supervisor bears
the responsibility of making sure that the action is matched or
duplicated from one shot to the next. For example, an actor
crosses to a chair, sits down, and crosses his legs.
Did he put the left leg over the or vice versa? In order not to
confuse the audience the same actions need to be repeated
exactly from each camera angle.
The script supervisor’s tools include an instant camera (to
record continuity) and a stopwatch to time the shots).
The script supervisor’s book contains shooting notes and a
lined script for the show. Her notes include the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Brief description of what happened during the take
At what point in a scene an actor does what .
Length of each shot (timed with a stopwatch).
Lens used
Director’s comments
DP’s comments
After photography has been completed on a scene, the script
supervisor will transfer her notes onto a “continuity script.”
This copy of the shoot-ing script has a series of vertical lines on
it that indi-cate from which angle and in which take each part of
script was shot. If, at the end of production, a part a scene does
not have a line through it, it probably was not photographed. A
precise record of what was shot is an important guide for the
editor. Once in the editing room, the assistant editor can
identify material to be used by first referencing the lined script.
This saves time sifting through material on a flatbed or from
the digitized (or undigitized) takes.
In working with a small crew, often the duties of the script
supervisor fall to the entire crew. The di-rector, actor, DP, or
anyone who is a witness can identify continuity mistakes. But in
the heat of shoot-ing, some continuity issues can be missed.
This is ex-acerbated by the fact that most scripts are filmed out
of continuity. The pressure is usually so great on a di-rector that
she will opt to move on with the day’s photography rather than
spend time laboring over whether a shot mayor may not match
3 8
in the editing room. This happens to all directors, but as a
director becomes seasoned, she begins to value the role of the
script supervisor for the time it saves in the editing room
solving shooting problems, and for helping avoid expensive
“pickup” or “reshoots.”
When a director finally comes out the other end of the shooting period and settles down to edit, prob-lems that arose or
were neglected on set become glar-ingly difficult to fix. Even
with a script supervisor, editorial problems can arise, which is
why directors are encouraged to shoot cutaways and inserts, as
these small pieces of film or tape can be used to good effect
solving editing or continuity problems. We would be going
into the details of continuity style of editing in the later
chapters, at this point of time you only need to know that if
things like a man leaving a house with a hat on are not noted
down you might see him coming out of the house without
one (this part might have been shot a couple of days after the
interior of the house was being shot) which is a big continuity
jump.
Similar is the case with continuity in action. An actor sits down
on a chair, takes a glass of water with his right hand, and crosses
his left leg over his right leg. Later in the day, a tighter shot is
done, but this time the actor uses his left hand to drink the
water and crosses his legs right over left. To cut from a wide
shot to a tight shot with two different leg crosses may look like
a jump and could distract the audience from the flow of the
story. Often an audi-ence won’t notice this continuity error. But,
if the di-rector has an insert shot of the hand reaching for the
glass and lifting it out of frame, there is less chance: the
audience will notice the left hand/right hand, left leg right leg
continuity jumps. Some of the words might seem new at the
moment but registering them in your mind will give you a basic
idea which is going to help you as we move toward later
lessons.
If at any point in the film or video the audience takes a
moment to ask him or herself, “Did he pick up the glass with
his right or left hand?” you have lost them for that moment
and possibly for the duration of the show. A director’s job is to
create such a dy-namic story that continuity errors will not break
the suspension of belief, which is part of the contract be-tween
the audience and the screen. This is what edi-tors mean when
they say they try to achieve a “seamless picture.”
There are occasions where continuity errors are acceptable.
Sometimes it is more important to make a cut for performance,
pace, and/or emotional kick than it is to attempt to correct a
continuity error. The director and editor make the judgment call
in the edit-ing room as to the gravity of a continuity error. If a
script supervisor can work with the director, DP, and actors
during the shoot to guarantee seamlessness, then the effort to
make a good cut will be less of a struggle.
Script supervision may seem like a luxury, but besides fulfilling
her duties on set, which are numer-ous and take great skill of
observation, there is one other aspect to the position that is of
great help to the director and D P. At the beginning of the
shooting day, after a run-through for blocking and lighting, the
director will conference with the DP and script su-pervisor on
the coverage they will shoot to record and develop the scene.
The script supervisor not only makes notes and suggestions,
but also may often assist in organizing the coverage to reflect
editing style and schedule as well as continuity.
It is the script supervisor to whom the director turns after every
shot and asks, “What are we going to cut to, and what are we
cutting from?”
Here are some examples of script supervision editing reminders:
OVERLAP THE ACTION. When a character walks to a chair
and sits down, always overlap the action. This means that in a
wide shot, the character walks to the chair and sits. In the tighter
shot of the char-acter sitting, he must sit into the shot, or in
other words, start with a clean frame and let the actor make an
entrance and then sit down. Shooting the scene in this manner
makes a very smooth cut.
EXIT AND LEAVE THE FRAME EMPTY. When an actor or
action exits the frame, let the frame be empty for a few beats.
This gives the editor options in making the next cut.
INSERTS SHOULD BE LOWER AND SLOWER. When
shooting an insert, such as reaching for a glass on a table, shoot
the insert at a slightly lower angle and ask that the actor reach
slowly. This is because the action in the wider shot seems to
take more time, so the low angle and slower motion make a
better match on the insert of the hand reach-ing for and
clutching the glass. Overlap the action by letting the hand enter
the frame, and let the hand with the glass exit the frame before
the director says “Cut. “
FINAL NOTE. It is clear that one of the advantages of
shooting video or using a video tap on a film camera is that the
tape can be reviewed for continu-ity errors. However, the script
supervisor is still an important asset for keeping an exact record
of what was shot.
Producer
Organize
The producer’s responsibility is to ensure that from the
beginning of the shoot, everyone has a precise idea of what
they are supposed to be doing and when and where they are
supposed to be doing it. This re-quires the following:
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•
•
•
•
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•
Clear chain of command
Realistic budget
Day-out-of-day schedule
Enough crew to carry out the director’s visual plan
Secure locations
Call sheets
Daily meal plans
Transportation schedule
Unless the producer is also serving on the crew as the assistant
director, there is no traditional position for him on the set. The
director is in charge of pro-duction, and it is up to the assistant
director to keep the production unit moving in accordance with
the agreed-upon schedule. This allows the producer the
freedom to deal with the problems that inevitably arise during
the course of any shoot. (murphy’s law applies to every aspect
of the picture-making process). The producer becomes
involved with set operations only in special situations, such as
these:
•
•
•
•
The production unit starts to go over schedule
•
•
Keeps on top of daily cash flow
•
•
Deals with schedule changes
The producer is needed as a troubleshooter.
He has to alleviate tension between the director and the DP.
He has to reassure an actor.
During production, the producer keeps a watch on both the
budget and the material to -shoot. This requires that he oversee
all aspects of production. During the shoot, the producer does
the following:
Finalizes location arrangements, transportation plans, and
meal plans
Completes daily production reports
Guidelines
Each shoot presents unique challenges and obstacles. The
producer must be ready to deal with each as it arises. The
following guidelines should help the -novice understand the
producer’s basic priorities that can be applied to any production.
Keep Morale Up
As the producer, you are the head cheerleader and - support
person. You should remain positive and flappable even under
the most trying circumstances. Keep a “happy face,” no matter
what you are thinking or feeling.
Support the Director and the Creative Team
Support the director and the crew by creating a Com-fortable
work environment that includes good food to eat. Production
is stressful and physically demanding work. If the crew
performs well, show your appreciation. Don’t take the crew for
granted; the success, your project rests on their shoulders. If
you treat your crewmembers well, they will be more likely to go
that extra mile for you.
Watch the Budget
The budget dictates what the director can do. You must know
from day to day if the production is on, over, or under budget.
To do this, you must approve of and account for all expenditures and keep track of the daily cash flow-that is, the money
being paid to vendors for food, supplies, or expendables. Keep
a complete itemization of every expenditure and a thor-ough
collection of receipts and bills.
Act as Coordinator
During principal photography, you must see to it that arrangements for locations, transportation, and food are confirmed
and reconfirmed. (Never assume any-thing.) This includes
establishing a regular system of getting the exposed film stock
to the lab. (This is not an issue with video.) You must always
keep ahead of production unit to ensure that each day will go as
planned. During this time, you should also be con-firming the
postproduction arrangements, such as editing space.
If exteriors are planned for the week, keep on top of the
weather forecast. If the forecast is for rain, either have a cover set
ready or assemble proper gear for shooting in the rain, such as
umbrellas and parkas. The actors will need a dry and comfortable place dose to the set.
Keep the Production Moving Ahead
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Always keep the production unit focused on moving ahead.
Don’t let problems interfere with the momen-tum on the set
or with the schedule. Keep problems away from the cast and
crew if possible.
Be a Troubleshooter
You will need to find creative ways to solve problems if you
don’t have the money to do so. There is often a great deal of
satisfaction in “saving the day” and the creative team to
complete photography, by solving a difficult problem with your
head rather than with cash. Some of the potential problem
areas:
SCHEDULE. The key to making the daily schedule is to get the
first shot by a specific time. The depart-ment heads agree to this
time beforehand. If the crew does not complete the shot per
this plan, it not only pushes them back for that day, it inevitably
pushes them back for the entire shoot. They must either make
up the lost time that day or squeeze it into another day. If the
crew is pushed to make up the time, it infringes on proper
turnaround, pushes the next day back, and so forth.
There are several ways to get the crew back on schedule so that
one bad day doesn’t throw off the whole shoot:
•
•
•
the situation quickly.
LOCATION. Losing a location can throw a monkey wrench
into the best-laid plans. If you are prepared with backups, the
loss will be only momentarily disruptive.
TRANSPORTATION. You must carefully monitor and
coordinate key moves from set to set. Travel, even if across the
street, eats some precious time from your shooting schedule.
Company moves must be executed quickly and efficiently.
Safety of the Set
Safety and security are two of the producer’s main concerns
during principal photography. Equipment and personal items
on the set are covered by the com-pany’s umbrella insurance
policy, but these policies come with large deductibles. Follow
these guidelines to reduce the risk of loss or injury:
•
Do not leave equipment or valuables on the set or in a
vehicle unattended.
•
Do not place lighting instruments near pictures, drapes, or
other items that are sensitive to heat.
•
Lighting units must be secured and properly weighted down
with sandbags.
Cut scenes or pages
•
Keep electric cables away from sound cables and water.
Cut shots
Proper Wrap-Out
Collapse several shots into one
All these options must be considered and agreed to in a timely
and calm manner.
It is the producer’s job to serve as a stabilizing in-fluence on
what could be tough decisions for the di-rector and DP.
Compromise is an unfortunate but necessary part of the
process. Having to make changes in the original plan doesn’t
necessarily mean that the original idea is compromised.
Sometimes, the best ideas emerge from economic necessity.
On the basis of your experience with the crew’s pace during the
first few days, you might have to ad-just the schedule. During
the first days, it will become clear whether you have hired the
correct number of crew members. The effective people will
stand out; the slackers will be revealed. It is good to cut the
dead-wood from the crew quickly so as not to slow down
shooting. Finding replacements should not be too difficult if
you kept a list of available crew people.
DEPARTMENT HEADS. There needs to be a cre-ative bond
between all the department heads (cam-era, sound, art department) and the director. If there is tension, it can affect the entire
crew. The director sets the tone and the pace of the production,
and if she is unhappy, dissatisfied, or angry, it will have a ripple
effect on everyone around her. Working on the set is difficult
enough under the most ideal cir-cumstances. Stress and tension
between the key players can drain the energy and enthusiasm
from the best of crews.
If there is a problem with the director’s relation-ship with any
of the department heads, the producer serves as the mediator.
Some personality conflicts you must live with; others you must
confront. For exam-ple, a strong, experienced DP might take
over the set and override an inexperienced director’s designs. If
the DP is slow, you may need to replace him, even if the
material looks terrific. If you have a suitable re-placement, you
might decide to fire the DP. Use your best judgment to resolve
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Make sure you leave each location in as good or bet-ter shape
than when you arrived. One way to allevi-ate a major cleanup is
to lay down plastic or butcher paper where the crew will be
working. If objects, fur-niture, lights, pictures, or knickknacks
have to be moved or put away before the crew can shoot,
some-one (usually a set dresser) should make careful notes of
where these items were, arrange to have there stored properly,
and then return them to the correct place when wrapping out of
the location. It is helpful to record the original layout by taking
Polaroids.
This is proper professional behavior. Keep in mind that you
might need to come back to the loca-tion for additional work or
re shoots. Even if you will never see the owners again, think of
each location as if it were your home. Someone should be
assigned LC keep an eye on what is happening to the location
dur-ing the shoot. Here are a few things to watch out for:
PLACEMENT OF GAFFER’S TAPE. This tape has a tendency
to peel paint off walls. Remove it carefully.
GARBAGE DISPOSAL. A crew can generate a lot of garbage.
Make sure it is packed up and disposed of regularly.
MAJOR CLEANUP. On leaving a location, arrange to have the
area cleaned and, if need be, repainted.
Dailies
While the company shoots, the assistant editor syncs up the
material shot the previous day, whereas videos dailies are
instantly available for viewing and discussions. At wrap, the
editor takes this material to screening room. There she meets
the producer, director, D P, and department heads, and they
screen footage. During the screening, important decisions can be
made about the progress of the project. Should an actor’s hair
be changed? Does the lighting match should a costume be
more distressed?
During dailies screening, the director makes comments to the
editor about the different shots. For example, she might
instruct the editor to use the head one take and the tail of
another, to start it tight reveal the master shot farther into the
scene, or to a specific take because of performance.
Art Direction
Another important department during the shoot is the art
direction
Art Department
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Art Director (AKA Production Designer)
•
Art Director creates the world of the picture, and the DP is
responsible for lighting the world.
Art Director is the person ultimately responsible for the
overall “look” of the picture.
Sets and Locations
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Art Director’s involvement in the search for location is crucial
since she will have to transform these spaces into the world
as defined by the director’s vision of the script.
Benefit of shooting on a set is that it is a camera-friendly
environment. A set can be designed for flexibility, ease of
manipulation, and good camera angles, and it imposes none
of the constraints of a “real” location.
Working with DP
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Consult the actors to understand the character
Thrift shops are good sources of costumes
Duplicate the costumes
Consider the continuity and script time
Makeup and Hair
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Basic skin-toned makeup called pancake, which is spread
evenly over the face and hands.
•
A typical production problem involves a character who has a
“change of look” in the story.
History of Set Decoration
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Until 1941, there was no category for this demanding job.
Since 1955, identical Oscar statuettes are given to the art
director and the set decorator for the film winning the Art
Direction Award.
Environments where cameras may be set up include:
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in a studio
on location - interior
on location - exterior
day
night
Set Dressing
Shoots may include:
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The location and their details set a tone for the film.
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Set dressing is everything that is placed on the set.
They can help tell the story and convey a great deal of
information about the characters.
Set dressing does not include smaller items, such as guns,
canes, lighters, or rings, used specifically by the actors. They
are props.
Duplicate Set Items and Props
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Items are to be destroyed, distressed, or consumed during
the course of shooting a sequence.
•
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The property master is responsible for all the props.
•
Most property masters own a kit or box of common props.
This is called a box rental.
•
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Food is also a prop
A prop is a movable object, used by an actor, integral to the
story.
The set decorator and the property master have overlapping
areas of responsibility.
Ex) Consider the wedding reception where the decorator has
coordinated the decorations and table settings. The food,
drinks, and caterer are the domain of the property master.
Ex) Imagine the possibility of the deceased wife’s picture in our
hero’s wallet not matching the framed photo of her on the
desk.
Wardrobe
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•
The costumer, or wardrobe designer, works with the art
director.
What each actor wears provides worlds of information about
the character he portrays.
single
multi camera
Types of production include:
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electronic field production (EFP)
•
live or prerecorded television productions
electronic news gathering (ENG)
feature films
documentaries
short films
animated productions
commercials
filmed events or performances
music video
television productions of any type, eg music, drama, comedy,
variety, sport
Film gauges may include:
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super 16mm
16mm
35mm
65mm
Equipment and accessories may include:
•
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Arriflex
Bolex
Aaton
IMAX
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Panavision
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•
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•
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video split monitor
cables
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mounts
Relevant personnel may include:
filters
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video split monitor
lenses:
lens hood
lens filters
matte box
lens support
Betacam
Betacam SP
Digital betacam
1 inch tube
2/3 inch tube
2/3 inch CCD in both large format and portable
configuration
lighting kit
lighting bulbs
lights
filter wheel
viewfinders
diopter
zoom demands
focus demands
shot boxes
cue cardholders
headphones
autocue monitor
talkback
tallies and return video
Video camera may:
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be manually controlled
be computer controlled
combine camera and recorder function
separate the camera function from record function
Operation of camera may include:
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hand held operation
fixed/supported camera
zoom lens
Power sources may include:
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mains power
generators
batteries
Requirements for the shoot may include:
•
specific lighting conditions
4 2
technical
creative
supervisor
head of department
director of photography
director
camera operator
focus puller
gaffer
lighting personnel
technical director
other technical staff
other specialist staff
floor manager
safety officer
Notes :
LESSON 6:
PRODUCTION SOUND
You would study the details of sound, the production,
reproduction and the other technical aspects in the next
semester. Here in this lesson we try to see where the production
sound team fits in, in the production process and what are the
essentials to be kept in mind while doing sound. There has
been a tendency of not giving as much importance to sound as
one gives to the visuals. Many filmmakers now realize the
importance of good production sound and people have
starting devoting lot of time to their film sound track.
Director
Record Clean Tracks
During the past 25 years, the processing and trans-mission of
sound to film audiences have undergone a radical evolution.
Today, projection sound systems such as THX@, Dolby@,
Domino@, and Surround Sound@ have heightened the aural
dynamic of the film experience. Digital sound reproduction is
drastically changing the way audiences hear sound tracks in
the-aters. However, with everything that can now be done in
postproduction to process and deliver a com-plex and exciting
sound track, the most important step in this chain is still the
first one: the recording of good, clean sounds during principal
photography.
Film- and video makers have a wide range of op-tions for
recording audio. When shooting video, sound is recorded right
on the videotape in the cam-corder. Different video formats
have different audio capabilities. Some record digital audio,
some analog, and some combine both technologies. For film
shoots, until the mid-1990s, most professional production
sound mixers used analog tape recorders with 1/4" tape. The
Nagra recorder was the industry standard. These recorders are
still used, but newer digital for-mats including DAT (digital
audiotape) have replaced them in the professional market. Lot
of directors now prefer using a DAT recorder even for a video
shoot.
Although the tools have changed, the process of recording
sound has remained basically the same. These new recording
devices can’t perform magic. If the microphone is not placed
properly in a dialogue scene, there is no recorder (analog or
digital) that will deliver a clear rendition of the actor’s voice.
UNIT 6
PRODUCTION SOUND
microphone for quality and purity of the sound. You would
have a separate subject on sound next semester but we start
with a few basics here.
Although all sounds, including dialogue, can be recreated
during the postproduction process, it is eco-nomically and
aesthetically best to record as much of the dialogue and natural
ambience as possible at the location during principal photography.
Dialogue can be replaced during postproduction with a process
called automatic dialogue replacement (ADR), but ADR can be
time-consuming, costly, and problematic, especially for the
beginner. It requires that the actors report to a studio months
after the shoot to duplicate their original performances line by
line. Even having to duplicate unique sounds from a particular
location can be a problem.
Aesthetically, the dialogue recorded on the set is usually the best
representation of each scene. There might be interference, of
course. Unavoidable noises from traffic or airplanes might make
it impossible to record clean dialogue.
In the long run, the production sound mixer can save the
production time and money by delivering an accurate rendition
of the production dialogue. A little extra time setting up a
microphone or stopping an annoying sound can save thousands, of Rupees in postproduction.
Along with a mastery of his craft, the production sound mixer
should have a thorough understanding of the postproduction
process-that is, what happens to the sounds after they are
recorded in production. Being aware of what can be accomplished in postpro-duction gives the production sound mixer a
proper context for judging the work he must do and for
properly evaluating the sounds he must sometimes fight for in
order to record clearly. See the figure below.
Production Sound
The sound recorded on the set, called production sound, is an
extremely important aspect of your short film or video, and it
should be examined, recorded, and mixed with the same care
and enthusiasm given to the visuals. Production sound consists
of dialogue, the natural sounds associated with each scene, and
any other sounds that might be of value during the
postproduction process. The person responsible for recording
production sound is the production sound mixer because she
controls, or mixes, the levels of the dialogue spoken on the set.
Equally important is the boom operator, who positions the
It is important to pick up wild sounds on location. Photo from
the filming of Truman.
4 3
The production sound mixer must also have a clear understanding of all the crafts that interact with his, such as camera,
lighting, and grip. He needs to find a way to achieve the best
sound possible within the limitations of each lens choice,
camera move, or lighting setup.
Sound Preparation
Just as the director and the director of photography (DP) pre
visualize the picture, the director and the sound person
“preaudiolize” the sounds. This re-quires reading and breaking
down the script from the sound perspective: how much
dialogue, how many characters, the nature of the locations, any
extra sounds that must be recorded. The script usually re-veals
many of the challenges for the production sound mixer. Often,
a bit of business or a joke relies on the presence of a sound, or
at least the cue of a sound that will be added to the picture in
postproduction, such as a gunshot, a doorbell, or the sound of
screeching brakes.
Location Scout
Having “preaudiolized” the project’s sound require-ments, the
production sound mixer should visit the lo-cations next.
Walking through the actual spaces in advance will reveal any
inherent sound problems that the production sound mixer
must deal with before the start of principal photography. The
one location choice that has no inherent sound problems is a
sound stage, which is a soundproof environment. The only
noises you should hear there are the actors’ voices.
When visiting a site, the production sound mixer needs to
consider the following:
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How large is the space?
•
Can a loud refrigerator or air conditioning sys-tem be shut
down?
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Can neighbors be controlled?
•
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Will sound blankets solve the noise problems? .
What are the acoustics of the space? (Hard sur-faces reflect
sound.)
Are key windows right above traffic noise?
If the location is near an airport, what are the air traffic
patterns?
What time of day will the shooting occur, and how is the
local traffic at that time?
Production teams often scout locations on week-ends when it is
quiet and peaceful. Then the crew shows up to shoot on a
Monday, and the street activity makes the noise level inside
impossible for sound recording. Therefore, it is highly advised
that you scout the location on the day of the week and at the
approximate time that you’ll want to shoot.
The location manager can research any street maintenance
scheduled to take place in and around your location during the
time of the shoot. Many un-fortunate crews have found their
supposedly quiet neighborhood suddenly invaded by a team of
con-struction workers and their equipment. Once they get
started, there is nothing you can do about the noises
Be sure to listen for planes. If a location is on a flight path, the
production sound mixer will be hard pressed to record clean
sound.
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If recording clean dialogue in a particular loca-tion appears to be
impossible, the production man-ager should be notified about
the problem and asked if it’s possible to look for another
location that is more “sound-friendly.” If the location is locked,
the mixer will have to do the best he can.
It’s possible that the production sound mixer might walk onto
the set for the first time on the first day of principal photography, whereas the director has visited it many times. In this case,
the production sound mixer must play catch-up.
Responsibilities of the Sound Team
The following are the basic responsibilities of the film sound
team:
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•
•
Record “clean” dialogue
•
•
•
Record additional sounds
Match sound perspective with camera angle
Record sound effects to accompany the shot. Record room
tone
Record the scene so it will cut smoothly (sound consistency)
Keep accurate sound reports
Dialogue
The production sound mixer’s primary responsibility is to
record all the dialogue spoken on the set clean that is, unencumbered by any other ambient sounds connected with the shot.
Just as the DP is responsible for focus and proper exposure, the
production sound mixer strives to record dialogue at consistent
levels that can be replayed clearly. A great effort is ex-pended to
create magic on the set, and it should be recorded properly. You
can’t duplicate a magical per-formance in a postproduction
sound studio.
If it is impossible to record the dialogue clean, the sound team
records it dirty- that is, cluttered with the overbearing sounds of
airplanes, cars, or ocean surf in the background. Although
unusable as the final product, this recording is used as a
reference, or guide track, in the editing room for both cutting
and ADR work.
Perspective
An important goal of recording dialogue is that it should be
consistent with the point of view of the camera and from the
perspective of the lens used for the shot. If the camera sees the
action from across a room, the sound should approximate that
visual per-spective and should sound somewhat distant. In a
close-up, the sound should have an intimate, almost overbearing presence. Ideally, viewers should hear the sound from the
same point of view from which they see the visuals. Of course,
there are times when it’s necessary to sacrifice perspective,
especially if proper perspective means that the dialogue will not
be heard. There are times when the camera is so far away from
the action that performers can -only be recorded if their voices
are transmitted to a receiver from mi-crophones concealed in
their clothing. An example of this is a scene shot with a long
lens of a couple walk-ing along a beach. The audience sees the
couple from a distance but hears them as if they were right
there. To help correct this “unnatural” perspective, sound effects
of waves, seabirds, and wind can be added during
postproduction
Sound Effects
The production sound mixer should capture during production
as many of the ambient sounds and live effects connected with
the shot as possible. Examples are footsteps, rustling clothes,
and slamming doors. These extra sounds should be properly
slated and la-beled for future reference. They will be mixed in
sep-arately during postproduction.
For example, in a bar scene, after the principal photography is
completed or before the extras are dismissed, the production
sound mixer should ask the assistant director for a short
recording session in which the crowd chats, drinks, sings, and
cheers as though it were in a real bar. Two minutes of this
sound will furnish the sound effects editor with ample material
to create a full bar atmosphere. Because the main dialogue is
recorded while the crowd is silent, the editor will have the
dialogue and the background sounds on two different tracks,
giving her complete control over volume levels.
number, timecode start and stop, scene number or content, and
any notes about whether the take was good or bad. Also
information about sound is recorded on what track may be
noted down. There are elec-tronic devices such as the Shot
Logger, a handheld computer that allows information,
including time-code start and stop, to be later uploaded to a
nonlinear editing machine.
Room Tone
If you stand on a set and ask everyone to be still and quiet, the
silence you will hear is room tone. The sound team should
record 60 seconds of room tone from each set before leaving
the location. It is impor-tant that the tone be recorded with the
lights on and the full cast and crew on the set, with the same
micro-phone that was used to record the dialogue and at the
same levels. The AD will ask everyone to freeze in his or her
place for one minute. These 60 seconds of tone can then be
copied and used in postproduction to fill in holes and smooth
out the dialogue tracks when preparing for the mix. If it is
difficult to get the cast and crew to stand around at the end of a
sequence, record the room tone before the first take of the day.
It is also suggested that you record the hum of a refrigerator,
fluorescent lights, or other equipment separately. This gives the
editor freedom to add that ambient sound during the editing
process.
Additional Sounds
Supplementary sound effects should be recorded and delivered
to the editing room. If the crew is shooting in an interesting
location, especially if it is distant, the sound team should record
any particular sound that is unique to that area. It saves time
and money to record additional sounds during the shoot,
rather than having to come back later. During the shoot, for
example, if the production sound mixer knows that a school is
near the location, he might go to the schoolyard and record
children at play.
These sounds might be used for background am-bience, or they
might not. Regardless, they give the sound editor a variety of
choices and might even stim-ulate other sound ideas during
postproduction.
Sound Reports
The production sound mixer should take clear and comprehensive notes of the dialogue recorded on the set and the “wild
sounds” recorded on or off the set. He should confer with the
script supervisor or assis-tant camera operator for the scene
numbers and the director’s comments. These notes, called a
sound re-port.
For video shoots, someone may be assigned to keep logs of
each take using a simple log form with columns indicating tape
Consistency in Sound Recording
The production sound mixer’s goal is record sound consistently
from shot to shot. Audiences expect the sound quality of a
motion picture or video to flow seamlessly and continuously. It
does not matter to an audience that the final sound track was
constructed out of numerous camera angles and takes, shot
over a wide expanse of time. On screen, it becomes one
con-tinuous mise en scene. The realistic consistency or continuity of the final sound track is the goal of the entire production
and postproduction sound team. It all starts with the production sound mixer. The pro-duction sound mixer must be
concerned with:
•
•
•
Consistency within the shot
Consistency within shots within the scene .
Consistency between scenes
Within the shot, levels should remain relatively constant
between actors and also between back-ground ambience. Actors
are not expected to match each other in terms of recording
levels; variations are normal. But their levels should match
themselves. As they speak, the actor’s audio should appear
some-what constant. There should be no unwarranted sud-den
changes in volume, except when justified by dramatic intent.
In addition to the actors, the production sound mixer should
be mindful of background noise. The side effect of continually
adjusting the level of the mics to balance the level of the actors
may result in the background noise bouncing up and down.
The problem can be avoided by taking advantage of the acoustic
properties of the mics in order to control the relative levels of
the dialogue by positioning and an-gling the microphone rather
than by electronically ad-justing the gain (volume) at the
recorder or mixing panel. This is why the boom operator is
such an im-portant player and why he should be provided with
a good headphone.
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When the camera changes angle, the mixer must be especially
attentive that the levels of the new shot match and be
intercuttable with the previous angles. Minor changes in angle
do not motivate drastic changes in audio. Panning or cutting
from one close-up to another of two people standing and
talking does not constitute a major perspective change. Lev-els
and background are expected to remain constant. However,
when you move the microphone for a close-up, readjust the
volume so that the actor’s voice remains constant with the rest
of the sequence. A character’s audio should be somewhat
constant throughout the course of the scene, even as the shot
changes from wide shot to medium to close-ups. If you close
your eyes, the changes in audio from shot to shot should not
sound unnatural or unexpected.
Not only does sound need to be consistent within a shot and
from shot to shot, but also since this footage will be integrated
during editing, the sound must match up when scenes cut with
other scenes. Throughout the duration of the production, try
to es-tablish and then maintain relative audio levels for all your
characters. Of course, there are going to be some changes in the
audio levels. The nature of production is such that we can’t
always control things as much as we like, such as mic placement
and background am-biance. The idea, though, is to try and keep
the changes in levels minimal and inconspicuous as we can
when we record them and then to fix them during
postproduction.
Playback/Music Video
When examining the script, the production sound mixer looks
for any situation that might require un-usual equipment such as
radio microphones or a play-back machine. The latter is
necessary when actors must sing, dance, or otherwise respond
on the set to previously recorded music. Because this music will
be used later in the film or video, it must be recorded with
reference pilot tone or SMPTE time code, so it can be later
synchronized with the picture. Unless the sound person is
familiar with handling playback du-ties, he may need to bring in
a specialist on days when playback is required.
If you are planning to shoot a music video, the music will come
to you on tape, CD, or other format. During the shooting of
the “video,” the band will lip sync with the song. The production sound mixer is re-sponsible for playing back the song.
Shooting a music video with video cameras is fairly straightforward. As long as the playback is on a stable, speed-controlled
format such as DAT, the singers’ mouth movements captured
on video should match up to the song in postproduction.
Some video cameras may drift slightly in speed. A timecode or
sync generator may be used to keep the audio playback and
camera locked together Even without it, if shots are kept short,
they probably won’t reveal noticeable sync drift.
Shooting with a film camera for release on video is slightly more
complicated as the film runs at 24fps and PAL video 25fps. No
need to worry about these now you will go into these details
later in your course.
Set Procedure
On the day of the shoot, the first step for the production
sound mixer is to decide where to place the recorder. It is best
to be on the edge of the set, close enough to see and hear what
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is happening, but away from the traffic of lights and grip
equipment. Careful attention must be paid to positioning the
microphone cables. At no time should an electric cable and a
mi-crophone cable be parallel to one another. Electric current can
induce hum into the signal in the microphone, cable, making it
impossible to record clean sound.
The next step is to decide how many microphone to use, what
specific kinds to use, and where to place them. A production
sound mixer is only as good as the sound coming from his
microphones. Choosing the type of microphone to use and
where to place are important parts of clean dialogue recording.
Much of sound recording involves “riding lev-els,” which
means leveling out the extremes of performance and balancing
multiple characters. For example, the production sound mixer
might have to handle dialogue between one actor who speaks
softly and another who bellows.
Balancing these two performances is part of the mixing. It also
requires maintaining consistent sound among the different
takes of the same scene. If you have already shot the master of
a scene and the background ambience is clean but a plane flies
over when you shoot the close-up, you should redo the closeup to match the background of the long shot.
There are many variables in recording, and be-fore making any
decisions, the production sound mixer and the boom operator
must watch a rehearsal of the scene (this is important for the
sound and cam-era team). Knowing where actors will be
positioned and how they will move allows the production
sound team to make informed decisions. They must be able ill
see what the camera is seeing in order to keep mics safely away
from the frame line. This is accomplished by looking through
the camera’s viewfinder.
Once the microphones are positioned, there should be a final
rehearsal to enable the production sound mixer to adjust for
proper recording levels. Ac-tors should speak at the level they
will be projecting during the actual take. The mixer should do a
test that can be erased when you start recording for real. Now
the production sound mixer is ready for the take.
Basic Attitude on the Set
The production sound mixer’s ability to record the best sound
possible in any situation depends on her ability to communicate
properly with the DP and the director. She must know when to
fight for another take and when to let it go. The production
sound mixer should be assertive regarding her needs.
In addition, the production sound mixer must be sensitive to
the needs of the actors. She must use the utmost tact and grace
when placing microphones on the performers. Working with
actors who mumble or shout can also be problematic. If this is
the case, the production sound mixer should request the
director to ask the actor to speak more softly or loudly.
Communication with Boom Operator
Ultimately, the recording of quality production sound relies on
successful teamwork between the produc-tion sound mixer and
the boom operator. The mixer is not a magician; she can only
record sound that is properly mic’d. Because they usually work
at a dis-tance from one another, they need to develop a
short-hand communication that enables them to work quietly
and efficiently. The sound team also needs to be able to
communicate effectively and unobtrusively with the camera
operator regarding the microphone’s relationship with the
frame line. To avoid having the mic accidentally appear in the
frame during a shot, the sound and camera teams should
rehearse each shot, especially if any camera move is planned.
Students: Hard as it can be to find a production sound mixer
for a student shoot, it is equally difficult to find a boom
operator. The boom operator is usually some PA who is not
doing something else, or someone’s best friend who is visiting
the set. These are hardly the proper criteria for this important
crew position. If a novice boom operator is recruited, it is
recommended that the production sound mixer spend quality
time before the shoot to rehearse proper boom techniques.
Don’t wait until the first real take!
A cable operator might be required if the shot calls for camera
movement. This crewmember keeps the microphone cables
clear of the camera, grip, and electric equipment, while the boom
operator concen-trates on following the action. The movement
of the microphone cable might cause a rustling noise on the
track, so it must be handled carefully.
Approaches to Recording Sound
The production sound mixer has four tools with which to
record sound:
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•
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•
Boom
Plant
Lavaliere
Radio microphone
Boom
Using a boom is, in most cases, the best way to record dialogue.
Boom is a generic term for any long pole with a microphone
attached to the end of it that is used to record dialogue. It
might be a complicated unit called a Fisher boom, which uses a
pulley system to expand and contract, or a variable-length pole
called a fishpole, with the microphone attached to a movable
“shock mount” at the end. The latter is most common.
Fishpoles usually run from 12 to 18 feet in length and are rigid
enough not to bend at full extension. (You don’t want the
microphone to dip into the shot.) The boom is used to
position the microphone close to the scene to record dialogue
between several actors si-multaneously. The mount allows the
boom operator to manipulate the microphone from one actor
to an-other during the scene, depending on who is deliver-ing
lines. Because it is a mobile unit, the boom operator can follow
moving action at a safe distance from the camera and still be
close enough to pick up a clean signal from the actors.
The boom is usually held still and secure above the frame line
and has a directional microphone pointed down at the actors.
(Microphones can be an-gled up toward the actor’s mouth as
well.) Boom movement should be practiced during rehearsals
not only for sound quality, but also to avoid having the
microphone, interfere visually with the camera’s frame line or to
create unwanted shadows as it passes under lights.
During exterior shoots, a blimp-type windscreen is required to
reduce the wind sounds the microphone picks up. Even when
shooting interiors, always use a slip-on foam windscreen
because some microphones are sensitive to even the most
minute air movements. The boom operator should use a set of
head-phones to monitor what is being recorded. The
pro-duction sound mixer can give direction and speak to the
boom operator through the headphones. This way, the
production sound mixer doesn’t have to shout to the boom
operator.
The production sound mixer needs to be quick in a reallocation.
Photo from the filming of The Lunch Date.
Documentary sound crews usually do not have a separate boom
operator. The production sound mixer acts as a self-contained
sound recording unit. He does not have to be positioned far
from the action and can easily handle the levels and position the
microphone at the same time.
Plants/Stash
Plants or stash are microphones that are not mobile; they are
“planted or stashed” in a fixed location for the duration of the
scene. For example, they might be used to pick up the voice of
an actor who is too far away from the boom. They need to be
hidden from the view of the camera. They can be taped or
mounted in doorways, on bed headboards, behind pictures,
under chairs, in flowerpots, and so on.
Lavaliere
This small, lightweight, omni directional microphone is pinned
under an actor’s clothing or taped to the body. It must be
carefully placed so as not to pick up the rustle of clothing as the
actor moves, and it must be rechecked constantly in case it
becomes dislodged as a result of constant movement or
moisture (if taped).
Lavalieres are effective microphones if the actor remains fairly
stationary during a take, but if the actor is required to walk,
dragging the microphone cable might be awkward. A radio
microphone might be needed in this case. Lavalieres are often
used when interviewing subjects for documentaries
Radio Microphones
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Radio microphones are used to cover hard-to-reach areas, such
as a wide shot of a couple talking on a beach. If the actors are
far from the reach of a boom, a plant, or a lavaliere, a radio
microphone might be your only option. These microphones are
attached to the body like a lavaliere, but they transmit the signal
from a radio transmitter to a receiver. The basic prob-lem with
radio microphones is that they are apt to pick up other frequencies, such as police car or taxi transmissions, that interfere with
your sound. They are expensive to rent and have the same
inherent problems as lavalieres.
Variables for Placing Microphones
The placement and use of the different microphones depend
on the many variables of a particular scene. Evaluate the scene
first, and then work with the fol-lowing considerations:
THE DIRECTOR’S VISION. Who and what does the director
want to hear in the shot? Start with this as the basic premise of
every decision.
PLACEMENT AND BLOCKING OF ACTORS. How much
does an actor move in the shot? An actor pacing in the frame
must be microphoned differently than one sitting still. A boom
or two separate microphones might be necessary to record the
sequence.
PLACEMENT OF CAMERA. How far away is the camera
from the action of the scene? This defines how close you can
get with a microphone. If the most directional microphone is
unrealistic, mics are then “stashed” within the frame of the
master shot closer to the action.
SIZE AND COMPOSITION OF SHOT. What is the lens
seeing? This affects a number of things. How close to the actor
can the microphone on the boom be positioned without
slipping into the frame line? The boom operator must be
keenly aware of the frame line at all times. He should rehearse
with the camera operator before the final rehearsal with the
actors. Both the camera operator and the boom operator must
be consistent in their moves.
The size of the shot also affects the visibility of a lavaliere or
radio microphone. A very tight shot of an actor will require that
the microphone be more carefully disguised than in a long shot.
LIGHTING OF SHOT. The lighting plan can cause problems
if the sound boom creates a shadow that can be seen in the
frame. During the lighting setup, any boom shadows should be
dealt with before the lights are fixed with the use of flags and
cutters on the lights. During the shoot, the elimi-nation of
boom shadows must be a coordinated effort between the
boom and camera operators.
MOVEMENT OF SHOT. If a dolly is used for a shot, the
boom operator must rehearse her actions around those of the
dolly. A production assistant or cable operator might be needed
to keep the micro-phone cable free from the path of the dolly
and clear of the electric cables. The mixer also needs to avoid
picking up the sound created by the dolly.
ACOUSTICS AT LOCATION. The production sound mixer
might need to position the microphone away from disruptive
sounds to minimize their pres-ence on the track. Common
troublemakers are refrig-erators, air conditioners, fluorescent
lights, traffic noise from the windows, and natural echoes in the
location. Sound blankets might also be required to eliminate or
at least lessen the problem.
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Sound blankets can be used in a variety of ways to deaden the
sound of “live” rooms by baffling the reflective sound echoes
caused by hard floors, ceilings, walls, and windows. Sound
blankets are heavy mov-ing blankets, preferably with a white
side and a dark gray or black side and grommets for hanging.
They can be taped to walls, hung from C-stands and over
windows, or even draped over refrigerators and air conditioning
units to create a quieter environment.
CAMERA NOISE. Although 16mm sync cameras are designed
to run quietly, often a camera leaks noise during a take. This is
most noticeable when shooting interiors in a confined space.
Blimping, or creating a soundproof housing for the camera,
might reduce the noise that emanates from the lens mount,
magazine, or body of the camera. (This is the AC’s job.) This
muffling can be accomplished with a blimp or barney, which is a
jacket that is specially designed for the camera. You can create
your own blimp with anything that will deaden the camera
noise, such as a changing bag, foam rubber, or a coat or jacket.
One way of cutting down on camera noise is to position the
camera as far away from the micro-phone as possible during the
take. A small amount of camera noise can usually be camouflaged by the other sounds or music that will inevitably be
mixed in during postproduction. This is a good example of
why the production sound mixer must understand what
happens during postproduction to be able to effectively evaluate
the sounds recorded on the set.
Recording Concerns
One of the differences between how sound and film images are
recorded is that you can immediately hear a sound take played
back on the set. Video has this advantage as well, but film must
be sent to a lab to be processed. With the sound, if there is any
question of quality, the director can listen to a take with the
head-phones on to decide whether she wants to do the shot
over for sound or performance.
The director will ask whether a take is good for camera and
whether it is good for sound. Camera will be first on the list.
Asking for another take because of sound problems is a
judgment call the director makes after listening to the track.
Many sound problems can be addressed in postproduction,
whereas picture problems must always be addressed on the set.
Pickups
If only a small section of a take is ruined because of extraneous
sounds, it might not be necessary to do the complete take again.
You might be able to “pick up” the section of the take that was
spoiled. In a pinch., the sound can be also taken “wild” (audio
recording only) and matched to the picture in postproduction.
If the day has been fraught with sound problems holding a
makeshift ADR session in a quiet room after the day’s work can
save a lot of money. If it is impossible to do it right after the
scene is shot, have the actors come to the quiet area when they
get out makeup and costume. After the actors listen to the
performance on headphones, they repeat the origin -dialogue
for the production sound mixer. This mate-rial will most likely
match well with the actor’s lips in the editing room. If it does
not, with some minor ad-justing (stretching and shrinking), the
new material can be made to fit. This method is most successful
when used in wide shots when it is more difficult to see the
actor’s mouths.
Keeping It Clean
Be aware of actors who step on one another’s lines. This is
called overlapping. If two sounds are already blended on the
track, they can never be controlled s-eparately. They will be
married forever. Record dialogue that can later be controlled in
the editing room. In a single shot in which an off-camera actor
has lines, he should make sure there is a pause between -the oncamera actor’s line and his own line. Recording separately, or
with a pause, lines can be manipulated in the editing room to
create overlaps, but the editor -will be able to control each voice.
If the director wants the lines overlapped for dramatic purpose,
the off-camera dialogue should be microphoned as well. If the
scene is a wide shot. Over -lapping lines may be an integral part
of the drama.
Difficult Situations
The production sound mixer might not be able to achieve clean
sound on a difficult set or location. -Planes traveling overhead
will destroy a sound locations, such as Grand Central Station,
are too busy to control. If the company is on a flight path
where waiting for good sound translates to little or no photography, the director will have to bite the bullet and plan for ADR
work. However, it is still important- record production
dialogue. It can be used as guide track for editing purposes and
as a reference for the actors when they perform the lines during
the ADR session. Clean ambience (background sound) should
also be taken to mix or blend with the lines that will inevitably
be recorded later.
(transfer) the tape dur-ing editing to a four-channel format, and
then release in six -channel DVD.
Most camcorders have microphones built into the camera.
These are simple and convenient, but may result in inferior
sound because the microphone is too far from the source for
optimum recording. Professional-quality sound can be achieved
by using separate mics that are placed closer to the subject.
These may be fed to the camcorder or VTR through a cable or
wireless transmitter. When there is a pro-duction sound mixer
on the crew, the mics are often fed to a mixer, which allows easy
monitoring of sound levels and blending of multiple mics.
Video sound crews vary according to the com-plexity of the
production (how many characters have to be recorded in a
sequence) and whether it is a lo-cation shoot or a studio shoot.
A single-camera setup in the field might need only a one-person
crew to op-erate the videotape recorder, mix the incoming
mi-crophone levels, and hold the boom. A scene with many
characters requires a boom operator and a pro-duction sound
mixer with a mixing unit that has any-where from two to 12
inputs. A studio shoot with multiple cameras for one scene
might use a mixing console of up to 18 tracks.
When shooting video, the choice of camcorder or VTR format
is usually driven by picture needs, but these decisions will clearly
have an impact on sound as well. In selecting a system, review
these considerations:
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How many audio tracks do you need?
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Can you use external mics?
Crowd Scenes
To record clean sound in a crowded bar sequence, assistant
director instructs the background extras to mime speech and the
clinking of glasses. This means that during the take, the
background actors move their lips, but utter no sound. They
raise their glasses but do not let the glasses touch. They dance to
a predetermined rhythm, but there is no music playing. These
sounds are added later.
This allows the dialogue recorded on the set to be clean. It will
not have any dirty crowd noise to fight the dialogue. To
maintain the illusion, the speaking actors must project their
voices as if they were fighting the din of the crowd and the
music. (To help the actors with this, it is good to rehearse the
scene with the full- background noise.) This way, when the three
sound tracks-dialogue, music, and background noise-are
married in the mix, the volume of each Tack can be controlled
separately. The scene will sound natural, and the dialogue will
come through so that the audience can understand it.
Video Sound
Most video sound recording is done single system with the
sound recorded right on the videotape (there are situations
when audio is recorded separately). Dif-ferent tape formats have
different configurations of sound tracks, but most allow for
stereo recording (two channels: left and right). Formats that
allow you to record four separate tracks will give you flexibility
in production, since you can assign different microphones to
different channels. One of the virtues of video is that is
generally easy to transfer the project from one video format to
another. One could shoot with a Hi-8 camera, bump up
Does the camcorder allow manual adjustments of audio
levels?
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Are there professional mic connectors (such as XLR), or will
you need adaptors?
•
If you are working with a production sound mixer, will you
need a mixing console so she can control levels?
Most professional camcorders give you a choice between manual
control of audio levels and automatic. Many consumer models
only have auto-matic control, which is convenient but may
result in inferior recordings. Whenever possible, choose a
cam-corder that offers the option of manual level control. Also,
the consumer shotgun microphone that comes with the camera
will usually sound fine, but plugging in a non-professional mic
may result in a lot of buzz, hum, and lower audio levels. Make
sure to plan and test your video sound recording system well in
advance. You want the advantages that video can offer without
having to compromise when it comes to the quality of the
audio.
Documentary
Documentary crews are small and mobile. The pro-duction
sound mixer and boom operator are usually the same person.
She must be adept at booming, mixing (if additional microphones are used), and oper-ating the recorder simultaneously.
In upstaged docu-mentary shooting for film, it is important
that the production mixer be ready to roll at a moment’s
no-tice. If shooting is imminent, the recorder should be put on
“standby” position and the recording level should be set. If the
scene looks interesting, the mixer should not hesitate to roll
4 9
sound. Tape is inexpensive. If the scene does not pan out,
simply say, “No shot.”
Producer Control Environment
Because one of the producer’s major concerns is man-aging the
budget, anything that contributes to saving time and money
will get his attention. In the area of sound recording, hiring a
skilled production sound mixer and boom operator is the first
step. Be sure the production sound mixer knows that his main
concern is recording clean production dialogue.
Other than this, the following are the areas the producer must
focus on:
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Ensuring that the equipment needs of the pro-duction are
fulfilled (recording devices, micro-phones, sound tape, etc.)
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Getting the best deals possible on the rental equipment
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Ensuring proper care of the equipment
Guaranteeing that all locations are “sound- friendly”
Asking the production sound mixer to capture sufficient
ambient and interesting sound effects from each location
Equipment needs for the Shoot
Once he understands the demands of the script and the
locations, the production sound mixer can de-velop an accurate
list of his equipment needs. These might include some of the
following tools:
Film
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DAT or Nagra
Portable mixer
Assorted microphones
Headphones (2 or 3 sets)
Microphone cables
A key piece of equipment for recording sound for film or video
(when recording audio separately) used to be the Nagra tape
recorder. This analog recording device was the most popular
choice for documentary as well as narrative filmmaking and was
the work-horse in the motion picture industry for more than 30
years. I was invented in Switzerland in the early sixties by Polish
inventor Stephan Kudelski. The word nagra means “it will
record” in Polish. The Nagra records all the sounds during the
shoot onto 1/4" tape. Record sound that can be synchronized
with the picture later, a 50-Hz sync pulse (60Hz in the US) is
recorded onto the center of the tape while the live sound is
being corded. Meanwhile, the camera is running, through crystal
motor, at a speed of precisely 24 frames per second (fps). When
the 1/4" tape is later transferred to magnetic track, the sound is
resolved to run at precisely 24 fps, allowing the sound and
picture to be joined in unison for perfect sync.
Digital recorders have now taken over as the in-dustry standard.
They offer high quality in a small light package and have had a
huge impact on video and film production. There are many
types of digital recorders used for field production. These
include cassette tape formats such as DAT; open reel tape
recorders such as the Nagra D; disk recorders such as Deva,
which record on hard drives and many other.
Compared to analog tape recorders, digital tape machines
provide longer continuous recording on a smaller tape. The
DAT (Digital Au-diotape) cassette is small enough to fit in a
shirt. Most DAT and other digital formats have very accurate
speed control and can be used for film and video work with no
additional modifications. Many consumer DAT machines do
not use time code. Higher end recorders have built in preamps
and time code capability. In this category, the Fostex PD-4 is one
of the most com-monly used timecode DAT machines
currently in use.
Extra batteries
Tape stock
Shock mounts
Slip-on windscreen
Sound blankets
Blimp-type windscreen
Boom pole
Mounting clips
Video
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Shotgun (hyper-cardioid) mic
Lavalier mic, assorted clips
Wireless transmitter and receiver
Fishpole mic boom with shock mount
Zeppelin windscreen
Field mixer
Headphones
Tascam DA-Pl. Portable DAT recording —machine.
DAT recorders employ a technology that dupli-cates a “clean”
sound devoid of hiss or sound buildup. There is no generation
loss with digital sound as long as it is duplicated onto other
digital machines. (We discuss in more detail the basic differences
between analog and digital technology in next semester.)
Microphones
Cables for mic-to-mixer and camera-to-mixer connections
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Sound blankets
Sound recorder
5 0
Microphones are delicate instruments that convert sound waves
into electric signals. The production sound mixer must have a
thorough knowledge of mi-crophones and how they can be
used effectively to capture sound under a wide variety of
conditions. She must be able to identify the right microphone
for each situation. Microphones (and speakers) are still ana-log,
so sound is captured and reproduced using the same equipment regardless of the recorder format. The sound signal
comes from the mic and goes to an analog-to-digital (A/D)
converter. To play back the tape, the digital signals are then sent
to a digital-to analog (D/A) converter, which transforms the
binary numbers back to an analog signal that can be heard
through speakers or headphones.
Care of Equipment
Proper care and maintenance of sound equipment are very
important. Treat it with respect.
Nagra
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Keep dust and dirt away from the tape; they can impair
sound quality.
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Do not touch the tape.
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Keep the lid of the tape deck closed as much as possible.
•
Use alcohol-soaked cotton swabs regularly to clean the parts
of the machine that touch the tape, including the heads,
rollers, guides, and capstans.
•
Clean the empty take-up reel each time it is used. Inspect it
for warpage or rough edges. A damaged reel can tear or warp
the edges of the tape and affect sound quality.
•
Do not rewind the tape after recording or play-back-leave it
“tails out.” Rewinding can cause a sound bleed-through.
Keep the tape in its box, and protect it from temperature
extremes.
Do not smoke, drink, or eat around sound equipment-food
and ashes have a way of winding up on the tape.
Dat
DAT players use small cassettes, so many of the main-tenance
steps are unnecessary. However, it is as important to keep the
heads clean. For a timecode -capable deck, check that the
timecode can be properly recorded and played back.
Key Points
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The production sound mixer should know what happens to
sound in postproduction.
•
Scout the location at the time of day or night for which the
shoot is planned.
•
During rehearsals, find the best places for the microphones
and the boom. The boom operator should work out boom
shadows and frame lines with the grips and the camera
operator.
•
Record room tone, wild sounds, and possibly even
replacement dialogue at the end of the day.
•
When shooting video, make sure that you plan your audio
system well in advance. There are many video formats, and
each has its own dis-tinctive audio configuration.
Notes :
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UNIT 7
ANIMATION PRODUCTION
LESSON 7:
ANIMATION PRODUCTION
Animation comes from a Latin word anima, which means soul
and animation means putting life into the characters. Animation is an art from with tremendous potential. It gives reality to
the dreams of the visionary, it makes it possible to create a
character that not only appears to be living and thinking but
also makes the audience feel the emotion of the character
“ILLUSION OF LIFE. FRANK THOMAS AND OLLIE
JOHNSTON
Animation is a vast and virtually unexplored art form. It is,
perhaps, more popular today than ever before and new
techniques and methods of animating –including computer
animation –are being developed all the time. There are many
character styles, and background designs. Animation is the art
of bringing something to life. Animation is a performing art
rather than graphic art. The drawings and models replaces actors
and actresses, so when you are creating your own animation it is
important to approach through the creative skills you would
like to use in drama rather than graphical skills. Animation plays
a huge role in entertainment (providing action and realism) and
education (providing visualization & demonstration). David
Pruiksma, supervising animator, Walt Disney feature animation
said, “there is no magic in the magic there is a lot of hard
work”.
Animation is a varied art form, which has few limitations on
imagination or cinematic techniques. Forms of animation can
range from; drawings, time lapse photography, cel animation,
cutouts, clay animation, puppets, or rotoscope. All animation is
a series of images with slight progressive changes made and
arranged to be photographed, (filmed), then projected like a
motion picture. When the film is projected on a screen the eyes
blend the slight changes of the images together producing the
illusion of smooth motion.
Besides being an art form, animation is also a craft which
requires time and patience to learn. In large scale animation
productions many people become specialists in areas such as;
drawing characters, painting backgrounds, script writing,
producing, and editing. However, with independent productions the animator sometimes for fills all or most of these
roles.
Since there are so many forms of animation it would be
difficult to classify all the different production stages each goes
through. But here we would try to look at some to get a basic
idea. Fi
Three Stages of Animation
Pre-Production
For animation also you have to go through the process of
working on the concept, thinking about the objectives, scripting
and story boarding.
Concept -
Idea, creating a plot
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Script-
Drafting your ideas in words
Story board -
Visually depicting your script in shots. A series of sketches,
similar to a comic strip, which outlines the action and dialogue
in a scene. These drawings would be pinned up on a bulletin
board and arranged, re arranged and replaced as the story took
shape.
Character designs –
Character designs would be created by concept artist or lead
animators, and once they were approved called model sheets
would be produced and distributed to the various departments
to insure absolute consistency between the sketches of all of the
artist working on a project. Hundreds of Photostats would be
produced from a single paste-up, consisting of various
drawings trimmed and applied to a board. Sometimes animators would create their own model sheets, traced from their
own or other artist ‘s drawings
Layout-
A detailed pencil drawing that either indicates the fielding
character action, or design of the background. Which acts
scenery behind the character. There are two types of the layout
character layouts, which outline the path of movement,
expressions and action within the scene and the background
layer, which generally consists of line drawing of the environment in which the character exists. These layouts are used as
references by the animator and the background painter,
respectively.
The actual shooting part might happen just in one location
hence the
Production
Rough animation drawings
The original, first generation sketches by the animators in
creating the movement in a scene. Roughs can be divided into
three basic types – key drawings, break and in betweens.
Key Frame Rough Animation
Keys are the story telling drawings. The frames that shows what
is happening in the shot. Key frames mark important visual
transitions (extremes of action)
In - Betweening
In betweening is creation of intermediate frames between the
key frames
Background Painting
A painting or other artwork depicting the environment in which
the character operates. First, the background stylist made small
color sketches called key backgrounds, which were created to
establish the color scheme and mood. These keys acted as a
model for the other background artist to follow. Key back-
grounds were also referred to as preliminary backgrounds.
Backgrounds, which were rejected or cut from the film, were
called not good backgrounds. Although hundreds of animation drawings and cell were required for a scene, typically there
was only one background. A setup featuring a cel and background from the same scene is often incorrectly referred to as
key background setup, but a more accurate description would be
a matching background setup. A cel and background from the
same film but not the same scene is often referred to as
production background setup, while a cel and background from
different films is correctly referred to simply as a background
setup.
Final line Animation
It is final line animation. Giving final touch to drawings.
Tracing of the original animation roughs, which are often more,
detailed and refined than the drawings, which precede them.
Created by the assisting department, these sketches represent
the final stage of animation before the image is transferred to
scanning. These sketches often include colored lines to indicate
different ink colors, colors markups to tell the
Painters which areas to paint which colors and notes to the ink
and paint department about the parts of the characters that
needed to be registered to other characters or background
elements.
Post Production
This is the stage where the compositing software helps you
make your animation final and complete.
Producing an animated television program
Let us look into the production stages of producing an
animated television program. In this section we take examples
from some existing TV series helping us understand the
process better
The production process for a live action TV show is fairly
straightforward. Writers come up with a script, actors perform
the script in front of a few cameras and a studio audience, the
footage is edited, and the show is ready for broadcast. (This is a
simplification, but that’s the production process in a nutshell).
Producing an animated television program is a far more
laborious process, involving dozens of people working
hundreds of hours. In traditional animation, still the standard
for animated TV shows, every single frame of an animated
show must be drawn by hand. The 20 or so minutes of actual
footage that make up a typical half-hour program consists of
around 30,000 separate frames.
Typically, a half-hour animated program is the product of a
nine-month journey, involving eight major steps:
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Writing the Script
A new season of “King of the Hill” generally kicks off with the
team of writers gathering to pitch story ideas. After a lot of
collective brainstorming, the team narrows down the possibilities to a final list of stories. The producers then assign each
story to specific writer or writing team.
After a writer has prepared a story outline, a few other writers
will gather to discuss the story, identify any problems, and
brainstorm new jokes.
Unlike writers for live action shows, writers for animated shows
don’t have to worry much about practical production issues.
Dave Krinsky, Executive Producer for “King of the Hill”
explains “because you don’t have to worry about sets, you can
have many locations, so you don’t really have to worry too
much about the reality of [physical production] when you’re
writing your scripts.” Basically, if a writer can imagine in, it can
go in an animated show.
Krinsky also enjoys animation because you can do things with
the characters you wouldn’t be able to successfully do with real
actors. “We’ve found that there’s a slight distance with animation you don’t have with real actors,” Krinsky explains. That
distance allows them to get away with more, such as an early
episode of ‘King of the Hill’ where Hank Hill was dealing with
constipation.
Krinsky doesn’t see many disadvantages to writing for animation, but he acknowledges there are some tradeoffs. “There’s a
definite delayed gratification [to animation], whereas on live TV
you get to hear the audience laughing, and you get the feedback
right away.” The lack of immediate audience response leads the
writers and producers to rely on their own comedic instincts to
guide them through the process, which necessitates many
revisions along the way.
Table Read
writing the script
When the writer or writing team is finished with the script, it’s
time for the table read. At the table read, the entire cast of
actors, all of the show’s writers, and anyone else in the office
that isn’t busy gather in a room and act out the script.
The table read is very important, because it lets the writers finally
hear how their words sound when spoken out loud. The
writers and producers play close attention to the audience’s
reaction and take notes on what works and what doesn’t. In the
case of “King of the Hill,” the writers and producers are
especially concerned with what gets a good laugh and what
doesn’t.
After the table read, the writers gather to discuss any problems
and explore ways to improve the script. Collectively, the writers
and producers create a final version of the script, and pass it on
to the recording stage.
the table Read
Recording and Editing the Soundtrack
recording voices and editing the soundtrack
Once the script has been finalized, it’s time to record the actors’
voices. In order to eliminate any extraneous noise, the actors all
record their voices in a recording studio. The exact process varies
depending on the producers’ preferences. Some shows record
every actor separately, recording each line with a variety of tones
and inflections. Some prefer to record the actors working
together, in the same way classic radio shows were produced.
In any case, it is not necessary to have the entire cast present at
the initial recording session. Some actors may be away on other
creating the storyboard
creating the animatic
creating the color
editing the color
adding sound effects and music
In the next few sections, we’ll look at each step in the process.
5 3
jobs, or unavailable for other reasons. If that is the case, they
can record their lines at a later date, and the new tracks can be
inserted into the final recording.
After the actors record their dialogue, it’s time to start putting
together the show’s audio track. “Editing the soundtrack is
about a two week process,” says Kenny Micka, Co-Producer of
King of the Hill. “We’ll take the parts that are recorded from
the actors, assemble them, choose alternate takes, and cut it
down to our target length of nineteen minutes and thirty
seconds. We try to get the performances to cut together to
satisfy the writers and producers, and then we send it on to
Film Roman, our animation house.”
Storyboards and Artwork
The storyboard is the first step in adding art to the words in the
script.
A storyboard is made up of pages of paper with space for the
director to plan out how the episode will be animated. A typical
storyboard consists of a boxed-in area containing a loose sketch
of the action, with character lines and camera directions written
under the image. “Even though storyboards look bland on
paper, they really mean a lot,” says Micka. “They’re a backbone
of the show.”
For animation, a storyboard must be heavily detailed.
“Storyboards provide a lot of information,” Micka says. “They
provide the different camera angles and shots, and most
importantly, we get a sense of timing and character performance.”
The director begins sketching ideas for the storyboard upon
receiving the final record script, and starts drawing the final
boards when he receives the soundtrack.
Once the producers approve the rough storyboard, the lead
animators can begin creating the key drawings for the episodes.
These artists don’t fully animate the action, but instead draw
the significant moments of every shot in a scene, as well as all
the necessary backgrounds (interior rooms, street scenes, etc.)
for the episode.
In order to maintain a consistent look for each character, the
animators refer to character model sheets — collections of
drawings showing how each character should look. The
character model sheets illustrate each character’s body proportions, specify each character’s size relative to other characters and
show each character in a variety of poses, from multiple angles.
This is a crucial tool for making animated characters function
like real actors. Without this guide, one animator might draw a
character differently from another animator, and the character
would seem to change size and appearance throughout the
show.
The Animatic and the Color
After the producers approve the completed storyboard, it’s time
to create an animatic. An animatic is a very roughly animated
draft, sometimes called a “pencil test.” It is almost like a
moving storyboard. The animators take the pencil-drawn key
drawings and photograph them so that they have a representation of what the final product will look like. Because it isn’t
fully animated, characters have jerky movements, and their
mouths don’t always match their voices. The producers use the
animatic to make sure the performances and comedic timing
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Homer has to always look the same, no matter who draws him.
really work. This is also the last chance the producers have to
make major changes to the direction of the story. After this, any
big changes will be a costly and time-consuming proposition.
After the animatic is completed, and all changes have been
made, the American animators send their key drawings off to
an animation studio in Korea. American TV producers hire
Korean firms today because the Korean animation industry has
relatively low operation costs and access to a large supply of
highly trained artists.
In Korea, the first order of business is “in-betweening.” Let’s
say Hank Hill is flipping a hamburger on his propane grill. The
American animators provide several key frames of this action.
The first frame would be a drawing of Hank with a spatula
under the burger. The next frame would be Hank’s arm raised a
little bit and the burger in the air. The next frame would have
the burger land back on the grill. The Korean animators start
out by animating every frame in between each key frame, so that
once animated, we see smooth motion.
After the in-betweening stage, it’s time for the ink and paint
stage. The animators trace every frame in ink onto clear acetate
transparencies and then paint in the color. As computer
technology advances, more shows are doing ink and paint
digitally.
When the ink and paint stage is completed, each transparency is
laid over the appropriate background image and photographed
to create a frame. The developed film is sent back to the United
States for the next leg of the process. The finished product is
called the color.
Editing
Even with a fully-animated product in hand, the show isn’t
necessarily finished. There may be mistakes in the color that
necessitate retakes, or the producers might be unsatisfied with a
joke or a scene.
Animating retakes can be costly, so the editors have found
editing tricks to achieve the desired results. “With some creative
editing, we can make a lot of changes,” says Kenny Micka. “We
can repurpose animation to have characters say new lines, or we
can use shots from other episodes. We’ve actually built entire
scenes from various shots from different shows. You can’t do
that in live action.”
This is one of the reasons characters in animated shows usually
wear the same outfit week to week. With this consistency, it’s
easier to borrow animation from other scenes and other
episodes.
The Soundtrack and Score
When the picture is “locked,” the producers hand the show to
the sound department, and the sound engineers cleans up the
vocal tracks and adds sound effects. For most shows, the sound
effects do a lot to determine the tone of a show. “‘The
Simpsons’ is more cartoonish, which is reflected in its exaggerated sound effects,” notes Micka, “Where ‘King of the Hill’ is
more of a realistic show, and you hear stuff in the background
like birds chirping, dogs barking, lawnmowers running.”
“Music can make a great impact on a show’s tone, as well,”
Micka adds. “The tone of ‘King of the Hill’ is often best served
often by an acoustic guitar, although we have used full scale
orchestras when it fit the story.”
After the sound department assembles all the sounds, they mix
the tracks to the appropriate level. It’s important to makes sure
a character’s voice isn’t covered by the background music, or that
a sound effect isn’t unnaturally loud.
After nine months of work, the episode is finally finished. The
production company delivers a high definition master tape of
the episode to the network, and the network broadcasts it over
cable, satellite, and the airwaves. By that time, many more
episodes have entered the pipeline and are moving along at
various points in the production process.
What is Computer Animation?
By the help of technological improvements the transfer of
traditional two dimensional animation production to computers made many things easy for the animators. Though some of
the traditional animators don’t feel close to computer-based
animations, computers gave the animators much more time to
spent on creative thought since the in-between frames are drawn
and painted by computers instead of assistant animators. The
rapid development of computer softwares on this field,
directed the animators toward producing animations by
computer. According to production levels, possibilities and
differences of obtained results computer made animations are
technically divided into two parts: two and three dimensional
animation.
In this respect, it seems logical to start with the classical
definition of animation. Its definition is “to create many stable
images which show an object in a movement and to direct us to
think as if it moves by the help of playing these images one
after the other.
Another definition is “In traditional frame-by-frame animation,
the illusion of motion is created by filming a sequence of hand-
painted cells and they playing the images back at high speeds,
typically 14 to 30 frames per second”.
As it is understood from these definitions, it is necessary to
create image frames which are related to each other to form an
animation presentation. In early times, this operation was being
made by hand and called traditional animation. Every frame was
drawn one by one and then painted by hand on paper, celluloid
or film. Even the assistants were comforting the animator by
drawing and painting the in-between frames which complete
the movement while the experienced animators were drawing
the key frames. With this method it is obvious that a 3-4
minute long animation is very troublesome and requires a lot
of time when it is thought that a minute animation requires 1224 frames per second. Another operation which also needs high
care is to take photograph each frame one by one by using a
movie camera.
The popularity of traditional animation production, which was
described above and the increase in perception of some
messages by the spectators made the developing technologies
inevitable to be used, especially the animation. When computer
technology was applied to the animation production, in the
beginning, traditional animation point of view was not left
aside, developments were reached in transferring two dimensional animation production to computer in terms of time and
technical easiness.
In 2D computer animation, animator makes the drawings by
the help of digitalizers on a computer screen, not on a paper
which is made by hand working. On the other hand there is
another possibility that one can transfer the products of
traditional animation that were ones produced on paper to
computer by scanning. Some primitive drawing forms like
square, circle, line and the tools for an artist like eraser, brush,
and airbrush are simulated in computer. There is no need for
the user who produces computer animation to use a ruler to
draw a line, to struggle with the measurements for a milimetric
square or to mix different colors to obtain the desired color.
These kinds of simple operations are made with a high
sensitivity by the computer software. At the end, compute gives
the opportunity to the user to get an outcome for his/her
animation through a printer, a video, etc.
3d computer animation is the projecting of two-dimensional
pictures one after the other which are rendered in the means of
width, length and depth in the space supplied by computer
software’s. 3-d computer animation has some characteristics that
are different from the traditional animation in terms of method
and techniques. By the user’s commands, the computer
calculates the details like movement, color, light, and perspective
of the objects on the created visual stage accurately and gives the
outcome as an image. Animator plans the model, which is
thought to be on the stage with architecture sensitiveness, chips
into shape with a skill of sculpture, makes it move in aesthetic
way by the help of observation, experience and creativeness.
While doing this work, his/her brush is digitalizers like mouse
and keyboard, his/her canvas is computer screen. His other
tools are like modeling, metamorphosis, giving movement;
primitive objects, camera, lighting and color materials that the
software enables.
Producing Steps of 3-D Computer Animation
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In the process of 3-d computer animation production, it is
inevitable to realize some series of steps related to production
technique and methods based on both technique and expression style. The information about these steps is as follows.
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Design
Producing the models (modeling)
Determining the surface qualities of models.
Scene arrangement
Transformation
Rendering the objects
Assembling and special effects
Transferring to video, CD, or film.
First of all, an idea must be formed to produce an animation.
And design enables the transfer of the idea. “The design
process of animation production is a kind of planning process
in which the subject of animation, the message to be sent to
target population, the method to be followed in presenting the
information, time and expression characteristics are all taken
into consideration and planned as a whole.” Besides this
description, the drafts of characters, models, images and sound
which are going to be used in the animation are formed in
mind. The event takes its first form with the scenario. Scenario
can be thought as the story of the planned design. The event
that is going to be told, the message that is going to be given,
relations, atmosphere, manner and behaviors all form the text
in this step.
3-d computer animation production begins with the modeling
of the characters that are thought to have roles in the story.
Models are made in the computer’s virtual space where width,
length and depth are entered with numerical values. In the first
step, a three-dimensional skeleton of the model, which seems
to be made of wires, is made. On the surface of this skeleton
color, texture and material features are defined. These features
are the simulations of the objects surface characteristics in real
life. Animator produces very realistic images by defining the
materials to objects like transparent like glass and light permeable, bright like chromium and reflecting light, dull like plastic
and absorbing light.
After the surface qualities of the models are done, the scene
where the events will occur can be built. A placement is arranged
on stage according to the positions of characters, objects and
accessories, and their movements that will be performed in a
planned time, which is determined, by shooting script and
storyboard. Light sources and cameras are also placed in this
section. Virtual cameras and light sources in animation software
have similar features with their equivalents in real life. However,
movements and shows that cannot be made in real life can be
done by using the capabilities of a computer. Light sources are
placed on the scene according to the kind of atmosphere that is
to be created. Lighting density colour values are determined.
And the camera is also placed on the stage according to point of
view.
Stage arrangement is done in the form that the first frame of
the animation is seen. The keyframes of the objects or the
characters that are being planned to be moved are placed on the
time line. On these specific points, the movements are applied
5 6
according to the flow of scenario and the effect that the
characters must follow. The places of the intermediary movements between two key frames are calculated by the computer
through animation software. The movements on the stage are
not limited with only the movements of the characters. With
the possibilities of 3-d computer animation software, the
places, angles of camera and the color and the density of light
sources can be changed by time. Beside this, the images can be
obtained that cannot be seen in real life by changing the surface
characteristics. For example, a glass vase can be transformed into
a vase which is covered with a texture of tree.
The last step is the rendering step, once the scene is designed
three dimensionally. By this operation, the defined surface
characteristics, by the help of light sources, can be viewed on the
computer screen. Producing 3-d computer animation comes to
an end by playing all the frames in a sequence.
Using sound, music, effects can take the animation to its goal so
easily. Sound and music are the most important elements that
support the image. The perception level increases for the
audience when the image comes with sound.
The sound that comes from the floor when an object falls
down, in a manner that supports the structure of the object on
the image, gives information about the object and the floor.
In animation production, the usage of types of sound or
music and how and where they are going to be used is planned
during design step. If the animation is built upon a narration
or music with a specific goal, the movements in the animation
are applied in a synchronized way with the edited sound or
music. On the other hand, if the sound and music is going to
be used to support the images and the events in the animation,
then these elements are inserted to animation after it is produced.
After the editing of animation, it is transferred to any medium
like film, video, CD, etc.
Animation is being used very wide-spread in many fields today
which has many steps from design to production.
Notes :
LESSON 8:
THE GRAMMAR OF EDITING
Filmmaking has been called the art of telling stories through
images; others have referred to it as “sculpting in time”. In
reality, it is both of these: a film is a series of images fixed in
time.
This is true at the most fundamental level. We may refer to
films as “moving pictures”, but when one looks at a strip of
film, it consists of a series of still images. Each of these is
slightly different from those before and after it; when they are
projected, our eyes take these still images and blurs them
together - this is how we get the impression of movement.
On a filmstrip, we can see time recorded. We can measure time
in frames - on a 35mm film, 24 frames equal one second - but
we can also measure it in terms of distance. On the same size
film, eighteen inches also equal one second.
Time, in film, therefore becomes something physical, something that can be cut and glued back together. I can take one
section of film and place it after another shot - from a different
place, or at a different time - and when it is projected, it forms
one continuous sequence in viewing time even though the
sequence may refer to different times in the story.
Even the simplest sequence is composed from a number of
different shots, from various angles and locations. These shots
add variety to the film, but they are not used solely for this
purpose - they also tell the story. A close-up of the hero allows
us to see the expression on his face clearly, while a wider shot
shows us where he is and what is around him. Indeed, a closeup does more than just allow us to see the expression on his
face - by excluding all other detail, it forces us to look at his
expression. The wide shot, likewise, forces us to look at the
scene as a whole, rather than concentrate on one part of the
scene. In a film, every detail is significant - film does not present
reality, but rather an enhanced reality where every extraneous
detail has been cut out and every object left in the frame has
been considered on the basis of what it does for the narrative.
Yet meaning in film comes not only from what is in the frame,
but also from how it is composed. A shot from high up,
looking down on the hero makes him appear vulnerable. If this
shot is held for a long time, then it implies that it is the
viewpoint of someone watching him. These conventions form
part of the “language” of film - the vocabulary of shots that
the director can use, safe in the knowledge that the audience is
familiar with them and know what they mean. There are also
established conventions regarding styles of lighting, types of
camera moves, the use of music and sound effects, etc.
A further layer of meaning comes from how these individual
shots are put together, one after another. David Mamet gives
the example in his book On Directing Film of a documentary
filmmaker using a shot of a bird snapping a twig and a shot of
a fawn raising its head. He says:
The two shots have nothing to do with each other. They were
shot days or years, and miles, apart. And the filmmaker
juxtaposes the images to give the viewer the idea of great
UNIT
POST PRODUCTION (EDITIN
alertness .... [The shots] are not a record of how the deer reacted
to the bird. They’re basically uninflected images. But they give
the viewer the idea of alertness to danger when they are
juxtaposed. That’s good filmmaking.
By using the conventions of editing, the filmmaker can
compress or expand time, jump between different places and
times, switch between different viewpoints, or use close-ups to
emphasise certain objects or actions, without confusing the
audience. A cut implies connection and this, in turn, produces
meaning - a meaning that may not have been present in either
of the shots individually.
This ability to jump between different places and times means,
for instance, that the filmmaker can produce suspense by cutting
to another location and showing the bad guy waiting in
ambush, or by cutting to some time in the past and showing
the bad guy plant a bomb where our hero is now. In both of
these examples, the filmmaker reveals information to the viewer
that is not available to the protagonist of that film. The
opposite of this is when the filmmaker uses montage to show
what is going on in the mind of the characters in the film. You
can show a character sitting alone in a room, and then cut to a
shot of someone else (in another location) to show that they
are thinking of them. Alternatively, you can cut to the same
room at some moment in the past; in this case, it is showing
the character’s memories.
In short, film has - over the years - developed a variety of
techniques: camera angles, lighting, editing, use of sound etc. with their readily understood conventions - to enhance narrative
development. These techniques serve the narrative in compressing or expanding time, portraying emotion and feelings,
emphasising objects and movement. The judicious combination of these techniques allows for powerful storytelling.
The use of editing enables time to be discontinuous - for the
future, present and past to exist simultaneously e.g. in flashback
or flashforward sequences, or parallel action sequences where the
viewer is in two places at one moment in time. In film, “time”
is never “real time”, it is always being compressed and expanded
at the service of the story.
The same could be said for the notion of “space” in film. Once
again, space is flexible, compressible, expandable through the
use of lighting, camera moves and angles, sound and editing.
Space and perspective are also always at the service of the
narrative, there is no “real” or “true” space in film that exists
outside of the drive of the narrative.
In verbal communication, the same words can yield different
statements because their meanings depend on the punctuation
used in each sentence. The rules governing punctuation and
sentence structure are of course called grammar, and if you
didn’t know them you couldn’t figure out a pause from a
paragraph.
Similar rules are equally important in visual communication.
Where verbal grammar covers exciting stuff like predicates and
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subjects, visual grammar addresses three kinds of pictorial
transitions: cuts, fades and effects.
Traditionally, a cut joins two shots in a continuing action, a fade
signals a change from one action to another and an effect makes
either type of transition purposely calling attention to itself.
Today, television commercials, music videos and trendy movies
routinely ignore any rules they please; but in order to tell when
the rules are broken or even to break them ourselves we need to
know what they are. So let’s summarize visual grammar in its
classic form, starting with the most common transition: the
straight cut.
In a cut, the first frame of a new shot directly follows the last
frame of the previous one. Grammatically, a cut is like the space
between two words: a division between units of meaning that
signals no change at all.
Before we examine the continuity style of editing and understanding the grammar of film making let us first what the other
kinds of transitions are there besides a simple cut and some
other terms.
Transitions
The shot is defined by editing but editing also works to join
shots together. There are many ways of effecting that transition,
some more evident than others. In the analytical tradition,
editing serves to establish space and lead the viewer to the most
salient aspects of a scene. In the classical continuity style, editing
techniques avoid drawing attention to themselves. In a
constructivist tradition such as Soviet Montage cinema, there is
no such false modesty. Vertov’s Man with the Movie Camera
(Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) celebrates the power
of the cinema to create a new reality out of disparate fragments.
We would go into the details of the two styles of editing
continuity and montage in our later segments lets now look
into the various transitions/cuts.
In film or video scene consists of a sequence of shots. Each
shot is made from a different perspective and then they are
joined together. The joining together of the individual shots to
make a particular scene is accomplished through transitions.
The transition may be from one camera angle to another camera
angle or from one camera to another camera. When you do
transitions as a CG animator you are fulfilling the role of the
editor, whose task is to put together a set of individual shots
into a scene. One technique that film editors use is to focus on
a particular element that is consistent between shots. This can
be a physical object or it can be a compositional element such as
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a motion, color, or direction.
The simplest transition between shots it is a straight cut, which
is an abrupt transition between two shots. Another type of
transition is called a fade, in which the overall value of the scene
increases or decreases into a frame of just one color. For
example, a fade to black may indicate the end of the sequence.
When one scene fades out as another scene fades in this is a
dissolve. A transition between two shots during which the first
image gradually disappears while the second image gradually
appears; for a moment the two images blend in superimposition. These dissolves are used frequently to indicate a passage of
time. For example, you might have a shot moving down a hall
and then a dissolve as it moves into a different part of the
building.
Another type of transition is when one scene wipes across the
frame and replaces the previous seen. Wipes can move in any
direction and open one side to the other or they can start in the
center and move out or the edge of the frame and move in.
Wipes are very noticeable and best not used often.
Dissolves can be used as a fairly straighforward editing device to
link any two scenes, or in more creative ways, for instance to
suggest hallucinatory states. In this series of shots from The
Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Dario Argento,
1996), a young woman becomes so absorbed by Brueghel’s The
Fall of Icarus that she actually dives into the painting’s sea! (at
least in her imagination, in “real life” she faints).
Another Example: a dissolve in the opening sequence of
Citizen Kane(1941).
Wipe
Whip Pan
A transition between shots in which a line passes across the
screen, eliminating the first shot as it goes and replacing it with
the next one. A very dynamic and noticeable transition, it is
usually employed in action or adventure films. It often suggests
a brief temporal ellipsis and a direct connection between the
two images. In this example from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai
(Sichinin No Samurai, Japan, 1954), the old man’s words are
immediately corroborated by the wandering, destitute samurai
coming into town.
An extremely fast movement of the camera from side to side,
which briefly causes the image to blur into a set of indistinct
horizontal streaks. Often an imperceptible cut will join two
whip pans to create a trick transition between scenes. As
opposed to dissolves, action or graphic matches, and fades —
the most common transitions of the continuity style— whip
pans always stand out, given their abrupt, brisk nature.
Commonly used in flashy action genres such as kung-fu movies
from the 70s, like Fists of Fury (Tang Shan Da Xiong, Wei Lo,
Honk Kong, 1971).
Superimposition
As other transitions devices, like the whip pan, wipes became
fashionable at a specific historical time (the 1950s and 1960s), so
much so as to became stylistic markers of the film of the
period.
For some of the other wipes possible see the figure below.
The exposure of more than one image on the same film strip.
Unlike a dissolve, a superimposition does not signify a
transition from one scene to another. The technique was often
used to allow the same performer to appear simultaneously as
two characters on the screen (for example Son of the Sheik), to
express subjective or intoxicated vision (The Last Laugh), or
simply to introduce a narrative element from another part of
the diegetic world into the scene. In this clip from Neighbors
(Buster Keaton, 1920), the resentful father of the bride looks at
the wedding ring and immediately associates in his mind with a
five and dime store. The subjective shot gives us a clear
indication of his opinion of his soon to be son-in-law.
Matte Shot
A process shot in which two photographic images (usually
background and foreground) are combined into a single image
using an optical printer. Matte shots can be used to add
elements to a realistic scene or to create fantasy spaces. In these
four examples from Vertigo (1958), director Alfred Hitchcock
5 9
uses all possible combinations. In the first image, the white
belfry is a model added on the foreground of a shot of the
roof; in the second image, the sky in the background is clearly a
painting, with the purpose of making us believe the scene takes
place on a bell tower’s top floor, rather than on the studio’s
ground.
(Taiwan, 2000), father and daughter go out on dates at presumably the same time, and go through the same motions, even if
the father is in Japan and the daughter in Taipei.
To further stress the similarities, the father is actually reliving his
first date with his first girlfriend (whom he has just met again
after 20 years), while his daughter is actually on her first date!
Yang uses parallel editing across space and time to suggest that
history repeats itself, generation after generation.
Examples: Porter’s The Great Train Robbery(1903), D. W.
Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation(1915) and the finale of
Griffith’s Intolerance(1916), where the chase to save the
pardoned hero from execution in the modern story is cross cut
with Christ’s procession to Calgary; also the scene in The
Godfather(1972), where the baptism of Michael Corleone’s
godson is cross cut with the violent elimination of Corleone’s
multiple underworld rivals.
The other two shots belong to the fantasy sequence of Scottie’s
dream. In the first one his face is superimposed over a campy
“unconscious” image; the last one reverses the process, having a
mixture of “real” and matted elements in the background (the
roof and the belfry) with the added silhouette in the foreground.
Cut - in, Cut Away
An instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer view
of some portion of the same space, and vice versa. In Lars Von
Trier’s Dancer in the Dark ( Denmark, 2000) Selma and Bill have
a dramatic conversation in Bill’s car that is framed by a cut-in
and a cut-away.
Example: Also used to combine a cartoon character with a
human actor (e.g., Who framed Roger Rabbit?(1988)).
Crosscutting, aka Parallel Editing
Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action
occurring in different places, usually simultaneously. The two
actions are therefore linked, associating the characters from both
lines of action. In this extended clip from Edward Yang’s Yi Yi
6 0
The two cuts neatly bracket Bill’s anguished confession as a
separate moment, private and isolated, that only Selma knows
about. This editing-constructed secrecy will ultimately have
drastic consequences for Selma.
Cut away is a brief shot that momentarily interrupts a continuously-filmed action, by inserting another related action, object,
or person (sometimes not part of the principal scene or main
action), followed by a cutback to the original shot; often used to
break up a sequence and provide some visual relief, or to ease
the transition from one shot to the next, or to provide
additional information, or to hint at an impending change;
reaction shots are usually cutaways; cross-cutting is a series of
cutaways and cutbacks indicating concurrent action; a cutaway is
different from an insert shot.
Example: a quick cutaway shot of a newspaper headline in
North by Northwest(1959) - after the famous crop-dusting
scene.
Iris
A round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (irisout) or emphasize a detail, or it can open to begin a scene
(iris-in) or to reveal more space around a detail. For instance, in
this scene from Neighbors (Buster Keaton, 1920), the iris is
used with the comic effect of gradually revealing that the female
protagonist is 1) ready for her wedding and 2) ready for her nottoo-luxurious wedding.
when it is used after 1930 it is often perceived as charmingly
anachronistic or nostalgic, as in Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano
Player (1960).
Commonly used in silent films, such as The Birth of a Nation,
or here in Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons(1942) as
Eugene’s horseless carriage drives away.
Jump Cut
Iris is a common device of early films (at time when some
techniques like zooming were not feasible), so much so that
An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single
shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against a
constant background, or the background changes instantly while
the figures remain constant. Jump cuts are anathema to Classical
Hollywood style, but feature prominently in avant-garde and
radical filmmaking. When the French Nouvelle Vague films of
the 1960s made jump cuts an essential part of their playful,
modern outlook, many directors from around the globe started
to use jump cuts —either creatively or in a last ditch attempt to
become “hip”. More recently, jump cuts are more commonly
associated with music videos, video or alternative filmmaking,
like Lars Von Trier’s Dogma films. Here is an example from
Dancer in the Dark (Denmark, 2000).
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Manipulating Time
Jump cuts are used expressively, to suggest the ruminations or
ambivalences of a character, or of his/her everyday life, but they
are also a clear signifier of rupture with mainstream film
storytelling. Rather than presenting a film as a perfectly selfcontained story that seamlessly unfold in front of us, jump cuts
are like utterances that evidentiates both the artificiality and the
difficulties of telling such a story.
Example: in Don’t Look Now (1973), the director Nicolas Roeg
cuts from the wife’s scream on seeing her dead daughter to the
drill her husband is using in his work on the church in Venice a sound match and cut.
Flashback Flashforward
A jump backwards or forwards in diegetic time.( The diegesis
includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit
them, including things, actions, and attitudes not explicitly
presented in the film but inferred by the audience. That
audience constructs a diegetic world from the material presented
in a narrative film.) With the use of flashback / flashforward
the order of events in the plot no longer matches the order of
events in the story. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is a
famous film composed almost entirely of flashbacks and
flashforwards. The film timeline spans over 60 years, as it traces
the life of Charles Foster Kane from his childhood to his
deathbed — and on into the repercussions of his actions on
the people around him. Some characters appear at several time
periods in the film, usually being interviewed in the present and
appearing in the past as they tell the reporter of their memories
of Kane. Joseph Cotten, who plays Kane’s best friend, is
shown here as an old man in a rest home (with the help of
some heavy make-up) and as a young man working with Kane
in his newspaper.
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Only since the introduction of editing to the cinema at the turn
of the 20th century has not-editing become an option. The
decision to extend a shot can be as significant as the decision to
cut it. Editing can affect the experience of time in the cinema by
creating a gap between screen time and diegetic time (Montage
and overlapping editing) or by establishing a fast or slow
rhythm for the scene.
Screen time: a period of time represented by events within a
film (e.g. a day, a week).
Subjective time. The time experienced or felt by a character in a
film, as revealed through camera movement and editing (e.g.
when a frightened person’s flight from danger is prolonged).
Compressed time. The compression of time between sequences
or scenes, and within scenes. This is the most frequent manipulation of time in films: it is achieved with cuts or dissolves. In a
dramatic narative, if climbing a staircase is not a significant part
of the plot, a shot of a character starting up the stairs may then
cut to him entering a room. The logic of the situation and our
past experience of medium tells us that the room is somewhere
at the top of the stairs. Long journeys can be compressed into
seconds. Time may also be compressed between cutaways in
parallel editing. More subtle compression can occur after reaction
shots or close-ups have intervened. The use of dissolves was
once a cue for the passage of a relatively long period of time.
Long take aka PLAN-SEQUENCE A single shot (or take, or
run of the camera) which lasts for a relatively lengthy period of
time. The long take has an ‘authentic’ feel since it is not
inherently dramatic. The average length per shot differs greatly
for different times and places, but most contemporary films
tend to have faster editing rates. In general lines, any shot above
one minute can be considered a long take. Here is an excerpt
from the initial shot of Robert Altman’s The Player (1992)
which not only runs for more than eight minutes, but it is in
itself an homage to another famous long take, the first shot of
Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958).
Unless shot at a fixed angle, with a fixed camera and no
movement, long takes are extremely hard to shoot. They have
to be choreographed and rehearsed to the last detail, since any
error would make it necessary to start all over again from scratch.
Sophisticated long takes such as this one from The Player,
which includes all kinds of camera movements and zooms, are
often seen as auteuristic marks of virtuosity. Aside from the
challenge of shooting in real time, long takes decisively influence
a film’s rhythm. Depending on how much movement is
included, a long take can make a film tense, stagnant and spellbinding, or daring, flowing and carefree. Indeed, directors like
Altman, Welles, Renoir, Angelopoulos, Tarkovski or Mizoguchi
have made long takes (usually in combination with deep focus
and deep space) an essential part of their film styles.
Example: Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), composed of a series of
continuous, 8-minute takes; or the opening of Robert Altman’s
The Player (1992)
Simultaneous time. Events in different places can be presented
as occurring at the same moment, by parallel editing or crosscutting, by multiple images or split-screen. The conventional
clue to indicate that events or shots are taking place at the same
time is that there is no progression of shots: shots are either
inserted into the main action or alternated with each other until
the strands are somehow united.
Slow motion. Action which takes place on the screen at a slower
rate than the rate at which the action took place before the
camera. This is used: a) to make a fast action visible; b) to make
a familiar action strange; c) to emphasise a dramatic moment. It
can have a lyric and romantic quality or it can amplify violence.
Accelerated motion (under cranking). This is used: a) to make a
slow action visible; b) to make a familiar action funny; c) to
increase the thrill of speed.
Reverse motion. Reproducing action backwards, for comic,
magical or explanatory effect.
Replay. An action sequence repeated, often in slow motion,
commonly featured in the filming of sport to review a significant event.
Freeze-frame. This gives the image the appearance of a still
photograph. Clearly not a naturalistic device.
Extended or expanded time/overlapping action. The expansion
of time can be accomplished by intercutting a series of shots, or
by filming the action from different angles and editing them
together. Part of an action may be repeated from another
viewpoint, e.g. a character is shown from the inside of a
building opening a door and the next shot, from the outside,
shows him opening it again. Used nakedly this device disrupts
the audience’s sense of real time. The technique may be used
unobtrusively to stretch time, perhaps to exaggerate, for
dramatic effect, the time taken to walk down a corridor.
Sometimes combined with slow motion.
Ambiguous time. Within the context of a well-defined timescheme sequences may occur which are ambiguous in time. This
is most frequently communicated through dissolves and
superimpositions.
Universal time. This is deliberately created to suggest universal
relevance. Ideas rather than examples are emphasized. Context
may be disrupted by frequent cuts and by the extensive use of
close-ups and other shots, which do not reveal a specific
background.
Overlapping Editing. Cuts that repeat part or all of an action,
thus expanding its viewing time and plot duration. Most
commonly associated with experimental filmmaking, due to its
temporally disconcerting and purely graphic nature, it is also
featured in films in which action and movement take precedence
over plot and dialogue: sports documentaries, musicals, martial
arts, etc. Overlapping editing is a common characteristic of the
frenzied Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s. When
director John Woo moved to Hollywood, he tried to incorporate some of that style into mainstream action films, such as
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).
Rhythm. The perceived rate and regularity of sounds, series of
shots, and movements within the shots. Rhythmic factors
include beat (or pulse), accent (or stress), and tempo (or pace).
Rhythm is one of the essential features of a film, for it
decisively contributes to its mood and overall impression on
the spectator. It is also one of the most complex to analyze,
since it is achieved through the combination of mise-en-scene,
cinematography, sound and editing. Indeed, rhythm can be
understood as the final balance all of the elements of a film. Let
us compare how rhythm can radically alter the treatment of a
similar scene. These two clips from Deconstructing Harry
(Woody Allen, 1997) and Cries and Whispers (Viskingar Och
Rop, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden1972) feature a couple at a table,
and both clips feature a moment of fracture between the two
characters. Still, they could not be more dissimilar. Allen
employs fast cuts (even jump cuts), pans, quick dialogue and
gesturing, as he concentrates exclusively on the two characters,
shot from a variety of angles but always in medium close-up
and close-up.
Even if both characters overtly disagree with each other, there is
an overall feeling of warmth and immediacy between them,
suggested by their proximity (established in short pans and
close-ups) and in the tone of their speech. The quick camera
movements and different camera placements suggest the
uneasiness of both characters, as they budge on their seats.
Cries and Whispers, on the other hand, present us with a scene
of horrifying stillness. Bergman accentuates the separation
6 3
between man and woman by shooting them frontally and
almost eliminating dialogue. In this context, even the smallest
sounds of forks and knives sound ominous; a glass shattering
resonates like a shot.
can draw too much attention to the camera. Moving the camera
(or zooming) is a subjective camera effect, especially if the
movement is not gradual or smooth.
Objective treatment. The ‘objective point of view’ involves
treating the viewer as an observer. A major example is the
‘privileged point of view’ which involves watching from
omniscient vantage points. Keeping the camera still whilst the
subject moves towards or away from it is an objective camera
effect.
Notes :
Furthermore, the mise-en-scene becomes as equally, if not
more, important than the characters, reducing everything to
dour red, black and whites. The feeling of claustrophobia is
enhanced by the use of shallow space, having the characters
become one with the austere backgrounds. Pace is deliberately
slow, and it only quickens when the glass breaks and both
characters lift up their heads, only to immediately return to
normal. Bergman accelerates the rhythm for a second, punctuating the moment of the glass breaking so that a trivial incident is
magnified into a clear signal of disaster.
Lastly, rhythm is, almost by definition, intrinsically related to
music and sound. Some of the most striking examples of the
use of music as a film’s driving force occur in the (endlessly
imitated) spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, which were
written in close collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone.
In fact, sometimes the music would be composed first and
then a scene that fitted that rhythm would be shot, thus
reversing the customary order.
The prelude to the final shot down of The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo, Italy, 1966) runs for
several minutes (of which we only see the last minute here), as
three men face each other in a triangle, waiting to see who will
take the first step. One of the film’s theme songs is played in its
entirety, from a slow, elegiac beginning to a frenzy crescendo that
is abruptly cut off by the first gunshot. The slow mounting
crescendo is paralleled by an increase in the editing rate, and an
intensified framing (the sequence actually begins on a long shot
similar to the previous one).
Narrative style
Subjective treatment. The camera treatment is called ‘subjective’ when the viewer is treated as a participant (e.g. when the
camera is addressed directly or when it imitates the viewpoint or
movement of a character). We may be shown not only what a
character sees, but how he or she sees it. A temporary ‘firstperson’ use of camera as the character can be effective in
conveying unusual states of mind or powerful experiences, such
as dreaming, remembering, or moving very fast. If overused, it
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LESSON 9:
CLASSICAL EDITING
(The Classical Hollywood Style : Continuity Cutting)
A highly standardized system of editing, now virtually universal
in commercial film and television but originally associated with
Hollywood cinema, that matches spatial and temporal relations
from shot to shot in order to maintain continuous and clear
narrative action. Generally speaking, the continuity system aims
to present a scene so that the editing is “invisible” (not
consciously noticed by the viewer) and the viewer is never
distracted by awkward jumps between shots or by any confusion about the spatial lay-out of the scene. Classical editing
achieves a “smooth” and “seamless” style of NARRATION,
both because of its conventionality (it is “invisible” in part
because we are so used to it) and because it employs a number
of powerful techniques designed to maximize a sense of spatial
and temporal continuity.
A key element of the continuity system is the 180-DEGREE
RULE, which states that the camera must stay on only one side
of the actions and objects in a scene. An invisible line, known as
the 180 DEGREE LINE or AXIS OF ACTION, runs through
the space of the scene. The camera can shoot from any position
within one side of that line, but it may never cross it. This
convention ensures that the shot will have consistent spatial
relations and screen directions. In other words, characters and
objects never “flip flop:” if they are on the right side of the
screen, they will remain on the right from shot to shot; those
on the left will always be on the left. For example, an actor
walking from the left side of the screen to the right will not
suddenly, in the next shot, appear to be walking in the opposite
direction — a reversal that would strike the viewer, if only
fleetingly, as confusing or jarring. With the 180 DEGREE
RULE, the viewer rarely experiences even a momentary sense of
spatial disorientation.
In theory, the camera may move anywhere on one side of the
axis of action. In practice, however, the continuity system tends
to follows a conventional pattern of camera placement and
editing. For example, in a classic instance of two people facing
each other in a conversation, a sequence would begin with an
ESTABLISHING SHOT, a shot presenting a more or less
complete view of the setting, showing the spatial relations
among the key figures. The establishing shot gives the spectator
an overview so that subsequent shots dissecting the space at a
closer range are much less likely to be spatially ambiguous or
disorienting. Periodically, the director will provide a REESTABLISHING SHOT, to refresh the viewer’s sense of the
scene’s overall geography.
Establishing Shot / Reestablishing Shot
A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the
spatial relations among the important figures, objects, and
setting in a scene. Usually, the first few shots in a scene are
establishing shots, as they introduces us to a location and the
space relationships inside it.
UNIT 9
CLASSICAL EDITING
In the initial sequence from Peking Opera Blues (Do Ma Daan,
Honk Kong,1986), director Tsui Hark uses three shots to
establish the locale. In the first one, three musicians are shown
against a fireplace in what looks like a luxurious room. Our
suspicions are confirmed by the second establishing shot, which
shows us the other half of the ample room shot/reverse shot
and reveals a party going on.
After this introduction, the camera moves forward with several
close-ups of both the musicians and the spectators. At the end
of the sequence, Hark shows us the entire room in a larger shot.
This final establishing shot is called a reestablishing shot, for it
shows us once again the spatial relationships introduced with
the establishing shots.
Another Example: the beginning of Laurence Olivier’s Henry V
(1944) includes an establishing shot across a detailed model of
16th century London.
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After the establishing shot, the camera typically moves incrementally closer to the action. One might see a LONG SHOT of
the characters in conversation, followed by a MEDIUM SHOT.
Any shot focusing on two people is referred to as a TWO
SHOT.
As the scene progresses to moments of emotional or dramatic
intensity, the camera typically presents closer shots of the
individual characters — MEDIUM CLOSE-UPS and CLOSEUPS. These shots usually alternate between the two speakers,
with the camera placed at more or less opposite ends of the axis
of action between them. This pattern of alternating shots is
called the SHOT/REVERSE SHOT structure.
Shot / Reverse Shot
Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters,
typically in a conversation situation. In continuity editing,
characters in one framing usually look left, in the other framing,
right. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in shot/reverseshot editing. Shot / reverse shots are one of the most firmly
established conventions in cinema, and they are usually linked
through the equally persuasive eyeline matches. These conventions have become so strong that they can be exploited to make
improbable meanings convincing, as in this sequence from The
Stendhal Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy,1996).
Director Dario Argento has his protagonist Anna looking at
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (c1485)...
...but with the use of successive shot/ reverse shots, eyeline
matches and matching framings, it soons begins to look as if
Venus herself is looking at Anna!
Another example: a typical dialogue scene with shot/reverse
shot between two characters in Written on the wind (1956).
There are three common variations of the SHOT/REVERSE
SHOT:
1 In a simple SHOT/REVERSE SHOT, the camera simply
alternates between shots that show one person at a time
(usually the person talking).
2 An OVER-THE-SHOULDER TWO SHOT is also
commonly used in conversation sequences. The camera is
placed behind the shoulder of one of the people in the
conversation. We see both characters — one more or less
frontally and the other from behind (usually we see just part
of the head and torso).
3 A somewhat less common approach to the SHOT/
REVERSE SHOT is to use a POINT-OF-VIEW SHOT or
POV. The camera is placed where a character’s eyes would be
(either exactly or approximately). In a conversation sequence,
a POV would generally show a more frontal, head-on
perspective of the other character. (The POV, of course, is
not found only in conversation sequences. More commonly,
a POV shot is cut in before and/or after a shot of the
character looking. Hitchcock’s Rear Window, for example, is
comprised largely of shots showing the Jimmy Stewart
character’s POV as he spies on the apartments across the way,
followed by REACTION SHOTS showing him respond to
what he sees).
A key aim of the CONTINUITY SYSTEM is to ensure that no
edit calls attention to itself or strikes the viewer as spatially
confusing, inconsistent or awkward. The 180 DEGREE RULE
and the conventionality of the editing formula described above
do a great deal to achieve this end. There are other standard
editing techniques in classical editing:
Matches
Editing matches refer to those techniques that join as well as
divide two shots by making some form of connection between
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them. That connection can be inferred from the situation
portrayed in the scene (for example, eyeline match) or can be of
a purely optical nature (graphic match).
Eyeline Match
Hollywood editing employs the EYELINE MATCH to
preserve spatial continuity and make the cut less noticeable. In
an eyeline match, shot A shows a character looking offscreen
and shot B shows what the character is looking at. The
character’s gaze is directed precisely so that it corresponds to the
spatial layout established in earlier shots. This matching keeps
the spatial relations among characters and objects consistent
from one shot to the next. At the same time, the eyeline match
makes the cut slightly smoother, since the viewer expects the cut
and is eager to see what the next shot will show. A cut obeying
the axis of action principle.
The following shots from Dario Argento’s The Stendhal
Syndrome (La Sindrome di Stendhal, Italy, 1996) depict Anna
looking at a painting, Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus. The scene
takes place inside Firenze’s most famous museum, the Uffizi
Gallery.
First we see her looking... then we see what she looks at.
Ironically, even if Argento managed to film inside the real Uffizi
gallery, the painting he wanted to use, The Fall of Icarus, is not
part of the museum’s collection! The painting that we see is
probably a reproduction, shot in the studio, and edited together
with Anna’s shots in the Uffizi to make us believe that they are
both in the same room. As this example demonstrates, eyeline
matches can be a very persuasive tool to construct space in a
film, real or imagined.
Graphic Match
Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of
compositional elements (e.g., color, shape). Used in transparent
continuity styles to smooth the transition between two shots,
as in this clip from Women On The Verge Of A Nervous
Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios,
Almodóvar, 1988).
As her interest grows, the eyeline match (that is the connection
between looker and looked) is stressed with matching close-ups
of Anna’s face and Icarus’s falling into the ocean in the painting.
Again, this implies that Anna is looking directly at Icarus’s body.
Graphic matches can also be used to make metaphorical
associations, as in Soviet Montage style. Furthermore, some
directors like Ozu Yasujiro use graphic matches as an integral
part of their film style.
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Match on Action
A cut which splices two different views of the same action
together at the same moment in the movement, making it
seem to continue uninterrupted. This technique helps “hide”
the cut, since the viewer is paying attention to the action rather
than the edit. Quite logically, these characteristics make it one of
the most common transitions in the continuity style. Here is an
example from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
Examples: North by Northwes(1959), Cary Grant pulls Eva
Marie Saint up the cliff of Mt. Rushmore; then match cut to
Grant pulling her up to a bunk in a train; or the moment in
2001: A Space Odyssey(1968) where a bone tossed in the air by a
primordial ape is visually displaced by a shot of a spinning
spacecraft.
Creating this illusion is easy when the shots show different
subjects, such as close-ups of two different actors, because the
viewer expects the image to change completely from shot to
shot. But when two shots cover successive views of the same
subject you must spackle the seam with two crucial editing
techniques: matching action and changing camera angle.
In matching action you set the edit points so that the incoming
shot picks up precisely where the outgoing shot leaves off.
There are three ways to do this: continue movement, cut
between movements, and start or end off-screen, as you can see
from Figure 1.
A match on action adds variety and dynamism to a scene, since
it conveys two movements: the one that actually takes place on
screen, and an implied one by the viewer, since her/his position
is shifted.
Match cut
a cut in which two shots are joined or linked by visual, aural, or
metaphorical parallelism.
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Cutting in the middle of an ongoing movement is the hardest
method but it delivers the most convincing illusion. In the
outgoing shot of Figure 1a, the cup descends part-way to its
saucer. Then the incoming shot starts with the cup on-screen
and continues on its path toward the table. With precision
matching, the two arcs seem like different views of the same
continuous action. You can match continuous action with
consumer-level editing decks if you’re willing to practice with
the deck’s accuracy.
An easier way is to make the cut during a pause in the action, as
shown in Figure 1b. Here, the performer completes the whole
set-down in medium shot and the close-up starts with the
hand and the cup at rest. With no movement to match, the edit
is easier.
Simpler yet is the old off screen ploy (Figure 1c). The incoming
shot starts before the cup enters the frame, so the viewer cannot
compare its end position with its start position. With this
method, you don’t have to match action at all.
The method works equally well if you reverse it so that the
outgoing cup ends on-screen and the incoming cup starts offscreen. And when you have a really difficult edit, try both at
once: finish the outgoing and start the incoming shots with
empty screens.
Whichever method you use, matching action does only half the
job of concealing the cut. To perfect the illusion you must also
shift the camera position. By moving the point of view, you
change the subject’s background and deprive the viewer of
reference points for matching action.
As we’ve often noted, you can change three aspects of camera
setup: vertical angle (from bird’s-eye down to worm’s-eye),
horizontal angle (from front through 3/4 and profile to rear)
and image size (from long shot to close-up). Figure 2 shows
why it’s tough to conceal a cut without changing at least one of
these aspects and preferably two.
Figure 2a shows no angle change between the two shots and
the obvious jump cut that results. Figure 2b changes one aspect:
image size. If you’re a slick editor you can make this cut work,
but it’s easier if you can change a second aspect as well. In Figure
2c the edit changes vertical angle as well as image size for a
smoother transition.
Should you change all three aspects of a camera position?
Maybe, but not necessarily. It doesn’t add to the illusion and it
can actually call attention to the edit because the viewpoint
change is so great. On the other hand, an extreme angle change
can be effective in building suspense precisely because it
produces an effect of uneasiness or even disorientation.
30 DEGREE RULE
Hollywood editing typically adheres to the 30 DEGREE RULE,
which holds that the camera must move at least 30 degrees
between shots. In other words, it is taboo to show one shot
and then cut to another shot that is almost the same as the first.
If the angle of framing of two adjacent shots is too similar, it
creates the appearance that an object is jumping in a staccato
burst from one position to another. Although a number of
modernist directors take advantage of this effect, called the
JUMP CUT, to draw attention to editing, Hollywood editing
avoids it for precisely the same reason.
Cheat Cut
Cheat cut. In the continuity editing system, a cut which
purports to show continuous time and space from shot to shot
but which actually mismatches the position of figures or objects
in the scene. In this sequence from Meet Me in St. Louis
(Vincente Minelli, 1944) the editing sacrifices actual physical
space for dramatic space. As we can see in the first shot, there is
a wall behind the telephone.
However, that wall magically disappears in the third shot in
order to show both the telephone and the family seated around
the dining table (an important element in the film) from an
angle that would had been impossible in an actual room. Cheat
cuts were also often used to disguise the relatively short stature
of leading men in relation to their statuesque female co-stars.
Types of Shots used in Continuity Editing
We talked about different shots in the previous chapters and
also now we have discussed about certain elements in the
continuity editing system. When considering your shots for use
in continuity editing, it is useful to them by what function they
provide for within the scene.
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The Master Shot
The Two-Shot
The Master Shot (also known as an establishing shot or the
wide) is a wide shot that captures all the action in a scene. The
master shot is usually of an objective perspective and shows all
the characters within the scene and their spatial and directional
relationships between one another and their environment. The
master shot is usually used at the beginning of a scene (establishing shot) to set up the spatial relationship of the subjects
and their environment for the audience.
Once the audience knows where the scene is taking place, which
characters are involved and where they are in relation to each
other, the scene can continue to be shown in closer shots. The
Master Shot, however, usually runs for the entire length of the
scene. The editor always has the option of cutting back to the
master during any part of the scene. This is particularly used
when characters move around and change their spatial relationships.
A two-shot is a shot that shows two characters. It can be an MS,
MCU or CU. Two-shots are generally distinguished separately to
Over the shoulder shots (OSS)
Two Shot
Two Shot
Over the Shoulder Shot (OSS)
The over the shoulder shot shows two characters in relation to
each other. One character has their back to the camera and is in
the foreground, the other character faces the camera. OSS shots
are commonly used in dialog scenes.
Over the shoulder shot
Over the shoulder shot
The Reverse Shot
A reverse shot refers to a shot that is taken from the opposite
angle to the preceding shot. Its most common use is in OSS
shots during dialog.
This master shot shows all the action in the scene. It was used
at the beginning and end of the scene. The rest of the scene was
shown in close-ups.
The Single Shot
The single shot is a shot of only one person within the scene. It
can be a CU or MS.
OS Shot
Reverse OS Shot
Reaction Shot
The Reaction Shot (RXN) shows one character’s reaction to
another character or situation. Generally a reaction shot is a shot
without dialog. Often while one character is talking, an editor
will cut to a reaction shot of another character and then back to
the talking character.
Cutaway
Single Shot
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Single Shot
The cutaway shot is a shot that is not part of the previous shot
but is somehow related to the scene. The cutaway is used to
briefly cut away from the action without breaking continuity. It
is acceptable for characters to be in a slightly different position or
activity after a cutaway. Cutaways can be used to suggest the
Dealers POV Shot
Reverse MS Dealer
Continuity Rules
Avoid Jump Cuts
passing of time as well as providing the viewer with more
information. Cutaways are also a very handy treatment for
unwanted jump cuts.
Insert
An insert shot is similar to a cutaway, however, it is usually a CU
shot of an element of already present in the current shot. Insert
shots draw attention to particular elements of a composition.
A jump cut is a cut that shows action that couldn’t happen in
real life. Any cut which destroys the illusion of continuity is a
jump cut. For example, if you have a CU shot of someone
drinking a cup of coffee and you then cut to an MS of the same
person who is no longer holding the coffee cup, you have
created a jump cut. The action across the two shots could not be
continuous in real life. If, however, you placed a cutaway of a
café waiter between the two shots, the sequence would be
acceptable. The audience is not confused and they can accept that
during the cutaway, the person put down the coffee cup.
Cutaways are often used to avoid jump cuts.
Jump cuts can also occur when two shots that are very similar in
size, angle and subject, are cut together. For example if you had
an MS of a subject and cut to a MCU of the same subject from
the same angle, it would appear as a jump cut. Despite the fact
that the action is continuous across the cut, the shots are quite
similar, yet a little different that it is jarring to the audience and
draws attention to itself. The audience are less likely to notice an
edit if the next shot is providing them with new information.
To provide new information with a shot of the same subject,
you need to substantially change the shot size or shot angle.
The rules of thumb to avoid a jump cut when cutting between
shots of the same subject are that you must either:
•
•
Change the shot size by at least two standard shot sizes
Change the camera angle by at least 30 degrees
The Axis of Action ( 180 degree rule )
Two Shot
Insert
The Point Of View Shot (POV)
The POV shot shows a scene or setting through the eyes of a
particular character. It is commonly preceded or followed by a
reverse shot to show which character’s POV it is.
In every scene you shoot there is an axis of action. The axis is an
imaginary line that can be drawn through the action in your
scene. All your shots must be shot on one side of the line. If
you cut to a shot that is taken from the other side of the line,
suddenly the action is occurring in the opposite direction and
the audience will be confused. For example suppose you are
filming a drag car race.
The axis of action runs alone the path that the cars are traveling.
To not cross the axis of action, you must stay on one side of
the road. If you were to cut from a shot taken from one side of
the road to a shot taken from the other side of the road the cars
would suddenly appear to be traveling in the opposite direction.
Crossing the line in any scene causes the action to appear to be
happening in the opposite direction.
People end up facing and traveling in the reverse direction.
People should only change direction if they are seen to do so
within a shot. You should not cross the line unless you show
the audience you are doing so in a moving shot.
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Maintain spatial and directional relationships
Part of this rule relates to the previous rule. Continuity editing
is about defining spatial and directional relationships between
the elements in your scene. The audience should always know
where one character is in relation to another. You can set up
spatial and directional relationships by showing the audience a
wide or establishing shot of the scene.
The audience then knows where everyone is in relation to each
other and the scene could continue in closer shots if you wish.
In these closer shots however, you need to maintain the
relationships. Use eyelines and make sure your character is
looking in the appropriate direction. If a character engaged in
conversation are not looking where the audience expects the
other character to be, then the audience is confused and no
longer has a mental picture of the spatial and directional
relationships. Keep your characters screen direction ( facing left
to right or right to left ) consistent in a scene unless you show
them changing.
Notes :
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UNIT 10
CONTINUITY EDITING
LESSON 10:
CONTINUTITY EDITING
Continuity Editing Techniques
12 MCU Jane
Continuity sequences are a variety of the shots described in the
previous chapter, that are arranged in a way that complies with
the three main continuity rules.
13 LS Mary leaves
Most dialog scenes should be cut with split edits, (edit points
for audio and vision differ). For example you might start with a
shot of someone speaking, but before they finish there line you
cut the vision to catch the other characters reaction. Splitting
your audio and vision edits make your edit points a lot less
noticeable and a lot more natural feeling. Next time you watch a
film or drama series on television, look and listen carefully for
split edits. You may even find that the program uses split edits
exclusively during dialog scenes.
Dialog scenes must be well paced. The pacing must feel natural
on the screen. What seems natural on the screen is usually a little
faster than ‘natural’ in real life. Quite often the pacing of dialog
needs to be adjusted slightly in the edit room. Pauses, words
and even entire sentences and monologues can be deleted if
necessary.
LMC Pattern
The most basic of continuity sequences use the LMC Editing
Pattern. LMC stands for Long, Medium, Closeup. This is the
most common scene structure used. The first long shot (LS)
establishes the scene and introduces the characters involved and
their environment. Then by cutting to a medium shot (MS),
you are engaging your audience by moving them closer into the
action. Finally, closeups provide and emphasise the emotion
and details of the scene. Often the LMC pattern is used at the
introduction of a scene and then in reverse (CML) to end a
scene.
Cutting Dialog
Dialog is often at the heart of narrative video and provides us
with the most common of all editing patterns. Cutting back
and forth between two characters engaged in conversation
probably dominated a lot of films. For a dialog scene to be
successful, you need to communicate the essence of the the
dialog to the viewer.
It is often not enough to merely show whoever is talking. Body
language of the actors, reaction of the conversers and onlookers, cutaways and the environment could all be important
elements to the scene. Quite often it is more important to see
the reaction of the character listening rather than seeing the
character speaking. This involves using the audio from one
shoot and the video from another. When the audio and video
edit points differ, it is known as a Split Edit.
When cutting dialog between two people it is important to
establish and maintain spatial relationships. This is usually
done by showing a two shot. You can then continue cutting
with single shots or OS shots. When cutting back and fourth
between single shots (or OS shots) always match your shots or
you will jar your audience. For example the following sequence
matches shots during dialog.
1 Establishing Shot, LS Café
2 MS two shot Mary and Jane drink coffee
3 MCU Mary
4 MCU Jane
5 MCU Mary
6 CU Insert coffee cup
7 CU Jane
8 CU Mary
9 CU Jane
10 MS two shot Mary stands up
11 MCU Mary
Manipulating Time
Continuity editing must preserve the illusion of continuous
action, however if it were really true to life, films would be quite
boring and run for days. The filmmaker and editor must use
techniques to reduce time while still maintaining the illusion of
continuity. Consider the following scene: A student is burning
the midnight oil, trying to get a last minute assignment
finished. This real life event might begin at 6:30pm, after the
‘Simpsons’, and not finish until 4:30am the next morning. No
one is ever going to watch a scene that long. You need to shoot
and edit it in a way to subtly communicate to the audience that
time is passing while maintaining an illusion on continuity.
1 MS: Student at desk
2 CU: Student face concentrating
3 CU: Candle burning on desk
4 CU: Students hand scribing quickly
5 MS: Student scrunches paper and throws towards bin
6 CU: Paper lands in bin
7 MCU: Students scribing quickly
8 CU: Student looks out window
9 MS: Cutaway night scene outside window.
10 MS: Student leaning back rubbing eyes
11 CU: Candle burnt half way down
12 CU: Student’s face concentrating
13 CU: Student Scribing
14 MS: Student gets up and leaves room
15 MS: Student enters Kitchen and opens fridge
16 CU: Students grabs food
17 CU: Cutaway: Kitchen Clock
18 LS: Student back at work
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19 CU: Student Flicking through book
20 MCU: Cutaway: Window, day is breaking
21 CU: Student tidies and staples papers
22 MS: Student blows out candle which is almost full burnt
down
23 LS: Student falls into bed
The above sequence is edited down to just over a minute, yet
the audience accepts it as continuous action throughout an
entire night. Notice the use of cutaways and inserts, bridge
shots and allow for the passing of considerable amounts of
time. Notice also the use of Exits and Entrances.
Exits and Entrances
If a character exits a the frame in one shot, the audience will
accept it if they enter the next shot even if it is in a different
time and place. The exit and then subsequent entry give an
illusion of continuity. In the above example, when the student
leaves their room, we needn’t show them walking down the
hallway, through the lounge and into the kitchen. We need only
use a shot of them entering the kitchen. The illusion of
continuity is maintained even though the time and place have
changed slightly.
Parallel Action
Parallel Action involves cutting back and fourth between two
events that are occurring at the same time. Using parallel action
gives your audience two events to observe and will challenge
them to draw conclusions about the relationship between the
two events. It also gives you excellent means to manipulate
time.
Each time you jump back to a particular event, a considerable
amount of time may have passed and the audience will accept it
if a character has made considerable advancements. The faster
you cut between the two events, the closer they seem to each
other. The crosscutting between two events that eventually
unite should start off relatively slow and become faster and
faster.
anticipating a result or effect. Every setup should have a payoff
or the audience will not be happy. By making the audience wait
for the payoff, you are creating a cliff-hanger. Be careful not to
keep your audience hanging too long or they may become
disinterested. Watch a movie or TV drama and identify the
cause and effects, cliff-hangers and payoffs. Take note of the
timing that is involved in a Set-up and payoff.
Transitions Between Shots
The Cut
•
Most basic and most used manner of getting from one shot
to another.
•
•
•
Used when the action is continuous.
•
•
Generally this transition is not perceived by the audience.
Can be used for change of information or locale.
Can be used effectively in many different contexts eg.
continuity, montage
If it is perceived it is called a “jump cut”.
The Dissolve
•
•
•
•
•
Mixing of one image to the next
•
Fantasy and dream sequences
Leap in time
Can be used to slow time
Change in locale
Use where there is a strong visual relationship between the
images to be edited together.
The Wipe
•
•
•
•
A physical change between two images
Bridges noticeable gaps in image or narrative
Can be used to suggest a new location but the same time
eg “Star Wars” - wipes used to say “meanwhile, on the other
side of the galaxy….”
Devices used to manipulate Time
The Fade In
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fade in is usually used at the beginning of a narrative
sequence
•
•
Suggests beginning of scene
Cutaways
Inserts
Exits and Entrances
Parallel Action
Fades and Dissolves
Editing Considerations
Cause and Effect
Also may suggest a change in time and location
The Fade Out
•
•
Everyone who lives in the real world are aware of cause and
effect. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
When something happens, it causes some sort of effect. The
order in which you arrange your shots during editing, suggests
a lot to the audience about cause and effect. Simply reversing the
order of shots can suggest a completely different cause and
effect and thus meaning to the audience.
Image fades to a single colour, most often black
Suggests the end of a narrative scene or current timeIt is
tempting for a beginner to use a lot of the fancy transitions
available in Final Cut Pro. A lot of these transitions draw
attention to themselves and destroy the illusion of
continuity. The audience is made explicitly aware that they are
watching an edited program, and it may distract them from
the content. Use these types of transitions sparingly and
with care.
Considerations for Cutting & Editing Narative
Set-Up and Payoff
A set ut is used to create suspense and dramatic tension. It is a
series of shots which show a cause and has the audience
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•
Is the audience able to identify with a particular character or
are we merely observers?
•
Does a particular character dominate, - does that dominance
shift during the scene?
•
Does the dialogue function as narrative or is it merely
embroidery?
•
How does the movement of the camera or characters help
the scene?
•
•
Should the scene be carried wide or are close shots essential?
•
•
•
•
Are there significant details or reactions that must be seen?
•
•
Does the scene have a natural climax?
•
Are there visual and sound metaphors that are important to
the scene?
•
•
•
•
Do other sounds have any significance apart from dialogue?
If you cut in close will it preclude you from cutting wide
again?
Does a reaction need to be explained?
When is a reaction more significant than an action?
Does the movement in a scene demand a shock cut to point
out the drama?
What elements apart from the characters are important to the
scene?
What is the function of the scene?
How does the scene fit into the overall film/program?
When is the best time to reveal elements of the story? If it
happens too early will you lose the audiences interest?
Dimensions of Film Editing
Continuity editing is a convention of editing a film that has
been established in the beginning of the film history. It has
been carried through to present times by the editors to tell a
story, so that it can be understood by the viewer without any
distraction. Some time we follow the rules of continuity and
sometime discontinuity is needed for the desired effect.
The aesthetics of editing relies on four basic areas of choice and
control:
•
•
•
•
graphic relations
rhythmic relations
spatial relations
temporal relations
Graphical relations
Every image on the screen has a graphic quality and it is kept
continuous from shot to shot within a scene. For this purpose
one has to look for –
Similarity of graphic elements : like line/shape/depth
Similarity of composition : angle/ arrangement of characters
Similarity of texture : tonal contrast/ lighting
Similarity of direction : speed /direction of movement /Action
occurring in the same area of the frame
Graphic relations involve the pictorial elements of the shots;
that is, lighting, setting, costume, actors’ behaviour, photography, framing and camera mobility.
These elements generally need to match in the transition from
shot to shot in any one scene. Filmmakers generally aim to
achieve an ease of transition from one shot to another. At
times, though, this transition is used to move the viewer’s
attention to a different plane in the narrative, to a different
perception. For example, in Aliens you’ll see a transition from a
shot focusing on the curves of Ripley’s sleeping face to a curve
of the Earth. Generally the filmmaker tries to keep elements
constant across a number of shots; he or she will attempt to
avoid colour clashes, will focus on the centre of the shot, and
keep lighting levels constant.
Although most editing generates a sense of continuity discontinuous editing also has a purpose. Bordwell and Thompson
give an example from Paris, Texas, where two men confronting
each other are both slightly off centre, looking across the space
to where the other stands off screen. Nevertheless, the scene is
balanced across the two shots.
The editing in Forbidden Planet is of such quality that there is
no sense of discontinuity in these graphical elements across
shots. Costumes, lighting levels, framing are all constant and
seamless.
Rhythmic relations
Inherent rhythm of the shot
determined by length of the shot
Filmmakers may establish certain effects by varying the length
of the shot and thus the rhythm of the film.
A scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark exemplifies this. After a
display of swordplay that is meant to establish dominance and
fear in Indiana Jones, he coolly draws a handgun and shoots
the black-dressed swordsman. Spielberg discovered here that he
had to add some film to the shot after this climax to allow the
audience to ‘calm down’.
In other instances editing is used to establish a rhythm when
shots are of the same duration, or are of increasing or decreasing duration. A sequence of rapid shots often is linked with
action and has the effect of leaving the audience with little time
to think. This fast cutting builds up excitement and, apart from
action sequences, is used in television advertisements and music
videos. In some respects this fast cutting replicates the montage
effect in Russian film we’ll talk about in the lessons ahead.
Spatial relations
For Creating geography of the scene
Juxtaposition of two image to create new meaning
Using Symbolic attributes of the image
This is one of the significant powers in editing. When we see
cause and effect in two different shots we immediately associate
them. Bordwell and Thompson’s example of a cannon firing,
followed by another shot of a shell exploding at a target is an
example. We assume that one shot is caused by the other but
this logical sequence, this logical association, is only made logical
through editing. In fact the shot of the cannon firing may bear
no relationship to that of the target being hit. It is only because
of editing that we infer a relationship.
A good example of this is in television interviews that are
conducted outside the studio. We see the interviewer asking the
question in one shot and in a different shot the interviewee
answers that question. During the answer the we might cut to
the interviewer nodding or in some other way expressing
interest. In these interviews the takes of the interviewer asking
the question are shot at a different time to the interview where,
because cameras are limited, the focus is all the time on the
interviewee. Takes of the interviewer feigning interest (called
‘noddies’ in the trade because he is nodding in agreement) are
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made after or before the interview. But the use of judicious
cutting makes it all appear to be a seamless interview.
Temporal relations
Determined by the order of the shots and then as a whole
order of the scenes.
Order of the shots how they are placed in the scene
Overlapping edits
jumpcuts
flashbacks and flashforwards
Shots presented in order infer a particular sequence in time. But
shots can be edited to infer flashbacks. The filmmaker controls
this order of events through editing.
What you should look for achieving continuity
editing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ensures common space from shot to shot
Ensures constant screen direction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
change the scale, angle, or both;
camera angle should shift by 30 degrees.
Graphic patterns are similar from shot to shot.
Figures are balanced and symmetrical.
Lighting is constant and consistent.
Dramatic action is centered in frame.
Rhythm of editing follows scale of shot.
The 180 degree Rule
Establishes an axis of action that
•
•
•
ensures consistency of backgrounds;
ensures consistent screen direction;
preserves the audience perspective of an invisible fourth wall.
continuity editing, scenes are analyzed into their constituent
parts (e.g. establishing shot (showing the whole layout),
Clearly delineates space
Shot/Reverse Shot
Eyeline Match
Establishment/Breakdown/Reestablishment
Match on Action
Why we need the continuity - to
•
•
Maximize the dramatic impact of each shot;
•
•
•
Break down events into individual actions.
Direct the audience’s attention to significant parts of the
action.
Identify details in close-up.
Link actions in a cause and effect chain.
The Premises behind :
Practical premises of continuity editing :
•
•
Audience should perform no labor of attention.
•
Audience interest should be maintained through patterned
variation of scale and angle.
•
The film should prevent a series of changing views that
conform to a consistent pattern of expectations.
Audiences memory of dramatic space must be reinforced
through constant repetition.
Aesthetic premises of continuity editing :
•
Linking of actions should be linear and consecutive,
following logic of cause and effect.
•
Passage from one shot to the next should be perceived as
continuous; transitions between shots should be Invisible.
•
•
•
•
Motivation and verisimilitude.
Unrestricted narration and omniscience of camera.
Perceptual freedom and mobility.
Spectator as voyeur or invisible guest.
What are the factors which contributes Composition
Composition and framing in continuity editing :
•
When changing setups
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two-shots (showing two protagonists discussing
something), shot-reverse shot structure (cutting from MCU
of one character to MCU of another as they talk) and CUs of
significant objects or small gestures.
In order for these to be appreciated as taking place within a
single space, the formula is that the camera can be placed
anywhere on one side of an imaginary line drawn through the
scene (This is called the 180 degree rule because the camera can
be placed anywhere on an arc of 180 degrees on one side of the
line: an angle of 180 degrees is a straight line)
Here is the idea in graphic form:
Looked at the figure below, cameras 1, 11 and 1111 are on the
correct side of the line. Camera 111 is on the wrong side.
Camera 1 sees both characters face to face, like this
We also looked at a more recent innovation, the use of cranes
and steadicam to produce dynamic descriptions of a specific
space, such as the Jack Rabbit Slim’s set in Pulp Fiction, where
the camera crosses the line repeated following John Travolta
through the set, but in the process gives us all the information
we need to understand the spatial relationship between
characters.
In another example, from The Abyss, we saw how the editor
cuts between a fluidly moving point-of-view shot from the ‘eye’
of the pseudo pod to a shot-reverse shot scene in which it first
meets the two protagonists of the film.
Examples in Continuity Editing:
Camera Two Looks over Lite’s shoulder to see Dark’s face, like
this:
It was at this point that the theory of continuity editing was
born. The basic concept is to create an illusion of continuity
while leaving out parts of the action that slow the film’s pacing.
For example, you need to shoot this scene:
A woman drives up to an apartment house in a car. She gets
out. She enters the building and takes the elevator to the 12th
floor. She gets out of the elevator. She walks to Apt. 1294 at the
end of a long hallway. She knocks on the door.
The action takes five minutes in “real time.” Viewers will get
bored watching the woman travel from her car to the apartment
house door if nothing meaningful happens during her journey.
What do you do?
Camera 4 reverses the angle, to look over Dark’s shoulder to see
Light’s face, like so:
But camera 3 reverses the spatial relationship between them, so
that Dark appears to be on Light’s left, thus confusing the
viewer and disturbing the spatial continuity which continuity
editing seeks to produce:
Use continuity editing to shorten “real time” to “screen time.”
Here is an edit list that makes the action move faster but yet
maintains the illusion of continuity (The number in parenthesis is shot length in seconds):
•
•
LS: Car drives up to apartment house entrance.(10)
•
ZOOM: From LS of apartment house to window on 12th
floor. (2)
•
•
•
•
LS: Woman gets out of elevator on 12th floor. (3)
MS: Woman gets out of car and walks towards apartment
house. (5)
CU: Woman’s feet as she walks away from the camera. (2)
MS: Woman knocks on the door of Apt. 1294 (4)
CU: Apt. number #1294 on door and her fist hitting door.
(2)
Seven shots. 28 seconds in screen time instead of five minutes
in real time. Our imagination fills in the missing parts — the
walk into the building; waiting for the elevator; the elevator ride,
walking down the hallway, etc.
Continuity editing compresses “real time” to screen time” to
hide the “pieces of time” missing from the sequence.
Scene matching
In matching scenes the following three requirements must be
satisfied. It is necessary to match:
1 The position.
2 The movement.
Continuous camera movement and the description of space
3 The look.
The movie screen is a fixed area. If a performer is shown on
the left side of the screen in a full shot, he must be on that side
if there is a cut to a close shot placed on the same visual axis. If
this rule for matching the position is not respected, awkward
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visual jumps on the screen will result, so that the audience has
to switch attention from one sector to another to locate the
main character whose adventures they are following. This is
both annoying and distracting. The spectator must be given a
comfortable eye scan of the shots with a constant orientation
that allows him to concentrate on the story. For this purpose
the screen is usually divided in two or three vertical parts, in
which the main performers are placed. All position matching is
done in any or all of these areas.
Matching the movement has a similar logical base. Direction of
movement should be the same in two consecutive shots that
record the continuous motion of a performer otherwise the
audience will be confused about the supposed direction of
movement. If the movement is of a similar kind and in the
same direction, the audience follows the motion of the subject
easily. But if the direction of movement is suddenly reversed in
the second shot, there will be confusion as to where the subject
is going.
Matching the look is the third requirement to be taken into
account when assembling shots where players appear individually or in groups. Matched looks on the screen are always
opposed. Two subjects who exchange looks, do so in conflicting directions. When two people face each other, their glances
are in opposed directions. If the actors are framed in separate
shots, this opposition in directions must be maintained for a
proper visual continuity. If both players were looking in the
same direction in both shots, they would logically be looking at
a third person or object, and not at each other. Without this
opposition of glances, scenes become weak and sometimes
meaningless.
Establishing and maintaining a constant opposition in the
direction of a look exchanged between two players, can be
achieved very simply. The only requisite is that their heads face
each other. The physical distance between them is unimportant.
If a player moves to a position where he now has his back to
his fellow player, the opposition of looks is maintained as he
periodically glances at the other person over his shoulder, or if
after a moment, he turns to face his interlocutor again. In a
group of three, one of them is the arbiter of attention. When
one of the actors speaks, the other two look at him. As the
interest shifts, one of the players looks to the new centre of
attention, making an effective and clear change for the audience
to follow.
Tips & Tricks for cutting a seamless scene
Shooting on location in a Noah-grade downpour, we were
drenched but happy. The sheeting rain obscured the fact that
our “Vietnamese field” was really a canyon near Hollywood and
the photogenic mists created the only “Southeast Asian”
weather we’d been granted in four sunny weeks of production.
We covered most of the sergeant’s death scene: plodding
through the field, hit by an unseen sniper, he flailed to the
ground as his men scattered, he sprawled face down in the
mud. We shot the sergeant falling face down to hide his
features, because that day he the part was played by a crew
member doubling as the actual actor, who was off on another
production.
The actor who played the sergeant was back the next day for his
close up, but the blinding sunshine, the bone-dry field and the
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naked desert hills were back too; all we had to do was make that
day’s footage look just like the stuff we shot the day before.
Matching footage is a common production problem, but
luckily, one with all kinds of solutions. We’ll show you how to
match shots made in separate locations, how to solve problems
(like the sergeant) at a single location and how to bring disparate
places together through compositing. Before we wrap, we’ll
divulge some directing and editing tips that’ll make your fakery
more convincing.
Oh, about the sergeant: waiting until late afternoon, we parked
our tallest slab-sided grip van across the sun’s path to throw a
huge shadow on the ground. We soaked the shadow area with
water from 55-gallon drums; drenched the actor to match and
shot all his closeups from angles high enough to frame off the
surrounding sunshine and the giveaway hills beyond. We got
our downpour from a garden sprayer that pumped rain in
convincing style. In post, we then cooled the sunny color
temperature down to drizzle-blue and the resulting closeups cut
together perfectly with the rainy wide shots.
Matching Different Locations
The most common multi-location matching problem involves
stock shots. Establishing shot of Eiffel Tower (with cheesy
accordion on sound track), CUT TO sidewalk cafe. Trouble is,
you’ve faked the cafe on your back patio and this fact is painfully
obvious. To improve the match, you’ll want to work on both
the stock shot and the cafe set.
First, lose the cliche Eiffel Tower. Try to find a Parisian street
with readable signs in French, a street that might have a cafe
somewhere up ahead. This will tell the audience where they are
and form a plausible relationship with the backyard set.
Then fix the patio. Swap the resin chairs for classic wire models
and get an umbrella with Pernod ads on it. Place a laser-printed
menu with a readable Plats du Jour or some-such on the table
and don’t forget an ashtray because the French still smoke. This
is called “selling the gag.” We’ll have more to say on this later.
Sometimes you need to combine different locations into one. I
once created a show in which I staged a bank robbery at three
completely different spots: a building that resembled a bank, an
actual bank and a public phone booth. My ten-year-old hero
catches sight of the baddies escaping from the stand-in bank,
glances up to see the real bank’s sky sign, then rushes into the
phone booth (which was actually miles away) to morph into an
adult superhero.
We made the matches using two techniques: so-called “glanceobject” cutting and screen direction. As its name suggests, a
glance-object pair is a shot of someone looking off camera
that’s cut with a shot of what he or she supposedly sees. This
editorial pairing tells the audience that the looker and look-ee are
in the same location. By cutting to the bank sign from our
hero’s look and then back to him, we established boy and sign
to be in the same place.
To integrate the phone booth, we established it with a glanceobject combination and then cemented the spatial relationship
with screen direction. Our hero looks off-right to “see” the
booth, then runs “toward” it and exits the frame, screen right.
In the matching phone-booth shot, he runs in from screen left,
makes his transformation in the booth, then rushes back off
screen left. And he then runs into frame from screen right at the
bogus bank location. The matched action and screen direction
bring the phone booth and bank together.
Matching Different Conditions
The opposite of matching different locations is matching
conditions at the same location, but in different shooting
sessions. Simple continuity can be a frustrating hassle in any
shoot, as actors show up in different clothes, or worse: “Hey:
you dyed your hair green!” “Yeah, it’s green now. Is that a
problem?”
After continuity, the trickiest match is light: sunshine or
overcast, long or short shadows, noon white color or sunset
orange. If you’re going to match multiple shooting sessions, go
for a neutral white balance in all of them (you can dial in a
uniform sunset or whatever in post). If the day-to-day
weather’s uncertain in your area, avoid ostentatiously sunsplashed lighting. However, if you do have available power, you
can sometimes simulate sun by pumping blue-filtered light into
closeups.
When the problem is a missing actor like our sergeant you can
sometimes double the performer as described above; but this is
tough to pull off when there’s dialogue. In this situation, have
a stand-in play the scene with the actor present, for reference. If
practical, make a rough edit with the stand-in and play it later for
the missing actor, so that she or he can replicate the rhythm of
the main scene. Use the tape yourself to ensure that the actor’s
orientation and eye movement will cut smoothly with the earlier
footage.
In fact, a 12-volt VCR/TV combo and a work tape of previous
footage are indispensable tools for matching everything about
lighting, performance and continuity. Planning helps too. In
another project, we rented an antique milk delivery truck. The
cost was so high that we could only afford it for one day,
though it appeared in a sequence that took three days to shoot.
To solve the problem, we shot all the truck setups together, out
of sequence, and we pre-planned the other camera angles to
frame off the spot where the vehicle was (no longer) parked.
The whole business was complicated by the fact that the truck’s
supposedly pre-dawn rounds had to be shot day for night, but
that’s another story.
Compositing
Nowadays, most advanced amateur and professional
videographers can combine separate elements by placing
foreground subjects in completely different backgrounds
through the process of digital compositing.
How much you use this postproduction technique depends on
how well your computer system works. The chromakey controls
on stand-alone switchers are okay for titles and brief composites; but they fringe somewhat under most conditions and the
results can look disappointing.
Some digital editing packages, like Adobe Premiere, include a
compositing feature that works pretty well. But for truly
seamless integration of subject and background, you may want
to add a plug-in that does compositing, like Boris FX or a
stand-alone compositing program, like Adobe After Effects,
which is specifically designed to feather, defringe and otherwise
blend the images. For the most finicky work, you can export
your raw materials to a still image program like Adobe
Photoshop or Corel Photopaint and build composites, frame
by painstaking frame. (Even these programs do a better job
when assisted by compositing software plugins.)
In compositing, matching action is more critical because
components from different locations appear on screen at the
same time where they can be directly compared. Recently I shot
some footage of my daughter to add to our summer vacation
video by compositing her onto the Staten Island ferry. I got
most of it right: posing her against a plain blue sky, I aligned
her to match the sun angle on the distant Statue of Liberty in
the background shot (at least as I remembered it) and she raised
her arm just the right amount to “point” at it.
But when I tried compositing her with a distant Miss Liberty,
the proportions were all off. With a lot of patience, I was able
to scale her down to fit the background footage, but not all
software allows this. Again, the moral is, there’s no substitute
for reviewing the “A” footage when setting up the “B” shots.
Directing and Editing Tricks
With compositing or any other matching process, you can’t
simply juxtapose elements and expect them to work. Your
success depends largely on how well you sell the gag, that is,
how cunningly you supply extra evidence that your separate
pieces are really one.
For example, pretend you’re shooting Son of Matrix. You’ve
got plenty of wide shots of a giant factory but you’re not
allowed on the grounds to shoot scenes with actors. To
combine the two, you plan your sequence like this:
1 Establishing shot of factory.
2 Closeup of hero (in distinctive leather overcoat) against wall
that matches factory shot.
3 Another factory wide shot with small-size hero composited
in. As he moves forward ...
4 ... Action-matched closeup of hero as before.
See how it works? The opening wide shot can remain on screen
long enough to solidly establish the locale. (Because it’s a
“straight” shot it will withstand audience scrutiny.) The
introductory close shot of the hero includes a visually distinctive
feature, the overcoat. When you Composite the hero into the
second wide shot, he’s small enough to be visually plausible but
still identifiable through his signature overcoat. Because the
opening has already established the factory, this second wide
shot can be brief enough to conceal the fact that it’s a composite. Finally, the matched action with the hero’s second close shot
ties the composite to it.
Another trick is to use portable elements in both locations.
Shooting in a convenient alley, a ho-hum director might have
the bad guys, drive up and pile out of the car. A good director,
however, might use the car door to glue alley and factory
together:
5 Baddies drive into shot and stop. Passenger looks out
window.
6 His P.O.V.: the factory framed in the passenger door window.
The door swings open.
7 Medium shot: the passenger Baddie jumps out of the car.
Because we see the door at the factory location, we assume that
the whole car and its passengers are there too. In fact, the
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director simply drove the car to the factory, aimed the camcorder
out the passenger window and then pushed the door open.
If I’d been smarter in shooting my bank robbery, I could have
placed the same prop bus bench (with a distinctive ad on its
back) in both the main locale and the phone booth location.
Then we’d see the left half of the bench bleeding off screen
right as the boy exited right. And we’d see the right half
bleeding off left in the matching phone booth setup.
Editors depend on directors to supply the raw material for
blending elements together. But there are also tricks that are
pure postproduction. Aside from matched cutting and
compositing, most of these tricks involve blending.
Color blending is the easiest technique. Footage from the
factory, the alley and the wall are all shot with a neutral color
balance. Now the editor imposes a faint greenish tint across all
of them, partly to indicate that they take place within the
“matrix,” but partly to give them all the same look. (Science
fiction films, from Blade Runner on, rely heavily on the use of
color design to unify disparate elements.)
But the most powerful blender of all is audio. Present the
ominous rumbling hum of the factory under the establishing
shot and then roll it under every subsequent setup. Stitch
locations together with split edits, in which the audio starts the
new shot before the video or vice versa. By laying the screech of
the baddies’ tires under our hero’s closeup, the editor establishes that their car is in the same place even before we see it. (If
the director was on the ball, our Hero will look offscreen toward
the tire sound.)
And deep down, under all the sound effects, the music is
pulsing and jangling under every shot in the sequence, mainly
for emotional reinforcement, but at least partly to help blend
everything together.
Finally, it’s worth repeating that you shouldn’t linger on what
you’ve doctored. Even the finest fakery will give itself away if
the audience can study it long enough.
Points to remember about Continuity Editing
1 The classical Hollywood narrative film is usually cut according
to the rules of continuity or the invisible editing that is
critical in the storytelling process but the viewer should be
unaware of shot transitions (how we get from one shot to
the next) – the editing.
2 The system of editing, largely was developed in the US in the
1910s, that still dominates film language.
3 This type of editing optimizes the illusory power of cinema
and allows the viewer to become absorbed by the narrative,
4 Continuity editing in narrative filmmaking is used to
condense time and space as well as to emphasize story
elements, structuring the narrative material so that patterns
of meaning are created.
5 Continuity Editing moves the story and is generally slower
than dynamic editing
6 Continuity Editing can work only if the director shoots the
original sequence according to certain rules. The Continuity
approach uses a set of rules that aim to hide rather than
emphasize the cut. These rules include:
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i The 180-degree rule, a major rule of Continuity Editing that
states that the camera must remain on one side of the
narrative action in order to ensure consistent spatial
relationships and direction of movement from shot to shot.
(drawing an imaginary line through the action and shooting
from only one side of that line)
ii A reverse angle shot is a shot taken from an angle opposite
the one from which the preceding shot has been taken.
a The reverse angle technique is frequently employed in
dialogue scenes to provide the editor with alternate facial
shots of the actors speaking – “shot/reverse shot”
iii The 30-degree rule (moving camera set-ups at least 30
degrees from each other during a scene).
iv Eyeline match
a The alternation of two shots, the first showing a character
looking off-screen, the second showing what the character’s
seeing.
Notes :
LESSON 11:
THE EARLY RUSSIAN CINEMA &
MONTAGE
During the 1920s a vibrant film culture arose in the Soviet
Union in the period following the Russian Revolution. This
resulted in influential developments in film theory and a
distinctive body of films. Several of these films stand as
landmarks in the history of world cinema. The Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s were instrumental in the development of
Formalism, the dominant film theory of the silent era.
Formalism was applied to a range of arts, including literature
and painting, and held that an artwork’s meaning existed
primarily in its form or language, rather than in its content or
subject. Formalists saw their art as a tool of social change.
Lev Kuleshov Experiments
Lev Kuleshov was an early Russian filmmaker who believed
that juxtaposing two unrelated images could convey a separate
meaning. Kuleshov experiments with Birth of a Nation and
Intolerance and develops a new theory on the c.u.: that it can be
used as more than an intensification of longer shots; that it can
be useful in juxtapositions. In his experiment he filmed
Mozhukhin, a famous Russian actor, and shots of a bowl of
soup, a girl, a child playing, and a coffin. He then cut the shot of
the actor into the other shot; each time it was the same shot of
the actor.
CU Actor+ Shot of a bowl of soup
CU Actor+Shot of a girl
CU Actor+Shot of a child playing
CU Actor+Shot of a coffin
Audiences saw Mozhukhin as “hungry,” “sorrowful” and
“fatherly.”Viewers felt that the shots of the actor conveyed
different emotions, though each time it was in fact the same
shot. Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate the usefulness
and effectiveness of film editing.
One of the most significant theoretical discoveries in the history
of film is the effect discovered by Lev Kuleshov in the early
1920s in the Soviet Union. Kuleshov proved that two shots
projected in succession are not interpreted separately by the
viewer; in the audience’s mind, they are integrated into a whole
according to the well-known equation A + B = C (in which A
and B are the two joined shots and C is a new value, not
originally included in any of these shots).
This effect is extremely powerful. A scene, for example,
consisting of the shot of aircraft dropping bombs followed by
the shot of a burning village will be routinely interpreted as
“these aircraft have bombed this village.” Needless to say that
these two shots could have been filmed at different places, at
different times, and the burning village may have been the result
of an accident.
The Kuleshov effect has been adequately described, analysed
and explained. Yet its implications have been generally seen in a
restricted context. Actually, the Kuleshov principle is analogous
to the mechanisms, which produce the illusion of film motion.
On both occasions, the viewer perceives individual and separate
UNIT 11
THE EARLY RUSSIAN CINEMA &
MONTAGE
elements and organizes them into a larger context by adding the
causal relationship between them. This relationship exists only
in the viewer’s mind. A series of still images, when projected,
results in the illusion of motion itself. A series of larger units
(shots), when shown in sequence, will result in an illusionary
narrative meaning.
Sergei Eisenstein’s Montage Theory
Our view of early Soviet cinema is now dominated by the films
and theories of Sergei Eisenstein, in particular his theories on
montage which informed his method of film-making. He
developed his ideas first in the theatre and then in a series of
films: Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925), October (1927)
and The General Line (1928). Eisenstein constructed these films
using shots as his cinematic building blocks. He avoided long
takes, which detracted from the control he could exert over his
images and the impact they subsequently had on an audience.
The short shots were referred to as shocks or attractions because
they stood out and commanded attention within a film. These
shocks were edited together in a process called montage, to
convey a particular meaning. For example, in Strike the nature of
the slaughter perpetrated by the Cossack army is conveyed by
juxtaposing scenes of advancing soldiers with a bull being
slaughtered and ink being spilt over a street-map of the city
being attacked.
Eisenstein was building on theories of film-making developed
by Lev Kuleshov and Dziga Vertov.
These pioneers of Soviet cinema, working under economic
constraints, re-edited existing film-stock to develop their ideas
of film grammar. Kuleshov experimented with how shots
before and after an image affected its interpretation. He realized
he could modify an audience’s reaction to a shot by changed the
images either side of it in a montage sequence. Vertov developed an influential theory called Kino-Pravda (film truth) and
stressed the importance of rhythm in editing, for example,
speeding up a montage sequence towards its climax.
Eisenstein extended the initial theory of montage to encompass intellectual montage, by which a film is constructed as a
series of colliding shocks (attractions) to convey a specific
meaning to the audience. Eisenstein saw montage as a dialectical
process, which raised conflicts that needed to be resolved. The
specific meaning created in the minds of the audience, by the
juxtaposition of two images, was solely due to their juxtaposition and not the content of the individual images. Therefore,
intellectual montage is a good example of formalistic thinking
in film. It is concerned with creating definite meaning through
form, using brief juxtaposed shocks, for an ideological
purpose. In Battleship Potemkin the juxtaposition of descending faceless soldiers with close-ups of students, pleading
mothers and other identifiable members of society, forcefully
conveys a message of repression, whilst explosions at the palace
are juxtaposed with statues of lions on the gates that appear to
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rise up suggesting the awakening of a revolutionary spirit.
In October a revolutionary leader is juxtaposed with a gilded
peacock to indicate his vanity. The images used in this style of
montage could therefore interrupt the narrative to make specific
points. A film could be constructed using a series of shocks,
according to Eisenstein, to convey any abstract concept to an
audience. He claimed that even Marx’s Das Kapital could be
filmed in this way. His intention was to convey clear messages
through the manipulation of images, for example, to
strengthen a viewer’s political conviction in revolutionary
politics.
Eisenstein saw that sound and vision could be treated independently in montage, or used in concert to great effect. Shots in a
film and phrases of music, for example, could be timed
together to increase the impact of a key shot. He also understood the importance of the rhythm of music in accentuating
the rhythm of montage, for example, the use of military music
in the Odessa Steps sequence of Battleship Potemkin.
Typage
Another feature of Eisenstein’s work was that he was not
interested in using professional actors, but used amateurs who
were asked to draw on the experience of their own lives. This
formed the basis of his theory of “typage”
— people chosen on basis of their “type”. Quote: “The only
thing I need is contact with the people”
— felt their was a greater sense of reality with this technique.
Came from imagination and observation.
He wanted people in his films to represent archetypes, and cast
people who resembled the universal image of groups within
society. For example, in Battleship Potemkin archetypes of
students, mothers and soldiers are presented.
Philosophy — a 30 year old playing a 60 year old —> rehearsal
is weeks at tops. 60 year old playing 60 year old has a lifetime of
rehearsal. Act as themselves
The “Odessa Steps” sequence from The Battleship Potemkin by
Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein believed that montage (juxtaposing images by film
editing) could create ideas or have an impact not found in the
individual images. Two or more images together create a
“tertium quid” (third thing) that makes the whole greater than
the sum of its individual images.
Sergei Eisenstein’s theory of montage involves the combining
of fragmental shots of film into intellectual series and contexts.
How the fragments combine and are formed is the essence of
his notion of montage by conflict. This theory challenges
traditional narrative movies because it involves taking an idea
and recombining broken fragments in an incongruent way to
produce new ideas, and occasional shocks.
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The most famous sequence in “Battleship Potemkin”—the
massacre on the Odessa Steps—is one of the most famous in
film history. The Odessa citizenry have been supporting the
mutinous sailors with food and good cheer. Suddenly, from the
top of the flight of marble steps leading to the harbor come
marching Czarist soldiers with drawn rifles. Shots ring out, and
men; women and children flee in a dizzying, terrifying rush. A
mother screams in horror at the sight of her fallen child. She
cradles his body in her arms, and approaches the soldiers: one
woman defying an army. Another mother is shot; and the force
of her falling body causes a baby carriage to roll out of control
down the steps. Corresponding close-ups of faces unforgettably reflect the sheer insanity of the moment.
“Perhaps no other movie has ever had such graphic strength in
its images … The Odessa Steps sequence, the most celebrated
single sequence in film history, has been imitated in one way or
another in countless television news programs and movies with
crowd scenes; it has also been parodied endlessly. And yet the
power of the original is undiminished.”
—Rob Edelman
Expressionist film makers like Robert Wiene who created The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari build their distorted and tortured scenes
with the artifice of shape, paint and light. The expressionists
were concentrating attention on the image and inviting the
spectator to examine and react to that image as a notion of a
state of mind-an intent not totally different from Eisenstein’s.
Eisenstein’s images from The Odessa Steps sequence (the boots
of the Cossacks stomping down the Odessa Steps, the
woman’s face after she has been shot, the falling baby carriage,
and the woman’s bleeding eye) evoke a horror that is just as
distorted and tortured (albeit, more naturalistically) as the
images of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
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In Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, a small scene where a sailor
smashes a plate, occurs over ten cuts. On one hand, we have the
mise-en-scene. On the other, we have the editing. The editing
makes the action more powerful, and it agitates. There is no
smooth continuity between the cuts, and there is hardly any
match-on action. There is also a zoom effect which, rather than
being smooth, jumps.
Context: In Odessa, 1905, Czarist Russia. Frustrated and
angered by poor shipboard conditions, the sailors of the
Russian ship Potemkin are near mutiny. They are served
maggot-ridden meat, gruel, and dry bread. One of the sailors,
washing dishes, comes across a plate that is engraved, “Give us
this day our daily bread.” Enraged, he smashes the dish. How
is this shown?
The smashed plate:
1 CU of hands washing plate
2 Reaction shot of sailor
3 CU of his hands moving plate around so that he reads the
saying
4 Reaction of sailor—he is still reading
5 CU of his hands moving the plate around
6 Reaction shot as he looks up, an angry expression in his eyes
7 CU of plate in his hand
8 Wide shot of other sailors at wash basin—another one leans
over toread the inscription
9 Reaction shot of the sailor—anger in his face is plain
10 Quick wide shot of the three sailors at the wash basin—we
can see sailor holding plate in his hand—he begins to lift the
plate
11 High angle of the three sailors—he begins to lift the plate
over his head
12 Tight shot of that sailor—lifts plate over his head—
13 Back to previous shot—his hand moves down swiftly
14 But now to tight shot again—his hand moves back over his
other shoulder—
15 Dark close-up of his angry face
16 Wide shot again—this time similar to 11 and 13, his hand
above his head— he throws his arm down violently—
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17 Wide shot, same as 10, shows the plate smashing onto the
edge of the table, and then shots fades out
NOTE: The action of the sailor smashing the plate required 8
shots—Eisenstein was interested in extending the action with
uninflected shots—as if to show the rage of the sailor—he lifts
the plate above his left shoulder, then down and up above his
right shoulder, and then he smashes it down. Shot 15 is
especially important—a quick close-up of his enraged face.
Eisenstein creates a montage effect—expanding the impact of
the dramatic action with shots that go in the same direction—
eight shots to express “rage” at such mistreatment at the hands
of the officers. This action sets up the climactic action explored
below—when all of the men decide to mutiny.
Hollywood would never do this - it would take the mise-enscene first, rather than the editing - the opposite to Potemkin.
Here we have form matching the content, and it also expands
time. Eisenstein’s editing is very emotional. The patterns that
Eisenstein makes is a montage of collusions - one shot being
very different to another.
Montage Theories
In Eisenstein’s essay, ‘A Dialectical Approach to Film Form’,
Eisenstein articulated the doctrine which underlies many of his
theories relating to montage:
For art is always conflict:
1 according to its social mission,
2 according to its nature,
3 according to its methodology
According to its social mission because: It is art’s task to make
manifest the contradictions of Being. To form equitable views
by stirring up contradictions within the spectator’s mind, and to
forge accurate intellectual concepts from the dynamic clash of
opposing passions.
According to its nature because: Its nature is a conflict between
natural existence and creative tendency. Between organic inertia
and purposeful initiative.
Applied to cinema, this ‘stirring up’ of contradictions and
forging of ‘accurate intellectual concepts’ is achieved via two (not
necessarily related) shots which, when juxtaposed, function to
create a new state of feeling in the spectator. A useful equation
for this dialectical montage (or what Eisenstein also describes as
the ‘montage of attractions’) would be: Thesis +
Antithesis=Synthesis.
The juxtaposition or montage of shots can be calculated and
manipulated in a number of different ways to achieve a variety
of effects. In Film Form, Eisenstein lists four ‘definite’
categories of montage rhythmic montage, tonal montage,
metric montage and his final, and perhaps most controversial
form, intellectual montage.
It must be noted however that these categories have been
applied with relative indifference. For example, in a 1929 text
Eisenstein uses musical metaphors to provide names for his
montage categories and refers to harmonic montage, a term
which he later abandons. This reversal perhaps indicates the
difficulty of exhaustively listing every form of montage
possible. However, to prevent any confusion, we will now
examine the categories listed in Eisenstein’s own collection of
essays, Film Form.
Metric Montage: In metric montage, shots are joined together
according to their length, ‘in a formula-scheme corresponding
to a measure of music. With the absolute length of the piece
already determined, the content within the shot is arranged so
that it fits in to the confines of this absolute length. Thus,
tension is created by shortening each shot while preserving the
original proportions of the formula. Metric montage determined the tempo of the editing, and was dictated by the
duration, rather than the content, of each shot.
Rhythmic Montage: While in metric montage, the content was
determined by the absolute length of the sequence, in rhythmic
montage, the action within the frame is given as much weight as
the actual physical length of each shot. The rhythm of the
montage can therefore conflict with the rhythm of the movement within the frame thus generating tension.
Therefore, in the ‘Odessa steps sequence’ in The Battleship
Potemkin, it is not only the length of each shot which creates
tension but also the rhythmic marching of the soldiers’ feet
which, unsynchronised with the rhythm of the editing, ‘violates
all metrical demands.’ As Eisenstein himself points out:
The Odessa steps sequence in Potemkin is a clear example of
this [rhythmic montage]. In this the rhythmic drum of the
soldiers’ feet as they descend the steps violates all metrical
demands. Unsynchronized with the beat of the cutting, this
drumming comes in off-beat each time, and the shot itself is
entirely different in its solution with each of these appearances.
The final pull of tension is supplied by the transfer from the
rhythm of the descending feet to another rhythm - a new kind
of downward movement - the next intensity level of the same
activity - the baby-carriage rolling down the steps.
Although it may not be readily apparent upon first glance, a
tension does exist, in the Odessa steps sequence, between the
slow marching of the soldiers and the quicker beat of the
montage. Indeed, as Eisenstein goes on to suggest, the
rhythm of the movement within the frame and the rhythm of
the cutting only begin to parallel when the pram, described by
Eisenstein as a ‘progressing accelerator’, begins its descent
downwards.
Tonal Montage: Tonal montage, represents a level above
rhythmic montage, and is motivated by the emotional tone of a
particular sequence. Thus, in the sombre mourning sequence
following Vakulnichuk’s death in The Battleship Potemkin, we
find, in contrast to the rapid cutting of the Odessa steps
sequence, each shot lasting around five or six seconds. With its
slower pace, the mourning sequence acts as a caesura, a low key
bridge which functions not only to cool the violence of the
preceding rebellion but also to prepare for the angry demonstrations from the citizens of Odessa.
The movement of the water, the gliding sea-gulls, the haze
which filters through the harbour and the gently rocking boats,
all contribute to the somber tone and (subsequently) languid
pace of the sequence. As Eisenstein suggests with reference to
the mourning sequence, tonal montage is closely related to
several other forms of montage:
In this example it is interesting that, alongside the basic tonal
dominant, a secondary, accessory rhythmic dominant is also
operating. This links the tonal construction of the scene with
the tradition of rhythmic montage, the furthest development
of which is tonal montage. And, like rhythmic montage, this is
also a special variation of metric montage.
The parallels between rhythmic and tonal montage are clear;
both forms function in accordance with the actions within the
frame. Indeed, it is important to note that any of these forms
of montage can operate simultaneously within any given
sequence.
While the texture or emotional feel of the shots was the basis
of Tonal Montage, you would often hear about another type of
montage called the Overtonal montage which is a synthesis of
metric, rhythmic and tonal which, while not existing in a single
frame or in an edited sequence, became evident, as Eisenstein
wrote, the moment the ‘dialectical process of the passing of the
film through the projection apparatus’ commenced.
Intellectual montage
Intellectual montage, perhaps more than any of his other
theories, brought Eisenstein the greatest amount of criticism.
In October, intellectual montage was deemed a failure by the
Party leadership. They had asked Eisenstein to make a film,
which would be ‘intelligible to the masses,’ (the film was
commissioned to celebrate the proletarian revolution) but with
October they were given something, which was as convoluted as
Eisenstein’s definition of his new form of editing:
An example of this [intellectual montage] can be found in the
sequence of the “gods” in October, where all the conditions for
their comparison are made dependent on an exclusively classintellectual sound of each piece in its relation to God. I say
class, for though the emotional principle is universally human,
the intellectual principle is profoundly tinged by class. These
pieces were assembled in accordance with a descending intellectual scale-pulling back the concept of God to its origins, forcing
the spectator to perceive this “progress” intellectually.
This sequence from October (Oktyabr, USSR, 1927) is an
example of Eisenstein’s intellectual montage. The increasingly
primitive icons from various world religions are linked by
patterns of duration, screen direction and shot scale to produce
the concept of religion as a degenerate practice used to legitimate
corrupt states.
In the sequence of the “gods”, alluded to by Eisenstein above,
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intellectual montage functions to critique Christianity through
the juxtaposition of a Baroque Christ figure with a number of
primitive idols. By juxtaposing a number of concrete objects,
Eisenstein articulates an intellectual (undepictable) argument
and thus attempts to direct the spectator’s overall passage of
thinking.
Yet, such is the obscurity of the images in the “Gods” sequence, that certain critics have viewed the primitive idols as
representing General Kornilov and his troops (who were
advancing from the east and did not believe in Christianity).
Thus, if Eisenstein is directing our minds, what message is he
directing it towards?
There are a number of other sequences within October, which
utilize intellectual montage as a means of commenting upon a
figure or ideology. For example, Alexander Kerensky and his
provisional government are criticized quite scathingly in one
particular sequence.
As we see him enter the Winter Palace, Kerensky moves up the
steps. His climb involves a collapse of temporal reality as it
takes him almost a minute (20 shots) to reach the top. His
ascent to power like his ascent up the steps, the proliferation of
shots appears to suggest, is almost never ending.
Intercut with his movement up the stairs, are six ‘intellectual’
shots of a statue holding a wreath; the implication being that
Kerensky, with all his posturing on the steps, is nothing more
than a vain and superficial dictator. Indeed, this theme of
vanity is further emphasised by intercut shots of a peacock
preening itself.
Whether October’s audience (or even the audience of today)
actually understood either the Kerensky sequence or the
sequence of the “Gods” is open to debate. However what is
clear is that Eisenstein, despite all the criticism, was greatly
excited by the possibilities of intellectual montage. Yet, for one
(mainly political) reason or another, he was unable to fully test
the extent to which he could synthesise art and science and
promote, through film, intellectual dynamisation.
8 6
Some of the other ways of looking at a Montage:
Montage by composition: the linkage of images due to the
composition of objects in the film frame. Relationship
between 2 shots can be based on similarity or opposition.
1 Similarity: ex. from Strike by Eisenstein (1924) of man’s
hand holding the child at an angle then cut to man’s hand
slaughtering cow at same angle. The 2 images form a
relationship to suggest the metaphor of workers being
slaughtered like cattle.
2 Opposition: ex. of 2 cowboys, one good, one bad — shot
of one coming from the left of the screen, the other coming
from the right. Reversed composition. The juxtaposition
creates meaning in this example by a) suggesting conflict
between 2 men and b)by suggesting that the 2 men will
eventually come together.
Montage by Movement:
Similar or opposed movement generally combined with
composition, as most shots aren’t static.
1 Similarity — ex. The Graduate — meaning is created through
the similar movements of its central subject in juxtaposed
shots.
Benjamin jumps into pool
Bejamin jumps into bed with Mrs. Robinson
Benjamin idly floats on inflated raft in pool
Benjamin laying in bed next to Mrs. R. in similarly relaxed
position
2 Opposition — ex. Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train —
physical direction of movement of 2 men is opposed. They
arrive at the train from different ends. Move toward center
screen from opposite directions which gives viewers the
sense that they will eventually come together.
Montage by Repetition:
Juxtaposition of different shots intercut with a repeated image.
Can be soothing or anxiety-provoking
Montage by Rhythm:
Series of shots creating a rhythm through the length of each
shot. Cutting away or parallel editing would be an example.
Suspense created by shortening shots.
Montage by Content:
Detail and Metaphor: Juxtaposition of images with related
content. Detail is added to detail to create meaning. Ex.
attempt to show uniformity in commuters at train. So shots
of briefcases added to shots of similar suits and then cut to
faces all wearing same expression. All of these images are
natural to the scene. However, could also use quicker method
of linking shots with unrelated content but united by one idea
— Eisenstein’s theory of collision in montage. He termed it
“intellectual montage”.
Other Soviet film-makers working in the 1920s
During the making of The General Line, Eisenstein fell out of
favour with Stalin. His films had become more concerned with
developing his theories than in selling the revolution. The
General Line was concerned with the introduction of modern
equipment on collectivised farms, but Eisenstein’s portrayal of
this equipment, for example, a cream separator, in montage
sequences with peasants to convey ideas of sexuality and the
lottery of life went far behind his official brief. He left the Soviet
Union to travel to the US and Mexico, returning to the Soviet
Union a decade later. He completed two other major films:
Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan The Terrible (1942-46).
Eisenstein developed a unique cinematic style, which differed
from that of other Soviet film-makers working in the 1920s.
Whereas Eisenstein used a montage style which drew attention
to itself with colliding images, V.I. Pudovkin developed a
different idea of montage in his theory of relational editing.
Pudovkin wanted his montage to be seamless, not drawing
attention to itself, and be used solely to support the film’s
narrative. This linkage editing, seen in films like Mother (1926)
and The End of St. Petersburg (1927), was similar to the
editing style developed by D.W. Griffith in the USA - for
example, in Intolerance (1916).
Although a number of Eisenstein’s contemporaries quite
openly criticised his montage theories, there was no more
prominent critic than Vsevolod Pudovkin.
For Pudovkin, editing involved using shots as building blocks
rather than fragments for collision. As he himself pointed out,
‘If the editing be merely an uncontrolled combination of the
various pieces, the spectator will understand (apprehend)
nothing from it; but if it be coordinated according to a
definitely selected course of events or conceptual line, either
agitated or calm, it will either excite or soothe the spectator.’
This view informs much of Pudovkin’s work. In his 1926 film,
Mother (Vsevolod Pudovkin 1926), we find seemingly unconnected shots spliced together to form one coherent and
co-ordinated whole. Shot-reverse-shots, where an action is
complimented by a corresponding reaction, are found throughout the film.
The best way to describe the soviet point of view in the movie
creation process is to discuss the opposition between two main
principles of editing, principles enounced by the main two
theoreticians of the time: Eisenstein and Pudovkin. They both
agree on the significance of montage. This view is expressed as
an axiom of cinematography by Eisenstein: Cinematography is,
first and foremost, montage. The way montage was accomplished made the difference between the two. On one hand,
Vsevolod Pudovkin promoted the idea of summing the
separate pieces of a film. The idea behind this first principle is
to first divide the film into shots. Then, the collation of shots
in a certain order would give birth to something, which is more
than the sum of its components. The keyword that he uses is
construction. For Pudovkin, editing means arranging pieces of
film in hierarchical structures, and then gluing these structures
together: The construction of a scene from pieces, a sequence
from scenes, and reel from sequences, and so forth, is called
editing. Furthermore, he extends the meaning of the word by
incorporating conceptually higher level hierarchies in it, for the
purpose of creating an impression on the spectator. Pudovkin
calls this technique relational editing. The higher level hierarchies
give birth to editing methods such as: contrast, parallelism,
symbolism, simultaneity and leit-motif. On the other hand,
Eisenstein states simply: montage is conflict. He postulates that
linkage [of shots] is merely a possible special case [of conflict].
He asks and also provides the answer, to the question of what
the base of montage is: By what, then, is montage characterized
and, consequently, its cell - the shot? By collision. By the conflict
of two pieces in opposition to each other. By conflict. By
collision. Using an example from physics - the infinity of
combinations that arise from the impact of spheres - Eisenstein
concludes that from the collision of two given factors arises a
concept. In other words, he demands that it is absolutely
necessary to collide shots, rather than link them, in order to
obtain perfect editing. The idea of division into pieces is still
present. The main difference from Pudovkin’s linkage principle
is the way these pieces are glued back together. In Pudovkin’s
case, they harmoniously form a unity. In Eisenstein’s case, the
pieces themselves are at war with one another, assuring that the
spectator is bombarded with their conflict, that he is involved in
this war. To convince his readers about the power of his
argument, Eisenstein even claims that he has convinced
8 7
Pudovkin that collision is a better way to edit a film than
following the principle of construction. With humor, he states:
Not long ago, we had another talk. Today he agrees with my
point of view. True, during the interval he took the opportunity to acquaint himself with the series of lectures I gave during
that period at the State Cinema Institute…
Such was the conflict of views between Pudovkin and
Eisenstein, that the latter was prompted to write in his essay,
‘The Cinematic Principle and the Ideogram’:
In front of me lies a crumpled yellow sheet of paper. On it is a
mysterious note: “Linkage-P and Collision-E.” This is a
substantial trace of a heated bout on the subject between P
(Pudovkin) and E (myself).
This has become a habit. At regular intervals he visits me late at
night and behind closed doors we wrangle over matters of
principle. A graduate of the Kuleshov school, he loudly
defends an understanding of montage as a linkage of pieces.
Into a chain. Again, “bricks”. Bricks, arranged in series to
expound an idea.
Yet, when we examine Pudovkin’s films closely and, even his
writings, his theories seem rather confusing. For example, in
1928, he wrote a lengthy article praising Eisenstein’s October
and appeared to almost endorse the idea of dialectcal montage.
On the screen one sequence follows another. Saturated with the
single rhythm of a slow and powerful movement, they alternate
in the same rhythm, quietly and surely: a downward fall slides
across into an upward ascent, the horizon falls, upwards again, a
slide across, a fall, up goes the dead white horse hanging over
the edge of the bridge, a slide across, upwards, the clean river
and the horizon fall downwards, swim upwards...the audience
is completely seduced by the rhythm, the audience is captivated.
Indeed, in several sequences from The End of St Petersburg,
arguably Pudovkin’s most Eisenstinian film, dialectical montage
is found to be quite clearly operating. Several sequences were
built upon a juxtaposition of shots that involved a conflict of
directions (i.e. the horses facing in opposite directions), a
conflict of movement (the man static and sleeping juxtaposed
with the movement of the driver), a conflict of masses and a
conflict of scales.
A small hand of filmmakers dominated the soviet film of the
twenties: Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko, Sergei
Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. Some of these artists were not
only filmmakers, but also film critics and film theory authors.
Their common central point on cinema theory was the importance of film editing over the other aspects involved in film
creation.
A closer look at one of the most representative creation of the
time might reveal whether this theory was indeed applied. In
particular, one could analyse Dziga Vertov’s A Man with a
Movie Camera to show it followed the soviet guidelines in
filmmaking in his movie.
The images below are from Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera.
The first pair is an example of graphic match: two images
unnrelated except for visual similarity. The second and third
pairs are examples of using montage for thematic contrasts.
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The theory of montage importance applies perfectly to Vertov’s
A Man with a Movie Camera. One could say that this film is
actually a masterpiece of editing. It begins with a claim of the
director: the movie has no scenario and no actors. The claim
itself is not true; actors - like the women in the moving car, the
woman working on the film and sometimes the cameraman
himself - are used. The author’s intention in issuing this
message is to prepare the spectator for a false improvisation
experience, created entirely with editing techniques, in which the
role of the film story is reduced to a minimum. The narrative
plot itself is simple: it starts in a movie house, where the film A
Man with a Movie Camera is about to be shown. The seats
begin to set themselves up as the audience arrives - a humorous
use of stop-motion technique. The film is then shown, and it
starts with a series of quiet shots without movement: empty
streets, people sleeping on a park bench, closed factories.
Gradually the rhythm builds up as the city awakes. The streets
fill with people going to work, streetcars, automobiles, and
horses. The movement of machines and people accelerate to a
dizzying pace. And through it all we see, from time to time, the
cameraman moving about and placing his camera strategically to
shoot the action. The story has a circular structure, wrapping up
with the city ending it’s working day.
More important than the story of the film is the way it is
edited. Actually, montage is the way Vertov is communicating
with the spectator. Many scenes have significance only through
montage. Take the moving train scene for example. The camera
records the passage of a train moving in high speed. Images of
the moving train are interleaved with images of an anonymous
woman’s last minutes of morning sleep and her awakening. As
the train approaches from the distance, the woman moves in
her sleep as she has a nightmare. When the train passes, she
wakes up and starts dressing up for the day. This moment is
continued with a shot from the locomotive; it is suggested that
the woman is not completely awake and, while dressing, feels
the effects of the nightmare she just had. The image of the
sleeping woman contrasts with the image of the increasingly
speeding train, keeping the spectator in a state of tension; it
represents a direct application of Eisenstein’s conflict theory.
Also, Vertov accelerates the pace of the scene by continuously
shortening the length of the shots as the train approaches; the
climax is reached when the train passes by, and then the shots
get longer again.
Another direct application of Eisenstein’s conflict editing theory
is the use of still-shots. Vertov filmed scenes of athletes in
motion. Through editing, he manipulated the image so that the
spectator is confronted with sudden stops of the athletes’
images in unusual postures. The effect is shocking, because one
wouldn’t expect, for example, an athlete to pause in his motion
while jumping over a hurdle. Using Eisenstein’ terminology,
this effect is called conflict between an event and its duration.
Furthermore, Vertov shocks the viewer by interrupting the
action completely by inserting a scene of a woman manually
processing the very film that we were watching a moment ago.
Vertov collides shots from different levels of the movie: the
original level - the level of the spectators that watch A Man with
a Movie Camera inside the movie - and the story level - the
running athletes.
However, construction type editing is used as well. After
speeding up the temporal montage of individual shots, more
and more, Vertov seems to realize: why not simply superimpose them in one frame? Vertov overlaps the shots together,
two shots at first, then three, then four, achieving temporal
efficiency - but he also pushes the limits of a viewer’s cognitive
capacities. Another construction editing technique he used was
to interpose images that create oppositions: poor people
working as opposed to rich people relaxing, marriage as
opposed to divorce, death as opposed to birth. Pudovkin
classified this technique under the relational editing category, and
called it contrast. Even though these two last techniques can be
categorized as construction editing techniques, they can also be
viewed as conflicts. When collating more images, Vertov took
care to synchronize only parts of the components. For example,
he took the upper part of a streetcar and the lower part of
another streetcar, and matched them so that they will look as
one. However, the two streetcars were shot in different parts of
the city, using the same angle, so that only the streetcar pieces
matched, everything else remaining unsynchronized. In other
scenes, the collated images didn’t even match their edges at all.
This would be a conflict of edges. Also, the contrasting images
with opposite meaning - described above as Pudovkin’s
relational editing element - could also be included in
Eisenstein’s conflict theory. It looks like Eisenstein was right, at
least in this case: construction is just a particular case of
collision.
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Other Eisenstein’s considerations apply to Vertov’s movie as
well. Eisenstein was commenting on techniques used in the
Japanese cinema, techniques that had their roots in ancient
Chinese tradition: ... in all ideational art, objects are given size
according to their importance, the king being twice as large as his
subjects, or a tree half the size of a man when it merely informs
us that the scene is out-of-doors(Eisenstein, 36). Indeed,
Vertov creates shots with the camera being much larger - and
consequently, being a very important character - than the rest of
the setting on the screen. Using Eisenstein’s terminology, this
effect is called conflict of scales, or conflict between an object and
its dimension. Through editing, different size versions of the
camera become animated and come to life. The camera itself
becomes one of the actors of the movie.
Some examples of conflict of depths are present in the film: a
shot of a factory chimney, a shot of a high-level bridge, a shot
of a high building. These images are created using low-angle
shots. Others, such as the crowd and the parade, use high-angle
shots. All these are frame-conflicts, as defined by Eisenstein,
rather than montage conflicts.
What is it about A Man with a Movie Camera that does not
follow the theoretical guidelines of the soviet film of the
twenties? Pudovkin considers that it is important, however, to
remind the scenarist of the following point: a scenario has
always in its development a moment of greatest tension, found
nearly always at the end of the film. To prepare the spectator, or,
more correctly, preserve him, for this final tension, it is especially
important to see that he is not affected by unnecessary exhaustion during the course of the film(Pudovkin, 124). Vertov’s
movie neglects both pieces of advice stated above by Pudovkin.
First of all, there’s more than one moment of greatest tension
in the movie. Second, these moments of tension are spread
across the film timeline, and they are not necessarily placed at the
end. Vertov uses the technique of alternating the pace in order
to keep the spectator alert throughout the whole movie. The
thing to remark here is that, since the story itself is reduced to a
minimum in importance, montage plays an essential role in
controlling the pace of the film.
Another unusual nonconformity with the guidelines is the lack
of the spectator’s question -scenarist’s answer duality, mentioned by Pudovkin. In his opinion, a successful scenario
implies that the viewer’s mentally formulated question must be
answered naturally by the scenarist’s work. If the scenarist can
effect in even rhythm the transference of interest of the intent
spectator, if he can so construct the elements of increasing
interest that moment the spectator is transferred whither he
wishes to go, then the editing thus created can really excite the
spectator(Pudovkin, 124). The reason for which Vertov tries to
persuade his viewers that A Man with a Movie Camera has no
scenario, as I showed earlier, is simply a trick used to create the
impression of dynamism; the film actually has a scenario. But
this scenario does not follow Pudovkin’s advice. Vertov does
not answer any of the spectator’s mental questions. Instead, he
presents scenes from every-day life, scenes that are easy to
understand. Still, through the use of ingenious montage, he
succeeds in capturing the viewer’s attention by manipulating the
pace of editing, and by conflicting images, thus obtaining the
same effect as a good story would. The montage is the element
9 0
that the artist uses to communicate with the spectator.
Dziga Vertov has created a film that complies with most ideas
expressed in the soviet filmmaking guidelines of his time,
proving that he took part in promoting these guidelines. Also,
Vertov breaks some of the rules and by doing so in a brilliant
way, conquers the viewer’s attention even more. Of course,
credit must be attributed to Elizaveta Svilova, which was the
official editor of the film. A Man with a Movie Camera proves
to be a masterpiece of editing, by succeeding to communicate to
the viewer what the artist intended, through pure montage,
almost with complete lack of narrative story. It shows exactly
what the title says, and that is, how powerful the image created
by a man with a simple movie camera can be.
Alexander Dovzhenko, on the other hand made Arsenal (1929)
and Earth (1930) as a series of tableaux, like a linkage of still
photographs. This gave his films a slow pace and a solemn air.
In Arsenal, his style is perfectly matched to the film’s anti-war
theme, with long-shots of advancing archetypal soldiers, often
in silhouette, cutting to individuals dead, dying or insane.
Despite their individual stylistic differences, however, all Soviet
film-makers worked under a unique set of conditions that
made early Soviet cinema distinct from the early cinema
produced in other countries. In the Soviet Union, after the
revolution of 1917, the cinema became regarded as an educational tool, to inform the rural population about the ideals of
the new communist order. These propaganda films were shown
in special trains that toured the country, thus the cinema reached
a wider audience than in most other countries at that time. The
production of overtly political films was rarer elsewhere and
marked Soviet cinema out as being unique.
Direct government money was available for Soviet film-makers
and an audience was guaranteed. This is in contrast with the
situation in the USA, where films were regarded primarily as a
form of entertainment and had to pull in a fee-paying audience
to make a profit. Soviet films could also deploy large crowd
scenes, thanks to government funding, which would have been
beyond the means of film-makers working in many other
countries. During the making of October, which was commissioned by the government to commemorate the tenth
anniversary of the Soviet Union, the city of Leningrad (St.
Petersburg) and thousands of extras were put at Eisenstein’s
disposal. The images from October came to illustrate Soviet
history in textbooks, showing the power Soviet film-makers
had to edit history and change society.
Soviet film-makers were working during a time of great social
upheaval, which saw the collapse of an existing culture and its
replacement with a revolutionary world-view. This stimulated
film-makers to take fresh and often radical approaches to their
work. Soviet film-makers also saw themselves as part of a wider
cultural movement, and were therefore receptive to ideas from
other disciplines. Eisenstein, for example, sought to produce
work that was a synthesis of the art and science of his day.
Freud’s theories on the subconscious and Meyerhold’s ideas
from the theatre were also among the many cultural ideas that
informed early Soviet cinema. In Hollywood, in comparison,
cinema was more isolated and film-makers did not identify so
much with wider artistic or cultural movements.
Early Soviet cinema was less concerned with narrative than early
cinema in other countries, but great attention was given to the
composition of shots. This gave early Soviet cinema a particular
aesthetic quality. For example, Eisenstein worked closely with
his cameraman Edouard Tissé to frame striking images of faces,
crowds and objects. Soviet cinema also adopted a serious tone,
in keeping with its social function and its intellectual aspirations,
unlike cinema in the USA, where comedy was a popular genre.
The state control of film production in the Soviet Union
dictated the content of films. Film-makers were essentially
limited to one basic story-line: the triumph of the people over
bourgeois oppression. Films telling this story had to be
understood by a largely illiterate peasant audience. Community
was stressed over the individual, in line with communist
ideology. In Hollywood, on the other hand, a wider range of
stories could be told and the emphasis was on the individual,
the hero and the Star. Individual characters seen at odds with
the system, like Charlie Chaplin’s tramp, the hero, as played for
example by Douglas Fairbanks, or the rise of stars like Lillian
Gish, had no equivalents in a Soviet cinema that emphasised
community over the individual. Soviet film-makers, like
Eisenstein, preferred to work with amateurs, unlike film-makers
in the USA, like D.W. Griffith, who used actors who had been
trained in the theatre. The use of ordinary people, often cast as
archetypes, gives early Soviet cinema a particularly distinctive
look, in comparison to Hollywood, in which actors are clearly
seen to be acting. Soviet film is also essentially different from
contemporary European cinema, particularly Scandinavian
cinema, where films dealing with complex themes centering on
human relationships, for example The Abyss (1910), were made
for an educated and sophisticated audience, who were quick to
accept cinema as an art equivalent to music or painting.
The distinctive cinema, and related film theory, of the Soviet
Union in the 1920s continues to inspire film-makers today. The
emphasis on the form and process of film, rather than the
content of linear narratives, informs the work of Jean-Luc
Godard and other 1960s film-makers, while Eisenstein’s ideas
stimulate a range of directors seeking to experiment with the
possibilities of film in the 1990s.
Summing up
Montage — A term derived from the French word for mounting, or assembling—hence, staging in theater usage and editing
in film terminology. Montage - the juxtaposition of separate
images - is one way of creating meaning in the cinema.
Originally, the word montage was simply; borrowed from the
French language by the Russian filmmaker and theorist Sergei
Eisenstein, it literally means mounting and was used to signify
the physical act of editing, the cutting and splicing of one piece
of film to another. However, the word has undergone an
interesting and somewhat confusing evolution. Refined and
qualified by Eisenstein himself, it has come to be associated
with the Russian principles of editing, principles that stress
combining images so that they will pro-duce an idea. The word
has also been used to describe a certain kind of editing common in the German silent cinema: sequences were con-structed
primarily with dissolves, and their aim was less to create
in-tellectual meaning than it was to create mood. In Hollywood,
the word has been used generally to describe sequences that
compress and link time, whether they do so by cutting,
dissolving, or superimposing images.
All of these definitions of montage share a common denominator; they all imply that meaning is not inherent in anyone
shot but is created by the juxtaposition of shots
1 In the US, the term has been used in a sense akin to that of
photomontage in still photography—that is, the combining
of several images in one frame by superimposition.
2 As applied to motion pictures, this came to specifically
describe a sequence made up of a quick succession of brief
shots blending and dissolving into one another, created to
compress action and convey the passage of time.
3 The technique, typically featuring linked images of such
items as calendar pages, newspaper headlines, place names,
and train wheels, was particularly popular in Hollywood
films of the 30s.
4 In Citizen Kane, it creates the muckraking style of Kane’s
newspapers that leads to the Thatcher / Kane tension.
Then we see a montage that connects images of Susan Albrecht
in different operas, with positive press articles from Kane’s
Inquirer about her singing career. The shrill sound of her
singing has been mixed together with the critical gaze of her
singing teacher and Kane himself as well as a light bulb which
fades, at the end of this montage. This gives the viewer the
impression that her career is not as successful as the Inquirer’s
articles want us to believe. The switched off light bulb makes us
anticipate that something awful will happen.
5 The term montage (collision) as it is generally understood
today is associated with the work and theory of Sergei
Eisenstein. He argues editing represents the rhetorical
arrangement of shots in juxtaposition so that the collision
between two adjoining images creates a third independent
entity. And this gives the audience a whole new meaning of
the visual / aural images.
6 Eisenstein’s ideas of montage were inspired by the editing
techniques of D. W. Griffith and the laboratory experiments
of Lev Kuleshov.
7 Eisenstein saw montage as a means of eliciting emotional
responses from the audience.
8 Eisenstein identified five types, or levels, of montage:
a Metric
b Rhythmic
c Tonal
d Overtonal
e Intellectual or the expression of abstract ideas
Notes :
9 1
LESSON 12:
ALTERNATIVES TO CONTINUITY
EDITING
Editing in the depth of the surface
A few basic principles of graphic editing
The history of film editing can be roughly divided into three
major steps:
From the single shot of the very first films - the only ‘editing’
being the timing of the action to take place in the short time of
approximately one minute between the beginning and the end
of the take - to the ‘photoplay’ where several single shots of
this kind were joined together, some of them with texts in
between.
Secondly, the step towards different ways of establishing time
and space, the so-called continuity principle, with the actual
footage being shot discontinuously - in numerous pieces, from
different angles and in varying scales. This principle evolved
mainly in the United States in the first decade of the previous
century, but soon was adapted by most film producing
countries.
And finally the step towards the breaking up of these conventions, with an emphasis on the graphic qualities of the picture
at the expense of clear time and space configurations.
It is, however, impossible to assign an exact date, year or even
decade to these various steps. They somehow exist simultaneously. For instance, you still see films made in only one shot.
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Rope (1948) is a feature film example
(with the well known fact to be added that the film of course
does contain a few hidden cuts - each reel runs only about 11
minutes), but single shot films can be seen even on the MTV
channel, one of the heaviest users and developers of the new
editing style. The Massive Attack music video Unfinished
Sympathy, from the album Blue Line (1991), is made as one
long steadycam ride that follows the band as they stroll down
the street.
Correspondingly, the breaking up of continuity conventions,
the last step in our three step history of film editing, is far from
new. Some of these new principles date back to the European
avant-garde movements of the twenties, others to the French
‘Nouvelle Vague’ of the sixties, and documentary aesthetics, of
course, have always been less compulsory and conservative,
probably because this genre doesn’t feel the tight limits of a
narrative structure. And even though this third step is the latest,
the continuity tradition is still in the best of health. The vast
majority of films are still edited according to continuity
principles, and the growing school of new editing will probably
co-exist with classical continuity well into the future, maybe even
forever.
When a film is edited according to the rules of continuity, you
will know exactly where everybody is and how the different
persons, locations and props are situated in relation to one
another, and there are no explicit time lapses - no elliptic editing.
It is important to remember, however, that even though the
continuity system is meant to give the impression of a coherent
9 2
UNIT 12
ALTERNATIVES TO CONTINUITY
EDITING
time and space, it is - de facto - only an illusion. Even Hollywood continuity classics such as Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942) and
The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941) manipulate time and space
quite heavily. Likewise, if you try to make a map of the
labyrinth in Orson Welles’ Kafka adaptation The Trial (Welles,
1963), you’ll see that this is not at all possible with real threedimensional space as your yardstick.
The important thing, however, is that time and space relations
appear to be solid. Cuts are not used explicitly, unless you have
a dissolve or a wipe as a filmic punctuation between scenes, but
implicitly, without attracting the spectator’s attention to the cut
itself. The spectator thus makes a kind of functional, cognitive
map of filmic space and doesn’t care that editing only makes the
film look right and doesn’t reflect a true space. And this holds
true for the experience of time in film as well.
The development of a new editing style
This article will present some of the editing principles after the
third step. The questioning of the continuity style started off as
avant-garde, but has now entered mainstream film and
television ‘language’, first through MTV and other youth
programmes. Then it entered the world of television jingles,
mainly in sport programmes, and now it is used in widely
distributed TV-series such as Homicide and The Kingdom, in
features like Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives, Lars von
Trier’s Breaking the Waves, not to mention the films made as
part of the Dogma 95 project. In the documentary genre, not
only directors such as Jørgen Leth and Jacob Thuesen have had
great success in employing the new style, also TV-documentaries
and docu-soaps are now using this aesthetic approach.
As a first principle, this new kind of editing is based, not on
explaining the spatial relations as is the case with the continuity
system, but on using different visual and auditive tricks to make
the audience relate to a two-dimensional picture surface, thus
not missing the explanation of the third dimension.
The American film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin
Thompson list four different relations between two shots
joined together:
1 Graphic Relations
2 Rhythmic Relations
3 Spatial Relations
4 Temporal Relations
According to Bordwell, graphic and rhythmic relations are
present in any kind of editing, whereas spatial and temporal
relations are irrelevant in more abstract forms of non-narrative
film. Lets understand what Bordwell and Thompson are
talking about.
Graphic & Rhythmic Possibilities
Powerful and pervasive as it is, the continuity style remains only
one style, and many filmmakers have explored other editing
possibilities.
Films possessing abstract or associational form have frequently
granted the graphic and rhythmic dimensions of editing greater
weight than conti-nuity filmmaking accords them. That is,
instead of joining shot 1 to shot 2 primarily on the basis of the
spatial and temporal functions that the shot fulfills in presenting a story, you could join them on the basis of purely graphic
or rhythmic qualities-independent of the time and space they
represent. In films such as Anticipation of the Night, Scenes
from under Childhood, Western History, and others, Stan
Brakhage has explored purely graphic means of joining shot to
shot: continuities and discontinuities of light, texture, and
shape motivate the editing. Interested in the very surface of the
film itself, Brakhage has scratched, painted on the image, even
taped moth wings to it, in search of abstract graphic combinations. Similarly, parts of Bruce Conner’s Cosmic Ray, A Movie,
and Report cut together newsreel footage, old film clips, leader,
and black frames on the basis of graphic patterns of movement, direction, and speed.
Many nonnarrative films have completely subordinated the
space and time presented in each shot to the rhythmic relations
among shots. “Single-frame” films (in which each shot is only
one frame long) are the most extreme examples of this
overriding rhythmic concern. Two famous examples are Robert
Breer’s Fist Fight and Peter Kubelka’s Schwechater.
The preeminence of graphic and rhythmic editing in non
narrative cinema is not, however, as recent a phenomenon as
these examples might suggest. As early as 1913, some painters
were contemplating the pure- design possibilities offered by
film, and many works of the European avant-garde movements of the 1920s combined an interest in abstract graphics
with a desire to explore rhythmic editing. The results were as
diverse as Man Ray’s Emak Bakia, Henri Chomette’s Cinq
minutes de cinema pur. Germain Dulac’s Theme et variations,
Hans Richter’s Ghosts Before Break- fast, and Walter
Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. Perhaps the
most famous of these is the Fernand Leger-Dudley Murphy
film Ballet mecanique .
Important as the graphic and rhythmic possibilities of editing
have been to the nonnarrative film, their powers have not been
wholly neglected in the narrative film. Although the continuity
style seeks an overall graphic continuity, this is usually subordinated to a concern with mapping narrative space and tracing
narrative time. Some narrative filmmakers, however occasionally
subordinate narrative concerns to graphic pattern. The most
famous examples are probably the films for which Busby
Berkeley choreographed graphed elaborate dance numbers. In
42nd Street, Golddiggers of 1933, Footlight Parade,
Golddiggers of 1935, and Dames, the narrative periodi-cally
grinds to a halt and the film presents intricate dances that are
arranged, shot, and edited with a concern for the pure configuration of dancers and background.
More complexly related to the narrative is the graphic editing of
Yasujiro Ozu. Ozu’s cutting is often dictated by a much more
precise graphic continuity than we find in the classical continuity
style. In An Autum-n Afternoon Ozu cuts from one man
drinking sake (Fig. 1) directly to another (Fig. 2) caught in
almost exactly the same position, costume and gesture. Later in
the film, he cuts from one man to another (Fig. 3, Fig. 4)
keeping the composition very similar across the cut. Even a beer
bottle (a different one in each shot) sits precisely in the same
position on -frame left, its label in a constant position as well.
Fig 1.
Fig 2.
Fig 3.
Fig 4.
In Ohayu Ozu uses color for the same purpose, cutting from
laundry on a line to a domestic interior and matching on a red
shape in the upper left of each shot (a shirt, a lamp).
Graphic continuity is, of course, a matter of degree, and in
narrative films the spectrum runs from Hollywood’s approximate graphic continuity to Ozu’s precise matching, with two
shots like these from Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, Part I,
coming somewhere in the middle. (See Figs. 5 and 6)
Fig 5
Fig. 6
The lighting (darkness on frame left, brightness on frame right)
and triangular shape on frame right of shot 1 are picked up in
shot 2, with Anastasia’s head and body now closely matching
the tapering chair. If such graphic editing motivates the entire
film’s form, however, narrative will be dissolved, and the film
will become more abstract in form.
Some narrative films have momentarily subordinated spatial
and tem-poral editing factors to rhythmic ones. In the 1920s
both the French ‘impressionist” school and the Soviet avantgarde frequently made narrative, secondary to purely rhythmic
editing. In such films as Abel Gance’s La roué , Jean Epstein’s
Coeur fidele and La Glace a trois faces, and Ivan Mosjoukin’s
9 3
Kean, accelerated editing renders the tempo of an onrushing
train, a whirling carousel, a racing automobile, or a drunken
dance. In Epstein’s Fall of the House of Usher a poetic
sequence of Usher strumming a guitar and singing organizes
the length of the shots in accord with a songlike pattern of
verse and refrain. Kuleshov’s The Death Ray and Eisenstein’s
October occasionally make rhythm dominate narrative space and
time. More recently, we can find rhythmic editing momentarily
predominant in narrative films as varied as the Busby Berkeley
musicals, Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight, Rene Clair’s
Le Million, several films of Ozu and Hitchcock, Resnais’s Last
Year at Marienbad and Muriel, and Godard’s Pierrot le fou. As
we saw with graphics, rhythmic editing may override the spatial
and temporal dimensions; when this hap-pens, narrative
becomes proportionately less important.
Spatial & Temporal Discontinuity
Nonnarrative films, of course, explicitly avoid the continuity
style, for that style is founded on the cogent presentation of a
story. But what of narrative alternatives to the continuity
system? How can one tell a story without use of the continuity
rules? Let us sample some ways particular filmmakers have
created distinct editing styles by use of what might be considered spatial and temporal discontinuities.
One option is to use spatial continuity in ambiguous ways. In
Mon Oncle d’Amerique, Resnais constantly intercuts the stories
of his three main characters with shots of each character’s
favorite star, taken from French films of the 1940s. At one
point, as Rene’s pesky office mate calls to him we get the
coworker in one shot (Fig. 7). But Resnais cuts to a shot of Jean
Cabin in an older film, turning to him in perfect reverse shot
(Fig 8). Only then does Resnais supply a shot of Rene turning
to meet his questioner (Fig.9).
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
9 4
Fig. 9
The film does not definitely present the Gabin shot as a fantasy
image; we cannot tell whether Rene imagines himself as his star
confronting his coworker, or whether the film’s narration draws
comparison independent of Rene’s state of mind. The cut relies
upon cues of shot/reverse shot, but uses them to create a
momentarily jarring discontinuity that triggers narrational
ambiguity.
More drastically, a filmmaker could violate or ignore the 180o
system. The editing choices of filmmakers Jacques Tati and
Yasujiro Ozu are based -on what we might call 360o space.
Instead of an axis of action that dictates that the camera be
placed within an imaginary semicircle, these filmmakers work as
if the action were not a line but a point at the center of a circle
and as if the camera could be placed at any point on the
circumference Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Play Time, and Traffic Tati
systematically films from almost every side; edited together, the
shots present multiple spatial perspectives on a single event.
Similarly, Ozu’s scenes construct a 360o space that produces what
the continuity style would consider grave editing errors. -Ozu’s
films often yield no consistent background spaces and no
consistent screen direction; the eye line matches are out of joint
and the only consistency is the violation of the 180o line. One
of the gravest sins in the classical -continuity style is to match
on action while breaking the line, yet Ozu does this comfortably
in Early Summer (see Figs. 10 and 11).
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Such spatially discontinuous editing offers intriguing insights
into spectator’s experience as well. The defender of classical
continuity -claim that spatial continuity rules are necessary for
the clear presentation of a narrative. But anyone who has seen a
film by Ozu or Tati can testify that no narrative confusion arises
from their continuity “violations.” Though the spaces do not
flow as smoothly as in the Hollywood style (this is indeed part
of the films’ fascination), the cause-effect chains remain
intelligible. The inescapable conclusion is that the continuity
system is only one way to order a narrative. Historically, this
system has been the dominant one, but aesthetically it has no
priority over other styles.
There are two other noteworthy devices of discontinuity. In
Breathless Jean Luc Godard violates conventions of spatial,
temporal, and graphic continuity by his systematic use of the
jump cut. Though this term is often loosely used, its primary
meaning is this. When two shots of the same subject are cut
together but are not sufficiently different in camera distance and
angle, there will be a noticeable jump on the screen. Classical
continuity avoids such jumps by generous use of shot/reverse
shots and by the “30° rule” (advising that every camera position
be varied by at least 30° from previous one). But an examination of shots from Breathless suggests the consequences of
Godard’s jump cuts. Between the end of one shot of Michel
and his friend and the beginning of the next shot of them,
they have moved several feet and some story time has elapsed
(Figs. 12, 13). Between the first shot of Patricia riding in the car
and the second, the background has changed and some story
time has gone by (Figs. 14, 15). Far from flowing smoothly,
these cuts disorient the spectator.
Godard. In Eisenstein’s Strike the massacre_ of workers is
intercut with the slaughter of a bull. In Godard’s La Chinoise a
character tells an anecdote about the ancient Egyptians who, he
claims, thought that “their language was the language of the
gods.” As he says this (Fig. 18), Godard cuts in two close-ups
of gold relics from the tomb King Tutankhamen (Figs. 19, 20).
Fig 18
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
A second prevalent violation of continuity is that created by the
non--diegetic insert. Here the filmmaker cuts from the scene to a
metaphorical or symbolic shot that is not part of the space and
time of the narrative. Cliches abound here. In Fury Lang cuts
from housewives gossiping (Fig. 16) to shots of clucking hens
(Fig. 16).
Fig. 16
Fig 17
More complex examples occur in the films of Eisenstein and
Fig 19
Fig 20
As nondiegetic inserts, coming from outside the story world,
they construct a running, often ironic, commentary on the
action, and they prompt the spectator to search for implicit
meanings. (Do the relics corroborate or challenge what Henri
says?)
Though both the jump cut and the nondiegetic insert can be
utilized in a narrative context, they tend to weaken narrative
continuity. The jump cut interrupts it with abrupt gaps, while
the nondiegetic insert suspends -story action altogether. It is no
accident that both devices have been prominently used by the
contemporary filmmaker most associated with the challenge to
classical narrative, Jean-Luc Godard.
There are still other alternatives to classical continuity, especially
-the temporal dimension. Although the classical approach to
order the frequency of story events may seem the most natural,
it is only the most -familiar. Story events do not have to be
edited in 1-2-3 order. Not only flashbacks but flashforwards are
possible. In Resnais’s La Guerre est finie scenes cut in conventional continuity are interrupted by images that may represent
flashbacks, or fantasy episodes, or even future events. Editing
can also play with variable frequency for narrative purposes; the
same event can be shown repeatedly. In La Guerre est finie, the
same funeral is depicted -in different hypothetical ways (the
protagonist is present, or he is not).
Again, Godard offers a striking example of how editing can
manipulate -both order and frequency. In Pierrot le fou, as
Marianne and Ferdinand leave her apartment fleeing gangsters,
9 5
Godard scrambles the order of the shots. First, Ferdinand
jumps into the car as Marianne pulls away. Then the couple are
seen back in their apartment( Fig 21). Then the car races down a
street (Fig. 22). Then Marianne and Ferdinand -climb onto a
rooftop (Fig. 23).
Fig 21
Fig 22
become perfectly intelligible in a narrative context. On the other
hand, with the jump cut and the nondiegetic insert, such
temporal dislocations can also push away from traditional
notions of story” altogether and create ambiguous relations
among shots.
Another way of treating the four relations would be to suggest
that the graphic and spatial relations both have to do with the
picture, while the rhythmic and temporal relations have to do
with time.
In traditional continuity editing, spatial and temporal relations
serve to tell the story, explaining where we are and what is
happening at any given moment. The two other sorts of
relations are often thought of as a kind of polish, making the
nice and meaningful flow of shots look even better.
Conversely, in the style of new editing, spatial and temporal
relations are given a lower priority. Consequently, the graphic
and rhythmic relations get more important, but even though
the style to some people may appear more abstract, the films are
still narrative.
Changing emphasis to the two-dimensionally based, graphic
editing principles, new style editing allows itself to overrule two
of the most basic continuity principles: it breaks the 180 degree
rule and makes jump-cuts.
But this is not easy at all, it’s not just something you do. The
continuity convention is so established not only as a construction principle but in our conception of a film that when you
chose to ignore it, it’s important that you make your own
contract with the audience. When using the continuity system
it’s enough to ‘refer to the law’, but when you don’t recognize
this basic law, you have to make a special contract with your
audience - every time.
A guide to two-dimensional editing
Fig 23
Godard also plays with frequency by repeating one story action
Ferdinand jumping into the car-but showing it differently each
time. Such manipulation of editing blocks our normal expectations about story time and- forces us to concentrate on the very
process of piecing together the film’s narrative action.
The editing may also take liberties with story duration. Although complete continuity and ellipsis are the most common
ways of rendering duration, expansion-stretching a moment
out, making screen time greater than the story time-remains a
distinct possibility. Truffaut uses such expansions in Jules and
Jim to underscore narrative turning points (Catherine lifting her
veil or jumping off a bridge). In Chabrol’s La Femme infidele,
when the outraged husband strikes his wife’s lover with a
statuette, Chabrol overlaps the shot of the victim falling to the
floor.
These examples by Bordwell and Thompson indicate that
certain discontinuities of temporal order, and frequency can
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There are two basic ways to make the audience accept violations
of the continuity system. Either you build up a whole new set
of rules or you distract spectators to make them overlook that
you are breaking well-worn continuity rules.
Eye-scanning
The principle of eye-scanning is by far the most important
feature among graphic editing principles.
It’s based on the fact that the human eye is pre-cognitively
attracted to whatever ‘it’ finds interesting at a given moment. As
in normal, minute-to-minute perception, when looking at a
picture or a film, the eyes move in saccadic patterns, relatively
consistent from individual to individual, even considered over
time. This is a pre-cultural aspect of visual perception, a
bottom-up process, and is thus something we do involuntarily.
If you show a picture of a human being to someone, his
interest is most likely to lie in something like the question “who
is this?”, and the eye will travel directly to the face of the person.
If it’s a close-up, and thus already a face, the eye will go directly
for the eyes and after that for the mouth, the ears or other
recognizable facialelements. All the different elements that
attract the eye are called eye-catchers.
One of the most powerful eye-catchers is movement. Other
important eye-catchers are contrast, bright colours or objects
with a clear-cut meaning that can be used in the construction of
the narrative logic or in the description of characters.
Movement
Movement, as mentioned above, is one of the most potent
seducers of the eye. In the ‘animal part’ of our brain, we turn to
see every movement, to check whether it involves some kind of
danger - a predator in the jungle, a car on the road. Scanning the
film frame, the same thing happens. If a person suddenly
makes a fast move with the hand, our eyes are glued to the
movement until it stops or another stronger movement takes
over. Accordingly, there are basically two ways of using movement in editing.
A sudden, but relatively short movement can move the
spectator’s eyes where you want them, and you can cut to a shot
with the eye-catcher at approximately the same spot.
If the movement is longer, you have to consider its speed and
direction - i.e. to get the movement to flow from one shot to
the other.
Meaning
An object always has a certain meaning, either for the narrative
or in the description of a person or a location. When a man
suddenly reaches for a gun, our attention obviously follows the
hand because of the movement. But if we know that our hero
has a gun, and he finds himself in a dangerous situation, our
eyes check out the gun even without the movement.
Imagine an untidy nursery, with toys lying scattered on the
floor. Between all the toys, there is a teddy bear, which a child
got for Christmas two scenes ago. This is what we are looking
at.
Contrast
Eye-catching based on contrast is not only a question of light
versus darkness. It’s obvious that our eyes are attracted by the
little black dot in the snow or the flashlight in the midst of the
trees in the big dark forest. But contrast can also be applied
more generally. If all but one of the elements in a picture are
alike, the one sticking out - in size, colour, light, texture or any
other quality - will surely catch our eye.
Colours
You turn your head when you see bright red or yellow, nature’s
own alarm colours. They are used to signify danger. Some
animals or flowers use them to warn other animals, since if they
are eaten, it doesn’t help the brightly coloured entity that the
predator dies afterwards.
These colours catch our eyes before the message reaches our
consciousness, and only at a subsequent level, our cultural
background will add a conventional, coded meaning such as red
for love and yellow for cowardice.
But there are also other eye-catchers in colours. For instance, you
can apply the principles of contrast to colour, when a brightly
coloured object appears in a pastel-shaded environment. Or
more extremely, only one colour in a black and white film, such
as the little red girl in Schindler’s List (Spielberg, 1993) or the red
smoke in Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963).
All these elements should be considered relatively. In a red
room with red furniture, as in Cries and Whispers (Bergman,
1972), the alarm colour is white, since red has become the
general colour backdrop. In a panicking crowd, a calm person is
the one who attracts our attention.
Focus
If every picture element but one is out of focus, our eyes will be
caught by the part in focus. Then if the focus changes so that a
different part of the picture gets in focus, our eyes will migrate
almost instantly to the new center of focus. If a new defocused
object enters the screen, our eyes will try to focus on it, and if
the camera doesn’t try to do the same and the object remains in
a central position, we get annoyed. In good films this is rare.
Either the object (or person) is irrelevant and just passes
through the picture, or it is meant to take over focus as soon as
it enters the frame.
Tolerance in time
But how do you decide when to apply the above mentioned
rules? The answer is quite pragmatic. To find a strong eyecatcher at a certain point in a shot is relatively easy. There is little
difference between the behavior of human eyes. All you have to
do is watch the screen and notice where you have your eyes everybody else’s eyes will be there too.
There is always, most editors will claim, one specific frame - and
nowhere else! - to place a cut if it’s to be perfect. Of course, it
depends on a lot of things, for instance what the next shot is
like, and certainly also the rhythm of the whole sequence as
such. But one thing is the perfect frame, the perfect split second
for a smooth cut, another the tolerance for an unacceptably bad
one. This tolerance is much greater within traditional continuity
editing than within new style editing.
When you have looked at a picture for a while, your eyes get
bored and start to move about to find new places of interest.
This process is not very consistent from individual to individual. The eyes of the spectator will still concentrate on eyes
and facial expressions, but now this activity is not so synchronized any more. The eye-catcher is becoming weaker. This is
what you use for instance in shot/reverse-shot editing and
eyeline matches, but it’s not enough to carry over a jump-cut.
Here you have to introduce a new and strong eye-catcher to
divert attention from the jump-cut. Almost all eye-catchers start
off strong and grow weaker, as spectators get used to their
presence.
This means that tolerance towards editing on strong eyecatchers is quite small. In a case where your eye-catcher is a
movement that has to continue in the next shot, your tolerance
could be down to one single frame. Whereas a simple dialogue
scene edited in shot/reverse-shot can be cut almost at any point
without breaking the concentration on the dialogue. That a cut
in this case will be acceptable anywhere is not to say that it
cannot be better or worse, and getting the right rhythm into a
shot/reverse-shot scene is quite an art of its own.
Distractions
The other basic way to cover up that you are not using the
traditional continuity convention is to distract the spectator
every time you break the rules. Distraction works almost like a
magic trick. The magician attracts your attention to an innocent
thing, while the ‘magic’ is going on in his other hand. In film
making, you can make the viewer think of something else,
while breaking the rules of continuity. The distraction can be
visual or it can be auditive.
White flash editing
One of the most used visual features is called white-flashediting. The distraction is a short white fade-in/fade-out or
sometimes just one or two white frames between the shots. It
9 7
is, as most tricks in graphic editing, not a new trick. But in
traditional editing it is mostly used in environments where
white flashes occur naturally: lightning in a thunderstorm or the
flash of a photographer’s camera, for instance in the beginning
of Highlander (Mulcahy, 1986), where a helicopter ride around a
boxing ring at the Madison Square Garden ends with a close-up
of Christopher Lambert amidst the audience. To make the
transition from the helicopter to the tripod, a flash from a
boxing spectator’s camera beside Lambert covers up what
would have been a jump-cut.
In other films, especially music videos and commercials, a
longer, more dynamic fade to white (and back) is used, referring
to the over-exposed frames at the end of a shot that people
mainly know from Super-8 home movies.
Swish-pan
Making a very quick pan blurs the picture so that you lose any
sense of place, giving you the opportunity to cut to a totally
different location than where you started. If you look attentively
at a piece of film where a violent pan starts, you’ll notice that
there’s only one frame between the clear and the blurred picture.
This means that it’s possible to cut from anywhere in the blur
to any picture, or from any picture to the blur. Sometimes the
trick is made with a short dissolve between two blurry frames.
This is not a new trick either. One of the most famous places
it’s used is Some Like it Hot (Wilder, 1959). Marilyn Monroe is
trying to seduce Tony Curtis at a yacht and at the same time Jack
Lemmon is dancing rumba with the actual owner of the yacht
in a restaurant ashore. A distance of several miles is covered
only by panning the camera.
But there is a difference between this swish-pan and the use of
swish-pan in for instance Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom. In
Some Like it Hot and Hollywood-like productions the swishpan always moves left or right according to the continuity of
space. The pan from the yacht to the dance hall is in the
opposite direction than the earlier wipe from shore to yacht and
thus perfectly in concordance with the shore/ship relation as it’s
explained to us.
In The Kingdom (Part 1) there is a confusing morningconference where the camera is swish-panning from person to
person. Here, the swish-pans are used to cover up the breaking
of the 180 degree rule and there is even one special cut where
two pans cut together move in opposite directions, one left-toright, the other right-to-left.
The sound-bridge
Sound is, however, one of the most frequently used distractions. Obviously in MTV productions the music plays a very
conspicuous part and loud music seemingly makes almost
everything look good. To pick up on David Bordwell, you
could say that the rhythmic relation takes over.
But there is also another, more specific use of sound: the
sound-bridge. In traditional films, the slam of a door,
someone’s blowing his or her nose or the shot of a gun often
carries a bad cut from one shot to the next. In new style editing,
these sounds are added without any connection to the story.
Cartoon-like sounds such as SSSWWWHISSS or
WHOOOOWHH are added, almost as a kind of auditive white
flashes.
Structure
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In many films based on two-dimensional editing, there is a
tendency towards more cross-cutting than in most films. In
continuity based films, cross-cutting is mainly used to show
that two actions are taking place simultaneously, but in new
style editing this is far from always true. To start in the extreme,
music videos often have two, three or more layers from totally
different worlds. One might be a narrative structure with actors,
another the musicians on a moody location, all mixed up with
documentary footage from a concert and so on, with an abstract
connection only through the music and lyrics.
This type of woven structure has been taken over by some of
the new style documentaries. For instance, in Heart and Soul,
Tómas Gislason’s portrait of Danish documentarist and poet
Jørgen Leth, in one scene Leth is talking about the similarities
between making films and writing poetry. There are shots from
three different interviews intercut with Leth reading his own
poetry and pictures of the carnival in Haiti. And the interviews
are shot in different qualities, and, of course, intermingled with
the rest of the film, as though it was one long plait - a ‘plait
structure’ rather than the ‘pearl-on-a-string structure’ that most
documentaries employ.
It’s difficult to say whether it’s the freedom from spatial
relations that gives the possibility of making this structure or
the wish to make a kind of structure that makes the style
necessary...
In new style fiction, however, the narrative structure is normally
quite ordinary. Fictional TV-series, of course, may have a plaitlike structure, but this is only on a scene-to-scene level, which is
a general rule rather than an exception in soaps and series.
But “why this new style?”, a lot of people might ask. Isn’t
continuity editing good enough? These questions sound like
the ones posed to the first modernist painters. Weren’t realistic
paintings based on the conventions of central perspective good
enough?
Breaking down conventions gives a freedom to express feelings
in different ways. Carl Th. Dreyer once wrote that he was tired
of the fact that the grass was always green. That reality in itself
isn’t art, only when it’s made into a style. It would be difficult
to think that the confusion at the morning-conference in The
Kingdom would have been the same with continuity editing,
nor the insecurity of Bess in Breaking the Waves.
The French New Wave
Creative genius seldom exists without an acute understanding
of and connection with the work of one’s predecessors. Since
the inception of the motion picture more than hundred years
ago, young people have been attracted to the film medium as a
form to express their vision of the world. This vision has
ranged from such diverse films as The Battleship Potemkin,
made by 25-year-old Sergei Eisenstein in 1927, to The 400
Blows by 26-year-old Francois Truffaut in 1959, to not that old,
Sex, Lies, and Videotape, by 26-year-old Steven Soderbergh.
Certainly these debut films by Eisenstein and Truffaut radically
affected the work of the filmmakers who followed them. And
you might have a generation inspired by the impact of
Soderbergh’s films.
The beginning of the French New Wave can be traced as far back
as 1955 with the production of Jean-Pierre Melville’s noir Bob
le Flambeur. However, it was not until the 1959 when Francois
Truffaut screened his autobiographical film The 400 Blows at
Cannes that the French New Wave officially took hold. The
filmmakers of the French New Wave revolted against what was
considered classical French cinema and praised the conventions
of commercial Hollywood cinema because of the embracing of
film auteurs like Hitchcock and Hawks.
The term French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague refers to the
work of a group of French film-makers between the years 1958
to 1964. The film directors who formed the core of this group,
François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques
Rivette and Eric Rohmer, were once all film critics for the
magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Other French directors, including
Agnés Varda and Louis Malle, soon became associated with the
French New Wave movement. This essay examines what was
distinctive about the early films of these directors.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s young film-makers in
many countries were creating their own “new waves”, for
example the working-class cinema of the “angry young men” in
Britain, but the new wave movement in France turned out to be
the most influential. The French New Wave directors’ background in film theory and criticism was a major factor in this.
They changed notions of how a film could be made and were
driven by a desire to forge a new cinema. The Cahiers du
Cinéma critics were highly critical of the glossy, formulaic and
studio-bound French cinema of the 1940s and 1950s, but
praised the work of 1930s French film-makers Jean Renoir and
Jean Vigo and the work of the Italian neo-realists, including
Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. They also championed
certain Hollywood directors, for example, Alfred Hitchcock,
Nicholas Ray and Howard Hawks, who they saw as auteurs
(authors) of their films, despite the fact that they worked within
studio systems making genre pictures. These directors were
labelled auteurs because of distinctive themes that could be
detected running throughout the body of their work. Through
their writings the Cahiers du Cinéma critics paved the way for
cinema to become as worthy of academic study as any other art
form.
In the late 1950s the Cahiers du Cinéma critics took the
opportunity to become film auteurs themselves, when film
subsidies were bought in by the Gaullist government, and they
put their theories into practice. The core group of French New
Wave directors initially collaborated and assisted each other,
which helped in the development of a common and distinct
use of form, style and narrative, which was to make their work
instantly recognizable.
The unique experience of French film-makers was evident in
their films. During the war France was an occupied country,
unlike say England or the USA, and the experience of austerity
and internal tensions, created by a population that in part
resisted and in part collaborated with the Nazis, left a mark on
the country’s psyche. A distinctive philosophy - existentialism evolved in France in the post-war years. This philosophy,
associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and other French intellectuals,
was a major influence on La Nouvelle Vague. Existentialism
stressed the individual, the experience of free choice, the absence
of any rational understanding of the universe and a sense of
the absurdity in human life. Faced with an indifferent world an
existentialist seeks to act authentically, using free will and taking
responsibility for all their actions, instead of playing preordained roles dictated by society. The characters in French New
Wave films are often marginalized, young anti-heroes and
loners, with no family ties, who behave spontaneously, often act
immorally and are frequently seen as anti-authoritarian. There is
a general cynicism concerning politics, often expressed as a
disillusionment with foreign policy in Algeria or Indo-China. In
Godard’s A Bout de Souffle (1959) the protagonist kills and
shows no remorse, while in Varda’s Cléo de 5 á 7 (1961) the
protagonist stops playing the roles others expect of her, when
she discovers she has cancer, and starts to live authentically.
The French New Wave directors took advantage of the new
technology that was available to them in the late 1950s, which
enabled them to work on location rather than in the studio.
They used lightweight hand-held cameras, developed by the
Eclair company for use in documentaries, faster film stocks,
which required less light, and light-weight sound and lighting
equipment. Their films could be shot quickly and cheaply with
this portable and flexible equipment, which encouraged
experimentation and improvisation, and generally gave the
directors more artistic freedom over their work.
The films had a casual and natural look due to location filming.
Available light was preferred to studio-style lighting and
available sound was preferred to extensive studio dubbing. The
mise-en-scène of Parisian streets and coffee bars became a
defining feature of the films. The camera was often very mobile,
with a great deal of fluid panning and tracking. Often only one
camera was used, in highly inventive ways; following characters
down streets, into cafes and bars, or looking over their shoulders to watch life go by. Eric Rohmer’s La Boulangère Du
Monceau (1962) opens by establishing the action in a specific
location in Paris, and is almost entirely filmed in the streets,
cafes and shops of this area. In A Bout de Souffle (1959), the
cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who worked on many of the
French New Wave films, was pushed around in a wheelchair following the characters down the street and into buildings.
Innovative use of the new hand-held cameras is evident, for
example, in Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cent Coups (1959), where a
boy is filmed on a fairground carousel.
The way the films were made reflected an interest in questioning
cinema itself, by drawing attention to the conventions used in
filmmaking. In this manner, the French New Wave directors
strove to present an alternative to Hollywood, by consciously
breaking its conventions, while at the same time paying homage
to what they regarded as good in Hollywood cinema. Godard’s
A Bout de Souffle set the tone for La Nouvelle Vague, by telling
a simple story about a relationship in a convention-challenging
style with numerous references to previous cinema. In addition
to telling a love story, the film can also be seen as an essay about
film-making.
French New Wave films had a free editing style and did not
conform to the editing rules of Hollywood films. The editing
often drew attention to itself by being discontinuous, reminding the audience that they were watching a film, for example by
using jump cuts or the insertion of material extraneous to the
story (non-diegetic material). Godard, in particular, favoured the
use of the jump cut, where two shots of the same subject are
cut together with a noticeable jump on the screen. In a Holly-
9 9
wood film this would be avoided by either using a shot/reverse
shot edit or cutting to a shot from a camera in a position over
30 º from the preceding shot. In Godard’s first full-length film
A Bout de Souffle jump cuts are used during a lengthy conversation in a room and in a scene in a car driving around Paris.
Irrelevant shots were sometimes inserted for ironic or comical
effect, for example, in Truffaut’s Tirez le Pianiste when one
character says “May my mother drop dead if I’m not telling the
truth”, the shot is cut to one of an old lady falling over dead.
The latter is also typical of the casual, sometimes anarchic,
humour found in many Nouvelle Vague films.
Long takes were common, for example, the street scene in A
Bout de Souffle. Long takes have become particularly associated
with the films of Jacques Rivette. The use of real-time was also
common, for example, in Varda’s Cléo de 5 á 7, in which the
screen duration and the plot duration both extend two hours,
and in the slice-of-life scenes in Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie (1962).
These two films are also both firmly shot in the present tense, a
common feature of French New Wave films generally. The films
tended to have loosely constructed scenarios, with many
unpredictable elements and sudden shifts in tone, often giving
the audience the impression that anything might happen next.
They were also distinctive for having open endings, with
situations being left unresolved. Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cent
Coups is typical in ending ambiguously, with the protagonist
Antoine on a beach caught in freeze-frame looking at the
camera.
The acting was a marked departure from much that had gone
before. The actors were encouraged to improvise their lines, or
talk over each others lines as would happens in real-life. In A
Bout de Souffle this leads to lengthy scenes of inconsequential
dialogue, in opposition to the staged speeches of much
traditional film acting. Monologues were also used, for example
in Godard’s Charlotte and her Bloke (1959); as were voice-overs
expressing a character’s inner feelings, as in Rohmer’s La
Boulangère Du Monceau. The actors in these films were not big
stars prior to the French New Wave, but a group of stars soon
became associated with the films including Jean-Paul
Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Jeanne Moreau. Women were
often given strong parts, that did not conform to the archetypal
roles seen in most Hollywood cinema, for example, Jeanne
Moreau in Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (1962) and Corinne Marchand
in Varda’s Cléo de 5 á 7.
French New Wave cinema was a personal cinema. The filmmakers were writers who were skilful at examining relationships
and telling humane stories. Truffaut’s films were particularly
autobiographical. His first full-length film Les Quatre Cents
Coups drew upon his early life, and the life-story of the main
character Antoine Doinel was developed through three subsequent films: Antoine et Colette (1962), Baisers Volés (1968) and
Domicile Conjugal (1970).
The Nouvelle Vague film-makers, being critics, were very
knowledgeable about cinema. Their films incorporated elements
of American genres, for example, film noir in A Bout de
Souffle, the gangster movie in Tirez le Pianiste and the thriller
and the musical in Godard’s Bande á Part (1964). They also
frequently contained references to particular Hollywood stars or
films by American auteurs. In A Bout de Souffle, for example,
100
Jean-Paul Belmondo models himself on Humphrey Bogart,
while Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud (1957) and several of
Claude Chabrol’s films make reference to Hitchcock. The
American jazz music that was popular in Paris at the time also
featured in some of the films, for example, the Miles Davis
score for Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud.
The French New Wave directors were prolific film-makers. The
five Cahiers directors (Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rivette and
Rohmer) made 32 films between 1959 and 1966. Although the
films represented a radical departure from traditional cinema,
and where aimed at a young intellectual audience, many of them
achieved a measure of critical and financial success, gaining a
broad audience both in France and abroad. Truffaut’s Les
Quatre Cent Coups, for example, won the Grand Prize at the
1959 Cannes Film Festival, while A Bout de Souffle was a big
European box office hit. This contributed to the growing
influence of these directors. After 1964 the experimentation
elements of the French New Wave were already starting to
become assimilated into mainstream cinema. The directors
meanwhile diverged in style and developed their own distinct
cinematic voices. Truffaut incorporated more traditional
elements in his films, for example, while Godard became
increasingly political and radical in his film-making during the
1960s.
The directors of the French New Wave, a movement whose
main concern seems to have been originality through a rejection
of cinematic traditions, were no exception to this rule. For
financial reasons, directors like Truffaut, Godard, and Chabrol
were unable to make films in the beginnings of their careers.
Instead, they devoted their time to being film critics, and for ten
years they watched what is estimated to be 1,000 films per year.
Therefore, the films of Francois Truffaut and his contemporaries grew out of a thorough education in film history. The style
of these films is a mixture of revolutionary techniques and
hommages to previously made innovations.
Sergei Eisenstein was another director whose movement, that
of Soviet Montage, is said to have reinvented film language.
However, this director’s work, like that of the New Wave
directors, should not be viewed as an isolated occurrence. Like
the later movement, Soviet Montage had its roots in the
broader context of film history. The events that most influenced and shaped Eisenstein’s art cover a broad spectrum.
Most of these concern his fascination with the powers of
editing to create certain responses in the viewer. The work of
Dziga Vertov and Lev Kuleshov can be seen as early predecessors of Eisenstein’s montage theories and practices. Vertov
realized the potential film had to capture reality, and his early
work was made up of exclusively documentary footage.
However, he soon saw the “necessity to arrange this reality into
an expressive and persuasive whole.” This got him to begin
experimenting with editing techniques, which included splicing
together series of very quick shots. This also lead to experiments with self-reflexivity, or the ability of film to call attention
to itself and its own making.
For a short time, Eisenstein was a part of the “Kuleshov
Workshop”, a group of young film makers who considered
editing the essence of film making. They made extensive
experiments with the ability of editing to manipulate audience
response. The biggest foreign influence on Eisenstein’s work
was the film making of DW Griffith. The latter’s film, Intolerance, was viewed extensively by the young Russian film lovers in
the Kuleshov workshop.
Finally, Eisenstein brought to his film making the goals he had
attempted to achieve with his early work in the theater. It was
here that he invented the “montage of attractions”, whereby the
audience would be continuously jolted out of its expectations
through the juxtaposition of seemingly arbitrary “attractions’ or
“impressions”.
Although the New Wave directors and critics theoretically
rejected the theories of Soviet montage in favor of the aesthetics of mise-en-scene and the long take, people have argued that
the two movements were more alike than many realize, and that
the innovations made by Soviet directors like Eisenstein actually
played an important role in some New Wave films. The primary
way they did this was through their interest in making films call
attention to themselves as films, or as created works of art.
Both movements, although often for different reasons, did
this, in part, through editing.
And coming to Stevan Soderbergh
“Godard is a constant source of inspiration. Before I do
anything, I go back and look at as many of his films as I can, as
a reminder of what’s possible.”-Steven Soderbergh
Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh has
directed over twelve films. From his critically acclaimed debut,
sex, lies, and videotape, Oscar winner Traffic, to box office hit,
Ocean’s Eleven. While his films cover a variety of different
subject matter, his directorial style remains somewhat constant.
Much of his style seems to stem from his fascination with the
French New Wave movement. His utilizing of Francois
Truffaut’s The 400 Blows freeze frame is evident in the narrative
structure of the 1998 film Out of Sight while his use of color
themes in Traffic seems to harken back to the opening scene of
Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt. Furthermore, many of
Soderbergh’s films incorporate breaks in the 180 degree line,
jump cuts, direct address, and an all out attack on conventional
Hollywood cinema. It becomes clear, when looking at the films
in Soderbergh’s filmography, that much of his directorial style
lies within the roots of the French New Wave.
While the French new wave movement seemed to end in 1964,
it gave rise to a similar movement of the popular independent
Hollywood film, which went against the conventions set forth
by Hollywood. Soderbergh was one of the founding members
with his 1989 debut film, sex, lies, and videotape.
With the exception of some of the long takes and the reflexive
role of the camera in sex, lies, and videotape, the influence of
the French New Wave in Soderbergh’s early films seems pale in
comparison with the films that graced the middle of his on
going career. It was not until 1996 when Soderbergh produced
Gray’s Anatomy and Schizopolis that the New Wave’s influence
seemed to take on full potency. As seen in his published
journals, dating from the post-production of both films in
early 1996 to pre-production of Out of Sight in early 1997,
Soderbergh became increasingly upset with the Hollywood
system and ventured into guerrilla filmmaking. His first film to
become a product of this hiatus, Gray’s Anatomy, consisted
entirely of an eighty minute monologue by Spalding Gray
regarding problems with his eye sight. In the film, Soderbergh
utilized one of the characteristics of the New Wave movement:
direct address. Conventional Hollywood cinema criticizes an
actor who looks at the camera. The response to direct address is
even more looked down upon. However, by allowing Gray to
address the camera, Soderbergh created less of a barrier between
the audience and the subject, thus making the film more
personal.
Soderbergh’s second film of 1996, Schizopolis, exemplified
further the French New Wave influence on his films. Jump cuts
are increasingly common, giving the film what is commonly
considered a “sloppy” feel. In the interrogation scene of the
paranoid-schizophrenic exterminator, Elmo Oxygen,
Soderbergh utilizes this visual technique numerous times to
provide a temporal ellipsis. Visual style aside, Soderbergh also
adds unconventional narrative techniques to the film. For
example, during the film’s self-proclaimed third act, Fletcher
Munson (Soderbergh) and his wife (Soderbergh’s wife at the
time, Betsy Brantley) experience comical marital dispute and lack
personal communication. Soderbergh, aside from making this
obvious in his performance and Brantley’s, makes this breakdown of communication literal by having his character speak
various foreign languages while his wife speaks English. This,
of course, is not a technique commonly seen or embraced in
conventional Hollywood cinema. However, casual humor is a
characteristic commonly found in New Wave films. For
example, a variation of this technique is seen in Godard’s Band
Of Outsiders when all three main characters resolve to be silent
for a moment and Godard literally makes the scene mute of all
sound.
Soderbergh’s return to Hollywood in 1997 brought forth one
of his most acclaimed films, the adaptation of Elmore
Leonard’s noir Out of Sight. The film was nominated for
numerous Academy Awards, including one for Anne V. Coates
for best editing. It is the editorial techniques in Out of Sight
that showcase much of the characteristics of the French New
Wave. One of the most evident visual traits of the film is
Soderbergh’s continual use of freeze frames. As previously
noted, this first appeared in the final shot of Traffaut’s The 400
Blows. While Traffaut used his freeze frame to give the film an
ambiguous ending, Soderbergh utilizes his temporally to lend
the film a stream of consciousness effect. For example, when
Jack (George Clooney) and Buddy (Ving Rhames) are left
behind by Glen after the jail break, Soderbergh flashes back to
one of the first instances in which the duo met Glen. Time
does, however, catch up with itself. This occurs as the window
between past and future narrows during the cross cutting of the
scenes in the bar and Karen’s hotel room. As Jack and Karen are
making love and are preparing to make love, the freeze frames
become increasingly common until the two events occur within
the same moment. This leads to the final freeze frame of the
film and a fade to black, separating the past from what has
become the present.
Soderbergh’s follow up, 1999’s The Limey, also incorporated an
editorial technique common in French New Wave films:
discontinuity editing. Most notably evident in the opening scene
of Godard’s Breathless, this technique makes the viewer
confused to the character’s spatial relationship to their sur-
101
roundings. Most of this confusion stems from the lack of an
establishing shot and frequent breaks across the 180 degree line.
These traits are seen numerous times in The Limey. The best
example, however, is during the Wilson’s (Terence Stamp)
monologue to Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren). Soderbergh shoots
this exchange in numerous settings ranging from a restaurant, a
boardwalk, to a hotel room and intercuts them together. By
doing so and not altering the audio track to include an ellipsis,
Soderbergh not only makes the audience unsure of where the
true conversation took place but disorientates them. The
utilization of this technique also visually encourages the
audience to question the point of view and information they
are being given in the narrative.
The following year not only brought Soderbergh the major
success of his two latest films, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, but
an Academy Award nomination for the former and a win for
the later. Traffic became the perfect hybrid of Soderbergh’s
Hollywood and guerrilla filmmaking. Like his previous films,
much of the style Soderbergh displays on Traffic seems to stem
from his fascination with the French New Wave. The most
notable of the two techniques is that of the color themes for
each of the locales the film takes place in. Mexico is basked in a
washed out yellow while Ohio is left to soak in cold blue tones,
giving the audience a visual reference to each location. This
technique, while utilized in a different context, seems to be
taken from the opening scene in Godard’s Contempt. Contempt, Godard’s first venture into the realm of French film
industry, is notable for its unconventional use of cinescope and
technicolor. The first scene is accentuated with the extremely
reflexive movement of changing colored filters on one take,
making the scene go from a dark red, yellow, to dark blue while
the audience watches the filters change over the camera lens.
The second, most notable, French New Wave property exemplified in Traffic is Soderbergh’s use of the hand-held camera. This
technique was utilized in both Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and
Godard’s Breathless in order to allow the audience to explore
space. Soderbergh does the same but adds the common feeling
of un-balance to these shots. For example, while pursuing
Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) through the streets of Tijuana,
Soderbergh lets the camera jitter. This gives the audience a
feeling of realism by visually not allowing a person’s walk to
appear perfectly smooth like a stedicam would.
Following his success with Traffic, Soderbergh brought
audiences the big budgeted remake of the Rat Pack film,
Ocean’s Eleven. Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt
Damon, and Julia Roberts, Ocean’s Eleven also became
Soderbergh’s most successful and most conventional film.
However, even his most conventional film was not untouched
by the New Wave. For example, Livingston Dell’s (Edward
Jemison) frustrating encounter with the casino’s computer is
graced with jump cuts to ellipse time. Furthermore, direct
address and the reflexive technique of coming into focus are
utilized when Rusty approaches towards the camera dressed as a
doctor. However, Soderbergh’s next feature, Full Frontal, would
prove to be a full reversal on Ocean’s Eleven.
Supplementing all copies of the screenplay to Full Frontal,
Soderbergh authored his infamous list of rules for the stars
demanding everything from personally driving themselves to
102
the set, picking and providing their own wardrobe, maintaining
their own hair and make-up, not allowing trailers or personal
free time, and encouraging improvisation. Furthermore, the
film was to be shot on digital video handicams with a shooting
schedule only lasting eighteen days. This film was clearly not
going to be what was considered conventional Hollywood
cinema. Soderbergh, in the commentary on the recently released
DVD, compares the film to the work of Godard and the
French New Wave and this can clearly be seen in the film. From
the use of direct address, soft focus, jump cuts, and other
examples of discontinuity editing, Full Frontal embodies the
very essence of the French New Wave and it is clear, looking
through Soderbergh’s filmography, that this historical film
movement touches almost every one of his films.
EllipticalEditing
Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing ellipses in
plot and story duration. Ellipses end up shortening of the plot
duration of a film achieved by deliberately omitting intervals or
sections of the narrative story or action; an ellipsis is marked by
an editing transition (a fade, dissolve, wipe, jump cut, or change
of scene) to omit a period or gap of time from the film’s
narrative. In this still from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), a
drug party is rendered through elliptical editing (achieved with a
plentiful use of dissolves and jump cuts) in order to both
shorten the time and suggest the character’s rambling mental
states.
Elliptical editing need not be confined to a same place and time.
A seven-minute song sequence from Hum Aapke Hain Koun
(Sooraj Bartjatya, India 1994) dances us through several months
in the life of a family, from a cricket match to a ritual welcoming
a new wife.
from scenes of the newlyweds’ daily life... to the announcement
of Pooja’s pregnacy,
bottom and fade in/dissolve at the top.
•
A woman walks out of frame at the bottom of a staircase;
cut to a frame at the top of stairs and have her walk in.
•
A cutaway is a shot of something else occurring, such as
another person getting out of bed then cut back to the
person on the stairs.
Bibliography:
from a gift shower for the upcoming baby... to multiple scenes
of celebrations, as Pooja’s approaches her ninth month.
Anderson, Joseph. The Reality of Illusion: An Ecological
Approach to the Cognitive Film Theory. Southern Illinois
University Press, 1996.
Arnheim, Rudolph. Art and Visual Perception. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1954.
Aumont, Jacques. The Image. London: BFI, 1997.
Bordwell, David. Film Art: An introduction. New York:
Addison-Wesley, 1979.
Bordwell, David. On the history af Film style. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1997.
Bottomore, Stephen. Shots in the Dark in: Elsaesser, Thomas
(ed.). Space, frame, narrative. London: BFI, 1990.
Carroll, Noël. “Toward a Theory of Film Editing,” Millennium
Film Journal no. 3, 1979.
Eisenstein, Sergei. Film Form and Film Sense. London: Faber
and Faber, 1970.
Højbjerg, Lennard. Visuel stil som repræsentation; in: Sekvens
1997.
Kimergård, Lars Bo. Fresh Cuts; in: DOX #12, august 1997.
Kimergård, Lars Bo. Tiden og det magiske mellemrum, in:
Dansk Film #3, November 1996.
Murch, Walter. In the Blink of an Eye. Australian Film,
Television & Radio School, 1992.
Nilsen, Vladimir. The Cinema as a Graphic Art. New York: Hill
and Wang, 1959.
Reisz, Karel and Gavin Millar. The Technique of Film Editing.
London: Focal Press, 1982.
Notes :
Some other examples:
Examples: the breakfast scene in Citizen Kane(1941), the
ambush scene in Bonnie and Clyde(1967), the 45 second
shower scene in Psycho(1960) - with between 71-78 camera setups for the shooting of the scene and 50 splices (where two
pieces of film are joined), or the Odessa Steps montage in
Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) including three
successive shots of stone lions in various positions - filmed to
look as though they are one lion rising to its feet and roaring in
fury and anger at the massacre
Elliptical editing presents an action in such a way that it
consumes less time on screen than it does in the story. Some
techniques:
•
A man climbing a set of steps: fade out/dissolve at the
103
UNIT 13
EDITING STAGES & PROCESS
LESSON 13:
EDITING STAGES & PROCESS
Here in this lesson we learn about the actual editing process and
a little bit about the technology that helps us achieve that. We
would concentrate only on the basics of how video editing is
done. You would learn about the traditional film editing
processes in the next semester.
Most novice editors equate editing with the technical ability to
operate the controller, the decks, the effects generators, computers, and all the gadgetry that makes up an editing console. But
that’s only a small part of it.
The main purpose of editing is to tell a story the viewer can
follow & understand.
If we fail to meet this basic requirement, no amount of high
tech equipment or fancy special effects will salvage a video. Here
are some tips to facilitate the editing process and help you meet
your production objectives.
First of all, establish an outline for your edited master. Every
story has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Productions are
no exception. All that great footage you shot will mean
nothing if the viewer can’t follow the story line.
Decide what it is you want to tell the viewer. Then create an
outline that will help you to visually guide the viewer through
your story.
The second rule of good editing is to leave out footage that
doesn’t fit in with the story line. If a shot doesn’t enhance the
production, leave it out. Consequently, a lot of good footage
ends up on the “editing room floor”. This takes a lot of
discipline but will improve your productions tremendously.
When all of the materials are gathered you’re ready to build, or
edit, the project. The initial stage of editing provides the
framing or rough skeleton of a project. Several phases of review
by you. Images and sound are combined and trials are made of
presentation style and graphic art. After each review, changes are
made until the presentation meets the project’s objectives.
During this process the image and sound quality are not as
polished as will appear in the final version and timecode
numbers may appear over the video image.
Timecode is the numeric time reference assigned to each frame
of video, much like frames of a film. Timecode is used to
identify sections or edit points. These reference numbers are
entered into a timeline in the editing software which becomes
the editing map for the project.
Before the final stage of editing occurs, you’ll approve going
forward with the project as designed in the early phase of the
editing process. The final editing stage provides the “finish” to
the project where particular attention is placed on image quality
and flow, the audio mix and proper technical attributes needed
to achieve a quality product.
Changes at this point are usually costly and time consuming. So
it is important to pay careful attention to the early approval
phase of the editing process.
Editing Stages
104
Logging
When producing a video you will normally have a lot more
footage than you will finally use (some times even more than10
times). This means that it is not possible to remember exactly
where everything is. When editing, it is important to be able to
find what you want quickly. This means that you must Log the
footage which involves writing down a list of what is on the
tape. It is particularly useful at the end of editing when you find
you need to use a cutaway but can’t bring one to mind. It is also
worth doing even if you are not going to use the footage
immediately as you may have forgotten important details when
you get around to logging. So one of the first steps in what is
called “post-production,” is logging your footage. Ideally, you’d
log the footage as it’s being shot on location, as this can save
you a lot of time later on. Also, there’s some pretty good
software for logging – which means that a laptop computer can
be an invaluable asset on location. Some location cameras have
LCD panels from which you can read tape counter numbers or
time code as you videotape your story. A crew member can take
down the numbers and make notes on a shot sheet along the
following lines.
Time codes
On professional Video recorders and the more expensive
domestic equipment a Timecode is written to each frame of
video. There are 25 frames per second. This Timecode is in the
format HH:MM:SS:FF where HH is hour, MM is minute, SS is
second and FF is frame. This means when you put the tape in
the VCR it can show exactly where you are on the tape, without
having to rewind the tape and reset the counter.
When logging tapes you write on the log sheet the start and
end Timecode of each clip and a description. A clip can be of
any convenient length and does not have to start where there is
a cut in the footage. If there was a shot where someone runs up
to a friend and shouts “Run for it” this may be logged as two
clips. The first being Someone runs to friends and the second
being Someone shouts “Run for it”. The length of the clips is a
matter of judgment but remember the log is going to be used
for selecting footage. Whenever something distinctive happens,
or someone new is speaking a new clip is logged. Weather you
put what people are saying is also a matter of judgment. You
should write anything that sounds useful; you can either write
down the full dialog or summaries it. It is also not strictly
speaking necessary to log everything, but in practice it is a good
idea. This is especially true if someone else is doing the editing
or the footage is going into an archive.
Burnt in Time Codes
You do not need access to a VCR, which displays time codes to
log footage. Lot of filmmakers especially documentary film
makers might transfer their footage from what ever format they
shot it on to VHS tapes for viewing and logging with
Timecodes displayed on the screen. This can be very helpful.
Below is an example of a professional way of doing it with all
the details of the shots that you log.
Watch the tapes and log all the raw footage, noting which shots
are good and which are bad. Write down WHEN the video
appears and how long the shot lasts, WHAT the video is
about, and HOW it sounds. Write down good quotes you
might use. Include the location in the footage of each shot you
will be using. This is where burnt-in time codes come in handy.
To log the tape, rewind to the beginning and decide which
shots you want. You may not want a shot if the audio is
105
unclear or the picture is out of focus. Logging tapes can be
tedious, but it is important for locating shots later.
It is very useful to say how good the sound and Picture (Pict) is.
In the example below VG (Very good), G (Good), OK, B (Bad)
and VB (Very Bad) are used, OK meaning usable. Although the
To and From column use full Timecodes you may decide not to
include frames. You may decide to only write what changes
rather than the whole thing. The hour will probably be the same
on all clips and there is not really any point of writing the
minutes unless they change.
As well as a description of the shot it is often useful to say the
type of shot in terms of where it is shot from (i.e. above/
below) and how the shot is framed. There are different
abbreviations that are used for this but the following is as good
as any:-
Edit decision list or EDL
After you are through with your logging you start working on
the EDL. If you logged it some time ago, or if someone else
logged it, you should sit down with the logging sheets and reacquaint yourself with it. EDL is a piece of paper with the order
of shots and details about them including titling. This is only a
starting point and represents a very rough edit. As well as
including the actual edit it is worth including any clips you think
may be useful such as extra cutaways. In the EDL is a sheet
listing each shot to be recorded, the exact time code of edit-in
and edit-out points for each shot, any effects to be included,
their duration, and other details. This sheet will help you decide
on the sequence you will put together to complete your project.
You will have to create an Edit Decision List and script for the
editor. An EDL is how you convey your ideas to the editor.
You list the sequence of scenes you will want, along with titles,
credits, specials effect, and music. Also include a brief description of the shot and the audio. This is mostly used when the
producer leaves creative control up to the editor.
Editing can be very costly; so the more organized you are the
better.
Extras
Choose sound effects, graphics, music, titles, and other
“extras.” Once this is complete, the editing can begin. Most
106
producers attend the editing sessions to correct unforeseen
problems in the footage and to fine-tune certain clips. Others
leave creative control to the editor. They leave the EDL and any
special instructions for the editor to follow
Rough cut.: The first editing pass. The rough cut is an early
version of the movie that pulls together the basic elements
before adding effects, transitions, and so on.
The editor working on your project will piece together all of the
elements of your production in a form very close to the final
version. This usually takes three to five days. Especially in a very
technical program, you may not fully appreciate the scripted
material and all of the elements until they appear in concert on
the tape. As you review the rough cut, you can make notes for
final adjustments.
The editor for peer review, impressions, and comments will
distribute the rough cut. Those will be collated and submitted
to you, as the executive producer, and assimilated as appropriate. This stage of peer review usually takes two to three weeks.
In analog: a rough cut in analog editing is an edit made with
window dubs. Reduces handling of original tape. In digital
editing: low resolution digital material (reduced computational
demands— rapid processing/manipulation and reduced
demand on storage space) is the rough cut.
Final or Master cut. Going back to original material /
redigitizing only needed material at higher resolution.
Linear and Non linear editing
Linear Editing
A linear suet is made up of a video-tape played (the source
VCR), and a recorder (the target VCR). These are connected
together so the footage you want can be copied from one to
another. To control the editing (copying) process an Edit
Controller is used. Linear editing is the re-recording of scenes
from an original tape (called a raw-footage tape) to a second tape
(called an edited master). You may transfer both video (picture)
and audio (sound) from the original tape to the edited master
either together or separately depending upon whether you use
the “Insert” or “Assemble” method of editing. The process is
“linear” because your scenes are transferred in the order that they
will appear onto your final edited master. Once the shots are
transferred on to your edited master tape, they are fixed in a
certain order and the sequence of scenes cannot be re-arranged.
To do that you would have to re record again on the same tape.
Linear editing is divided into two methods: assemble and
insert.
Assemble editing transfers the original picture and sound
together onto your edited master. With assemble editing, you
cannot separate the sound from the picture. Therefore, you
couldn’t add new music or narration to an existing video image.
Insert editing allows you to independently transfer the picture
and sound separately. With insert editing, you could add a
music or narrative track (or both) to your existing video images.
To do an edit:-
•
go to the beginning of the clip you wish to use on the
source VCR and setting the In Point.
•
•
go to the end of the clip you want and set the Out Point.
go to the point you which to copy the clip to on the target
VCR and set the In Point there.
It is then possible to do a Preview where the edit suit goes
through the motions of editing showing you the edit on the
monitor but does not actually copy any footage. You can then
tweak the In and Out Points by resetting them. You can
Preview the edit as many times as you wish. When you are
happy with the edit you can then Perform it which actually
copies the footage onto the target VCR.
To move through the footage you usualy use a Jog? Shuttle
Controler. This enables you to move through footage both
forward and backwards at a variety of speeds. The fastest is
normally x10 and the slowest is a frame every few seconds. This
is the shuttle part. The jog part allows you to single step booth
forwards and backwards through footage a frame at a time.
It is also possible to insert just video or audio which allowed
cutaways/wildtrack to be inserted. In this way the whole piece
can be built up. Adding video affects requires an additional piece
of equipment called an effects generator. Titles can be done by
filming them on a piece of card or using yet another piece of
equipment called a titler.
It is normal do a rough cut first, where the in/out points are
not to tight (close) to the footage you actually want first. You
then take the tape out of the source VCR and put it into the
source VCR. A blank tape is then put into the target VCR and
the whole process is done again, this time the editing is made
much tighter. It may be necessary to do the whole process a
third time.
As every time you do a copy you loose quality you may decide to
do the whole thing again from the rushes (master tapes).
Sound and cutaways can be added to the edit by only copying
the picture or audio, it the case of audio the left and right
channel can be copied independently. The sound will probably
be put through a audio mixer so it can be faded up and down.
In order to edit video scenes, it is important that your original
footage be shot properly. It is important to start the camcorder
recording 10 seconds before your important video footage
occurs. This 10 seconds of extra recording at the beginning of
each scene allows the editor to do a “preroll.” A preroll is where
both the recording deck and the playback deck rewind about 7
seconds before an edit point in order to get a “running start.”
The reason for this is that both decks must be up to speed
before an edit can be properly executed.
videotape. A Non-linear suite consists of a computer with a
video monitor connected to it. The computer has a video
capture card in it, which allows video to be copied off tape onto
the computers hard disk. This system only required one video
recorder.
Non-linear editing (NLE) has quickly proven itself to be the
industry standard. Basically, the video is brought into your
computer and manipulated on your hard drive with special
software. This form of editing is timeline based, and because
everything is digital, you are able to frame exact edit points at all
times. Once you select where you want each scene to begin and
end, you then place them all on a timeline to arrange and edit at
your whim. Editing is done by placing the clips on a time line.
It is then possible to trim (change the duration) of clips or even
change their sequence (move them around in relation to each
other). Audio can be edited separately from the picture allowing
several tracks of wild track to be used. You’re not limited to one
audio and video track at a time—you can arrange with multiple
tracks—it’s all just a point and click away!
The most exciting aspect of NLE is the editing capabilities.
Because you’re editing in a digital format, titling, graphics, filters,
and transitions are easy to insert, and the options are boundless. Foreign languages, logos, ripples, swirls, bounces, spins,
you name it—NLE can do it for you, giving you a highly
professional product that will be sure to wow your clients.
Analog & Digital Editing
a brief comparison of the major differences
Non Linear Editing
Non-linear editng is done by copying your original footage into
a computer, and then editing the final version digitally inside
the computer. Because the information is stored digitally, the
scenes may be re-arranged easily, before they are copied back to a
107
Video Capture
In order to get your video onto your computer’s hard drive, you
will first need to “capture” it inside your PC. This is done with
a video capture card that records your video onto your hard
drive as an AVI file, or audio video interweaved file. Video
capture cards use hardware and/or software compression/
decompression (CODEC) to digitize the video onto your hard
drive, allowing you to use NLE for your editing process.
The first stage of editing is digitizing the clips you wish to use.
This involves copying all the clips you want onto the computers
hard disk. On more sophisticated systems you can do batch
capture. This is where you type the timecodes of the beginning/end of each clip you want. You can then let the software
do the work unattended, apart from changing tapes (the
software should prompt you when this needs doing).
The next step is to put all the footage onto the timeline and do
a rough cut. If this is done by an editor who is working with a
director it is a good idea to let the editor concentrate on doing
this on there own. They can get things into good shape and the
director can come in afterwards.
The edit is then tightened up while the director is there. Any
additional footage and audio can be digitized at any time. The
last stage is usually tightening up the sound by slightly overlapping audio and bringing in wildtrack.
Rendering
Once you have finished editing your video with NLE, the final
step to take before you can play your video back to tape is to
render your video file as a single AVI file. This step is very
important, but you must make sure that you have enough disk
space for your completed video. Rendering is a process that
takes up both a lot of time and memory, and the more special
effects and graphics you’ve included, the more megs per minute
your AVI file will be.
Real-time NLE
Real-time NLE systems allow you to use special transitions,
graphics, and filters that do not require rendering. As such, you
are not limited to time-constraints when playing your video
from timeline to tape. Some systems only offer a few real-time
effects, while others offer you thousands of professional effects,
so choose your system accordingly.
Notes :
108
UNIT 14
GETTING STARTED WITH
FINAL CUT PRO
LESSON 14:
GETTING STARTED WITH
FINAL CUT PRO
In this lesson we would learn how to start working on a NLE
setup, Final Cut Pro. We start here from the very beginning.
1 Click on the Final Cut Pro icon to open the program.
2 File > Save Project As . . .
3 Click on the desktop icon (if you are not already on the
desktop) and open the drive that has been assigned to you.
4 Click the New Folder icon
5 Use your first and last name to name the folder followed by
“Video” e.g. University Film
6 Name the project and save it.
Canvas Window
The next window is the canvas window which corresponds to
the sequence whereas the viewer window allows you to load
prepare and preview clips for editing into a sequence the canvas
window allows you top review sequence timelines , there is a tab
in the canvas window that allows you to switch back and forth
between the different sequence timelines in your project as you
work another window is audio meters. These meters show
rising or falling bars in the right left channel based on the level
of the audio. This allows you to keep an eye on the decibel level
of the audio as well troubleshoot your system’s audio.
7 There are Six different types of window. When you open
your newly saved project .
Viewer Window
It is associated with clips ,when you load a clip into the viewer
window you can manipulate it in many ways, you can play it
back , review the footage, you can assign in and out or edit
points defining how much of the clip is used when you edit the
sequence. The tabs on the top allow you not only to adjust
features of the video and audio but also to apply special effects .
Timeline
The Timeline is not a sequence in and of itself; it is merely a
window in which you work with sequences. As with the Project,
Viewer, and Canvas windows, the Timeline is based on a tab
architecture so that you can have more than one sequence
available in the Timeline window. To switch from one sequence
to the next, simply click on the tab.
You will notice rather quickly that each of these windows is
linked directly to the oth-ers. Adjustments made in one
window will change the project globally, meaning that
when-ever you make a change in one window of the project
that affects other windows, the change will be automatically
reflected elsewhere. For instance, when you switch sequences in
the Timeline window, the Canvas window tabs switch around
to show the same sequence.
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Browser Window
Browser window is the top level window of the application. It
contains the project tab that represents your entire final cut pro
project and all its contents. You can capture or import video,
audio and graphics clips, they will appear in this project tab.
When you will create a new sequence to editing the timeline
window, it will appear in the project tab. Anything that goes
into project tab can be further organized into bins, which are
simply organizational folders that can be created in the project
tab.
Tool Palette
To the right is an inconspicuous vertical bar. This is the tool
palette with 9 icons. When you click on an icon it will expand to
show you options in the same family of tools.
1 The most commonly used tool is the default selector at the
top. The top three icons are selector tools of some kind or
other. These are to highlight clips and move them.
2 The next three icons are edit tools: roll, ripple, slip, slide, and
razor blade. These are to trim and help you match motion in
a movement sequence or to sync movement to sound.
Effects Window
There is another tab in the project window that is always open
,even when there are no open windows ,this is effects tab. This
contains many different built in effects such as transitions,
special effects, audio filters and titles.
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3 The 7th icon is for view tools. These make clips in the
Timeline larger or smaller.
4 The 8th is for image modification tools. These are for
cropping or distorting the image.
5 The 9th is for keyframe tools. These are to create or delete
keyframes. Especially helpful on a motion path or audio
graph.
You will become familiar with these as you work with your clips
in the Timeline
most important thing to set up a successful edit. You might
start with making a bin for each person who speaks in your
footage, or bins for each topic covered, or each location in which
you shot. Most editors make a bin of clips that really turn them
on that they want to be sure to include somewhere before the
edit is locked. If you are going to be cutting dance or montage,
you can make bins for different screen directions and image
sizes. If you are going to be working with color, you can make
bins of each dominant color. If you don’t put your footage
into logical bins, you spend all your edit time looking for clips.
Before capturing the clips few important settings are made .
Audio meters
These meters show rising or falling bars in the left and right
channels based on the level of audio. This allows you to keep
an eye on the decibel level of your audio, as well as troubleshoot
your system’s audio. If you don’t hear audio, but you see levels,
or if you hear nasty distortion but your Audio Meter levels are
acceptable, it may be time to go in for a little system maintenance.
Log and capture Window
From This Window we can capture both video and audio for
our saved project through a single cable called Firewire or IEEE
1394. There are a variety of ways to capture video:
•
Capture clips this process is used to capture single clips from
the tape .
•
Capture now - Using your written logs you can advance the
tape to a few seconds before a section you want to capture
and push the NOW button to start and ESC to stop. This is
sloppy, but works. Be certain your preferences, particularly
scratch disks are correctly set and name your clips before you
capture.
Click on the final cut pro menu /go into audio video settings /
click on the external video tab and put it on apple firewire pal
720*576 .
Audio Video Settings
The Audio Video Settings are Critical. Set them when you start
a project, and check them every session. Sometimes the video
will not show up on the monitor. Trashing the preferences and
restarting the computer can usually fix that problem.
Scratch Disk
•
Enter a Batch Capture List - Use your written logs(refer the
material on logging in the previous lesson), and type in the
time code numbers of the in/out points of the clips you
will be using. It is easy to name clips doing it this way.
When Final Cut is open on a computer, every inch of space
available on the monitor screen is taken up with windows, each
of which has a specific purpose. The Log and Capture window,
demonstrated in the previous step, is used to view tape loaded
into a digital video camera and to “capture” clips - isolating part
of the tape and digitizing just that part of it. To its right,
included as part of the window, three tabs, called Logging, Clip
Settings and Capture Settings, govern how the material will be
Video clips are organized into bins. Bins are just indexes of the
captured clips, not copies of them. So you can have the same
clip in more than one bin. The organization of your bins is the
Scratch Disks This is important because it determines where
your media files are stored and media files are what eat disk
space.
1 Scratch Disks: x on Capture Audio and Video to separate
files
2 Click on the Set icon
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3 Select the folder you already created for your project.
You will be assigned two drives. This is where you create the
folder for the second drive.
3 The deck can be controlled from the Log and Capture
window. Click on the play arrow or push the space bar on the
keyboard to stop and start.
4 Click on the next Set icon
Preparing the Browser
5 Click on the Desktop icon
1 File > New > Bin
6 Open the second disk that’s been assigned to you (by double
clicking).
2 Name the Bin
7 Click on New.
8 Use your first and last name to name the folder followed by
the “Audio” (this will be your second folder). e.g. Audio Rai
University Film
9 Click select.
10 In the first folder x the video box and in the second x the
audio and render files. It is better to keep your video and
audio files on separate drives.
11 At the bottom you will see Waveform Cache and Thumbnail
Cache. Set and select your second folder.
12 Click O.K.!
3 Control/Click the Bin icon and a menu will appear. Choose
Set Logging Bin. The name of your logging bin will now
appear at the top of your log and capture window.
Logging
It’s a good idea to have a computer log with time-code and
notes of everything you’ve shot which can be output as a batch
list. It is quick and painless on Final Cut Pro.
1 Mark your in and out points with the arrow tabs next to the
time code window in the lower left and right-hand corners or
use the keyboard: i for in, o for out.
2 Type in the label, scene and take and if you place an x next to
these boxes they will appear in the name of the clip.
3 Click on Log Clip
4 Click on O.K.
5 You have created your first “off-line clip.” It should have a
red slash through it. This means it is not digitized yet. Once
you have viewed all your footage, logged them as off-line
clips, and made copious notes, you can decide which clips are
essential to digitize. This is important if you have hours of
footage and limited disk space.
6 Repeat steps 1 through 4 until you have created at least five
off-line clips.
Now that you’ve created a log of your tape, you might want to
save it and print it.
7 Stretch out the Browser window so you can view as many
columns as possible. Many of these are unnecessary for your
log record.
8 Control/Click on the empty or unnecessary columns and
choose Hide Column.
Exercise
9 Next go to File > Export > Batch List . . .
1 Edit > Audio Video Settings.
10 Name it and save it to your project folder.
2 There are 5 tabs: Summary, Sequence Preset, Capture Presets,
Device Control Preset and External Video
11 To print, go to the Apple icon in the top left corner and
open the stickies program.
3 Summary: Make sure that View External Video Using is set
to Apple Firewire PAL (720 x576)
12 File > import text . . . > open Batch List
You can print this but it would be better to copy this into an
email addressed to yourself and then format it in Word or
Excel. The video lab does not have these programs on the
computers.
4 Device Control: Make sure it reads Apple Firewire, DV Time,
PAL
5 Capture: PAL DV (4:3),
* Make sure that audio is set to Source, DV audio 48 khz or 32
khz, Two channels
6 Sequence Presets: DV PAL 48 kHz
You are now ready to begin.
1 Insert your Mini-DV tape into the Deck.
2 File > Log and Capture . . .
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Browser Window Displaying Picons
Editing
Putting a program together means putting clips, or parts of
clips into a sequence. You do not have to start at the beginning.
You can build sequences of sections and then copy these
sections into a new sequence. If you have a sequence that you
like, you should make a copy of it before tweaking it further so
that you can always go back to something you liked if your new
6 Hit F9 to make an insert edit. The clip from the source will
appear both on the Timeline and in the Record window.
Viewer Window Functions
The viewer window is where clips are loaded for three-point
editing. Double clicking on a clip in the browser window will
allow you to see its contents in the viewer.
In Final Cut Pro a clip may be dragged directly from the
browser window into the viewer window.
The viewer window has many buttons and menus. The center
of the viewer gives a visual display of the frame where the
position indicator is parked. The upper half and lower half of
the viewer window contain all the menus and buttons.
Lower Portion of Viewer Window
idea doesn’t pan out. You can make multiple versions of a
sequence to try out ideas.
The first objective in editing is to get the program flowing, to
get your clips in the correct order, and to make sense out of
your story. This can be done with straight cuts that do not
require rendering (which eats time). Save all transitions, and
effects until you are happy with your straight cut edit.
There are many ways to get your clips from the Browser to the
Timeline to create your movie. Here we would not go into the
multiple ways to accomplish this
The following exercises show you two basic methods of
starting the editing process.
1 The quickest way is to drag and drop the on-line bin onto
the time-line placing the three clips in order. The video track
is blue and the two audio tracks are green.
2 Click on the time-line window and press Home to place the
playhead at the beginning of the sequence.
3 Hit the space-bar to play your sequence.
4 There is a simple way to trim your clips. Click and drag.
Some important Final Cut Pro functions of the viewer and
canvas windows are as follows:
Play Button: Pressing the play button will play a clip, and you
will see the position indicator move forward. Pressing it again
will stop the position indicator.
Mark In (I): This will mark an in point where the position
indicator is currently parked.
Mark Out (O): This will mark an out point where the play
head indicator is currently parked.
Upper Portion of Viewer Window
Clip Duration Box
5 To create more tracks click on a clip and drag it up. You can
create as many tracks as you want with this method.
6 To unlink video and audio go to sequence > linked selection
and uncheck it. The short-cut is shift/L.
Like in the linear editing setup, you can use the source and
monitor screens as if they were a source and record deck.
1 Double click the first clip you want to use in the browser
window. It will appear in the source window (on the left).
2 Play the clip by hitting the space bar, and stop it when you
get to the place you want to make the in edit. You can use
the left and right arrow keys to move back and forth a frame
at a time to find your exact edit point.
3 When you find the edit point, press the “i” key (for IN)
4 Then Play the clip until you get to the end of the part you
want to use and when you have the precise frame, hit the “o”
key (for OUT)
5 Then click in the timeline window and hit the “i” key for the
place you want to insert the clip from the source. (If this is
the first edit, it will be at the beginning of the time line.
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The clip duration window will update to show the distance
between the IN / OUT points in the viewer. In this case, the
duration is 11 seconds and 25 frames.
If no IN point is present, Final Cut Pro will use the very first
frame of the clip as the default IN point. If no OUT point is
present, then it will use the very last frame as the OUT point.
Zoom Window for Viewer
It is recommended that you keep the zoom for the viewer
window set on Fit to Window. Playback may appear jerky or
pixelated if this menu is set to something other than fit to
window.
Viewer Menu
For this course make sure RGB is selected at all times under the
viewer menu. Otherwise, Final Cut Pro will display your video
images with a red tint.
Notes :
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LESSON 15:
THREE POINT EDITING ON FCP
After you have mastered the concept of storyboard editing, it is
important to understand three-point editing within the Final
Cut Pro interface.
A general workflow is to organize all of your material and then
create a rough storyboard. Then quickly drop those clips into
the timeline and begin editing. After that, three-point editing is
a good editing method to use.
One of the many choices for editing in Final Cut Pro is the
option of editing your show using three-point editing. Instead
of dragging individual clips to the timeline, you can press a
button to perform the same function. Three-point-editing
involves marking specific IN / OUT points in two separate
locations – the viewer window and the timeline window.
UNIT 15
THREE POINT EDITING ON FCP
has been marked in the viewer window.
You have two basic choices. You can either over-write or insert
this clip into your sequence.
Using Three Point Editing to Build a Sequence
By parking the position indicator at the tail of a clip in the
timeline, you can easily add additional clips by using the overwrite function.
This workflow will allow you more accuracy in choosing specific
IN / OUT points before editing your clips to the timeline.
A common approach is to load individual clips into the viewer
window and mark rough IN / OUT points.
Three Point Editing
Using three-point editing is similar to the drag and drop
method. The two commonly used Final Cut Pro functions are
over-write and insert editing.
Using the over-write function will fill a specified
duration based on your IN / OUT points. This
function will over-write or replace the marked region in
the timeline.
Using the insert function will push existing clips over to
the right in a sequence.
Notice how Final Cut Pro uses the marked sections of the
‘parasailing’ to add to the timeline below.
Since you may have already made rough edit decisions, this
method will save you time when it comes to fine tuning and
trimming individual clips on the timeline.
Editing based on the position indicator ( Over-Write Edit)
With IN / OUT points marked in the viewer window, simply
place the position indicator at a point where you want the clip to
go in your sequence.
Pressing the over-write button will edit 3 seconds onto
the current sequence starting at the position indicator.
The first step is to mark IN / OUT points for a clip you would
like to edit into your current sequence.
In this example, Final Cut Pro shows duration of 3 seconds
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In this example, pay close attention to where the position
indicator is parked within the timeline. Final Cut Pro uses this
indicator as its starting point. When the red over-write button
is pressed, 3:00 seconds from the clip in the viewer will be
edited over top of the ‘sailboat clip’. Notice, 3:13 will be left
over.
It is important to note that, when using the over-write
function, the duration of your sequence will not change. This
means other tracks in the sequence will maintain their relative
position. When editing, you will find the over-write function
to be one of the most common methods of editing.
Notice, The ‘Walk on Beach’ clip has overwritten part of the
‘Sailboat’ clip. The ‘Sailboat’ clip
is now 3 seconds shorter, but the sequence length is unchanged.
With IN / OUT points marked in the timeline window, Final
Cut Pro will obey those marks and will fill the entire duration
with material based on an IN point in the viewer window.
If an IN point is not present in the viewer window, Final Cut
Pro will use the first frame of the clip.
In this example, the ‘parasailing’ clip fills the specified duration
marked in the timeline window.
If you do not have enough media from the viewer window to
fill the specified duration between the IN / OUT points in the
timeline, you will receive an insufficient content error.
When this happens, you may choose to shorten the distance
between your IN / OUT points, or find sufficient media to fill
the required duration.
Editors Note
You can verify the amount of media left in the viewer window
by looking at the duration box in the upper left corner of the
viewer window. The duration box shows the distance from
your IN point to the end of the clip.
Pressing the over-write button will drop your clip into the
timeline based on your IN / OUT points.
Editing based on the position indicator ( Insert Edit)
Pressing the insert button will edit 3 seconds onto the
current sequence starting at the position indicator. It
will push all the other clips down the timeline,
lengthening the sequence.
Be careful when using the insert-edit feature in Final Cut Pro. It
is possible to change the sync relationship between your video
and audio clips.
Three Point Editing rules for Timeline Menu
In & Out points in the Timeline window
Once you understand the concept of three-point editing, you
can mark IN / OUT points in the timeline instead of the
viewer window. This is useful when timing clips to music or a
voice over track.
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If for some reason you have IN / OUT points on both your
timeline and your viewer window, Final Cut Pro will always give
the timeline priority over the viewer window. It will ignore the
OUT point in the viewer.
If you have IN / OUT points in the viewer window, but you
do not have an IN / OUT point in the timeline, Final Cut Pro
will use the location of the position indicator in the timeline as
an IN point.
Timeline Window Vs. Canvas Window
In Final Cut Pro, the timeline window and canvas window are
linked together when it comes to navigating around in the
timeline.
Since these two windows are synced together, marking IN /
OUT points for your sequence can be done in either window.
The canvas window will display the duration between your IN
/ OUT points in the timeline window.
In this case 2 seconds are marked between the IN / OUT
points.
IN / OUT points that are marked in the timeline window are
also viewable in the canvas window. Remember, these two
windows represent your edited sequence.
Final Cut Pro Editing Keyboard Shortcuts
Instead of having to click on individual buttons or dragging
clips to the canvas window, you can use the keyboard shortcut
equivalents.
Instead of dragging the ‘Walk on Beach’ clip directly into the
canvas window, you could press the red overwrite button, or
press F10 on your keyboard.
Using the Replace Edit Function
The canvas window will always display the name of your
sequence in the top portion of the window. In this case, the
name is ‘Sequence 1’ from the Jamaica Show project.
The blue replace edit button will automatically fill the area from
where the timeline position indicator is parked. It uses the
frame where the position indicator is parked in the viewer
window as its starting point. IN / OUT points are not needed
in either the viewer window or timeline
Performing an Verwrite Edit ( Using the Canvas)
Final Cut Pro also allows you to manually drag clips from the
viewer window into the canvas window.
To make a three-point edit, simply drag the viewer window into
the canvas window, and move the clip into the overwrite box.
This will perform an over-write edit, based on the IN / OUT
marks on the timeline.
The clip ‘Walk on Beach’ will fill the 3:00 that is marked in the
timeline window.
Editors Note
In Final Cut Pro, the blue replace arrow is one of the best time
saving functions available. Most editors under utilize this
function. It saves time, because you do not need to mark any
IN or OUT points. I recommend that you practice uses this
function until you are comfortable with it.
Marking & Deleting Clips ( Three Point Editing)
To automatically mark IN / OUT points for a clip on the
timeline, park the indicator within an individual clip, and press
the X key on the keyboard. This will save you time when
working in Final Cut Pro, because you will not have to worry
about marking a clip exactly at its first and last frame.
Lifting a Clip from the Timeline
Once a clip is marked, you can easily delete it using the delete key
on your keyboard.
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When using the delete key to lift out a video shot between IN /
OUT points, make sure all of your audio tracks are locked.
Otherwise, the marked portion of your audio will be lifted out
along with the video.
In this example, because the audio tracks are locked, using the
delete key only lifted out the
To specify a duration, you can type in the exact duration you
would like in the clip duration box. This can be done in either
the viewer window or the canvas window. Final Cut Pro will
then automatically calculate what the IN point or OUT point is
to match you’re the specified duration.
You do not need to enter any of the semi-colons that are
common to timecode numbers. Just enter a whole number
value.
If you do not have an IN point, Final Cut Pro will mark the
OUT point based on the first frame of the clip.
marked portion of video.
Ripple Deleting a clip from the timeline
Pressing (shift + delete) or the forward delete key will close the
gap between the IN / OUT
points.
When removing clips using IN / OUT points you may want to
lock your audio tracks. By locking the audio tracks, and then
using (shift + delete) to extract a clip, only the marked video
portion will be removed.
Remember, when using (shift + delete), you will always be
changing the duration of the track in your sequence.
Removing In / Out Points
To clear an IN Point: Click on the viewer window or timeline
window and press (option + I).
To clear an OUT point: (option + O)
If you want to clear both in and out points use (option + X).
Marking a Specific Duration
Tool Palette
To the right is an inconspicuous vertical bar. This is the tool
palette with 9 icons. When you click on an icon it will expand to
show you options in the same family of tools.
1 The most commonly used tool is the default selector at the
top. The top three icons are selector tools of some kind or
other. These are to highlight clips and move them.
2 The next three icons are edit tools: roll, ripple, slip, slide, and
razor blade. These are to trim and help you match motion in
a movement sequence or to sync movement to sound.
3 The 7th icon is for view tools. These make clips in the
Timeline larger or smaller.
4 The 8th is for image modification tools. These are for
cropping or distorting the image.
5 The 9th is for keyframe tools. These are to create or delete
keyframes. Especially helpful on a motion path or audio
graph.
You will become familiar with these as you work with your clips
in the Timeline.
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Effects
There are numerous effects which can be divided into three
categories: transition (dissolves, wipes, slide stretch etc),
filters(blur, matte, key etc) and generators(colour bars, titles,
black etc).
We will go into the details of these in the next semester and try
and stick to just simple cuts this semester.
By now you should be ready to start working with the FCP. As
part of your initial exercises you would work with visuals/clips
picked up from some footage shot earlier and you would have
to try and make some sense out of them. By the end of the
semester, basically the last two weeks you would get enough
time on the editing machines to work on your end semester
final project. You would be given some clips, which you would
have to edit on music. You would be graded on:
1 Your understanding of the FCP.
2 Your ability to work around with the visuals given to you
3 Use of sound with the visuals.
Notes :
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
CHAPTER 1
EDITING DEVICES
This is a basic summary of what we studied earlier. The various
ways in which editing can be achieved. The different segments
have materials stated in points, for you to be able to remember
the basic concepts of each easily. Also mentioned below are a
few points about the film editing processes as well. Going
through the same would help you in your editing course next
semester.
A.
There are two basic classes of editing.
Continuity editing
a. The system of editing developed in the US in the heyday of
the studio system still dominates film language.
b. Continuity editing moves the story and is generally
slower than dynamic editing.
c. Continuity editing strives for seamless spatial (space)
and temporal (time) continuity.
i. Flashback — A scene in a motion picture representing an
earlier event than the one currently being depicted.
a. The flashback is a useful narrative device that allows a
screenwriter a degree of flexibility in the temporal structure
of his plot.
b. It may relate an event that occurred before the main story
began or retrogress in time to depict a portion of the main
story not previously shown.
c. Flashbacks may be used to clarify an element of the plot
(for example, to reconstruct the scene of a crime in a mystery
film), to provide background information essential to the
understanding of the current plot, or to supply keys to the
understanding of characters or clues to their
motivations.
d. It enables several characters to tell their versions of the same
events (as in Citizen Kane and Rashomon), straining the
objectivity of the camera with their subjective viewpoints.
g. Although generally a useful device in advancing a complicated
plot, the multiple flashback can be absurdly confusing, it will
muddle a film and make it hopelessly difficult to follow.
ii. Flash-forward is the opposite of flashback.
a. A scene in a motion picture representing an event that is
expected, projected, or imagined to occur later than the one
currently depicted.
b. This narrative device has been employed less frequently than
the flashback but can be quite useful in the futuristic
structure of science-fiction stories or in depicting the hopes
and dreams of a character.
c. It serves as a premonition of things to come.
d. Is the death of Bruce Willis (in Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys)
before his boyhood eyes a flashback. Or in his adult
nightmares are they flash forward predestining his death.
e. It forces the audience to puzzle and solve the story problem.
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d. The continuity approach uses a set of rules that aim to hide
rather than emphasize the cut.
i. 180-degree rule — A major rule of continuity editing that
states that the camera must remain on one side of the
narrative action in order to ensure consistent spatial
relationships and direction of movement from shot to shot.
ii. Eyeline match
a. The alternation of two shots, the first showing a character
looking off-screen, the second showing what the character’s
seeing.
b. A rough sense of scale and distance is kept, but not
necessarily perspective; that is, every point-of-view shot is an
eyeline match, but every eyeline match is not necessarily a
POV shot.
iii. Match on action — A cut that shifts the framing of an
action within a scene by continuing the movement within
the first shot seamlessly in the second shot.
iv. Match cut — A match cut is a variation of the match on
action. A cut in which the two shots joined are linked by
visual, aural, or metaphorical parallelism. Famous example:
at the end of North by Northwest (1959), Cary Grant is
pulling Eva Marie Saint up the cliff of Mount Rushmore;
match cut to Grant pulling her up to a Pullman bunk.
v. Morphing — may be ultimate seamless nature that
continuity editing strives to achieve.
a. The seamless change of a visual form from one state to
another accomplished usually by a computer program.
b. The technique became popular in the early 1990s in
commercials in which one model car would appear to change
into another model.
c. Terminator 2 (1991) and The Nutty Professor (1996) made
extensive use of morphs.
d. They were used to striking effect in Michael Jackson’s “Black
or White” video.
Dynamic Editing
Dynamic editing is used for action rather than ideas and is
faster than continuity editing.
a. Dynamic cutting was a film-editing style, characteristic of
polemic documentaries and propaganda films, in which
separate shots are joined or contrasted in such a manner as to
give significant expression to basically nonpartisan material.
b In dynamic cutting, the film’s impact is achieved in the
cutting room rather than during the original shooting,
typically through clever juxtaposition and rapid pacing.
a. It has a visceral energy generated by using a large number of
shots intercut rapidly to an emotional conclusion.
c. The final shoot out in The Wild Bunch is a brilliant example
of dynamic editing. And it stops and then begins again.
They just don’t give a damn anymore.
d. The battles in Braveheart and Henry V are so powerfully
bloody that they make audiences members look away. It is
the intercutting of short close-ups that gives the film its
visceral power. Both films owe a debt of gratitude to Orson
Welles’ Chimes at Midnight and Stanley Kubrick’s
Spartacus, which broke new ground in the editing of had to
hand combat scenes.
i. In Chimes at Midnight, Welles isolated individual struggles
in an enormous battle and then “blew smoke” in wider
shots to hide the fact nothing else was going on. He had to
do it this way because of budget problems.
ii. In Spartacus, Kubrick produced a ballet of real intensity as
the Romans centuries marched into battlefield formation as
the army of gladiators and slaves waited. The sequence
builds an enormous intensity in the mind of the audience
iii. In Henry V, Branagh uses the flights of arrows, as did
Olivier, and the personal snatches of the chaos of individual
struggle in the rain and mud.
iv. In Braveheart, Mel Gibson uses the ballet of motion before
the battle, the melee of combat between large armies and
individual cuts to acts of barbarity that are part of personal
“knife” fights.
f. MTV is all dynamic editing as is television advertising.
You would see the younger generation complain that a film
is “slow”. This attitude in the young can be attributed to
watching too many commercials and music videos.
symbol of the horrific bloodletting of the hotel
environment.
b. In The Emerald Forest, the Father (Dadee) has a drug
induced “out of body” experience, where he discovers his
animal spirit and is transported back to civilization.
b. Flash cutting —high speed interchanging of two shots for
psychological effect. Or editing the film into shots of very
brief duration that succeed each other rapidly.
i. Flash cutting— Shots of very brief duration intercut to
create a sharp dramatic impact or shock effect.
ii. Flash frame — A shot of only a frame or a few frames
duration, sometimes a single frame, which can just barely be
perceived by the audience.
c. Jump cuts and flash cuts both may often jar the audience
unnecessarily, but when intelligently done can have a
tremendous impact on the story, relationship of characters,
and the ideas being developed.
i. In The Pawnbroker, a series of flash cuts followed or easing
our way into both Rod Steiger’s mind and the concentration
camp.
ii. It forces the audiences pay attention even though it forces us
to ‘to feel the character’s pain.
3. Optical effects, a general term for such special effects and
transitional effects as the fade, the dissolve, and the wipe,
usually made in an optical printer which is the machine that
duplicates prints of a film.
B. Intershot movement—editing techniques or devices used
between shots, scenes and sequences:
a. Many operations of a technical nature are performed on the
optical printer, including opticals, the balancing of color
values in timing and the correction of contrast.
1. Cut — an instantaneous change from one shot to the next. It
is an abrupt transition from one scene to another without
using an optical effect such as a dissolve, a wipe, or a fade. It
is achieved by splicing the last frame of one scene with the
first frame of the next.
b. Transitional effects can be produced by a motion picture
camera but are normally added optically in the lab which
allow a smooth flow of film narrative by providing a link
between separate scenes.
a. Jump cuts tend to jar the audience psychologically. There are
two uses of the word: 1. a jarring cut within a scene or; 2. a
dramatic cut between scenes that may leave the audience
momentarily bewildered or confused.
i. Jump cuts occur within a scene to condense time. They
can effectively eliminate dead periods, such as that between
the time a character enters a room and the time he reaches his
destination on the other side of the room. When used
according to certain rules, jump cuts can be unobtrusive.
They in effect, abbreviate the time / space line of a scene.
i. The most common transitional effects are the fade, the
dissolve, and the wipe.
ii. Other variations include the swish pan, focus effects, and
the moving of a body or an object toward or away from the
camera lens to create a fade to black.
c. Reverse action is also known as “reverse motion,” which is
trick effect achieved by running film backward in the camera
or during optical printing.
i. When projected, actions in the scene appear in reverse
sequence.
ii. Obtrusive jump cuts produce an ellipsis between shots,
either by maintaining a consistent background and abruptly
changing the positions of the actors, or by holding the
positions of the actors and abruptly changing the
background.
ii. For example, a diver may be made to rise from the water and
defy the law of gravitation by returning to the diving board.
iii. In both The Shining (Stanley Kubrick) and The Emerald
Forest (John Boorman) jumps cuts are used to convey and
“interior meaning”, which is intuitively understood by the
audience.
iv. The action is filmed in reverse and when the scene is
projected the sense of collision will appear very realistic.
a. In The Shining, Barry has a premonition about his future in
the hotel and past events in the hotel and on the symbolic
iii. A crash may be staged without risking lives by beginning
shooting from the point of impact and having the cars drive
backward.
d. Dissolve—gradual appearance of a new shot as an old shot
gradually disappears. The preceding shot gradually fuses into
the following shot.
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i. A dissolve is achieved by the overlapping of two lengths of
film so that, as the last frames of the first shot gradually
darken, they are blended with the opening frames of the
next scene which gradually brighten.
i. (Fade In, Fade Out) An optical effect that causes a scene to
emerge gradually on the screen from complete blackness
(fade in), or a bright image to dim gradually into blackness
(fade out).
ii. The emotional effect on the audience is that of one scene
seems to melt into another.
ii. The fade is a transitional device that usually signifies a distinct
break in a film’s continuity, indicating a major change in time,
location, or subject matter.
iii. Some cameras are equipped with dissolve controls, but
normally, the effect is produced using an optical printer in the
lab.
iv. It is also referred to as a lap dissolve and is used as a
transitional device, usually to indicate a time lapse or a change
in location, as distinct from a direct cut, which tends to
suggest concurrent action.
v. The length of any particular dissolve depends on the desired
effect—a slow dissolve indicating a long time lapse, a
relatively quick dissolve indicating a brief passage of time.
vi. Technically, the length of the dissolve is measured y the total
number of frames required to complete the effect.
vii. Since a dissolve demands the superimposition of the end
of one scene onto the beginning of the next, at least six
extra feet of film must be shot for each scene for the lab to
have the necessary footage to achieve the effect.
viii. The editor uses a Chinagraph (grease) pencil to indicate a
dissolve by marking the desired length of film on his work
print with a diagonal line.
iii. Most films begin with a fade-in and end with a fade-out.
iv. The use of a fade-in/fade-out between sequences within a
film is similar to the function of the beginning or end of an
act in a play.
v. The length of the fade should be in keeping with the film’s
tempo and mood.
vi. Technically, a fade-in is achieved by a gradual increase of
exposure for each frame until the image reaches full
brightness; a fade-out is obtained by a gradual decrease of
exposure for each frame with the last frame completely black.
vii. Normally, fades are made on an optical printer, but they can
also be achieved in some cameras by rewinding the film to
create a double exposure.
vii. We also refer to the gradual increase or decrease in the level
of sound in a film as a fade-in or fade-out. viii. Thus,
typically, a motion picture script would start with the
instruction “fade in” on the picture side and “fade in”
music” (or sound effects) on the sound side.
d. Supers (Superimpositions) — overlaying or overlapping of
images for dramatic effect. This technique is saying emotional
things that the audience feels and expands our
understanding. An important technique in “montage”.
f. Iris—picture slowly opens out or closes into black as does the
iris in a lens.
i. Superimposition is the technique of photographing or
printing two (or more) image(s) on top of another so that
both (all) may be seen simultaneously in screening.
ii. It is created the camera by varying the aperture to or from
zero, or by an optical printer.
ii. The effect may be achieved in any of several ways, including
by the exposure of the same piece of film more than once in
the camera, by a glass shot, or by double or multiple
printing.
iii. Sequences composed of a succession of superimpositions
are known in Hollywood as montage sequences.
iv. Superimposition has been used frequently for dream
sequences or for transitional scenes emphasizing the passage
of time.
v. The technique is most commonly employed in the printing
of subtitles over foreign-language films.
vi. The term, ghost image, is used to describe a type of double
exposure in which one or more preceding frames are printed
together with the main frame to give a multiple exposure.
vii. We also “matte” in multiple images using an optical printer
to create an effect similar to “supers” but you can’t see
through the images.
viii. With the advances of digital technology we can now layer
images 50 or 100 times without the loss or deterioration of
the image.
e. Fade—gradual appearance or disappearance of a shot.
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i. Iris-in / iris-out is a transition effect, now seldom used and
credited to D. W. Griffith and his cameraman, Billy Bitzer.
iii. The circle-in image first appears in the middle of the screen
as a pinpoint circle of light surrounded by black and
gradually increases in size until the picture fills the entire
screen. The iris-out, also known as circle-out, reverses the
procedure.
iv. Excellent examples in The Magnificent Ambersons
showing the end of an era as a tribute to Griffith and in
Babe using the mice for giddy aural transitions.
g. A wipe is an optical effect in which one image gradually
replaces another image, usually moving horizontally,
vertically, or diagonally across the frame.
i. The next image seems to push the previous image off the
screen.
ii. Very common in the 1930s; less so today, although it has
made a comeback in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones
trilogies, because they were harking back to the “cliffhangers”
of an earlier era.
h. A Flip (flip frame) is a type of wipe in which the images
appear to be cards flipped one after another.
i. Split screen — An effects shot in which two or more
different images appear on the same frame.
ii. The effect is achieved using a matte (photographic) process
and multiple exposures.
iii. An image is exposed on a preselected portion of the frame
while the rest of the frame is masked.
g. We also edit and manipulate the sound to make the audience
feel what characters in a film feel.
iv. The exposed portion of the frame is then masked and
another image is printed on the remainder of the frame.
i. In Rumble Fish, the anti-hero, Motorcycle Boy, is hearing
impaired so we must help the audience understand how he
hears by distorting the sound.
v. When more than two images are desired, the process is
repeated as many times as necessary.
vi. Each image is exposed in its proper position in the frame
while the rest of the frame is masked.
j. Multiple images — A number of images printed beside each
other within the same frame, often showing different camera
angles of the same action, or separate actions.
k. Swish pan —using a fast pan to change from one shot to
another—gives the effect of blurred movement. It is also
called a flick pan, zip pan or whip pan
i. A pan in which the intervening images move past too quickly
to be observed and appear blurred
ii. It approximates psychologically the action of the human eye
as it moves rapidly from one subject to another.
l. Wash or ripple—mechanical process that distorts the image.
m. Focus—mechanical adjustment of the lens to sharpen or
blur the image.
i. In editing, we focus in, focus out — and use it as a
punctuation device.
ii. And since he is also color blind, we have a black and white
film with only the “fish” in color, who like Motorcycle Boy
are trapped.
3. The editing of the seduction sequence in The Graduate is a
masterful example of the above points.
a. Time is condensed dramatically, and a period of several weeks
occurs in several minutes.
b. Space is radically changed, jarring the audience from pool to
hotel to home.
c. The trauma of the experience is given meaning by the jarring
nature of the editing for the audience and the experience for
Dustin Hoffman.
d. The audience shares the emotion of the sequence.
i. There seems to be no pleasure for the characters only a need to
commit the act.
ii. The scene is out of control. It does not make sense in the
traditional visual sense but is understood and accepted.
ii. One image gradually goes out of focus as the next image
comes into focus.
4. The editing in Tom Jones uses every trick in the director’s bag
and each unit seems to have a different style. It shouldn’t
work, but it does.
n. Movement on still frames, movement of the camera on a
scene using still photographs
5. The editing of The Crow is much more modern and
hyperactive.
o. Freeze frame — The effect of repeatedly printing a single
frame so that the action seems to freeze on the screen into a
still life without motion.
a. The impact of music videos editing style has had a significant
effect not only the speed of feature film editing and the
expectations of younger audiences.
i. The process can be used to lengthen a scene, to highlight a
point, or for sheer dramatic effect.
b. The X generation now expects all films to give them a
“rush”, and they complain about Lawrence of Arabia as
being too long or too slow because of their MTV education.
ii. A freeze frame was also used very dramatically at the end of
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as Paul Newman
and Robert Redford charged the Bolivian soldiers and pass
from reality into myth.
C. Editing revolves around cause / effect relationships.
c. There are, of course, many excellent examples of the use of
this hyperactive, kinetic use of high-speed cutting. The
Crow, using memory as lightning bolts of painful
remembrances of things past.
3. Simplistically, editing relates actions and reactions.
i. The use of lenses, camera angles lighting, processing and
camera movement helps the audience understand the pain,
when the superhuman dead boy reenters his apartment to
begin his gory march to revenge.
D. The nature of the editing is to select, arrange, and assemble
SHOTS into SCENES into SEQUENCES into FILMS.
ii. Tragically, Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon, was killed during the
filming of this project.
1. Editing gives a visual rhythm to a film. It develops the
narrative sequence; it creates the mood and tempo and pacing
and timing.
6. Editing is the heart of the cinema art pumping meaning
through the film. Films have been “enriched, enhanced,
saved “ by great editing.
2. Editing principles involve:
7. In musicals, the sound track becomes the editor’s guide
for visual cutting, not necessarily forcing the cuts to be
made to the “beat”, but it is the force behind the editing.
1. Action is causal—the person speaking.
2. Reaction is effect—the cutaway to the person listening.
a. The passage of time
b. The restructuring of time
c. The restructuring of space
d. Creating movement with an inanimate object
e. The giving of new meanings to the visual subject matter
8. Editing is used to provide humor, suspense, romance, fear,
horror, and every other emotion in human nature.
E. Tricks of the trade include:
f. The development and emotional feeling to the film
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1. Matching shots so that the visual and audio match in shot
after shot and provide a logical kind of continuity.
a. The parallel editing links the characters symbolically — they
are “sympatico”.
a. Not only must the size of the compositions match, but the
speed of the camera movements must also be the same.
b. They are bound together. They are brothers. They are one.
b. A reverse angle shot is a shot taken from an angle opposite
the one from which the preceding shot has been taken.
c. The reverse angle technique is frequently employed in dialogue
scenes to provide the editor with alternate facial shots of the
actors speaking.
2. Editing needs to be motivated. Cutting for cutting’s sake is
unwise. Why, that cut? dissolves? fade? Why?
a. Cutting on action — Cutting from one shot to another
while the subject of the shot is in motion.
i. Film editors realized that the sudden change in the physical
elements of an image were less noticeable when the attention
of the viewer is distracted by the movement of a subject
than when the cut is made on a static note.
ii. In shooting, the movement in both shots is filmed as a
complete action and at the same speed. This enables the
editor to splice both pieces of film as a matched action.
iii. For the technique to be effective, in the second shot the
subject should occupy the same sector of the frame he had
occupied in the first shot, but the second shot must be taken
from a different angle.
3. Cutting on movement must be based on the master cut.
a. Action must move in the same (one) direction.
b. Cut as the movement reaches the edge of the frame.
4. Cut on sounds.
5. Cut from actions to reactions.
6. Cross cutting between scenes that are occurring at the same
time keeps the units moving parallel and keeps the audience
abreast of all action.
a. Intercutting is an editing technique by which two different
sequences of action are alternated to suggest simultaneous
action.
d. Parallel action then is a narrative technique utilizing
alternate shots of separate actions to suggest they are taking
place simultaneously
i. For example, shots of Indians chasing the Stagecoach
alternating with shots of the cavalry coming to the rescue.
ii. The technique is basic to motion picture editing and is used
both for creating suspense and for condensing the passage
of time in the construction of a sequence.
7. Cutaways and inserts keep the audience awake! Paying
attention! Involved! Helps them remember what they need
to remember.
a. A cutaway is a shot of an action or object related to but not
an immediate part of a principal scene.
i. It is designed to draw attention from the main action
temporarily or to comment on it as an aside.
ii. Technically, it is a useful device for the editor in bridging a
time lapse or in avoiding a jump cut.
iii. Directors make sure that their cameramen shoot cutaway
footage whenever possible to provide the editor with
additional material with which to work.
iv. A typical cutaway is a shot of the reaction of spectators at an
athletic event, a close-up of a bystander’s face, or a shot of a
clock showing the passage of time.
v. Cutaways can also be used as symbolic comments, such as a
shot of ocean waves following a stormy love scene; or as a
humorous device, such as a series of running-gag shots of
someone continuously doing something funny “in the
meantime,” the main action continues to unfold.
b. An insert is a most often a CU or ECU that helps explain the
nuances or details of a scene. Inserts
i. Facilitate action
ii. Emphasize an idea
b. This method allows an editor to enrich the narrative
continuity of a film and also to manipulate time by
accelerating or retarding the main action.
iii. Clarify an issue
c. Parallel editing is the technique of intercutting two
independent sequences to and fro in the course of editing
so that a relationship is established between the parallel
actions.
1. Editing involves a variety of stages.
i. Cross cutting is the key to tension building in chase
scenes, with emphasis shifting back and forth from the
pursuer to the pursued.
ii. Parallel editing (crosscutting) techniques of concurrent
action at various locations is a common device in building
action sequences
iii. In E. T.: THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL, The adventure
of ET in the refrigerator and Elliott at school are bound
together by cutting between the two scenes, thus linking ET
condition due to the beer with Elliott at school, who also
becomes “drunk”.
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F. In every film both the sound track and the film footage have
to be edited with each other in mind.
a. Editing the visuals and syncing the voices recorded during
filming.
b. Editing the sound effects to match the visuals.
c. Editing the music to match the action and emotion of a
scene.
d. Mixing all the sound tracks onto one track.
e. In motion picture theory, parallelism is the term has been
used to describe a parallel relationship between an image
and its corresponding sound track—for instance, a shot
of a person speaking accompanied by a sound track of his
synchronized and recorded voice. The visual and aural
elements support or repeat each other.
f. Counterpoint is the term used for the opposite situation,
when images do not parallel the accompanying sound track.
2. Editing is the language, the linkage, the collision and the
montage of film.
H. You never edited the original negative — that is done by a
specialist — “a negative cutter”.
i. Where do you have the camera set-ups?
I. Then the negative cut is sent to the laboratory along with the
final work print, and the final composite prints with an
optical audio track of the picture are made.
ii. How many set ups do you have?
ii. Remember they cost time , which is money in film
production.
VI. Specialized units—The montage, which is a series of shots
(which may be similar in content) that, when combined, carry
specialized meaning that is important to the story, theme,
emotion action, etc.
A. The time montage indicates the passage of time and, in
effect, condenses or expands the passage of time.—The
editor manipulates time.
B. The action (impact) montage is exhilarating and is a
specialized type of dynamic editing. It is an emotional device
that forces the audience to participate in physical events.
C. The mood montage creates an emotional environment and
allows the audience to become involved with the characters
and their relationships. It creates a state of mind in the
audience—which presumably is also that of the character(s)
involved.
D. Music is a (if not the) primary ingredient in many recent
films and is the cementive element in these creative units.
Songs have become popular devices.
VII. Review of the Process of Editing — It is the assembling
of aural and visual bytes of into a coherent whole and
involves the following steps:
A. It begins with screening the dailies or rushes
1. Dailies are roughly assembled prints of scenes shot the
previous day.
2. They are processed overnight and are frequently known as
rushes because of their hasty assembly.
3. These ungraded prints are projected daily, usually early in the
morning, for critical viewing by the producer, director,
cameraman, and crew to ascertain that all the required shots
are completed, or “in the can,” and that no retakes are
necessary.
4. Dailies are shown untrimmed and in order of shooting
with no regard for continuity.
5. The editor as part of his work print later uses the daily print.
B. Pickups are shots filmed after the completion of the regular
shooting schedule, usually in an effort to cover up gaps in
continuity which are discovered in the cutting room.
C. Studio shooting produces a negative from which a work
print is used to edit a rough cut, which is shown to the
director
D. He suggests changes to be integrated into the fine cut.
E. The fine cut is “spotted” so that a score can be written.
F. Opticals and special visual effects have to be added at an
optical house.
G. Then a final cut is synched to mix down of sound effects
and music and voice tracks.
J. Answer print — The first combined sound and picture print
that is sent by the lab to a film producer for approval.
1. Also known as approval print or “first-trial print,” it is
screened for close examination of light grading, color
balance, fades, dissolves, and other printing standards.
2. The lab makes any corrections required by the producer, and
often several answer prints are made before the final approval
is given. When the quality is accepted, the answer print then
serves as the standard by which the subsequent release prints
are prepared.
K. Release print — A print ready for distribution and
screening. The release prints are produced and shipped to
the theaters.
L. Editing gives the film order and is the major device used to
give a film continuity and yet:
1. Each shot remains an entity.
2. Each scene remains an entity.
3. Each sequence remains an entity.
4. The editor uses all of these building blocks to construct a
film.
M. In editing a scene:
1. Everything begins with the master shot, which is essentially
an establishing or cover shot that allows the audience to
get its bearings.
a. Master shot — A long take of an entire scene, generally a
relatively long shot that facilitates the assembly of
component closer shots and details.
b. The editor can always fall back on the master shot:
consequently, it is also called a cover shot.
c. Establishing shot — A shot, usually a long shot or a full
shot at the beginning of a sequence, which establishes the
location, setting, and mood of the action. It provides the
audience with an initial visual orientation, enabling it to see
the interrelationship between the general setting and the
detailed action in subsequent scenes.
2. Each new shot (camera set up) should involve a change in
image size and/or camera angle.
3. This is known as variety in coverage—too often the master
shot is ignored and cutaways (inserts) are forgotten.
4. This can be accomplished by:
a. Moving the camera
b. Changing the lens.
5. In effect, you are controlling the audience’s eye—the editor
specifies what is seen and, therefore, emphasized.
N. Practices of film cutting.
1. Matching consecutive actions—the elementary
consideration of the art—two consecutive shots should
match visually.
125
2. Extent of the image size and angle.
a. Matching shot size. b. Angles must match—if one POV is
subservient, the other must be dominant.
3. Must maintain a sense of direction.
4. Must match tone or picture value.
5. Must match character positions.
6. Must match set components.
7. Must have a graphic match maintains a parallel between one
or more of the compositional elements of a shot, such as
the shape of objects, their color, or the contrast of the scene.
O. There are two basic kinds of editing internally within
sequences based on the desired effect.
1. Continuity editing is used to advance the plot.
2. Dynamic editing advances the action or heightens emotion.
P. Editing involves:
1. Shot selection.
2. Shot ordering.
3. Shot timing.
4. Shot emphasis.
5. A smooth presentation of shots in meaningful groupings
is critical to the advancement of a film.
Q. Editing manipulates the time/space line—temporally,
physically, and emotionally changes the film experience of the
audience members.
Notes :
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CHAPTER 2
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
Battleship Potemkin
Scenario and script by Sergei Eisenstein
PART ONE: MEN AND MAGGOTS
A huge wave breaks violently over the jetty, raising a sparkling
fountain of spray, and flows turbulently over the stones on the
shore.
Wave after wave breaks over the jetty, ever more violently, and
flows over the stones on the shore, ever more turbulently. The
raging sea boils.
[TITLE:] REVOLUTION MEANS WAR.
THIS - THIS IS THE ONE LAWFUL, REASONABLE
AND JUST, TRULY
GREAT WAR OF ALL THE WARS THAT HISTORY
HAS KNOWN.
IN RUSSIA THIS WAR HAS BEEN DECLARED AND
BEGUN”
[Lenin: Collected Works, Vol. 9, p. 212.]
Its stark, geometrical beauty distinguishing it, a powerful
battleship lies in the anchorage.
On the battleship, a sailor ascends a ladder. He is quickly
approached by another.
[TITLE:] THE SAILORS MATYUSHENKO AND
VAKULINCHUK
Matyushenko speaks urgently to Vakulinchuk:
[TITLE:] ‘We, the sailors of the Potemkin, must support
the workers, our brothers, and must stand in the front ranks
of the revolution.’
Vakulinchuk answers him in agitation and quickly descends the
ladder.
By night, the silhouette of the battleship stands out starkly and
majestically in the anchorage.
[TITLE:] THE OFF-DUTY WATCH IN DEEP SLEEP
The lower deck: packed like sardines in a tin, the sleeping sailors
lie in canvas hammocks.
They sleep in uncomfortable positions and breathe noisily. One
sleeping sailor, another, a third, a fourth, a fifth.
A fat boatswain with a brutal face descends the ladder into the
lower deck and looks with malice at
the sleeping sailors.
He threads his way through the canvas hammocks and mistrustfully surveys the sleeping sailors. He allows his gaze to rest
on one of the sleeping men.
Continuing to thread his way through the canvas hammocks,
he shifts his gaze quickly from one sleeping sailor to another.
[TITLE:] VIGILANT, BUT CLUMSY
Unexpectedly, he slips and almost falls.
[TITLE:] HE VENTS HIS ANGER ON A YOUNG MAN
Furiously, the boatswain raises his arm and lashes the naked
back of a young sailor with his pipechain.
The young sailor awakens, looks uncomprehendingly at the
boatswain and speaks out in surprise.
The boatswain looks impudently at the young sailor and plays
with the chain.
The young sailor, stiff with rage and resentment, stares hotly at
the departing boatswain, turns over with hatred, and throws his
face violently against his pillow.
The muscles of his naked back twitch.
[TITLE:] INDIGNANTLY
His neighbor lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and
points out to him the figure of Vakulinchuk on one side.
[TITLE:] VAKULINCHUK
Amidst the canvas hammocks, naked to the waist, Vakulinchuk,
holding a leaflet in his hand, speaks with passion and resolution to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘Comrades, the time has come when we must speak
out.’
Vakulinchuk’s whole body breathes hatred. The sailors awaken
one by one.
Vakulinchuk turns to the sailors with the appeal:
[TITLE:] ‘What are we waiting for? All Russia has risen. Are we
to be the last?’
He continues his speech passionately.
A sailor with a sickly face assents to everything he says, and a
sailor with a big moustache impatiently interrupts him and
demands the beginning, of action. Again, the sailor with the
sickly face utters a few fighting words. Firmly and manfully,
Vakulinchuk calls for battle. Again, the sailor with the big
moustache demands the beginning of action. All the sailors
listen with attention and fellow-feeling to the words of
Vakulinchuk.
[TITLE:] MORNING
A gloomy-looking officer, his hands in his pockets, walks along
the deck. Suddenly he notices that a crowd of sailors have
gathered around a carcass of meat.
The crowd of sailors grows larger and larger.
A senior officer with a proud, weakly aristocratic face steps out
of a cabin, and, pompously, his hands clasped behind his back,
begins to walk along the deck, but he soon stops and looks
contemptuously at the sailors surging around the carcass of
meat.
The eyes of the senior officer fill with malice when he notices
the figure of Vakulinchuk walking past the carcass of meat.
The crowd of sailors excitedly inspect the carcass of meat.
The senior officer moves away and soon reappears on the upper
deck, above the heads of the sailors.
The legs of the approaching senior officer draw near to the
handrail.
The senior officer looks at the sailors with such menace that
they timidly press closer to one another. The legs of the officer
turn away.
The senior officer goes off, and the crowd of sailors surges with
ever- increasing movement.
[TITLE:] ‘We’ve had enough of eating rotten meat!’
127
Again, the faces of the sailors turn with indignation to inspect
the carcass of rotten meat.
The indignation of the sailors grows.
[TITLE:] ‘A dog wouldn’t eat it!’
Again and again, the faces of the sailors turn to inspect the
carcass of rotten meat.
The crowd of sailors around the carcass bubbles like a whirlpool.
The senior officer returns - with the ship’s surgeon, a small
short-sighted man, his courage comically mustered.
With an authoritative expression, the surgeon examines and
sniffs at the carcass of rotten meat, turning it over squeamishly.
Vakulinchuk, standing in front of the sailors, indignantly
points out the rotten meat to the surgeon.
[TITLE:] SHIP’S SURGEON SMIRNOV
The surgeon heatedly rebuts Vakulinchuk, but Vakulinchuk says
bitterly:
[TITLE:] ‘It’s so high it could walk overboard!’
Vakulinchuk looks angrily at the surgeon.
The surgeon slowly and importantly removes his pince-nez,
folds its two eye-pieces together, raises them to his eye, and
examines the meat through the folded eye-pieces of his pincenez.
The meat is visibly infested with maggots.
However, the surgeon does not agree with Vakulinchuk that the
meat is rotten, and agitatedly waves his pince-nez about.
[TITLE:] ‘These are not maggots.’
Through the folded eye-pieces of the surgeon’s pince-nez, it is
evident that the meat is swarming with large maggots.
Vakulinchuk and the sailors look with fury at the heartless,
typically Tsarist official, as loathsome himself as a maggot.
The surgeon, having assumed an air of indifference, replaces his
pince-nez and, rolling his eyes, says sharply and dryly to the
sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘They are the dead larvae of flies. They can be washed
off with vinegar.’
He speaks peremptorily, cutting the air with his forefinger.
Then, carefully and fastidiously, he raises the end of the carcass
and turns to the senior officer for support.
He swings the end of the carcass.
The senior officer, interesting himself in the meat, also raises
the end of the carcass - carefully and fastidiously.
Vakulinchuk knocks the end of the carcass out of the surgeon’s
hand and says angrily to him:
[TITLE:] ‘Russian prisoners-of-war in Japan eat better than us.’
and, pointing at the rotten, maggoty meat, he shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘We’ve had enough of eating rotten meat!’
The surgeon walks away hurriedly, trying to pacify the sailors.
The senior officer also tries to soothe the sailors, but he quickly
joins the enraged surgeon.
The surgeon, breaking into a violent frenzy, shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘The meat is good. There’s nothing more to be said.’
Continuing to shout angrily, he stands very erect, his hands by
the side of his uniform, but, suddenly, from fear, his head
sinks deeply into his shoulders when he sees the sailors,
Vakulinchuk at their head, moving quickly and boldly forwards.
Helplessly, the surgeon jerks up his shoulders, and looks for
assistance to the senior officer, who maintains a proud and
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majestic pose.
Frightened, the surgeon scurries round the back of the senior
officer. The senior officer, frozen in his proud and majestic
pose, watches contemptuously as the sailors approach.
The senior officer calmly and slowly turns his back on them,
and moves further away with the surgeon.
Confidently, the sailors follow them.
The senior officer and the surgeon depart quickly, and the sailors
drop back.
The sailors continue to crowd around the carcass of meat.
A malicious, fierce-faced officer appears and begins to shout at
the sailors.
[TITLE:] SENIOR OFFICER GILYAROVSKY
Officer Gilyarovsky roughly disperses the crowd of sailors.
Furiously, he swears at them and shouts.
Then he goes up to the boatswain, who proceeds himself to
drive the sailors away from the carcass of meat.
A fat cook sniffs squeamishly at the carcass of rotten, maggoty
meat and bears it off.
In the ship’s galley, he begins to hack at the carcass with an axe.
Sailors indignantly approach and tell him that the meat is
rotten, but he does not stop hacking at the carcass.
More sailors approach and try to prevent him from hacking at
the rotten meat.
The axe hacks the carcass into pieces.
The sailors try to tear the rotten meat from him, but he swears
at them and continues his work.
The axe hacks the carcass into pieces.
On deck, the muzzle of a cannon is being cleaned.
Seated on the muzzle, a sailor cleans it.
A cleaning-rod is pushed down the muzzle of the cannon.
Two sailors polish a copper capstan.
Again, a cleaning-rod is pushed down the muzzle of the
cannon.
The sailor on the muzzle withdraws the cleaning-rod.
Two sailors polish a copper capstan.
Two sailors polish some copper engine-parts.
A third pair of sailors clean a chain.
Two sailors polish a copper capstan.
One of the two sailors cleaning the chain stops work and
begins to converse with his comrade.
Borshch from the rotten meat bubbles in a cauldron. In the
ship’s mess a detachment of sailors begin to let down the tables
which hang by ropes from the ceiling.
One file of sailors leaves the ship’s mess, and, then, another.
Borshch from the rotten meat bubbles in a cauldron.
The fat boatswain with the brutal face enters, playing with his
pipe-chain, and walks between the empty tables which swing
rhythmically on ropes from the ceiling, and, with an important
air, he stops and gives his orders.
Some sailors begin to arrange tureens on the tables.
The tables with the tureens upon them swing rhythmically on
ropes from the ceiling.
Borshch from the rotten meat bubbles in a cauldron.
Some sailors can be seen through a grating.
A group of sailors sit by the edge of one side of the battleship.
One of them, holding a dried fish in his hand, talks indignantly.
Another cuts off a piece of black bread.
The sailor with the fish is full of anger and hatred.
[TITLE:] IMPOTENT FURY SWEEPS OVER THE GROUP
OF SAILORS
The sailor with the fish fits the head of it beneath a ring on the
deck and forcefully tears it off.
Some sailors can be seen through a grating.
A pile of salt on a rag and a hunk of black bread.
One young sailor snaps off a piece of black bread and chews it
for his dinner.
Mugs are filled with fresh water from taps.
Near the pile of salt on the rag and the hunk of black bread - a
mug of water.
One young sailor chews, and drinks water from the mug.
As soon as the young sailor finishes drinking, he sprinkles salt
on the bread, and his neighbor takes the mug and drinks.
Senior officer Gilyarovsky descends the ladder into the ship’s
mess.
Several sailors stand to attention, but do not salute him.
A young sailor salutes, and Gilyarovsky carelessly waves his
hand.
Frowning at Gilyarovsky, the young sailor lowers his hand.
A wicked expression on his face, Gilyarovsky appears to
consider something.
The sailors do not meet his eyes and quickly go out, one after
another.
A smile of malicious triumph appears on Gilyarovsky’s face. He
turns sharply and moves rapidly between the tables.
The tables with the tureens upon them swing rhythmically on
ropes from the ceiling.
Gilyarovsky stops by a cupboard, opens the door of it, and
inclines his head.
The tables with the tureens upon them swing rhythmically on
ropes from the ceiling.
Gilyarovsky shakes his head significantly.
A table laid with empty tureens and with black bread upon it
swings rhythmically on ropes from the ceiling.
Indignant, Gilyarovsky quickly walks out of the ship’s mess.
[TITLE:] THE SHIP’S STORE
Some sailors stand by the little window of the ship’s store,
buying food.
In the window
tins of food appear fleetingly in the hands of the sailors.
One of the sailors sees Gilyarovsky approaching.
Gilyarovsky looks wickedly at the sailors.
His gaze fixes tensely upon them, but he turns quickly and
departs.
The sailors follow Gilyarovsky with their eyes. When he is no
longer in sight, they continue to buy food.
On the captain’s bridge, the senior officer with the weakly
aristocratic face looks through his binoculars. Gilyarovsky goes
up to him and reports on the behavior of the sailors. Together,
they descend the ladder, enter the ship’s mess, and walk
between the suspended tables, considering the situation which
has developed.
A table laid with empty tureens and with black bread upon it
swings rhythmically on ropes from the ceiling.
The two senior officers, conversing all the while, begin to ascend
the ladder.
The sailors talk uneasily among themselves.
The senior officer enters the room next to the ship’s galley and
gives orders to the cook.
The cook opens the door to the galley, and the cooking range in
the galley becomes visible, and the saucepans, and the other
cook at work.
The senior officer completes his orders to the first cook.
The second cook walks out of the galley, salutes and reports to
the senior officer.
The senior officer angrily upbraids the first cook.
When the second cook has reported, the senior officer departs.
A young sailor is washing some plates, and another, painstakingly, dries them.
Dinner for the ‘gentlemen officers’ is being prepared.
The washing and the drying of plates goes on.
With a characteristic movement, the young sailor washing the
plates wipes his nose with his hand.
He continues to wash the plates, a second sailor - to lay the table
for dinner, the third - painstakingly to dry the plates.
The young sailor washing the plates continues to hand them to
the other young sailor who, painstakingly, dries them.
The young sailor washes an earthenware plate, on the rim of
which is a circular inscription.
He is whistling, but the inscription on the plate attracts his
attention.
He leans his head towards the plate and begins slowly to turn it
in his hands.
Moving his head from one side to the other, he reads the
circular inscription:
[TITLE:] ‘Give us this day ‘
and he repeats these words aloud.
Continuing to revolve the plate in his hands, he reads further
from the inscription on its rim:
[TITLE:] ‘ our daily bread.’
His face breaks into a scowl.
He begins carefully to examine the inscription on the plate.
Involuntarily repeating the words aloud, he looks with loathing
at
the inscription on the plate, and becomes thoughtful.
Revolving the plate rapidly in his hands, he looks intently at it
and bitterly pronounces the words of the inscription.
He raises the plate high and, having swept his hands down and
up, he hurls it
violently down and smashes it to pieces against the table.
The young sailor straightens up and sees that
the covers on the table for the dinner of the ‘gentlemen officers’
have been upset.
PART TWO: DRAMA ON THE QUARTER-DECK
The bugle sounds shrilly and uneasily.
Seen from above - past the muzzles of the cannons menacingly
overhanging - the sailors quickly fill the quarter-deck, forming
themselves in double file along either side of the deck. At the
prow of the battleship the flag of St. Andrew flutters in the
wind.
The bugler sounds his call.
The petty officers arrange themselves in single file in front of
the sailors.
129
A group of officers fall in behind the hatch in the middle of the
deck.
[TITLE:] COMMANDER GOLIKOV
From the hatch appears the figure of Commander Golikov,
resolutely ascending the ladder.
The officers salute him.
Commander Golikov steps onto the deck and salutes.
He walks up to a capstan and stands upon it.
The sailors in their ranks stand stiffly to attention, and so do
the petty officers.
Nobody stirs. The muzzles of the cannons hang menacingly
over the ranks.
Commander Golikov, one hand by the side of his frock-coat,
the other behind his back, looks threateningly round the
motionless rows of sailors.
The officers are at the salute.
Restraining his fury, Commander Golikov orders:
[TITLE:] ‘Those satisfied with the borshch -’
A pause.
[TITLE:] ‘- two paces forward!’
He raises an admonishing hand.
A number of petty officers step hesitantly forward.
[TITLE:] THE PETTY OFFICERS
The petty officers who have kept rank falter. After a while, one
of them takes two steps forward. The officers stand motionless, at the salute.
Only two of the petty officers have kept rank.
Whereupon, two of the sailors break rank and step forward.
Commander Golikov, one hand by the side of his frock-coat,
the other behind his back, looks threateningly about him.
A young petty officer, not knowing what to do, mechanically
fingers the strap running over his shoulder.
The muzzles of the cannons hang menacingly over a motionless rank of sailors.
The senior petty officer looks apprehensively at the men who
have not moved.
[TITLE:] ‘Come on!’
The young petty officer, not knowing what to do, mechanically
fingers the strap running over his shoulder.
Enraged, Commander Golikov shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘Hang the rest on the yard-arm!’
and he points at the mast.
A young officer with a small moustache, turning his eyes in the
direction of the mast, can hardly repress a smile.
The words of the Commander strike terror in the hearts of the
sailors.
They turn their heads in the direction of the mast.
Before the eyes of one old sailor, there begins to swim
the vision of the sailors hanging on the yard-arm.
The old sailor looks fearfully in the direction of the mast.
The two petty officers turn their eyes towards the mast.
One of the petty officers turns towards the other with a
nervous smile.
Commander Golikov shakes his hand threateningly.
The tensely smiling face of the petty officer immediately
becomes serious.
Commander Golikov fixes his eyes ominously on the sailors.
The petty officer is stiff with fright.
130
Commander Golikov shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘Call out the guard!’
and does not remove his gaze from the sailors.
Seen from above - past the muzzles of the cannons menacingly
overhanging - a sailor breaks rank and quickly runs past the gunturret.
[TITLE:] MATYUSHENKO BREAKS RANK AND EDGES
TOWARDS THE GUN-TURRET
Matyushenko exhorts the sailors.
The sailor returns and runs quickly up to the Commander.
Matyushenko says to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘To the turret ‘, and he points at the gun-turret.
The sailors convey the message one to another:
[TITLE:] ‘To the turret.’
Matyushenko directs the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘To the turret.’
The sailors quickly convey Matyushenko’s direction one to
another.
The sailors in rank, their faces gloomy, stand motionless.
Seen from above - past the muzzles of the cannons menacingly
overhanging - the armed guard, dressed in black uniforms,
move past the gun-turret.
Two evil-faced officers converse agitatedly.
Beneath the muzzles of the cannons menacingly overhanging,
past the ranks of sailors, the guard move, rifles in hand.
The officers exchange glances with one another significantly.
The guard pass by the ranks of sailors and fail into line in front
of the Commander.
Matyushenko turns to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘Lads ‘
He shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘It is time!’
The sailors break rank and, quickly, according to Matyushenko’s
direction, race towards the gun-turret.
[TITLE:] MOST OF THE SAILORS ARE GATHERED BY
THE GUN-TURRET
Seen from above - past the muzzles of the cannons menacingly
overhanging - most of the sailors have gathered by the gunturret, and only a small knot of sailors remain on the prow of
the battleship.
From this knot of sailors, a number detach themselves and run
towards the gun-turret.
Senior officer Gilyarovsky frowns viciously.
The crowd of sailors is agitated.
Gilyarovsky, raising his hand, shouts at the sailors remaining on
the prow of the battleship:
[TITLE:] ‘Stop! Into rank!’
The sailors remaining on the prow of the battleship look in
terror at the infuriated Gilyarovsky, and try to run towards the
gun-turret, but they are driven back by the officers.
The captain of the guard awaits the orders of the Commander.
[TITLE:] THEY TRY TO MAKE THEIR WAY THROUGH
THE ADMIRAL’S HATCH
Some of the sailors remaining on the prow of the battleship
advance towards the admiral’s hatch.
Commander Golikov shouts at them in fury:
[TITLE:] ‘Back, you villains! This is no way for you!’
and he springs at the sailors with his fists, catches one of them,
and hurls him at the feet of the other sailors, and then catches
another.
The sailors raise their fallen comrade.
Commander Golikov shouts at the sailors in fury:
[TITLE:] ‘I’ll shoot you like dogs!’
and he shakes his fist threateningly.
The sailor looks bitterly at him and rejoins his comrades.
Senior officer Gilyarovsky commands the guard to turn about
towards the sailors remaining on the prow of the battleship,
climbs up onto the capstan, and, with a triumphant smirk,
orders:
[TITLE:] ‘Cover them with a tarpaulin!’
Three petty officers break rank.
[TITLE:] ‘Aye, aye, sir.’
They come to a halt, salute, then turn and go back, one after
another. Two more petty officers follow them.
A triumphant smirk on his lips, Gilyarovsky twirls his moustache.
The petty officers take hold of a tarpaulin.
Gilyarovsky continues to twirl his moustache.
The petty officers carry the tarpaulin past the guard. One of the
sailors in the guard turns his head and looks dejectedly at the
tarpaulin.
The petty officers continue to carry the tarpaulin past the guard.
The sailor in the guard who had looked at the tarpaulin turns
his head back and stands upright.
The petty officers carry the tarpaulin past the guard.
The sailor in the guard dejectedly lowers his head.
The petty officers with the tarpaulin draw close to the sailors
remaining on the prow of the battleship, throw the tarpaulin
down on to the deck and begin to unroll it.
The sailors gathered by the gun-turret follow tensely the actions
of the petty officers and the guard.
[TITLE:] ‘Cover them!’
The petty officers unroll
the tarpaulin.
The knot of sailors remaining on the prow of the battleship
press themselves in terror against the handrail of the deck,
covering their faces with their hands.
The petty officers raise the tarpaulin and cover the sailors with it.
The tarpaulin covers the sailors.
The guard stand motionless, rifles at ease.
An officer approaches.
[TITLE:] ‘Attention!’
The file of petty officers and the officers brace themselves.
The sailors in the guard stiffen.
The guard stand in front of the knot of sailors covered with
the tarpaulin. Gilyarovsky runs up to the guard.
The muzzles of the cannons look menacingly down.
The reflection of the battleship dances on the waves.
The ship’s priest appears on the deck and raises his hands to the
sky.
[TITLE:] ‘Lord, let these sinners understand.’
Some of the sailors covered with the tarpaulin fall to their
knees.
The priest raises his cross and speaks.
Senior officer Gilyarovsky orders:
[TITLE:] ‘At the tarpaulin - aim!’
The sailors in the guard load, and raise their rifles to the
shoulder.
The sailors in the guard consider with horror the imminent
shooting of the knot of sailors covered with the tarpaulin and
lower their heads.
Several of the sailors covered with the tarpaulin are on their
knees.
The heads of the sailors in the guard are dejectedly lowered,
but, on the command, the sailors raise their rifles to the
shoulder.
Three officers look on tensely.
The priest, counting off the seconds, mechanically slaps his
cross against his palm
several times.
The face of a young petty officer twitches with fear.
Tormentedly counting off the tense seconds, he strokes the
knife in his belt.
Gilyarovsky shouts furiously.
Almost all the sailors covered with the tarpaulin have fallen to
their knees.
Standing in a row, the officers are motionless.
The sailors in the guard level the muzzles of their rifles and aim
at the knot of sailors covered with the tarpaulin.
The sailors standing near the gun-turret look on with terror as
the guard aim their rifles at the knot of sailors covered with the
tarpaulin.
The priest slaps his cross several times more against his palm.
It is as if time had stopped the deathly hush before the storm.
On a life-belt, the clear inscription Prince Potemkin Tavrichesky.
The prow of the battleship - with a Tsarist eagle.
The bugler holds his bugle in readiness.
The tension is at its peak. Vakulinchuk makes a decisive
movement.
[TITLE:] VAKULINCHUK DECIDES
Gilyarovsky orders the guard:
[TITLE:] ‘Fire!’
Vakulinchuk shouts to the guard:
[TITLE:] ‘Brothers!’
With horror on his face, he again shouts to the guard:
[TITLE:] ‘Who are you shooting at?’
A sailor in the guard continues to take aim.
[TITLE:] THE RIFLES WAVER
Several sailors in the guard lower their rifles. The incident has
reached crisis point.
Gilyarovsky, raising his fists, shouts at the guard in fury:
[TITLE:] ‘Shoot!’
One after another, the sailors in the guard lower their rifles.
One of the sailors in the guard does not know what to do.
[TITLE:] ‘Shoot!’
His fists flying, Gilyarovsky throws himself
at the guard who have refused to shoot at the sailors on the
prow of the battleship, and he shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘Shoot, you villains!’
The priest, his cross raised, stiffens with terror.
Gilyarovsky’s face is distorted with rage.
The sailors in the guard, one after another, return their rifles to
the position at ease, or lower the muzzles.
131
Again Gilyarovsky shouts, and hurls himself at the guard with
his fists, and tries to snatch one of the sailor’s rifles.
Matyushenko shouts to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘Seize the rifles, comrades!’
He races to get a rifle.
Gilyarovsky snatches the sailor’s rifle.
Vakulinchuk gives orders to the sailors.
The storm has burst. Sailors race for the rifles.
Sailors encircle Gilyarovsky.
Vakulinchuk shouts to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘Smash the dragons! Smash them!’
He shouts again:
[TITLE:] ‘Smash every one of them!’
He continues to shout.
The sailors remaining on the prow of the battleship fling off
the tarpaulin and run towards the group of officers.
The sailors encircle the officers.
One sailor tries to snatch Gilyarovsky’s rifle.
The sailors on the prow of the battleship, having flung off the
tarpaulin, run quickly.
Sailors in the guard raise their rifles.
The tarpaulin, picked up by the wind, descends slowly to the
deck.
The sailors knock the officers down and attack them.
Sailors with rifles run rapidly around the upper deck.
The flag of St Andrew flutters above the fighting on the
battleship.
The sailors attack the officers and the Commander.
Sailors with rifles run rapidly around the decks.
Sailors rush to the armory, and one of them
quickly dispenses rifles to the sailors who come running up, one
after another without interruption.
Gilyarovsky and Commander Golikov start to descend the
admiral’s hatch, but Golikov is seized by sailors.
Elsewhere, sailors attack an officer.
Golikov throws off the sailors.
The sailors knock the officer down onto the tarpaulin.
Elsewhere, Matyushenko, with other sailors, attacks a group of
petty officers.
The flag of St Andrew flutters.
Near the admiral’s hatch, the young officer with the small
moustache repels the sailors’ attacks.
Sailors with rifles run rapidly around the decks.
The sailors roll the officer up in the tarpaulin.
Rifles, one after another, are passed through
to the sailors who come running up.
The sailors roll the officer up in the tarpaulin.
Gilyarovsky, armed with a rifle, chases after Vakulinchuk.
Vakulinchuk climbs across a circular bastion and lets himself
drop, trying to hide from him.
From a hatch protrudes a hand with a crucifix, standing out
clearly against the background of the grating.
Vakulinchuk, raising himself slightly, grasps the handrail near
the hatch.
From the hatch appears the figure of the priest, cross in hand,
ascending the ladder.
Vakulinchuk looks at him uncomprehendingly.
The priest speaks to him:
132
[TITLE:] ‘Fear God,’
and stretches out the cross to him.
The crucifix stands out against the background of the grating.
Matyushenko and his comrades attack the officers.
Vakulinchuk shouts at the priest:
[TITLE:] ‘Get out of the way, you sorcerer!’
and he pushes him
down.
Running up, Gilyarovsky raises the butt of his rifle against
Vakulinchuk, but Vakulinchuk seizes the rifle and tries to tear it
from him.
The sailors roll the officer up in the tarpaulin. He resists,
clutching at a ring on the deck.
Vakulinchuk and Gilyarovsky fight for possession of the rifle.
The officer lets go of the ring. The sailors drag him away from
it.
For a moment appear the legs of Vakulinchuk and Gilyarovsky,
fighting for possession of the rifle.
Vakulinchuk runs down the ladder, but, again, for a moment
appear the legs of Vakulinchuk and Gilyarovsky, fighting for
possession of the rifle.
On the deck, the crowd of sailors continues to attack the
officers.
The priest, stepping out of the hatch, extends his cross to
Vakulinchuk.
At that moment, Gilyarovsky seizes the rifle from Vakulinchuk.
The crucifix falls and sticks upright into the floor of the deck.
The priest falls into the hatch
and, hitting his head against a pipe, loses consciousness.
Vakulinchuk
quickly runs down the ladder into the hatch, chased by
Gilyarovsky.
Vakulinchuk turns, sees the crucifix stuck into the floor of the
deck, and runs on.
Through the ship’s galley an officer runs, seeking safety from
the sailors.
Up onto the wardroom piano
an officer clambers, struggling with the sailors pursuing him.
He treads on the keys and on the candelabra, and, having got on
top of the piano, he fires his revolver at the sailors, but the
sailors pursuing him drag him down from the piano, upturning him.
An officer hangs by his hands from the muzzle of a cannon.
In the wardroom, the sailors beat the officer against the floor.
On one side of the battleship, an officer notices a sailor
swarming along a ladder in pursuit of him.
The officer, seeking safety from the sailor, clambers up the side
of the battleship, clutching at the holdfasts, but the sailor’s leg
kicks him over the head. The officer clambers back, and the
sailor descends after him.
In the wardroom, the sailors continue to attack the officer.
Two sailors run up the ladder to a hatch.
On the side of the battleship, the sailor, descending by the
holdfasts, again kicks the officer over the head.
In the wardroom, a sailor attacks the officer with a music-stool.
Hanging over the arm of a chair, only the hand of the dead
officer can be seen.
On the side of the battleship, the sailor propels the officer into
the sea.
The water receives the officer greedily.
On a life-belt, the clear inscription: ‘Prince Potemkin
Tavrichesky.’
Sailors with rifles run rapidly around the decks.
With the butt of his rifle, a sailor attacks an officer who has run
to the end of the muzzle of a cannon.
The officer loses balance, somersaults in the air, and falls into
the sea, where he struggles to get out.
Smirnov, the small, short-sighted ship’s surgeon, tries to
conceal himself behind a row of hose-pipes, but he is detected
and encircled by sailors, who drag him away.
He clings helplessly to a rope.
The sailors try to tear him from the rope, and they carry him
away, head downwards, the rope trailing after him, down a
metal ladder.
In his deathly fear he clutches with his hands at the steps.
The priest, fallen into the hatch, opens one eye for an instant
and closes it.
Smirnov clings with his hands to the steps.
On the ladder, the legs of the sailors and of the struggling
officer.
On the deck, sailors with rifles hunt down the fleeing officers.
Ship’s surgeon Smirnov
is snatched up by a couple of sailors.
With a swing, they hurl him
overboard.
Head downwards, he flies through the air and falls into the sea,
raising a fountain of spray and foam.
[TITLE:] GO AND FEED YOUR MAGGOTS AT THE
BOTTOM OF THE SEA !
And on a cable hang the pince-nez of ship’s surgeon Smirnov those same pince-nez through which, with indifference, he
regarded the maggoty meat.
On the deck, the sailors continue to attack the officers.
[TITLE:] ‘Comrades! The ship is in our hands!’
The sailors on the deck throw their caps high in the air with joy.
The smashed keys of the piano: evidence of the struggle in the
wardroom.
On the decks, the sailors continue to hunt down the officers.
[TITLE:] FLOWING WITH BLOOD, VAKULINCHUK
SEEKS SAFETY FROM THE BESTIAL GILYAROVSKY . ..
Gilyarovsky watches closely, as Vakulinchuk climbs onto a yardarm and moves along it.
Gilyarovsky, his rifle in his hand, draws closer to Vakulinchuk,
not once lowering his gaze from him.
Vakulinchuk looks at Gilyarovsky.
Gilyarovsky turns, takes cover behind a buttress, aims with his
rifle at Vakulinchuk on the yard-arm, carefully screwing up one
eye, and he fires.
Vakulinchuk clutches the back of his head with his hand.
Gilyarovsky looks at Vakulinchuk.
Vakulinchuk, mortally wounded, falls from the yard-arm and,
catching hold of some ropes, slips down the ropes into the
cradle they form above the sea.
The sailors on the deck throw their caps high in the air with joy.
The ropes descend on a pulley, and the unconscious
Vakulinchuk slips down towards the sea in the cradle they form.
A sailor shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘Vakulinchuk’s overboard!’
and runs along the yard-arm, followed by a second sailor, and a
third.
Grasping the ropes, they hasten to the aid of Vakulinchuk.
Vakulinchuk lies on his back in the cradle of ropes, his head
hanging down.
[TITLE:] ‘Save Vakulinchuk!’
The sailors jump into the water.
Vakulinchuk hangs over the cradle of ropes above the water,
and he falls into the sea.
The sailors quickly swim
towards the sinking Vakulinchuk.
The sailors slowly carry the body of the dead Vakulinchuk up
the gangway.
[TITLE:] AND HE WHO WAS THE FIRST TO TAKE UP
THE CRY OF REBELLION WAS THE FIRST TO FALL AT
THE HAND OF THE EXECUTIONER
A cutter, with sailors in file on either side of the deck and with
the body of Vakulinchuk on high, moves [TITLE:] TOWARDS THE SHORE
The passage of the cutter, with the body of Vakulinchuk, hero
and victim of the rebellion, on high
gives impetus and intensity to the noble spirit of mourning
and triumph which prevails.
[TITLE:] ODESSA
On the still quay in the moonlight: a solitary tent.
[TITLE:] THE TENT AT THE END OF ODESSA’S NEW
JETTY - VAKULINCHUK’S LAST RESTING PLACE
In the tent lies the body of Vakulinchuk.
An inscription on a sheet of paper: ‘On account of a spoonful
of borshch.’
In his hands is a lighted candle. His body is turned towards the
town, which is visible in the distance through the opening in
the tent.
First, the cutter passes before the tent, then a large sailing-ship
heading in a different direction floats by and obscures the view
of the town.
PART THREE: THE DEAD MAN CRIES FOR FOR
VENGEANCE
Moonlight plays upon the water.
[TITLE:] MIST SWIRLS UP FROM THE NIGHT
In the bay, ships wrapped in thick mist.
The turgid waves splash gently.
Seagulls on a buoy, alarmed, take wing.
The turgid waves splash gently.
The bay is full
of ships.
Dawn. Beyond the corpse of Vakulinchuk, in whose hands a
lighted candle burns, can be seen the distant town.
A flag of mourning flutters on top of the tent.
Near the tent, absorbed and indifferent, a fisherman fishes from
the jetty.
A large, ocean-going vessel towers above.
[TITLE:] VOICES FROM THE JETTY MAKE THEMSELVES HEARD THROUGH THE MIST
Poorly dressed men and women and children begin to move
towards the tent containing the body of Vakulinchuk.
133
Beyond the corpse of Vakulinchuk, the lighted candle in his
hands, the town can be seen in the distance.
An old woman enters the tent and straightens the lighted
candle in Vakulinchuk’s hands.
All who approach, approach the tent - men and women.
Insensible to everything, two fishermen fish.
The lighted candle in the hands of the dead Vakulinchuk.
The crowd around the tent quickly grows larger. Two noblewomen, wearing expensive white dresses and carrying elegant
white umbrellas, peep curiously into the tent.
The sails of a nearby ship are put up.
[TITLE:] AND TOGETHER WITH THE SUN THE NEWS
BREAKS ON THE TOWN !
At first empty, the long, narrow steps leading down to the
harbor quickly fill with moving people.
[TITLE:] THE BATTLESHIP IN THE ANCHORAGE
The multitude descends the long, narrow steps.
[TITLE:] THE REBELLION
Along the bridge, quietly and purposefully, flows the stream of
people.
[TITLE:] THE SHORE
Along the harbor flows the stream of people.
[TITLE:] THE MURDERED SAILOR
The crowd around the tent containing the body of Vakulinchuk
quickly grows. Men and women regard the murdered man, then
pass on.
A small boy walks past the corpse of Vakulinchuk and places a
coin in the sailor’s cap lying on a barrel.
In the hands of Vakulinchuk, the candle burns.
The sailor’s cap on the barrel is filled with coins.
Near the tent, a student delivers a fiery speech.
Along the jetty flows the vast stream of people.
The multitude descends the long, narrow steps by the bridge.
The endless stream of people flows along the jetty.
Descending by both the steps which lead from the bridge to the
harbor, the stream of people surges thickly and excitedly under
the arch of the bridge.
A vast, solid crowd surrounds the tent containing the body of
Vakulinchuk.
A woman turns to the crowd:
[TITLE:] ‘Let us not forget him!’
and she points to the corpse of Vakulinchuk.
The inscription on a sheet of paper: ‘On account of a spoonful
of borshch.’
Angrily, the woman says:
[TITLE:] ‘On account of a spoonful of borshch.’
A young man in a sailor’s sweater agitatedly reads an address to
the crowd:
[TITLE:] ‘People of Odessa! Before us lies the body of the
brutally murdered sailor, Grigory Vakulinchuk - murdered by a
senior officer of the squadron battleship, “Prince Tavrichesky.”
Let us have our revenge on the bloodthirsty vampires! Death to
the oppressors! Signed by the crew of the squadron battleship,
“Prince Tavrichesky”.’
The people listen to him avidly.
Women standing near the tent weep.
An old woman kneels by the corpse of Vakulinchuk and kisses
his hand.
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The body of Vakulinchuk with the lighted candle in his hands.
The old woman weeps.
An old man in pince-nez looks grievously at the murdered
Vakulinchuk.
Two old women kneel by the corpse.
A supercilious-looking man smokes unconcernedly, and looks
on with a smirk
when a woman falls to the ground in grief.
[TITLE:] A LASTING MONUMENT TO THE FALLEN
WARRIORS !
Women begin to sing.
[TITLE:] ALL FOR ONE
The whole crowd begins to sing.
[TITLE:] ONE
The dead Vakulinchuk with the lighted candle in his hands.
[TITLE:] FOR ALL
A vast crowd around the tent.
Two blind women singing.
A woman weeping.
The whole crowd with heads bent in woe.
Tears form in the eyes of a dock-worker.
A man nervously touches his forage-cap.
The dock-worker weeps, covering his face with his hand.
The student delivers his speech.
[TITLE:] ‘Down with the butchers!’
The crowd is agitated.
A fist is clenched in hatred.
The crowd listens to the speaker.
A clenched fist.
The excitement of the crowd grows.
One of the women begins to make a speech.
Again, a fist is clenched in hatred.
The woman turns to the crowd.
An old woman shouts in excitement.
A fist is raised threateningly.
Everybody excitedly waves their hands and shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘Down with the autocrats!’
The excitement of the crowd rises ever higher and higher, and
draws near to its peak.
A suspicious-looking man in a straw hat, his hands tucked
insolently into his waistcoat, looks on with a disdainful smile.
The woman shouts:
[TITLE:] ‘Mothers and brothers! Let there be no distinctions or
enmities among ourselves!’ and she exhorts the crowd.
The suspicious-looking man in the straw hat smiles disdainfully.
The woman continues her speech.
The suspicious-looking man in the straw hat cries out:
[TITLE:] ‘Down with the Jews!’
and smiles insolently.
The men standing near him
sharply and angrily, one after another, turn their heads.
The reactionary [a member of the Black Hundred, a virulent
anti-Jewish society] continues to smile insolently.
One of the men advances towards him angrily.
The reactionary grows frightened.
The man continues to advance towards him.
The reactionary pulls his straw hat over his eyes and tries to walk
away, but he is stopped.
The man looks at him in fury.
The reactionary is surrounded by men.
They pull his straw hat over his face and begin to attack him.
Pathetically, the student delivers his speech.
The sea of people surges in agitation.
Pathetically, the student delivers his speech.
The women frenziedly wave their arms.
Pathetically, the student continues his speech.
The women shout in their frenzy.
The student appeals to the crowd:
[TITLE:] ‘Shoulder to shoulder!’
The multitude descends the long, narrow steps by the bridge.
[TITLE:] THE LAND IS OURS !
Under the arch of the bridge the sea of moving people sways
convulsively.
[TITLE:] THE FUTURE IS OURS !
Along the bridge the people move.
The women in the crowd near the tent containing the body of
Vakulinchuk continue to shout in their frenzy.
The sea of people surges with excitement.
Pathetically, the student continues his speech.
The excitement of the crowd reaches its peak.
The sailors make their appearance on the decks and by the gunturret of the battleship, and begin to listen to the speakers.
[TITLE:] THE DELEGATE FROM THE SHORE
A worker speaks to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘We must inflict a decisive blow on the enemy!’
He appeals to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘Together with the revolutionary workers throughout
all Russia ‘, and he exhorts them passionately.
The sailors answer him:
[TITLE:] ‘We will be victorious!’
The worker’s speech seizes the imagination of the sailors on the
decks and in the watch-tower.
The sailors, taking off their caps, rapturously applaud the
delegate.
The sailors standing in the watch-tower also take off their caps
and wave their arms to the delegate.
[TITLE:] TENSELY AND VIGILANTLY, THE SHORE
KEEPS ITS EYE ON THE ‘POTEMKIN’
The inhabitants of the town, standing on the harbor steps,
gaze at the battleship in the distance.
On the battleship, the sailors, their heads thrown high, watch
tensely, as the red flag is raised.
The inhabitants of the town joyfully praise the insurgent
battleship.
The red flag is raised victoriously up the mast of the battleship.
PART FOUR: THE ODESSA STEPS
[TITLE:] IN THOSE MEMORABLE DAYS THE TOWN
LIVED AT ONE WITH THE REBELLIOUS BATTLESHIP
In the harbor, the townspeople load their sailing-boats with
provisions.
[TITLE:] A FLEET OF WHITE-SAILED YAWLS RACES
THROUGH THE WATER TO THE SIDES OF THE
BATTLESHIP
The sails of the boats are put up, and they fill with wind.
The boats push off, and sail past the town, and the wharf, and
out into the open sea.
The passing boats are seen as a background to a curved
colonnade overlooking the water from the height of the town.
A demonstration takes place beneath the arch of the bridge.
In the distance can be seen the white sails of the boats.
On the wharf, an educated young woman, an umbrella in her
hand, and a man - apparently a professor - look ardently, but
with reserve, in the direction of the rebellious battleship.
A group of workers (two men and a woman) tumultuously
hail the rebellious sailors.
The young woman with the umbrella opens it out joyfully and
waves her black-gloved hand, and the man with the appearance
of a professor takes off his hat.
Standing with a young schoolgirl, an elderly woman in pincenez rapturously waves her hand.
A student shouts joyfully.
A yacht sails across the sea, and the fleet of white-sailed yawls.
On the mast of the battleship the red flag flutters victoriously.
The boats sail towards the battleship.
The sailors on board the battleship wave their caps in delight.
The boats sail up, one after another, to the sides of the
battleship.
Sailors pull the oars of the rowing-boats.
The sailors on board the battleship wave their caps in delight.
The sailing-boats draw up by the side of the battleship.
Sailors from the battleship quickly descend the gangway.
Sailing-boats and rowing-boats draw up.
The sailing-boats drop their sails.
The sailors on board the battleship wave their caps in delight.
Sailing-boats surround the battleship.
The sailors on board the battleship wave their caps in delight.
The inhabitants of the town, standing on the harbor steps,
look at the battleship in the distance.
A woman with a live goose in her hands climbs up the gangway
and gives it to the sailors.
On the sailing-boats, bread is passed from hand to hand.
The inhabitants of the town, standing on the harbor steps,
look at the battleship in the distance.
The people in the sailing-boats look at the sailors on board the
battleship.
Cigarettes, a sucking-pig are passed to the sailors, a crateful of
poultry, geese.
On board the battleship, the inhabitants of the town embrace
the sailors.
Along the gangway are carried a basket of eggs, another
sucking-pig.
The inhabitants of the town, standing on the harbor steps,
look into the distance, and hail the battleship.
A lady with a veil and lorgnette and a lady in an expensive white
dress, an umbrella over her arm, also look at the battleship. Past
them, a legless invalid drags himself on his hands.
The lady in the expensive white dress, an umbrella over her arm,
waves elegantly in the direction of the rebellious battleship.
From behind the lady with the veil and lorgnette, the legless
invalid moves on his hands, and he looks in the direction of
the battleship.
The lady with the veil looks through her lorgnette at the ship.
135
The legless invalid joyfully waves his cap with one hand.
A woman draped with a shawl stands beside her small son.
On the mast of the battleship the red flag flutters victoriously.
The woman, draped with a shawl, and her son look joyfully at
the battleship.
A girl and a boy wave their small hands in delight.
The crowd, standing on the harbor steps, tumultuously hails
the insurgent battleship.
[TITLE:] SUDDENLY
A woman with bobbed hair throws back her head in terror.
The crowd on the steps shudders and begins to run down the
steps.
The legless invalid, trying to save himself, leaps precipitately on
his hands down one of the high balustrades flanking the steps.
A rank of soldiers draws near to the top of the long, broad
steps.
The lady with the veil and lorgnette, having fallen, raises herself
and runs down the steps.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
Fatally wounded, a man begins to fall.
In the instant before his death, the steps appear fleetingly in
front of his eyes. He falls onto the steps.
A small boy, wounded, falls nearby.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
The boy clutches his head with his hands.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
Relentless, like a machine, ranks of soldiers with rifles trailed
descend the steps.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
Behind the balustrade a group of terrified women hide among them the elderly woman in pince-nez.
Men leap from the balustrade onto the ground.
Behind one of the balustrades, a man and a woman hide.
Behind the other balustrade an old man in pince-nez, a small
schoolboy and a woman hide. The old man in pince-nez is
unexpectedly hit by a bullet.
A rank of soldiers fires into the crowd.
The man hidden with the woman behind one of the balustrades falls dead.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
A man jumps over the wounded old man in pince-nez. The old
man raises himself and looks at him.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
The old man in pince-nez looks from behind the balustrade.
The woman draped with a shawl runs down the steps, holding
her small son by the hand.
The ranks of soldiers aim, and fire into the crowd.
The son of the woman draped with a shawl falls onto the
steps.
Mechanically, the woman draped with a shawl continues to run
down the steps.
The fallen boy raises himself and shouts.
The fleeing mother stops and turns.
The boy falls back, unconscious.
In horror, the mother tears at her hair.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps - over the fallen boy.
Her eyes crazed, the mother goes up the steps.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
136
trampling the slaughtered boy.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
The fleeing people trample the slaughtered boy.
Her eyes crazed, the mother goes up the steps.
The crowd runs down the steps.
Her hands to her head in horror, the mother goes up the steps.
The crowd tramples the slaughtered boy.
Her hands to her head in horror, the mother goes up the steps.
The crowd runs down the steps.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, the mother goes up the steps
towards a rank of soldiers.
In terror, the crowd runs down the steps.
The elderly woman in pince-nez, hidden behind the balustrade,
exhorts the women with her to advance towards the soldiers, in
order to stop the massacre.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, the demented mother goes up
the steps.
In a frenzy, the elderly woman in pince-nez exhorts the women
with her.
[TITLE:] ‘Come! Let us plead with them!’
She regards them boldly.
In terror, the crowd continues to run down the steps.
The elderly woman in pince-nez smiles encouragingly at the
women with her and at the old men, all frozen with fear.
Relentless, like a machine, the rank of soldiers with rifles trailed
descends the steps.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, the demented mother goes up
the steps.
The women are frozen with fear.
The elderly woman in pince-nez smiles encouragingly.
A young girl, the old men, men, an old woman, and an invalid
on crutches stand up behind her.
The rank of soldiers fires into the crowd.
In terror, the crowd continues to run down the steps.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, the demented mother goes up
the steps.
Led by the elderly woman in pince-nez, the group of women
and old men go up the steps towards the rank of soldiers, and
pleadingly hold out their hands to them.
Through the corpses strewn on the steps, her slaughtered son
in her arms, the mother continues up the steps.
Through the corpses strewn on the steps, relentless, the rank of
soldiers with rifles trailed continues to descend the steps.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, going up the steps strewn
with corpses, the mother shouts to the soldiers:
[TITLE:] ‘Hear me! Don’t shoot!’
Inexorably, the rank of soldiers moves on.
The shadows of the soldiers fall on the steps.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, the mother shouts again to
the soldiers:
[TITLE:] ‘My boy is badly hurt!’
She draws close to the rank of soldiers, their rifles aimed and to
the officer, his sabre raised.
Led by the elderly woman in pince-nez, the group of women
and old men, pleading, go up the steps.
The officer lowers his sabre, and a volley is fired.
Her slaughtered son in her arms, the mother falls onto the
steps.
At the bottom of the steps, the people run onto the carriageway, .. and horsemen charge them.
Her slaughtered son held tight to her breast, the mother lies on
her back.
Her hands are arranged in the form of a cross, and over them
creep the advancing shadows of the soldiers.
[TITLE:] THE COSSACKS
The cossacks charge straight at the crowd, and the people are
trampled by the horses’ hooves and beaten with the whips of
the horsemen.
A rank of soldiers descends the steps and fires into the crowd.
The group of women and old men, pressing themselves
against the balustrade, go up the steps.
The rank of soldiers fires volley after volley into the crowd.
The group of women and old men fall onto the steps.
The legs of the soldiers move on.
A beautiful woman [a young mother] shields a pram containing
a child from the fleeing people.
Relentless, like a machine, the rank of soldiers descends the
steps.
The beautiful woman opens her mouth in terror and clings to
the side of the pram.
With her body, she shields the child in the pram from the
fleeing people.
The rank of soldiers descends the steps and fires.
In terrible pain, the young mother throws back her head.
The pram with the child comes to rest at the edge of the steps.
The young mother, her mouth open in terror, clutches her dress
with her hands.
The fleeing people are trampled by the horses’ hooves and
beaten with the whips of the cossacks.
Blood on the young mother’s stomach.
The young mother, her mouth open, begins to fall, and the
pram with the child rolls to the very edge of the steps.
The rank of soldiers with rifles trailed descends the steps.
The young mother, falling onto the steps, pushes the pram
with the child.
A cossack attacks a man with his whip.
The fleeing people are trampled by the horses’ hooves and
beaten with the whips of the cossacks.
Fallen, the young mother jolts the pram with the child over the
edge of the steps.
The elderly woman in pince-nez is frozen with horror.
The pram with the child bounces down the steps.
The young mother lies dead on the steps.
On the carriage-way, the cossacks beat the crowd with whips,
and, at the foot of the steps, a rank of soldiers fires point-blank
at the people.
The pram with the child bounces over the steps.
The elderly woman in pince-nez is frozen with horror.
The pram with the child bounces over the steps.
A terrified student presses himself into the corner of a
building.
At the foot of the steps, the rank of soldiers fires volley after
volley into the crowd.
The pram with the child leaps across the steps.
A terrified student presses himself into the corner of a
building.
Down the steps, over the corpses, careers the pram with the
child.
The rank of soldiers fires into the crowd.
The pram with the child careers over the corpses down the
steps.
The student pressed into the corner of the building shouts in
terror.
The pram with the child overturns.
A cossack brandishes his sword, and puts out an eye of the
elderly woman in pince-nez.
The battleship : the gun-turret looms ominously.
[TITLE:] AND THEN THE CANNONS OF THE BATTLESHIP OPEN FIRE IN RETALIATION AGAINST THE
SAVAGERY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF ODESSA
The muzzles of the cannons, pointed menacingly towards the
town.
[TITLE:] THE BULL’S EYE - THE ODESSA THEATRE !
The sculpture on the pediment of the theatre.
[TITLE:] THE ODESSA THEATRE - THE TOWN’S
MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
The cannons of the battleship open fire at the cupids adorning
the cornice of the theatre.
A shell bursts against the iron gates of the theatre building,
enshrouding everything in smoke.
The sculptures: a lion dormant, a lion with evil face raised, a lion
up on its paws, snarling.
The iron gates of the theatre building
are enshrouded in smoke.
The smoke disperses - to reveal that the theatre building has
been destroyed.
PART FIVE: MEETING THE SQUADRON
[TITLE:] ON THE BATTLESHIP, MEETINGS CONTINUE
PASSIONATELY UNTIL EVENING
A speaker cries to the sailors:
[TITLE:] ‘The people of Odessa look to you for their liberation. Disembark now, and the army will join forces with you.’
The speaker continues. The muzzles of the cannons loom
menacingly.
The sailors argue among themselves.
One of the sailors says:
[TITLE:] ‘We cannot disembark. The admiralty squadron has
begun to move against us.’
He continues to speak.
The sailors wave their arms about excitedly.
The sailor exhorts his comrades, who wave to him
with their caps.
The sailor exhorts his comrades.
The sailors wave their arms about excitedly.
The sailor passionately exhorts his comrades.
One of the sailors listening to him is lost in thought.
The sailor continues to exhort his comrades, but the other
sailor interrupts him.
[TITLE:] WITH ONE HEART THEY DECIDE TO FACE
THE SQUADRON
The empty deck.
[TITLE:] A NIGHT OF ANXIETY BEGINS
The flag comes down.
The moon appears from behind the clouds.
137
Moonlight plays upon the water.
On the battleship, the watch looks tensely into the distance.
The sea splashes gently.
The watch moves along the side of the battleship.
The sea splashes gently.
A sailor gazes tensely into the distance.
The silhouette of the battleship stands out starkly and majestically in the moonlight.
The motionless needles of the pressure-gauges.
By the engines - sleeping sailors.
The watch looks tensely into the darkness.
A searchlight directed on the water.
The watch and the sailor gaze into the darkness.
The searchlight directed on the water.
By the engines - sleeping sailors.
The motionless needles of the pressure-gauges.
[TITLE:] THE SQUADRON CREEPS UP IN THE DARKNESS
Murk over the water.
The squadron on the horizon.
Murk over the water.
Matyushenko, fighting against sleep, smokes in one of the
cabins.
Smoke pours from the funnels of a passing ship.
By the engines - sleeping sailors.
The helmsman asleep at the wheel.
By the engines - sleeping sailors.
The searchlight directed on the water.
In a cabin, a sailor asleep on a divan.
Matyushenko, with other sailors, awakens the helmsman.
The cabin: the sailor asleep on the divan.
Another sailor at the wheel.
[TITLE:] THROATS HOARSE FROM CONTINUAL
SPEECH BREATHE HARSHLY AND UNEVENLY
The cabin: sailors asleep on the divan, in a deck-chair.
Matyushenko enters the cabin and looks at the sleeping sailors.
The sailor on the divan awakens.
Sailors close the shutter over the searchlight.
Matyushenko talks with the awakened sailor, and goes out of
the cabin.
The sailor turns over onto his other side.
Sailors close the shutter over the searchlight.
The sailor on the divan sleeps.
Sailors run over to a handrail.
By the engines - the sailors roll over uneasily in their sleep.
The sailor on the divan awakens again.
The helmsman at the wheel.
A sailor by the handrail beckons to another.
By the engines - the sailors roll over uneasily in their sleep.
The sailor by the handrail
looks through a telescope.
The sailors by the handrail gaze tensely into the distance.
The motionless needles of the pressure-gauges.
Sailors look through a pair of binoculars and the telescope.
The watch looks through the binoculars.
The pressure-gauges.
Sailors look through the binoculars and the telescope.
The watch looks through the binoculars.
138
A sailor in the watch-tower shouts.
The sailor turns the telescope.
Near the muzzle of a cannon, a sailor gazes into the darkness.
The watches look into the distance.
The sailor turns the telescope.
The squadron is visible on the horizon.
The sailor looking through the telescope bends and cries:
[TITLE:] ‘Squadron on the horizon!’
The sailor near the muzzle of the cannon turns quickly towards
the cry.
The sailor again looks through the telescope.
The alarmed figures of the sailors.
Matyushenko rapidly descends the ladder to the cabin.
In an instant, the sailor in the deck-chair is awake, and the sailor
on the divan.
The one and the other raise themselves, stand up, and quickly
run out.
A running sailor can be seen through a grating.
The sailors run up to Matyushenko and question him.
In the cabin, Matyushenko stops a young sailor.
The young sailor looks confusedly at Matyushenko.
Matyushenko throws off his jacket.
The young sailor tightens the jacket round himself, and
Matyushenko takes the midshipman’s cap off the young sailor’s
head.
Sailors climbing up holdfasts.
Matyushenko puts a sailor’s cap on the young sailor’s head.
The young sailor ascends the ladder from the cabin, followed by
Matyushenko.
The sailors rush up the holdfasts, up the deck ladder, up to a
platform by the funnel.
The sailors on the platform can see the squadron on the
horizon.
They continue to look at the squadron on the horizon.
The sailor looks through the telescope.
Sailors looking into the distance, ..climbing up the holdfasts,
ascending to the platform by the funnel, on the platform.
Matyushenko blows on his pipe.
[TITLE:] ALL HANDS ON DECK !
The bugler sounds his call.
A sailor blows on his pipe.
The sailors come running.
[TITLE:] ACTION STATIONS !
The bugler sounds his call.
About the deck
the sailors run.
Sailors remove the tarpaulins from the cannons.
In the gun-turret, a gunner prepares for battle.
About the deck the sailors run.
Matyushenko blows on his pipe.
About the deck the sailors run.
Sailors run to the engine-room.
The helmsman and Matyushenko speak over the telephone to
the engineer in the engine-room.
Matyushenko speaks over the telephone to the engineer.
About the deck the sailors run.
Sailors move the heavy shells up the lift to the cannons.
The sailors remove the tarpaulins from the cannons.
The engineer, speaking on the telephone, passes an order to a
comrade.
The engineer pulls a lever.
The telephones ring in the engine-room.
Sailors descend the gangway and pull up the handrail.
The engineer pulls a lever.
The sailors raise the gangway.
The engineer pulls a lever.
The sailors suspend the gangway along the side of the battleship.
A tarpaulin is spread over the deck.
Sailors take the heavy shells from the lift, and lay them on the
tarpaulin, one after another.
Matyushenko stands by the helm and shouts into the speakingtube.
[TITLE:] FULL SPEED AHEAD
The engineer listens on the telephone.
Behind the helmsman, Matyushenko speaks on the telephone.
The sailors working in the engine-room.
Smoke pouring from the funnels.
The engineer presses a lever.
Faster and faster the engines run.
The battleship carves its way through the sea, dividing the water
into tall waves.
The calm sea splashes gently against the shore.
The battleship carves its way through the sea, dividing the water
into tall waves.
Ever faster and faster the engines run.
The battleship carves its way through the sea, dividing the water
into tall waves.
At full speed, the engines run.
Smoke pours from the funnels.
Behind it, the battleship leaves a shining wake and clouds of
smoke.
Matyushenko, speaking on the telephone, receives a message
from a sailor approaching at the run, and he gives the order to
the helmsman to turn the wheel.
The gun-turrets swing menacingly.
The gunner is prepared for battle.
The muzzles of the cannons are raised menacingly.
The gunner looks at his sights.
The muzzles of the cannons are raised.
The gunner looks at his sights.
The prow of the battleship cuts through the water, raising great
waves on all sides.
Standing by the helm, Matyushenko looks through a telescope.
The squadron is visible on the horizon.
Matyushenko speaks to the helmsman.
The needle of a pressure-gauge jumps about - and moves up.
The engineer speaks on the telephone.
The needle jumps about - and moves higher.
The gunner is prepared for battle.
The squadron on the horizon.
The engines at full speed.
The gunner by his sights.
The gunner swings his cannon.
The engines at full speed.
The needle of the pressure-gauge jumps about.
[TITLE:] MAXIMUM SPEED !
The needle as high as it can go.
The engines at maximum speed.
Great waves caused by the passage of the battleship.
The water bubbles and foams.
Smoke pours from the funnels.
The helmsman, turning the wheel, listens to Matyushenko.
Visible in the distance - the squadron.
[TITLE:] THE ‘POTEMKIN’ AND DESTROYER NO. 267
Alongside the battleship - a destroyer.
Standing by the helm, Matyushenko looks into the distance.
[TITLE:] THE SQUADRON ADVANCES
The squadron draws ever nearer and nearer.
Smoke pours from the funnels.
Great waves caused by the passage of the battleship.
The water bubbles and foams.
Matyushenko, standing by the helm, gives a signal.
The gun-turret swings menacingly.
[TITLE:] THE SQUADRON DRAWS NEAR !
Ever nearer and nearer draws the squadron.
The gunner sights his cannon.
The gun-turret swings menacingly.
Sailors carrying a shell.
The muzzles of the cannons loom menacingly.
Smoke pours from the funnels.
Behind it, the battleship leaves a shining wake and clouds of
smoke.
Standing by the helm, Matyushenko looks into the distance.
The squadron draws nearer.
Matyushenko is plunged in thought.
His hand goes to the speaking-tube.
[TITLE:] ‘Give the signal: “Join us”’
He replaces the speaking-tube.
A sailor signals with flags, and another looks through a
telescope.
[TITLE:] ‘Join ‘
On ropes, the flags go up the mast.
On ropes, the flags go up the mast.
The battleship raises great waves on all sides.
The squadron draws ever nearer and nearer.
Smoke pours from the funnels of an approaching ship.
The muzzle of a cannon aimed towards the enemy.
The helmsman looks through a telescope.
The gunners await the signal.
[TITLE:] THE ENEMY IS WITHIN RANGE
The helmsman looks through a telescope.
The gunners await the signal.
A sailor with a shell in his arms.
Sailors with shells in their arms.
[TITLE:] ALL FOR ONE
The cannons of the enemy turn slowly, point towards the
Potemkin, are menacingly raised.
[TITLE:] ONE FOR ALL
On the mast of the battleship the red flag flutters victoriously.
Alongside the battleship - the destroyer.
A cannon raised looms menacingly.
Standing by the helm, Matyushenko looks into the distance.
The enemy squadron is near.
139
The gunners embrace each other before battle.
A cannon is raised, and looms menacingly.
The gunners await the signal.
The cannon looms menacingly.
Standing by the helm, Matyushenko shouts.
The muzzles of all the cannons of the battleship are directed
menacingly towards the enemy.
[TITLE:] TO FIRE
The gunners tensely await the signal.
Matyushenko looks uneasily into the distance.
He blows on his pipe.
A cannon looms menacingly.
[TITLE:] OR NOT
A gunner tensely awaits the signal.
The engines running.
The imperial eagle on the prow of the battleship.
Sailors with shells in their arms, tensely expectant.
Shells on the tarpaulin.
The gunner motionless.
Suddenly, a smile appears on the face of one of the sailors.
[TITLE:] ‘Brothers!’
Joyfully, the sailors break out into laughter.
The sailors run out onto the prow of the battleship.
The sailors are overcome with joy.
On the mast of the battleship the red flag flutters victoriously.
The muzzles of the cannons are lowered.
The sailors on board the battleship tumultuously wave their
caps.
In return, from the sides of the ships of the squadron passing,
the sailors joyfully wave their caps.
[TITLE:] WITHIN THE HEARING OF THE TSARIST
ADMIRALS, BROTHERLY CHEERS SOUND ACROSS
THE WATER
From the sides of the ships of the squadron passing, the
sailors joyfully wave their caps.
Without a shot being fired, a ship of the admiralty squadron
goes past the rebellious battleship.
[TITLE:] AND WITH THE RED FLAG OF FREEDOM
PROUDLY FLUTTERING, WITHOUT A SINGLE SHOT
BEING FIRED, THE INSURGENT BATTLESHIP
PASSES THROUGH THE RANKS OF THE SQUADRON
The sailors on the decks of the battleship, on the mast and in
the watch-tower tumultuously wave their caps in the air.
Victoriously, the insurgent battleship passes through the ranks
of the squadron.
Joyfully, the sailors on the mast, in the watch-tower, on the
decks and on the prow of the battleship wave their caps in the
air.
Great waves caused by the passage of the battleship.
The tall prow of the rebellious battleship moves victoriously
onwards.
Notes :
140
CHAPTER 3
CITIZEN KANE
CITIZEN KANE
Herman J. Mankiewicz amp;& Orson Welles
(this is a copy of the first few scenes of one of the drafts)
PROLOGUE
FADE IN:
EXT. XANADU - FAINT DAWN - 1940 (MINIATURE)
Window, very small in the distance, illuminated.
All around this is an almost totally black screen. Now, as the
camera moves slowly towards the window which is almost a
postage stamp in the frame, other forms appear; barbed wire,
cyclone fencing, and now, looming up against an early morning
sky, enormous iron grille work. Camera travels up what is now
shown to be a gateway of gigantic proportions and holds on
the top of it - a huge initial “K” showing darker and darker
against the dawn sky. Through this and beyond we see the
fairy-tale mountaintop of Xanadu, the great castle a sillhouette
as its summit, the little window a distant accent in the darkness.
DISSOLVE:
(A SERIES OF SET-UPS, EACH CLOSER TO THE GREAT
WINDOW, ALL TELLING SOMETHING OF:)
The literally incredible domain of CHARLES FOSTER KANE.
Its right flank resting for nearly forty miles on the Gulf Coast, it
truly extends in all directions farther than the eye can see.
Designed by nature to be almost completely bare and flat - it
was, as will develop, practically all marshland when Kane
acquired and changed its face - it is now pleasantly uneven, with
its fair share of rolling hills and one very good-sized mountain,
all man-made. Almost all the land is improved, either through
cultivation for farming purposes of through careful landscaping, in the shape of parks and lakes. The castle dominates itself,
an enormous pile, compounded of several genuine castles, of
European origin, of varying architecture - dominates the scene,
from the very peak of the mountain.
DISSOLVE:
GOLF LINKS (MINIATURE)
Past which we move. The greens are straggly and overgrown,
the fairways wild with tropical weeds, the links unused and not
seriously tended for a long time.
DISSOLVE OUT:
DISSOLVE IN:
WHAT WAS ONCE A GOOD-SIZED ZOO (MINIATURE)
Of the Hagenbeck type. All that now remains, with one
exception, are the individual plots, surrounded by moats, on
which the animals are kept, free and yet safe from each other and
the landscape at large. (Signs on several of the plots indicate
that here there were once tigers, lions, girrafes.)
DISSOLVE:
THE MONKEY TERRACE (MINIATURE)
In the foreground, a great obscene ape is outlined against the
dawn murk. He is scratching himself slowly, thoughtfully,
looking out across the estates of Charles Foster Kane, to the
distant light glowing in the castle on the hill.
DISSOLVE:
THE ALLIGATOR PIT (MINIATURE)
The idiot pile of sleepy dragons. Reflected in the muddy water
- the lighted window.
THE LAGOON (MINIATURE)
The boat landing sags. An old newspaper floats on the surface
of the water - a copy of the New York Enquirer.” As it moves
across the frame, it discloses again the reflection of the window
in the castle, closer than before.
THE GREAT SWIMMING POOL (MINIATURE)
It is empty. A newspaper blows across the cracked floor of the
tank.
DISSOLVE:
THE COTTAGES (MINIATURE)
In the shadows, literally the shadows, of the castle. As we
move by, we see that their doors and windows are boarded up
and locked, with heavy bars as further protection and sealing.
DISSOLVE OUT:
DISSOLVE IN:
A DRAWBRIDGE (MINIATURE)
Over a wide moat, now stagnant and choked with weeds. We
move across it and through a huge solid gateway into a formal
garden, perhaps thirty yards wide and one hundred yards deep,
which extends right up to the very wall of the castle. The
landscaping surrounding it has been sloppy and causal for a
long time, but this particular garden has been kept up in perfect
shape. As the camera makes its way through it, towards the
lighted window of the castle, there are revealed rare and exotic
blooms of all kinds. The dominating note is one of almost
exaggerated tropical lushness, hanging limp and despairing.
Moss, moss, moss. Ankor Wat, the night the last King died.
DISSOLVE:
THE WINDOW (MINIATURE)
Camera moves in until the frame of the window fills the frame
of the screen. Suddenly, the light within goes out. This stops
the action of the camera and cuts the music which has been
accompanying the sequence. In the glass panes of the window,
we see reflected the ripe, dreary landscape of Mr. Kane’s estate
behind and the dawn sky.
DISSOLVE:
INT. KANE’S BEDROOM - FAINT DAWN - 1940
A very long shot of Kane’s enormous bed, silhouetted against
the enormous window.
DISSOLVE:
INT. KANE’S BEDROOM - FAINT DAWN - 1940
A snow scene. An incredible one. Big, impossible flakes of
snow, a too picturesque farmhouse and a snow man. The
jingling of sleigh bells in the musical score now makes an ironic
reference to Indian Temple bells - the music freezes KANE’S OLD VOICE
Rosebud...
141
he camera pulls back, showing the whole scene to be contained
in one of those glass balls, which are sold in novelty stores all
over the world. A hand - Kane’s hand, which has been holding
the ball, relaxes. The ball falls out of his hand and bounds
down two carpeted steps leading to the bed, the camera
following. The ball falls off the last step onto the marble floor
where it breaks, the fragments glittering in the first rays of the
morning sun. This ray cuts an angular pattern across the floor,
suddenly crossed with a thousand bars of light as the blinds are
pulled across the window.
The foot of Kane’s bed. The camera very close. Outlined
against the shuttered window, we can see a form - the form of a
nurse, as she pulls the sheet up over his head. The camera
follows this action up the length of the bed and arrives at the
face after the sheet has covered it.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
INT. OF A MOTION PICTURE PROJECTION ROOM
On the screen as the camera moves in are the words:
“MAIN TITLE”
Stirring, brassy music is heard on the soundtrack (which, of
course, sounds more like a soundtrack than ours.)
The screen in the projection room fills our screen as the second
title appears:
“CREDITS”
NOTE: Here follows a typical news digest short, one of the
regular monthly or bi-monthly features, based on public events
or personalities. These are distinguished from ordinary
newsreels and short subjects in that they have a fully developed
editorial or storyline. Some of the more obvious characteristics
of the “March of Time,” for example, as well as other documentary shorts, will be combined to give an authentic
impression of this now familiar type of short subject. As is the
accepted procedure in these short subjects, a narrator is used as
well as explanatory titles.
FADE OUT:
NEWS DIGEST
NARRATOR
Legendary was the Xanadu where Kubla
Kahn decreed his stately pleasure
dome (with quotes in his voice)
“Where twice five miles of fertile ground, with walls and towers
were girdled ‘round.”
(dropping the quotes)
Today, almost as legendary is Florida’s
XANADU - world’s largest private pleasure ground. Here, on
the deserts of the Gulf Coast, a private mountain was commissioned, successfully built for its landlord. Here in a private
valley, as in the Coleridge poem, “blossoms many an incensebearing tree.” Verily, “a miracle of rare device.”
U.S.A.
CHARLES FOSTER KANE
Opening shot of great desolate expanse of Florida coastline
(1940 - DAY)
DISSOLVE:
Series of shots showing various aspects of Xanadu, all as they
might be photographed by an ordinary newsreel cameraman -
142
nicely photographed, but not atmospheric to the extreme extent
of the Prologue (1940).
NARRATOR
(dropping the quotes)
Here, for Xanadu’s landlord, will be held 1940’s biggest,
strangest funeral;
here this week is laid to rest a potent figure of our Century America’s Kubla Kahn - Charles Foster Kane.
In journalism’s history, other names are honored more than
Charles Foster Kane’s, more justly revered. Among publishers,
second only to James Gordon Bennet the First: his dashing,
expatriate son; England’s Northcliffe and Beaverbrook;
Chicago’s Patterson and McCormick;
TITLE:
TO FORTY-FOUR MILLION U.S. NEWS BUYERS, MORE
NEWSWORTHY THAN THE NAMES IN HIS OWN
HEADLINES, WAS KANE HIMSELF, GREATEST
NEWSPAPER TYCOON OF THIS OR ANY OTHER
GENERATION.
Shot of a huge, screen-filling picture of Kane. Pull back to
show that it is a picture on the front page of the “Enquirer,”
surrounded by the reversed rules of mourning, with masthead
and headlines. (1940)
DISSOLVE:
A great number of headlines, set in different types and different
styles, obviously from different papers, all announcing Kane’s
death, all appearing over photographs of Kane himself
(perhaps a fifth of the headlines are in foreign languages). An
important item in connection with the headlines is that many
of them - positively not all - reveal passionately conflicting
opinions about Kane. Thus, they contain variously the words
“patriot,” “democrat,” “pacifist,” “war-monger,” “traitor,”
“idealist,” “American,” etc.
TITLE:
1895 TO 1940 - ALL OF THESE YEARS HE COVERED,
MANY OF THESE YEARS HE WAS.
Newsreel shots of San Francisco during and after the fire,
followed by shots of special trains with large streamers: “Kane
Relief Organization.” Over these shots superimpose the date 1906.
Artist’s painting of Foch’s railroad car and peace negotiators, if
actual newsreel shot unavailable. Over this shot sumperimpose
the date - 1918.
NARRATOR
Denver’s Bonfils and Sommes; New York’s late, great Joseph
Pulitzer; America’s emperor of the news syndicate, another
editorialist and landlord, the still mighty and once mightier
Hearst. Great names all of them - but none of them so loved,
hated, feared, so often spoken -as Charles Foster Kane.
The San Francisco earthquake. First with the news were the
Kane papers. First with Relief of the Sufferers, First with the
news of their Relief of the Sufferers. Kane papers scoop the
world on the Armistice - publish, eight hours before competitors, complete details of the Armistice teams granted the
Germans by Marshall Foch from his railroad car in the Forest of
Compeigne. For forty years appeared in Kane newsprint no
public issue on which Kane papers took no stand.
No public man whom Kane himself did not
support or denounce - often support, then denounce.
Its humble beginnings, a dying dailey Shots with the date - 1898 (to be supplied)
Shots with the date - 1910 (to be supplied)
Shots with the date - 1922 (to be supplied)
Headlines, cartoons, contemporary newreels or stills of the
following:
1. WOMAN SUFFRAGE
The celebrated newsreel shot of about 1914.
2. PROHIBITION
Breaking up of a speakeasy and such.
3. T.V.A.
4. LABOR RIOTS
Brief clips of old newreel shots of William Jennings Bryan,
Theodore Roosevelt, Stalin, Walter P. Thatcher, Al Smith,
McKinley, Landon, Franklin D. Roosevelt and such. Also,
recent newsreels of the elderly Kane with such Nazis as Hitler
and Goering; and England’s Chamberlain and Churchill.
Shot of a ramshackle building with old-fashioned presses
showing through plate glass windows and the name
“Enquirer” in old-fashioned gold letters. (1892)
DISSOLVE:
NARRATOR
Kane’s empire, in its glory, held dominion over thirty-seven
newpapers, thirteen magazines, a radio network.
An empire upon an empire. The first of grocery stores, paper
mills, apartment buildings, factories, forests, ocean-liners - An
empire through which for fifty years flowed, in an unending
stream, the wealth of the earth’s third richest gold mine...
Famed in American legend is the origin of the Kane fortune...
How, to boarding housekeeper Mary Kane, by a defaulting
boarder, in 1868 was left the supposedly worthless deed to an
abandoned mine shaft:
The Colorado Lode.
The magnificent Enquirer Building of today.
1891-1911 - a map of the USA, covering the entire screen, which
in animated diagram shows the Kane publications spreading
from city to city. Starting from New York, minature newboys
speed madly to Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Washington, Atlanta, El Paso, etc., screaming
“Wuxtry, Kane Papers, Wuxtry.”
Shot of a large mine going full blast, chimneys belching smoke,
trains moving in and out, etc. A large sign reads “Colorado
Lode Mining Co.” (1940) Sign reading; “Little Salem, CO - 25
MILES.”
DISSOLVE:
An old still shot of Little Salem as it was 70 years ago (identified by copper-plate caption beneath the still). (1870)
Shot of early tintype stills of Thomas Foster Kane and his wife,
Mary, on their wedding day. A similar picture of Mary Kane
some four or five years later with her little boy, Charles Foster
Kane.
NARRATOR
Fifty-seven years later, before a Congressional Investigation,
Walter P. Thatcher, grand old man of Wall Street, for years chief
target of Kane papers’ attack on “trusts,” recalls a journey he
made as a youth...
Shot of Capitol, in Washington D.C.
Shot of Congressional Investigating Committee (reproduction
of existing J.P. Morgan newsreel). This runs silent under
narration. Walter P. Thatcher is on the stand. He is flanked by
his son, Walter P. Thatcher Jr., and other partners. He is being
questioned by some Merry Andrew congressmen. At this
moment, a baby alligator has just been placed in his lap, causing
considerable confusion and embarrassment.
Newsreel close-up of Thatcher, the soundtrack of which now
fades in.
THATCHER
... because of that trivial incident...
INVESTIGATOR
It is a fact, however, is it not, that in 1870, you did go to
Colorado?
THATCHER
I did.
INVESTIGATOR
In connection with the Kane affairs?
THATCHER
Yes. My firm had been appointed trustees by Mrs. Kane for the
fortune, which she had recently acquired. It was her wish that I
should take charge of this boy, Charles Foster Kane.
NARRATOR
That same month in Union Square INVESTIGATOR
Is it not a fact that on that occasion, the boy personally attacked
you after striking you in the stomach with a sled?
Loud laughter and confusion.
THATCHER
Mr. Chairman, I will read to this committee a prepared statement I have brought with me - and I will then refuse to answer
any further questions. Mr. Johnson, please!
A young assistant hands him a sheet of paper from a briefcase.
THATCHER
(reading it)
“With full awareness of the meaning of my words and the
responsibility of what I am about to say, it is my considered
belief that Mr. Charles Foster Kane, in every essence of his
social beliefs and by the dangerous manner in which he has
persistently attacked the American traditions of private property,
initiative and opportunity for advancement, is - in fact - nothing
more or less than a Communist.”
Newsreel of Union Square meeting, section of crowd carrying
banners urging the boycott of Kane papers. A speaker is on the
platform above the crowd.
SPEAKER
(fading in on soundtrack)
- till the words “Charles Foster Kane” are a menace to every
working man in this land. He is today what he has always been
and always will be - A FASCIST!
NARRATOR
And yet another opinion - Kane’s own.
Silent newsreel on a windy platform, flag-draped, in front of
the magnificent Enquirer building. On platform, in full
ceremonial dress, is Charles Foster Kane. He orates silently.
TITLE:
143
I AM, HAVE BEEN, AND WILL BE ONLY ONE THING AN AMERICAN.” CHARLES FOSTER KANE.
Same locale, Kane shaking hands out of frame.
Another newsreel shot, much later, very brief, showing Kane,
older and much fatter, very tired-looking, seated with his second
wife in a nightclub. He looks lonely and unhappy in the midst
of the gaiety.
NARRATOR
Twice married, twice divorced - first to a president’s niece, Emily
Norton - today, by her second marriage, chatelaine of the oldest
of England’s stately homes.
Sixteen years after that - two weeks after his divorce from Emily
Norton - Kane married Susan Alexander, singer, at the Town
Hall in Trenton, New Jersey.
TITLE:
FEW PRIVATE LIVES WERE MORE PUBLIC.
Period still of Emily Norton (1900).
DISSOLVE:
Reconstructed silent newsreel. Kane, Susan, and Bernstein
emerging from side doorway of City Hall into a ring of press
photographers, reporters, etc. Kane looks startled, recoils for an
instance, then charges down upon the photographers, laying
about him with his stick, smashing whatever he can hit.
NARRATOR
For wife two, one-time opera singing Susan Alexander, Kane
built Chicago’s Municipal Opera House. Cost: three million
dollars. Conceived for Susan Alexander Kane, half-finished
before she divorced him, the still unfinished Xanadu. Cost: no
man can say.
Still of architect’s sketch with typically glorified “rendering” of
the Chicago Municipal Opera House.
DISSOLVE:
A glamorous shot of the almost-finished Xanadu, a magnificent fairy-tale estate built on a mountain. (1920)
Then shots of its preparation. (1917)
Shots of truck after truck, train after train, flashing by with
tremendous noise.
Shots of vast dredges, steamshovels.
Shot of ship standing offshore unloading its lighters.
In quick succession, shots follow each other, some reconstructed, some in miniature, some real shots (maybe from the
dam projects) of building, digging, pouring concrete, etc.
NARRATOR
One hundred thousand trees, twenty thousand tons of marble,
are the ingredients of Xanadu’s mountain. Xanadu’s livestock:
the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, the beast of the field and
jungle - two of each; the biggest private zoo since Noah.
Contents of Kane’s palace: paintings, pictures, statues, the very
stones of many another palace, shipped to Florida from every
corner of the earth, from other Kane houses, warehouses,
where they mouldered for years. Enough for ten museums the loot of the world.
More shots as before, only this time we see (in miniature) a
large mountain - at different periods in its development - rising
out of the sands.
Shots of elephants, apes, zebras, etc. being herded, unloaded,
shipped, etc. in various ways.
144
Shots of packing cases being unloaded from ships, from trains,
from trucks, with various kinds of lettering on them (Italian,
Arabian, Chinese, etc.) but all consigned to Charles Foster Kane,
Xanadu, Florida.
A reconstructed still of Xanadu - the main terrace. A group of
persons in clothes of the period of 1917. In their midst, clearly
recognizable, are Kane and Susan.
NARRATOR
Kane urged his country’s entry into one war, opposed participation in another. Swung the election to one American President
at least, was called another’s assassin. Thus, Kane’s papers
might never have survived - had not the President.
TITLE:
FROM XANADU, FOR THE PAST TWENTY-FIVE
YEARS, ALL KANE ENTERPRISES HAVE BEEN
DIRECTED, MANY OF THE NATIONS DESTINIES
SHAPED.
Shots of various authentically worded headlines of American
papers since 1895.
Spanish-American War shots. (1898)
A graveyard in France of the World War and hundreds of
crosses. (1919)
Old newsreels of a political campaign.
Insert of a particularly virulent headline and/or cartoon.
HEADLINE: “PRESIDENT SHOT”
NARRATOR
Kane, molder of mass opinion though he was, in all his life
was never granted elective office by the voters of his country.
Few U.S. news publishers have been.
Few, like one-time Congressman Hearst, have ever run for any
office - most know better - conclude with other political
observers that one man’s press has power enough for himself.
But Kane papers were once strong indeed, and once the prize
seemed almost his. In 1910, as Independent Candidate for
governor, the best elements of the state behind him - the
White House seemingly the next easy step in a lightning
political career Night shot of crowd burning Charles Foster Kane in effigy.
The dummy bears a grotesque, comic resemblance to Kane. It
is tossed into the flames, which burn up - and then down... (1910)
FADE OUT:
TITLE:
IN POLITICS - ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID, NEVER A
BRIDE
Newsreel shots of great crowds streaming into a building Madison Square Garden - then shots inside the vast auditorium, at one end of which is a huge picture of Kane. (1910)
Shot of box containing the first Mrs. Kane and young Howard
Kane, age five. They are acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.
(Silent Shot) (1910)
Newreel shot of dignitaries on platform, with Kane, alongside
of speaker’s table, beaming, hand upraised to silence the crowd.
(Silent Shot) (1910)
NARRATOR
Then, suddenly - less than one week before election - defeat!
Shameful, ignominious - defeat that set back for twenty years
the cause of reform in the U.S., forever cancelled political chances
for Charles Foster Kane. Then, in the third year of the Great
Depression... As to all publishers, it sometimes must - to
Bennett, to Munsey and Hearst it did - a paper closes! For
Kane, in four short years: collapse! Eleven Kane papers, four
Kane magazines merged, more sold, scrapped
-Newreel shot - closeup of Kane delivering a speech... (1910)
The front page of a contemporary paper - a screaming headline.
Twin phots of Kane and Susan. (1910)
Printed title about Depression.
Once more repeat the map of the USA 1932-1939. Suddenly,
the cartoon goes into reverse, the empire begins to shrink,
illustrating the narrator’s words.
The door of a newspaper office with the signs: “Closed.”
NARRATOR
Then four long years more - alone in his never-finished, already
decaying, pleasure palace, aloof, seldom visited, never photographed, Charles Foster Kane continued to direct his falling
empire ... vainly attempting to sway, as he once did, the
destinies of a nation that has ceased to listen to him ... ceased
to trust him...
Shots of Xanadu. (1940)
Series of shots, entirely modern, but rather jumpy and obviously bootlegged, showing Kane in a bath chair, swathed in
summer rugs, being perambulated through his rose garden, a
desolate figure in the sunshine. (1935)
NARRATOR
Last week, death came to sit upon the throne of America’s
Kubla Khan - last week, as it must to all men, death came to
Charles Foster Kane.
DISSOLVE:
Cabinent Photograph (Full Screen) of Kane as an old, old man.
This image remains constant on the screen (as camera pulls
back, taking in the interior of a dark projection room.
INT. PROJECTION ROOM - DAY - 1940
A fairly large one, with a long throw to the screen. It is dark.
The image of Kane as an old man remains constant on the
screen as camera pulls back, slowly taking in and registering
Projection Room. This action occurs, however, only after the
first few lines of encuring dialogue have been spoken. The
shadows of the men speaking appear as they rise from their
chairs - black against the image of Kane’s face on the screen.
NOTE: These are the editors of a “News Digest” short, and
of the Rawlston magazines. All his enterprises are represented
in the projection room, and Rawlston himself, that great man,
is present also and will shortly speak up.
During the entire course of this scene, nobody’s face is really
seen. Sections of their bodies are picked out by a table light, a
silhouette is thrown on the screen, and their faces and bodies
are themselves thrown into silhouette against the brilliant
slanting rays of light from the projection room.
A Third Man is on the telephone. We see a corner of his head
and the phone.
THIRD MAN
(at phone)
Stand by. I’ll tell you if we wantto run it again.
(hangs up)
THOMPSON’S VOICE
Well?
A short pause.
A MAN’S VOICE
It’s a tough thing to do in a newsreel.
Seventy years of a man’s life Murmur of highly salaried assent at this. Rawlston walks
toward camera and out of the picture. Others are rising.
Camera during all of this, apparently does its best to follow
action and pick up faces, but fails. Actually, all set-ups are to be
planned very carefully to exclude the element of personality
from this scene; which is expressed entirely by voices, shadows,
sillhouettes and the big, bright image of Kane himself on the
screen.
A VOICE
See what Arthur Ellis wrote about him in the American review?
THIRD MAN
I read it.
THE VOICE
(its owner is already leaning across the table, holding a piece of
paper under the desk light and reading from it)
Listen: Kane is dead. He contributed to the journalism of his
day - the talent of a mountebank, the morals of a bootlegger,
and the manners of a pasha. He and his kind have almost
succeeded in transforming a once noble profession into a seven
percent security - no longer secure.
ANOTHER VOICE
That’s what Arthur Ellis is writing now.Thirty years ago, when
Kane gave him his chance to clean up Detroit and Chicago and
St. Louis, Kane was the greatest guy in the world. If you ask
me.
ANOTHER VOICE
Charles Foster Kane was a...
Then observations are made almost simultaneous.
RAWLSTON’S VOICE
Just a minute!
Camera moves to take in his bulk outlined against the glow
from the projection room.
RAWLSTON
What were Kane’s last words?
A silence greets this.
RAWLSTON
What were the last words he said on earth? Thompson, you’ve
made us a good short, but it needs character SOMEBODY’S VOICE
Motivation RAWLSTON
That’s it - motivation. What made Kane what he was? And,
for that matter, what was he? What we’ve just seen are the
outlines of a career - what’s behind the career? What’s the man?
Was he good or bad? Strong or foolish? Tragic or silly? Why
did he do all those things? What was he after? (then, appreciating his point) Maybe he told us on his death bed.
THOMPSON
Yes, and maybe he didn’t.
RAWLSTON
Ask the question anyway, Thompson!
Build the picture around the question, even if you can’t answer
it.
THOMPSON
145
I know, but RAWLSTON
(riding over him like any other producer)
All we saw on that screen was a big American
A VOICE
One of the biggest.
RAWLSTON
(without pausing for this)
But how is he different from Ford? Or Hearst for that matter?
Or Rockefeller - or John Doe?
A VOICE
I know people worked for Kane will tell you - not only in the
newspaper business - look how he raised salaries. You don’t
want to forget ANOTHER VOICE
You take his labor record alone, they ought to hang him up like
a dog.
RAWLSTON
I tell you, Thompson - a man’s dying words SOMEBODY’S VOICE
What were they?
Silence.
SOMEBODY’S VOICE
(hesitant)
Yes, Mr. Rawlston, what were Kane’s dying words?
RAWLSTON
(with disgust)
Rosebud!
A little ripple of laughter at this, which is promptly silenced by
Rawlston.
RAWLSTON
That’s right.
A VOICE
Tough guy, huh?
(derisively)
Dies calling for Rosebud!
RAWLSTON
Here’s a man who might have been President. He’s been loved
and hated and talked about as much as any man in our time but when he comes to die, he’s got something on his mind
called “Rosebud.” What does that mean?
ANOTHER VOICE
A racehorse he bet on once, probably, that didn’t come in Rosebud!
RAWLSTON
All right. But what was the race?
There is a short silence.
RAWLSTON
Thompson!
THOMPSON
Yes, sir.
RAWLSTON
Hold this thing up for a week. Two weeks if you have to...
THOMPSON
(feebly)
But don’t you think if we release it now - he’s only been dead
four days- it might be better than if RAWLSTON
146
(decisively)
Nothing is ever better than finding out what makes people tick.
Go after the people that knew Kane well. That manager of his
- the little guy, Bernstein, those two wives, all the people who
knew him, had worked for him, who loved him, who hated his
guts (pauses)
I don’t mean go through the City Directory, of course The Third Man gives a hearty “yes-man” laugh.
THOMPSON
I’ll get to it right away, Mr. Rawlston.
RAWLSTON
(rising)
Good!
The camera from behind him, outlines his back against Kane’s
picture on the screen.
RAWLSTON’S VOICE
(continued)
It’ll probably turn out to be a very simple thing...
FADE OUT:
NOTE: Now begins the story proper - the seach by Thompson
for the facts about Kane - his researches ... his interviews with
the people who knew Kane.
It is important to remember always that only at the very end of
the story is Thompson himself a personality. Until then,
throughout the picture, we photograph only Thompson’s back,
shoulders, or his shadow - sometimes we only record his voice.
He is not until the final scene a “character”. He is the personification of the search for the truth about Charles Foster Kane.
He is the investigator.
FADE IN:
EXT. CHEAP CABARET - “EL RANCHO” - ATLANTIC
CITY - NIGHT - 1940 (MINIATURE) - RAIN
The first image to register is a sign:
“EL RANCHO”
FLOOR SHOW
SUSAN ALEXANDER KANE
TWICE NIGHTLY
These words, spelled out in neon, glow out of the darkness at
the end of the fade out. Then there is lightning which reveals a
squalid roof-top on which the sign stands. Thunder again, and
faintly the sound of music from within. A light glows from a
skylight. The camera moves to this and closes in. Through the
splashes of rain, we see through the skylight down into the
interior of the cabaret. Directly below us at a table sits the lone
figure of a woman, drinking by herself.
DISSOLVE:
INT. “EL RANCO” CABARET - NIGHT - 1940
Medium shot of the same woman as before, finishing the
drink she started to take above. It is Susie. The music, of
course, is now very loud. Thompson, his back to the camera,
moves into the picture in the close foreground. A Captain
appears behind Susie, speaking across her to Thompson.
THE CAPTAIN
(a Greek)
This is Mr. Thompson, Miss Alexander. Susan looks up into
Thompson’s face. She is fifty, trying to look much younger,
cheaply blonded, in a cheap, enormously generous evening
dress. Blinking up into Thompson’s face, she throws a crink
into ther mouth. Her eyes, which she thinks is keeping
commandingly on his, are bleared and watery.
SUSAN
(to the Captain)
I want another drink, John. Low thunder from outside.
THE CAPTAIN
(seeing his chance)
Right away. Will you have something, Mr. Thompson?
THOMPSON
(staring to sit down)
I’ll have a highball.
SUSAN
(so insistently as to make Thompson change his mind and
stand up again) Who told you you could sit down here?
THOMPSON
Oh! I thought maybe we could have a drink together?
SUSAN
Think again!
There is an awkward pause as Thompson looks from her to the
Captain.
SUSAN
Why don’t you people let me alone? I’m minding my own
business. You mind yours.
THOMPSON
If you’d just let me talk to you for a little while, Miss Alexander.
All I want to ask you...
SUSAN
Get out of here!
(almost hysterical)
Get out! Get out!
Thompson looks at the Captain, who shrugs his shoulders.
THOMPSON
I’m sorry. Maybe some other time If he thought he would get a response from Susan, who thinks
she is looking at him steelily, he realizes his error. He nods and
walks off, following the Captain out the door.
THE CAPTAIN
She’s just not talking to anybody from the newspapers, Mr.
Thompson.
THOMPSON
I’m not from a newspaper exactly, I They have come upon a waiter standing in front of a booth.
THE CAPTAIN
(to the waiter)
Get her another highball.
THE WAITER
Another double?
THE CAPTAIN
(after a moment, pityingly)
Yes.
They walk to the door.
THOMPSON
She’s plastered, isn’t she?
THE CAPTAIN
She’ll snap out of it. Why, until he died, she’d just as soon talk
about Mr. Kane as about anybody. Sooner.
THOMPSON
I’ll come down in a week or so and see her again. Say, you
might be able to help me. When she used to talk about Kane did she ever happen to say anything - about Rosebud?
THE CAPTAIN
Rosebud?
Thompson has just handed him a bill. The Captain pockets it.
THE CAPTAIN
Thank you, sir. As a matter of fact, yesterday afternoon, when
it was in all the papers - I asked her. She never heard of sebud.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
INT. THATCHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY - DAY - 1940
An excruciatingly noble interpretation of Mr. Thatcher himself
executed in expensive marble. He is shown seated on one of
those improbable Edwin Booth chairs and is looking down,
his stone eyes fixed on the camera.
We move down off of this, showing the impressive pedestal
on which the monument is founded. The words, “Walter
Parks Thatcher” are prominently and elegantly engraved
thereon. Immediately below the inscription we encounter, in a
medium shot, the person of Bertha Anderson, an elderly,
manish spinnster, seated behind her desk. Thompson, his hat
in his hand, is standing before her. Bertha is on the phone.
BERTHA
(into phone)
Yes. I’ll take him in now.
(hangs up and looks at Thompson)
The directors of the Thatcher Library have asked me to remind
you again of the condition under which you may inspect certain
portions of Mr. Thatcher’s unpublished memoirs. Under no
circumstances are direct quotations from his manuscript to be
used by you.
THOMPSON
That’s all right.
BERTHA
You may come with me. Without watching whether he is
following her or not, she rises and starts towards a distant and
imposingly framed door. Thompson, with a bit of a sigh,
follows.
DISSOLVE OUT:
DISSOLVE IN:
INT. THE VAULT ROOM - THATCHER MEMORIAL
LIBRARY - DAY - 1940
A room with all the warmth and charm of Napolean’s tomb.
As we dissolve in, the door opens in and we see past
Thompson’s shoulders the length of the room. Everything
very plain, very much made out of marble and very gloomy.
Illumination from a skylight above adds to the general air of
expensive and classical despair. The floor is marble, and there is
a gigantic, mahogany table in the center of everything. Beyond
this is to be seen, sunk in the marble wall at the far end of the
room, the safe from which a guard, in a khaki uniform, with a
revolver holster at his hip, is extracting the journal of Walter P.
Thatcher. He brings it to Bertha as if he were the guardian of a
bullion shipment. During this, Bertha has been speaking.
BERTHA
(to the guard)
Pages eighty-three to one hundred and forty-two, Jennings.
147
GUARD
Yes, Miss Anderson.
BERTHA
(to Thompson)
You will confine yourself, it is our understanding, to the chapter
dealing with Mr. Kane.
THOMPSON
That’s all I’m interested in.
The guard has, by this time, delivered the precious journal.
Bertha places it reverently on the table before Thompson.
BERTHA
You will be required to leave this room at four-thirty promptly.
She leaves. Thompson starts to light a cigarette. The guard
shakes his head. With a sigh, Thompson bends over to read
the manuscript. Camera moves down over his shoulder onto
page of manuscript.
Manuscript, neatly and precisely written:
“CHARLES FOSTER KANE
WHEN THESE LINES APPEAR IN PRINT, FIFTY YEARS
AFTER MY DEATH, I AM CONFIDENT THAT THE
WHOLE WORLD WILL AGREE WITH MY OPINION OF
CHARLES FOSTER KANE, ASSUMING THAT HE IS
NOT THEN COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN, WHICH I
REGARD AS EXTREMELY LIKELY. A GOOD DEAL OF
NONSENSE HAS APPEARED ABOUT MY FIRST MEETING WITH KANE, WHEN HE WAS SIX YEARS OLD...
THE FACTS ARE SIMPLE. IN THE WINTER OF 1870...”
The camera has not held on the entire page. It has been
following the words with the same action that the eye does the
reading. On the last words, the white page of the paper
DISSOLVES INTO:
EXT. MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870
The white of a great field of snow, seen from the angle of a
parlor window.
In the same position of the last word in above Insert, appears
the tiny figure of Charles Foster Kane, aged five (almost like an
animated cartoon). He is in the act of throwing a snowball at
the camera. It sails toward us and over our heads, out of scene.
Reverse angle - on the house featuring a large sign reading:
MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE HIGH CLASS MEALS
AND LODGING INQUIRE WITHIN
Charles Kane’s snowball hits the sign.
INT. PARLOR - MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY 1870
Camera is angling through the window, but the window-frame
is not cut into scene. We see only the field of snow again, same
angle as in previous scene. Charles is manufacturing another
snowball. Now Camera pulls back, the frame of the window appearing, and we
are inside the parlor of the boardinghouse. Mrs. Kane, aged
about 28, is looking out towards her son. Just as we take her in
she speaks:
MRS. KANE
(calling out)
Be careful, Charles!
THATCHER’S VOICE
Mrs. Kane MRS. KANE
148
(calling out the window almost on top of this)
Pull your muffler around your neck, Charles But Charles, deliriously happy in the snow, is oblivious to this
and is running away. Mrs. Kane turns into camera and we see
her face - a strong face, worn and kind.
THATCHER’S VOICE
I think we’ll have to tell him now Camera now pulls back further, showing Thatcher standing
before a table on which is his stove-pipe hat and an imposing
multiplicity of official-looking documents. He is 26 and, as
might be expected, a very stuffy young man, already very
expensive and conservative looking, even in Colorado.
MRS. KANE
I’ll sign those papers KANE SR.
You people seem to forget that I’m the boy’s father.
At the sound of Kane Sr.’s voice, both have turned to him and
the camera pulls back still further, taking him in.
Kane Sr., who is the assistant curator in a livery stable, has been
groomed as elegantly as is likely for this meeting ever since
daybreak.
From outside the window can be heard faintly the wild and
cheerful cries of the boy, blissfully cavorting in the snow.
MRS. KANE
It’s going to be done exactly the way I’ve told Mr. Thatcher KANE SR.
If I want to, I can go to court. A father has a right to THATCHER
(annoyed)
Mr. Kane, the certificates that Mr. Graves left here are made out
to Mrs. Kane, in her name. Hers to do with as she pleases KANE SR.
Well, I don’t hold with signing my boy away to any bank as
guardian just because MRS. KANE
(quietly)
I want you to stop all this nonsense, Jim.
THATCHER
The Bank’s decision in all matters concerning his education, his
place of residence and similar subjects will be final.
(clears his throat)
KANE SR.
The idea of a bank being the guardian Mrs. Kane has met his eye. Her triumph over him finds
expression in his failure to finish his sentence.
MRS. KANE
(even more quietly)
I want you to stop all this nonsense, Jim.
THATCHER
We will assume full management of the Colorado Lode - of
which you, Mrs. Kane, are the sole owner.
Kane Sr. opens his mouth once or twice, as if to say something,
but chokes down his opinion.
MRS. KANE
(has been reading past Thatcher’s shoulder as he talked)
Where do I sign, Mr. Thatcher?
THATCHER
Right here, Mrs. Kane.
KANE SR.
(sulkily)
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Mrs. Kane lifts the quill pen.
KANE SR.
Mary, I’m asking you for the last time - anyon’d think I hadn’t
been a good husband and a Mrs. Kane looks at him slowly. He stops his speech.
THATCHER
The sum of fifty thousand dollars a year is to be paid to
yourself and Mr. Kane as long as you both live, and thereafter
the survivor Mrs. Kane puts pen to the paper and signs.
KANE SR.
Well, let’s hope it’s all for the best.
MRS. KANE
It is. Go on, Mr. Thatcher Mrs. Kane, listening to Thatcher, of course has had her other
ear bent in the direction of the boy’s voice. Thatcher is aware
both of the boy’s voice, which is counter to his own, and of
Mrs. Kane’s divided attention. As he pauses, Kane Sr. genteelly
walks over to close the window.
EXT. MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870
Kane Jr., seen from Kane Sr.’s position at the window. He is
advancing on the snowman, snowballs in his hands, dropping
to one knee the better to confound his adversary.
KANE
If the rebels want a fight boys, let’s give it to ‘em!
He throws two snowballs, missing widely, and gets up and
advances another five feet before getting on his knees again.
KANE
The terms are underconditional surrender. Up and at ‘em! The
Union forever!
INT. PARLOR - MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY 1870
Kane Sr. closes the window.
THATCHER
(over the boy’s voice)
Everything else - the principal as well as all monies earned - is to
be administered by the bank in trust for your son, Charles
Foster Kane, until his twenty-fifth birthday, at which time he is
to come into complete possession.M
Mrs. Kane rises and goes to the window.
MRS. KANE
Go on, Mr. Thatcher.
Thatcher continues as she opens the window. His voice, as
before, is heard with overtones of the boy’s.
EXT. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870
Kane Jr., seen from Mrs. Kane’s position at the window. He is
now within ten feet of the snowman, with one snowball left
which he is holding back in his right hand.
KANE
You can’t lick Andy Jackson! Old Hickory, that’s me!
He fires his snowball, well wide of the mark and falls flat on his
stomach, starting to crawl carefully toward the snowman.
THATCHER’S VOICE
It’s nearly five, Mrs. Kane, don’t you think I’d better meet the
boy - INT. PARLOR - MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE DAY - 1870
Mrs. Kane at the window. Thatcher is now standing at her side.
MRS. KANE
I’ve got his trunk all packed - (she chokes a little) I’ve it packed
for a couple of weeks She can’t say anymore. She starts for the hall day. Kane Sr., ill at
ease, has no idea of how to comfort her.
THATCHER
I’ve arranged for a tutor to meet us in Chicago. I’d have
brought him along with me, but you were so anxious to keep
everything secret He stops as he realizes that Mrs. Kane has paid no attention to
him and, having opened the door, is already well into the hall
that leads to the side door of the house. He takes a look at
Kane Sr., tightens his lips and follows Mrs. Kane. Kane,
shoulders thrown back like one who bears defeat bravely,
follows him.
EXT. MRS. KANE’S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870
Kane, in the snow-covered field. With the snowman between
him and the house, he is holding the sled in his hand, just
about to make the little run that prefaces a belly-flop. The Kane
house, in the background, is a dilapidated, shabby, two-story
frame building, with a wooden outhouse. Kane looks up as he
sees the single file procession, Mrs. Kane at its head, coming
toward him.
KANE
H’ya, Mom.
Mrs. Kane smiles.
KANE
(gesturing at the snowman)
See, Mom? I took the pipe out of his mouth. If it keeps on
snowin’, maybe I’ll make some teeth and MRS. KANE
You better come inside, son. You and I have got to get you all
ready for
THATCHER
Charles, my name is Mr. Thatcher MRS. KANE
This is Mr. Thatcher, Charles.
THATCHER
How do you do, Charles?
KANE SR.
He comes from the east.
KANE
Hello. Hello, Pop.
KANE SR.
Hello, Charlie!
MRS. KANE
Mr. Thatcher is going to take you on a trip with him tonight,
Charles. You’ll be leaving on Number Ten.
KANE SR.
That’s the train with all the lights.
KANE
You goin’, Mom?
THATCHER
Your mother won’t be going right away, Charles KANE
Where’m I going?
KANE SR.
149
You’re going to see Chicago and New York - and Washington,
maybe... Isn’t he, Mr. Thatcher?
THATCHER
(heartily)
He certainly is. I wish I were a little boy and going to make a
trip like that for the first time.
KANE
Why aren’t you comin’ with us, Mom?
MRS. KANE
We have to stay here, Charles.
KANE SR.
You’re going to live with Mr. Thatcher from now on, Charlie!
You’re going to be rich. Your Ma figures - that is, er - she and I
have decided that this isn’t the place for you to grow up in.
You’ll probably be the richest man in America someday and you
ought to MRS. KANE
You won’t be lonely, Charles...
THATCHER
We’re going to have a lot of good times together, Charles...
Really we are.
Kane stares at him.
THATCHER
Come on, Charles. Let’s shake hands. (extends his hand.
Charles continues to look at him)
Now, now! I’m not as frightening as all that! Let’s shake, what
do you say?
He reaches out for Charles’s hand. Without a word, Charles
hits him in the stomach with the sled. Thatcher stumbles back
a few feet, gasping.
THATCHER
(with a sickly grin)
You almost hurt me, Charles.
(moves towards him)
Sleds aren’t to hit people with. Sleds are to - to sleigh on. When
we get to New York, Charles, we’ll get you a sled that will He’s near enough to try to put a hand on Kane’s shoulder. As
does, Kane kicks him in the ankle.
MRS. KANE
Charles!
He throws himself on her, his arms around her. Slowly Mrs.
Kane puts her arms around him.
KANE
(frightened)
Mom! Mom!
MRS. KANE
It’s all right, Charles, it’s all right.
Thatcher is looking on indignantly, occasionally bending over to
rub his ankle.
KANE SR.
Sorry, Mr. Thatcher! What the kid needs is a good thrashing!
MRS. KANE
That’s what you think, is it, Jim?
KANE SR.
Yes.
Mrs. Kane looks slowly at Mr. Kane.
MRS. KANE
(slowly)
150
That’s why he’s going to be brought up where you can’t get at
him.
DISSOLVE:
1870 - NIGHT (STOCK OR MINIATURE)
Old-fashioned railroad wheels underneath a sleeper, spinning
along the track.
DISSOLVE:
INT. TRAIN - OLD-FASHIONED DRAWING ROOM NIGHT - 1870
Thatcher, with a look of mingled exasperation, annoyance,
sympathy and inability to handle the situation, is standing
alongside a berth, looking at Kane. Kane, his face in the pillow,
is crying with heartbreaking sobs.
KANE
Mom! Mom!
DISSOLVE OUT:
The white page of the Thatcher manuscript. We pick up the
words:
“HE WAS, I REPEAT, A COMMON ADVENTURER,
SPOILED, UNSCRUPULOUS, IRRESPONSIBLE.”
The words are followed by printed headline on “Enquirer” copy
(as in following scene).
INT. ENQUIRER CITY ROOM - DAY - 1898
Close-up on printed headline which reads:
“ENEMY ARMADA OFF JERSEY COAST”
Camera pulls back to reveal Thatcher holding the “Enquirer”
copy, on which we read the headline. He is standing near the
editorial round table around which a section of the staff,
including Reilly, Leland and Kane are eating lunch.
THATCHER
(coldly)
Is that really your idea of how to run a newspaper?
KANE
I don’t know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher. I just try
everything I can think of.
THATCHER
(reading headline of paper he is still holding)
“Enemy Armada Off Jersey Coast.” You know you haven’t the
slightest proof that this - this armada - is off the Jersey Coast.
KANE
Can you prove it isn’t?
Bernstein has come into the picture. He has a cable in his hand.
He stops when he sees Thatcher.
KANE
Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Thatcher BERNSTEIN
How are you, Mr. Thatcher?
THATCHER
How do you do? BERNSTEIN
We just had a wire from Cuba, Mr. Kane (stops, embarrassed)
KANE
That’s all right. We have no secrets from our readers. Mr.
Thatcher is one of our most devoted readers, Mr. Bernstein.
He knows what’s wrong with every issue since I’ve taken charge.
What’s the cable?
BERNSTEIN
(reading)
The food is marvelous in Cuba the senoritas are beautiful stop
I could send you prose poems of palm trees and sunrises and
tropical colors blending in far off landscapes but don’t feel right
in spending your money for this stop there’s no war in Cuba
regards Wheeler.
THATCHER
You see! There hasn’t been a true word KANE
I think we’ll have to send our friend Wheeler a cable, Mr.
Bernstein. Of course, we’ll have to make it shorter than his,
because he’s working on an expense account and we’re not. Let
me see (snaps his fingers)
Mike!
MIKE
(a fairly tough customer prepares to take dictation, his mouth
still full of food)
Go ahead, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Dear Wheeler (pauses a moment)
You provide the prose poems - I’ll provide the war.
Laughter from the boys and girls at the table.
BERNSTEIN
That’s fine, Mr. Kane.
KANE
I rather like it myself. Send it right away.
MIKE
Right away.
BERNSTEIN
Right away.
Mike and Bernstein leave. Kane looks up, grinning at Thatcher,
who is bursting with indignation but controls himself. After a
moment of indecision, he decides to make one last try.
THATCHER
I came to see you, Charles, about your - about the Enquirer’s
campaign against the Metropolitan Transfer Company.
KANE
Won’t you step into my office, Mr. Thatcher?
They cross the City Room together.
THATCHER
I think I should remind you, Charles,of a fact you seem to have
forgotten. You are yourself one of the largest individual
stockholders.
INT. KANE’S OFFICE - DAY - 1898
Kane holds the door open for Thatcher. They come in
together.
KANE
Mr. Thatcher, isn’t everything I’ve been saying in the Enquirer
about the traction trust absolutely true?
THATCHER
(angrily)
They’re all part of your general attack - your senseless attack - on
everything and everybody who’s got more than ten cents in his
pocket. They’re KANE
The trouble is, Mr. Thatcher, you don’t realize you’re talking to
two people.
Kane moves around behind his desk. Thatcher doesn’t
understand, looks at him.
KANE
As Charles Foster Kane, who has eighty-two thousand, six
hundred and thirty-one shares of Metropolitan Transfer - you
see, I do have a rough idea of my holdings - I sympathize with
you. Charles Foster Kane is a dangerous scoundrel, his paper
should be run out of town and a committee should be formed
to boycott him. You may, if you can form such a committee,
put me down for a contribution of one thousand dollars.
THATCHER
(angrily)
Charles, my time is too valuable for me KANE
On the other hand (his manner becomes serious)
I am the publisher of the Enquirer.
As such, it is my duty - I’ll let you in on a little secret, it is also
my pleasure - to see to it that decent, hard-working people of
this city are not robbed blind by a group of moneymad pirates because, God help them, they have no one to look
after their interests! I’ll let you in on another little secret, Mr.
Thatcher. I think I’m the man to do it. You see, I have money
and property Thatcher doesn’t understand him.
KANE
If I don’t defend the interests of the underprivileged, somebody else will - maybe somebody without any money or any
property and that would be too bad.
Thatcher glares at him, unable to answer. Kane starts to dance.
KANE
Do you know how to tap, Mr. Thatcher?
You ought to learn (humming quietly, he continues to dance)
Thatcher puts on his hat.
THATCHER
I happened to see your consolidated statement yesterday,
Charles. Could I not suggest to you that it is unwise for you to
continue this philanthropic enterprise (sneeringly)
this Enquirer - that is costing you one million dollars a year?
KANE
You’re right. We did lose a million dollars last year.
Thatcher thinks maybe the point has registered.
KANE
We expect to lost a million next year, too. You know, Mr.
Thatcher (starts tapping quietly)
at the rate of a million a year - we’ll have to close this place in
sixty years.
DISSOLVE:
INT. THE VAULT ROOM - THATCHER MEMORIAL
LIBRARY - DAY
Thompson - at the desk. With a gesture of annoyance, he is
closing the manuscript.
Camera arcs quickly around from over his shoulder to hold on
door behind him, missing his face as he rises and turns to
151
confront Miss Anderson, who has come into the room to shoo
him out. Very prominent on this wall is an over-sized oil
painting of Thatcher in the best Union League Club renaissance
style.
MISS ANDERSON
You have enjoyed a very rare privilege, young man. Did you
find what you were looking for?
THOMPSON
No. Tell me something, Miss Anderson.
You’re not Rosebud, are you?
MISS ANDERSON
What?
THOMPSON
I didn’t think you were. Well, thanks for the use of the hall.
He puts his hat on his head and starts out, lighting a cigarette as
he goes. Miss Anderson, scandalized, watches him.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
INT. BERNSTEIN’S OFFICE - ENQUIRER SKYSCRAPER
- DAY - 1940
Closeup of a still of Kane, aged about sixty-five. Camera pulls
back, showing it is a framed photograph on the wall. Over the
picture are crossed American flags. Under it sits Bernstein, back
of his desk. Bernstein, always an undersized Jew, now seems
even smaller than in his youth. He is bald as an egg, spry, with
remarkably intense eyes. As camera continues to travel back, the
back of Thompson’s head and his shoulders come into the
picture.
BERNSTEIN
(wryly)
Who’s a busy man? Me? I’m Chairman of the Board. I got
nothing but time ... What do you want to know?
THOMPSON
(still explaining)
Well, Mr. Bernstein, you were with Mr. Kane from the very
beginning BERNSTEIN
From before the beginning, young fellow. And now it’s after
the end. (turns to Thompson) Anything you want to know
about him about the paper THOMPSON
We thought maybe, if we can find out what he meant by that
last word - as he was dying BERNSTEIN
That Rosebud? Maybe some girl? There were a lot of them
back in the early days, and THOMPSON
Not some girl he knew casually and then remembered after fifty
years, on his death bed BERNSTEIN
You’re pretty young, Mr. - (remembers the name)
Mr. Thompson. A fellow will remember things you wouldn’t
think he’d remember.You take me. One day, back in 1896, I
was crossing over to Jersey on a ferry and as we pulled out, there
was another ferry pulling in (slowly)
152
and on it, there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she
had on and she was carrying a white pastrol and I only saw her
for one second and she didn’t see me at all - but I’ll bet a
month hasn’t gone by since that I haven’t thought of that girl.
(triumphantly)
See what I mean?
(smiles)
Well, so what are you doing about this “Rosebud,” Mr.
Thompson.
THOMPSON
I’m calling on people who knew Mr. Kane. I’m calling on you.
BERNSTEIN
Who else you been to see?
THOMPSON
Well, I went down to Atlantic City BERNSTEIN
Susie? I called her myself the day after he died. I thought
maybe somebody ought to...
(sadly)
She couldn’t even come to the ‘phone.
THOMPSON
You know why? She was so BERNSTEIN
Sure, sure.
THOMPSON
I’m going back there.
BERNSTEIN
Who else did you see?
THOMPSON
Nobody else, but I’ve been through that stuff of Walter
Thatcher’s. That journal of his BERNSTEIN
Thatcher! That man was the biggest darn fool I ever met THOMPSON
He made an awful lot of money.
BERNSTEIN
It’s not trick to make an awful lot of money if all you want is to
make a lot of money.
(his eyes get reflective)
Thatcher!
Bernstein looks out of the window and keeps on looking,
seeming to see something as he talks.
BERNSTEIN
He never knew there was anything in the world but money.
That kind of fellow you can fool every day in the week - and
twice on Sundays!
(reflectively)
The time he came to Rome for Mr. Kane’s twenty-fifth
birthday... You know, when Mr. Kane got control of his own
money... Such a fool like Thatcher I tell you, nobody’s business!
DISSOLVE OUT:
DISSOLVE IN:
INT. BERNSTEIN’S OFFICE - DAY - 1940
Bernstein speaking to Thompson.
BERNSTEIN
He knew what he wanted, Mr. Kane did, and he got it!
Thatcher never did figure him out. He was hard to figure
sometimes, even for me. Mr. Kane was a genius like he said.
He had that funny sense of humor. Sometimes even I didn’t
get the joke. Like that night the opera house of his opened in
Chicago... You know, the opera house he built for Susie, she
should be an opera singer...
(indicates with a little wave of his hand what he thinks of that;
sighing)
That was years later, of course - 1914 it was. Mrs. Kane took
the leading part in the opera, and she was terrible. But nobody
had the nerve to say so - not even the critics. Mr. Kane was a
big man in those days. But this one fellow, this friend of his,
Branford Leland He leaves the sentence up in the air, as we
DISSOLVE:
INT. CITY ROOM - CHICAGO ENQUIRER - NIGHT 1914
It is late. The room is almost empty. Nobody is at work at the
desks. Bernstein, fifty, is waiting anxiously with a little group
of Kane’s hirelings, most of them in evening dress with
overcoats and hats. Eveybody is tense and expectant.
CITY EDITOR
(turns to a young hireling; quietly)
What about Branford Leland? Has he got in his copy?
HIRELING
Not yet.
BERNSTEIN
Go in and ask him to hurry.
CITY EDITOR
Well, why don’t you, Mr. Bernstein?
You know Mr. Leland.
BERNSTEIN
(looks at him for a moment; then slowly)
I might make him nervous.
CITY EDITOR
(after a pause)
You and Leland and Mr. Kane - you were great friends back in
the old days, I understand.
BERNSTEIN
(with a smile)
That’s right. They called us the “Three Musketeers.”
Somebody behind Bernstein has trouble concealing his
laughter. The City Editor speaks quickly to cover the situation.
CITY EDITOR
He’s a great guy - Leland.
(another little pause)
Why’d he ever leave New York?
BERNSTEIN
(he isn’t saying)
That’s a long story.
ANOTHER HIRELING
(a tactless one)
Wasn’t there some sort of quarrel between BERNSTEIN
(quickly)
I had nothing to do with it.
(then, somberly)
It was Leland and Mr. Kane, and you couldn’t call it a quarrel
exactly.Better we should forget such things -
(turning to City Editor)
Leland is writing it up from the dramatic angle?
CITY EDITOR
Yes. I thought it was a good idea. We’ve covered it from the
news end, of course.
BERNSTEIN
And the social. How about the music notice? You got that in?
CITY EDITOR
Oh, yes, it’s already made up. Our Mr. Mervin wrote a small
review.
BERNSTEIN
Enthusiastic?
CITY EDITOR
Yes, very!
(quietly)
Naturally.
BERNSTEIN
Well, well - isn’t that nice?
KANE’S VOICE
Mr. Bernstein Bernstein turns.
Medium long shot of Kane, now forty-nine, already quite
stout. He is in white tie, wearing his overcoat and carrying a
folded opera hat.
BERNSTEIN
Hello, Mr. Kane.
The Hirelings rush, with Bernstein, to Kane’s side. Widespread, half-suppressed sensation.
CITY EDITOR
Mr. Kane, this is a surprise!
KANE
We’ve got a nice plant here.
Everybody falls silent. There isn’t anything to say.
KANE
Was the show covered by every department?
CITY EDITOR
Exactly according to your instructions,
Mr. Kane. We’ve got two spreads of pictures.
KANE
(very, very casually)
And the notice?
CITY EDITOR
Yes - Mr. Kane.
KANE
(quietly)
Is it good?
CITY EDITOR
Yes, Mr. kane.
Kane looks at him for a minute.
CITY EDITOR
But there’s another one still to come the dramatic notice.
KANE
(sharply)
It isn’t finished?
CITY EDITOR
No, Mr. Kane.
KANE
That’s Leland, isn’t it?
153
CITY EDITOR
Yes, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Has he said when he’ll finish?
CITY EDITOR
We haven’t heard from him.
KANE
He used to work fast - didn’t he, Mr. Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN
He sure did, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Where is he?
ANOTHER HIRELING
Right in there, Mr. Kane.
The Hireling indicates the closed glass door of a little office at
the other end of the City Room. Kane takes it in.
BERNSTEIN
(helpless, but very concerned)
Mr. Kane KANE
That’s all right, Mr. Bernstein.
Kane crosses the length of the long City Room to the glass
door indicated before by the Hireling. The City Editor looks at
Bernstein. Kane opens the door and goes into the office,
closing the door behind him.
BERNSTEIN
Leland and Mr. Kane - they haven’t spoke together for ten years.
(long pause; finally)
Excuse me.
(starts toward the door)
INT. LELAND’S OFFICE - CHICAGO ENQUIRER NIGHT - 1914
Bernstein comes in. An empty bottle is standing on Leland’s
desk. He has fallen over his typewriter, his face on the keys. A
sheet of paper is in the machine. A paragraph has been typed.
Kane is standing at the other side of the desk looking down on
him. This is the first time we see murder in Kane’s face.
Bernstein looks at Kane, then crosses to Leland. He shakes
him.
BERNSTEIN
Hey, Brad! Brad!
(he straightens, looks at Kane; pause)
He ain’t been drinking before, Mr. Kane. Never. We would
have heard.
KANE
(finally; after a pause)
What does it say there?
Bernstein stares at him.
KANE
What’s he written?
Bernstein looks over nearsightedly, painfully reading the
paragraph written on the page.
BERNSTEIN
(reading)
“Miss Susan Alexander, a pretty but hopelessly incompetent
amateur (he waits for a minute to catch his breath; he doesn’t like it)
154
last night opened the new Chicago Opera House in a performance of
(looks up miserably)
I can’t pronounce that name, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Thais.
Bernstein looks at Kane for a moment, then looks back,
tortured.
BERNSTEIN
(reading again)
“Her singing, happily, is no concern of this department. Of her
acting,
From the beginning, animation has been an important part of
film history. Even before the invention of the motion picture
camera, photographer Eadweard Muybridge used sequential
photographs to analyze animal and human movement. Early
19th-century devices such as the thaumatrope, praxinoscope and
zoetrope anticipated motion picture animation by making still
images appear to move. Quickly flashing a series of still pictures
past the viewer, these devices took advantage of a phenomenon
called “persistence of vision.” Because the human eye briefly
retains an impression of an image after it has disappeared, the
brain will read a rapid series of images as an unbroken movement. Animated films work on the same principle. Each frame
of an animated film is a separate still picture, individually
exposed. Drawings or props are moved slightly between
exposures, creating an illusion of movement when the film is
projected.
In 1892, Emile Reynaud opened his popular Théâtre Optique
in Paris, where he projected films that had been drawn directly
on transparent celluloid, a technique that would not be used
again until the 1930s. The “trick-films” of Parisian magician
Georges Méliès mixed stop-motion and single-frame photography with live-action film for magical effect. By the early 20th
century, animators such as J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay
in the U.S. and Emile Cohl in France were making animated
films composed entirely of drawings. Brothers Max and Dave
Fleischer, creators of Betty Boop, patented the rotoscope in
1917, enabling animators to copy the movement of live-action
by tracing filmed live-action images frame by frame.
Raoul Barré opened the first animation studio in New York
around 1914. Soon studios in New York, California and
elsewhere were producing short films that screened in theaters
before the main feature. Over the next few decades, cartoon
series flourished, featuring popular characters such as Felix the
Cat, Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Walter Lantz’s Woody Woodpecker
and Warner Bros.’ Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote. In the
1940s, George Pal’s Puppetoons represented one of the few
examples of commercial animation using three-dimensional
materials.
In 1923, Walt and Roy Disney, Ub Iwerks and other animators
formed a company which would dominate animation for many
years. Not only did the studio’s animators produce finely drawn
films, but they emphasized unique, specific characters and
movement that revealed the characters’ personalities. The
Disney studio produced Steamboat Willie (1928), the first
cartoon to synchronize sound with movement, and the short
three-color Technicolor film Flowers and Trees, which won the
first Oscar for animation in 1932. In 1938, Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, the first American feature-length animated film,
received a Special Academy Award for significant screen innovation. More than half-a-century later, the Walt Disney Company
was still breaking new ground: 1991’s Beauty and the Beast was
nominated for Best Picture alongside four live-action films. In
1995, Disney released the Pixar Production Toy Story, the first
feature-length computer-animated film which was honored by
the Academy with a special award.
Animated and live-action films have in common such basic film
devices as scripts, camera moves, close-ups and long shots.
Unlike live-action filmmakers (at least until recently), animators
can ignore the rules of physics and construct fantastic worlds.
What ultimately separates animated and live-action techniques
(though the two are often combined in the current age of
computer-generated imagery) are the different ways they are put
on film. In live-action films, the camera records an action in
continuous time, as events unfold, although the film’s editor
may later change the continuity. In an animated film, however, it
is the camera that creates the movement, frame by frame, and
each step is carefully planned before filming begins.
Students can practice several animation techniques as well as
demonstrate persistence of vision by making a flipbook.
Review the animation terms for this activity. The beginning,
middle and ending drawings of a flipbook are similar to what
animators call “extremes” or “key frames” and the drawings
that link them could be considered “in-betweens.” By stacking
index cards and using a metal clip to fasten them or by using a
pad of paper, the student will make a simple type of registration system, similar to that used by animators to keep their
drawings lined up properly. Each page is comparable to a frame
of an animated film; flipping the pages is similar to the action
of a projector.
Have the students begin their flipbooks by thinking of a visual
they would like to animate. The action should have a beginning,
middle and end. The image can be as simple as a growing
flower or a circle that mutates into a square and then back into a
circle, or as elaborate as the student’s talent or interest allows.
Using a pad of heavy paper (small sizes work better) or a stack
of index cards, have your students draw their starting image in
pencil at the bottom of the last page. They should draw at least
24 visuals, which is equal to one second of screen time,
changing the drawing slightly on each page. If they like, they can
color or shade their images. The more each drawing resembles
the one preceding it, the smoother the action will appear when
the book is flipped. Have your students remove every other
image from their books and flip again, noting the difference.
Ask them to discuss the ways in which a flipbook is similar to
an animated film, using some of the criteria presented above.
it is absolutely impossible to...”
(he continues to stare at the page)
KANE
(after a short silence)
Go on!
BERNSTEIN
(without looking up)
That’s all there is.
Kane snatches the paper from the roller and reads it for himself.
Slowly, a queer look comes over his face. Then he speaks, very
quietly.
KANE
Of her acting, it is absolutely impossible to say anything except
that it represents a new low...
(then sharply)
Have you got that, Mr. Bernstein?
In the opinion of this reviewer BERNSTEIN
(miserably)
I didn’t see that.
KANE
It isn’t here, Mr. Bernstein. I’m dictating it.
BERNSTEIN
(looks at him)
I can’t take shorthand.
KANE
Get me a typewriter. I’ll finish the notice.
Bernstein retreats from the room.
QUICK DISSOLVE OUT:
Reference Material
•
•
•
•
•
Bordwell, David. Film Art: An introduction.
•
•
•
Milllerson, Gerald. The technique of television production
•
•
•
Milllerson, Gerald. Video production Handbook
Bordwell, David. On the history of Film style.
Eisenstein, Sergei. Film Form and Film Sense.
Nilsen, Vladimir. The Cinema as a Graphic Art.
Reisz, Karel and Gavin Millar. The Technique of Film
Editing.
Milllerson, Gerald. Effective TV production.
Mascelli, Joseph. The Five C’s of Cinematography: Motion
Picture Filming
Compesi and Sherriffs. Video field production and editing
Holman, Tomlinson. Sound for Film and Television.
Notes :
155
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