COM 320, History of Film–The Origins of Editing Styles and Techniques

I. The Beginnings of Classical/Hollywood Editing (“Invisible Editing”) 1. The invisible cut…Action is continuous and fluid across cuts 2. Intercutting (between 2+ different spaces; also called parallel editing or crosscutting) -e.g., lack of intercutting?: The Life of An American Fireman (1903) -e.g., D. W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (1919) (boxing match vs. girl/Chinese man encounter) 3. Analytical editing -Breaks a single space into separate framings, after establishing shot 4. Continguity editing…Movement from space to space -e.g., Rescued by Rover (1905) 5. Specific techniques 1. Cut on action 2, Match cut (vs. orientation cut?) 3. 180-degree system (violated in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)) 4. Point of view (POV) 5. Eyeline match (depending on Kuleshov Effect, actually) 6. Shot/reverse shot

II. Soviet Montage Editing (“In-Your-Face Editing”) 1. Many shots 2. Rapid cutting—like Abel Gance 3. Thematic montage 4. Creative geography -Later example—Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds 5. Kuleshov Effect -Established (??) by Lev Kuleshov in a series of experiments (poorly documented, however) -Nature of the “Kuleshov Effect”—Even without establishing shot, the viewer may infer spatial or temporal continuity from shots of separate elements; his supposed early “test” used essentially an eyeline match: -e.g., man + bowl of soup = hunger man + woman in coffin = sorrow man + little girl with teddy bear = love 6. Intercutting—expanded use from Griffith 7. Contradictory space -Shots of same event contradict one another (e.g., plate smashing in Potemkin) 8. Graphic contrasts -Distinct change in composition or action (e.g., Odessa step sequence in Potemkin) 9. Cubism -From Yuri Tsivian’s analysis of Strike: Multiple views of the scene are presented, views that are not POVs of any characters in film–like the work of a cubist artist 10. Overlapping editing -Repetitions expand the time of the event shown -Later examples–Mission Impossible 2, Babe 11. Elliptical cutting/Jump cutting -Opposite effect of overlapping editing -A portion of the event is left out (often via jump cuts), so the event takes less time than it would in reality -Later examples–Rocky Horror Picture Show, Basquiat 12. Nondiegetic inserts -Elements from outside the “story world” (diegesis) are inserted for symbolic or metaphorical purposes -e.g., Slaughterhouse/police attack in Strike -Later examples–Basquiat, My Own Private Idaho, Naked Gun 2-1/2

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