Theories of Editing Forum

Both of the readings, Film, Form and Culture by Robert Kolker and The Technique of Film & Video Editing by Ken Dancyger go into detail about the history of film editing, as well as describing the different types of cuts and editing techniques. While both of texts are pretty parallel, Kolker takes a more systematic approach and describes the different techniques of editing by title. He goes into great detail and provides examples of scenes, but only describes them in a literal sense. Dancyger’s brings up many of the same examples, but I find his text easier to read and understand, and I appreciate that he provides more visuals of stills to illustrate.

Kolker goes into great detail about the Russian Revolution of 1917 and describes a style of filmmaking that breaks the rules of the classical Hollywood Style. Several artists, including Sergei Eisenstein, developed a montage style of editing which takes the raw material of the shot, and turns it into a statement charged with meaning (Kolker, 1999, p. 44).

In my opinion, the documentary The Cutting Edge: The Magic Of Movie Editing really helps to explain the ideas of editing and the history of it. By interviewing different directors and editors, the documentary really sets the tone that the film is actually made in the cutting room. I found it interesting the while I recognized most of the names of the directors; I didn’t recognize any of the editors. Historically, editors were really the silent part of the film. As filmmaking becomes more advanced and includes sound as while as different types of shot, the films begin to really play on Gillian Rose’s three critical elements of visual methodology. A scene that would otherwise be basic, could be made into a more emotional scene by holding the frames on close up’s on the face longer, and by rearranging the sequence of frames.

As the style of editing advances, if an editor really wants to place emphasis on a scene and make the audience feel threatened or scared, or emotionally charged with the characters, they have certain ways of cutting the shot that actually makes the audience feel they are actually the character. They make it feel real for the audience. I believe that is what makes movies films so appealing for everyone, we can take a step out of our lines and be in another time or place, in another story, and feel someone else’s happiness or pain. I believe this happens without us as an audience even realizing it, and it’s really taken Rose’s theory of metacognition, or “thinking about one’s own thinking” for this to make sense. To me films are so simple, and I can feel the emotion and intensity just like the characters, but before this class and researching editing, I didn’t realize how much the editing process plays a huge role in that.

When it comes to film and form and mise-en-scene, I have learned that every scene, every cut on a film has a meaning and has been done on purpose. In the documentary, several directors describe that extending a cut by just two more frames, literally that are less than second in real-time, can drastically change the meaning of the shot.

As I have said before, I never thought much about the editing process. I thought that and editor would just condense the film into the allotted amount of time, but I never thought much about how much impact deleting just two frames from a scene can have on the scene itself. I never realized that an editor is the one who can extend an emotionally charged gaze from one character to another, thus allowing the audience to really feel the heat of the moment. I thought all of this was done in the original shooting process of the film. After this week’s readings, I was really left thinking about the talent, or if there really is talent, in the actors and actresses themselves. It seems they are the ones saying the lines, but the editor is really who helps make the film appeal to audiences.

I had the pleasure of watching Lee Daniels’ The Butler this week, and throughout this week’s reading, I couldn’t help but think of all the montages displaying in this film.  Due to the film’s nature, they are all emotionally charged, but the scene at the dinner table is very explosive. Without being too much of spoiler to those who have not seen the film, the father works as butler for the president. His son, Louis, does not believe in his father’s work and has taken on a prominent role in the Freedom Riders, later on, as this secene shoes, he is active member in the Black Panther Party. In this scene, Lois has not been home in several years, and he suddenly returns home to dinner with his girlfriend and family. You can tell there is tension early on and you can see it build with every word, as the father and mother try to have civil conversation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA087uP9qxw

Dancyger, K. (2013). Constructive editing and heightened realism. In The Technique of Film and Video EditingTaylor and Francis Group.

Kolker, R. (1999). Formal structure: how films tell their stories. In P. Butcher (Ed.), Film, Form and CultureThe McCraw-Hill Companies.