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Beyond Spatial Montage

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Beyond Spatial Montage Beyond Spatial Montage Beyond Spatial Montage: Windowing, or the Cinematic Displacement of Time, Motion, and Space oers an extended discussion of the morphology and structure of compositing, graphic juxtaposition, and montage employed in both historical and contemporary motion pictures. Drawing from the history of avant-garde and commercial cinema, as well as studio-based research, media theorist/artist Michael Betancourt critiques cinematic realism and spatial montage in motion pictures. This new taxonomic framework for conceptualizing linkages between media art and narrative cinema opens new areas of experimentation for today’s lm editors, motion designers, and other media artists. Michael Betancourt is an internationally exhibiting artist/historian and critical theorist. His publications and books include The ____________ Manifesto, The History of Motion Graphics: From Avant-Garde to Industry in the United States and The Critique of Digital Capitalism. He has written for both scholarly and academic publications such as The Atlantic, CTheory, Leonardo, Make Magazine, Millennium Film Journal and Semiotica, and his writing has been translated into Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish. This page intentionally left blank Beyond Spatial Montage Windowing, or the Cinematic Displacement of Time, Motion, and Space Michael Betancourt First published 2016 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Michael Betancourt The right of Michael Betancourt to be identied as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identication and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Betancourt, Michael, 1970– Beyond spatial montage : windowing, or the cinematic displacement of time, motion, and space / Michael Betancourt. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Motion pictures – Editing. 2. Motion pictures – Aesthetics. 3. Cinematography. I. Title. TR899.B47 2016 777'.5–dc23 2015034071 ISBN: 978-1-138-93866-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-66778-2 (ebk) Typeset in Perpetua by Out of House Publishing The discussion of Kolchak: The Night Stalker title sequence was previously published in amended form by Bright Lights Film Journal as “That Uncanny Moment: Jack Cole’s Design of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker Title Sequence,” January 14, 2014. For Leah This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix 1 Introduction 1 Definitions and Scope 3 The “Image Animation Problem” 5 The Taxonomic Approach 8 Affect 9 Motion Graphics 10 Scope of Analysis 14 2 Realism 19 The Long Take 22 Animation 26 Abstraction 28 Montage and Editing 35 Realism versus Reality 38 Simultaneous Action 45 3 Windowing 51 Conceptual Framework 52 Multiple Image Compositions 55 Technological Production 55 Limited Scope in Manovich’s Theorization 56 Windowing 57 4 Taxonomy 65 Time–Motion–Space Displacement 66 Motion–Space Displacement (Mirroring) 70 Time–Space Displacement 84 Time–Motion Displacement (Step-Printing) 104 Interdependence of Types 111 viii Contents 5 Conclusions 115 Commercial and Noncommercial Forms 117 Theory and Praxis 119 Appendix 123 Semiotics of Morphology and Structure 125 Application 126 Aesthetics Are History 162 Index 165 Illustrations Figures 1.1 Still frames showing collage of elements (spatial montage) from the title sequence for American Look (1958), designed by Robert Mounsey, Charles Nasca and Otto Simunich for Chevrolet. 11 1.2 Spatial montage (time–space displacement) in still frames from the title sequence for The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), designed by Pablo Ferro. 12 2.1 Still frames from The Next Door Neighbors (1909), animated by Émile Cohl. 27 2.2 Still frames from Rhythm in Light (1934), designed by Mary Ellen Bute. 31 2.3 Still frames from Synchromy No. 2 (1936), designed by Mary Ellen Bute. 31 2.4 Still frames showing the opening long take from Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), title sequence designed by Jack Cole. 38 2.5 Still frames showing the montage from Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), title sequence designed by Jack Cole. 39 2.6 Still frames showing lighting changes from Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), title sequence designed by Jack Cole. 39 2.7 Still frames showing the kinestasis in The Rockford Files (1974), title sequence designed by Jack Cole. 45 3.1 Venn diagram showing the relationship between motion, time, and space in cinema as distinct elements with their combination identied in the overlapping areas. 58 3.2 Still frames from the “Hearts and Pearls” sequence in Sherlock, Jr. (1924), directed by Buster Keaton. 60 4.1 Time–motion–space displacement (displacement via duplication) showing repetition within frame from Chipmunk (2006), designed by Michael Betancourt. 68 4.2 Time–motion–space displacement (displacement via duration) from Rabbit (2006), designed by Michael Betancourt. 69 4.3 Time–motion–space displacement (displacement via division; the Einbau structure) from Coming and Going (2014) designed by Michael Betancourt. 70 x List of Illustrations 4.4a–c Patent image of a kaleidoscope (1867) by John Earnshaw. (Sir David Brewster’s patent does not include full diagrams.) 71 4.5 Reections producing a kaleidoscope eect in a 60º–60º–60º equilateral arrangement. 74 4.6 Motion–space displacement showing kaleidoscopic reections from Ballet Mécanique (1924), by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy. 76 4.7 The reections produced by the kaleidoscopic apparatus used in Ballet Mécanique (1924) based on the imagery in the lm itself. 76 4.8 Still frames from the title sequence showing kaleidoscopic reections in The Fall of the House of Usher (1927), by Melville Webber and James Sibley Watson, Jr. 77 4.9 Still frames showing repetitions of the con and the stairs in The Fall of the House of Usher (1927), by Melville Webber and James Sibley Watson, Jr. 77 4.10a–d Design for a kaleidoscopic lens attachment, patent no. 1,690,584, by Loyd A. Jones (1928). 79 4.11 Still frames from the trailer for Universal Studio’s The King of Jazz (1929) showing kaleidoscopic forms. 83 4.12 Still frames showing kaleidoscopic forms from the title sequence for Auntie Mame (1958), designed by Wayne Fitzgerald. 83 4.13 Matrix showing the range of possible cinematic juxtapositions as a set of relationships between singular and multiple images. Their orientation to the frame edge determines whether they appear as a single full-frame composition, or as a series of discrete, individual frames. 85 4.14 Still frames from Action Movie (1996), designed by Michael Betancourt, showing wipes producing a composite of three distinct images on screen simultaneously, made with the Jones Colorizer at the Experimental Television Center. 86 4.15 Still frames showing spatial montage (time–space displacement) produced with superimposition and compositing in The Man with the Movie Camera (1929), directed by Dziga Vertov. 88 4.16 Still frames showing spatial-montage combinations that border on abstraction (time–space displacement) produced with superimposition and compositing in The Man with the Movie Camera (1929), directed by Dziga Vertov. 89 4.17 Still frames showing loops and repeated elements from Come Closer (1954) by Hy Hirsh. 90 4.18 Still frame showing spatial montage from Come Closer (1954) by Hy Hirsh. 90 4.19 Still frames showing framed representational imagery from Runs Good (1971) by Pat O’Neill. 91 4.20 Art Director’s Club 40th Annual of Advertising & Editorial Art & Design, 1961, Plates 335 and 336 (New York: Straus & Cudahy, 1961), pp. 188–189. 92 List of Illustrations xi 4.21 Still frames showing multiple image juxtapositions (spatial montage) creating parallel action in the polo sequence, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), designed by Pablo Ferro. 93 4.22 Time–space displacement in the photographic collage, The Brooklyn Bridge Beyond Gehry & Hockney, by Bill Rabinovitch (2010). 94 4.23 Still frames from David Hockney’s “experiment with lm” (1982), produced for the documentary Portrait of an Artist: Hockney (1983). 95 4.24 Still frames from the title sequence for Mesrin: Killer Instinct (2008), designed by Gianni Manno. 96 4.25 Single-image displacements (time–space displacement) in still frames from the title sequence for Grand Prix (1966), designed by Saul Bass. 97 4.26 Still frames showing repeating images in the polo sequence, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), designed by Pablo Ferro. 98 4.27 Still frames of the “Produced by” title card showing a background with footage of a dancer’s torso horizontally ipped and superimposed over itself from the title sequence for A View to a Kill (1985), designed by Maurice Binder. 100 4.28 Still frames showing the eye–gun iconic combination from the title sequence for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), designed by Maurice Binder. 100 4.29 Still frames showing iconic composites showing the relationship of female acrobats to guns from the title sequence for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), designed by Maurice Binder. 101 4.30 Still frame showing old man, bottles, and cat in an iconic combination from the title sequence for The Cat and the Canary (1927), designed by Walter Anthony. 102 4.31 Still of title card from The Cat and the Canary (1927), designed by Walter Anthony. 103 4.32 Still frames showing iconic juxtapositions of imagery in The Man with the Movie Camera (1929), directed by Dziga Vertov.
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