Throughout this sequence, the editing implies associations between the shots.
This is an important principle of narrative filmmaking. Each shot means what it (a)
(b)
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(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
REAR WINDOW (PARAMOUNT PICTURES, 1954)
In cross cutting shots of Jeffries (James Stewart) looking off frame with shots presenting views of the apartment courtyard, the editing gives the shot series a point-of-view structure. Viewers infer that the courtyard views are what Jeffries sees. The shots A-B-C show a comic series—Jeffries sees a couple struggling to get out of the rain and is amused. Shots D-E-F-G show Jeffries watching the killer Thorwald leaving his apartment in the middle of the night.
Note that the more extreme angle of Jeffries’ glance in shot F points to a new location, the street beyond the apartment complex. The angles at which Jeffries looks off-frame tell us where things are located. In reality, actor James Stewart is not seeing anything pictured here. Hitchcock simply told him “look off-camera right” and “look up and off-camera left” and then created the associations and story meanings in the editing. Frame enlargements.
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does by virtue of its surrounding context. Hitchcock and Tomasini cut back and forth between Jeffries’s face and shots of what he is meant to be seeing across the courtyard. These latter are his point-of-view shots; they simulate what he can see out his window. Hitchcock and Tomasini want viewers to interpret Jeffries’s facial expressions and reactions as responses to what has occurred in the point-of-view shots. Notice, however, that Jeffries and what he sees and reacts to are never shown within the same shot. It is the editing that creates the association.
PARALLEL ACTION To tell sophisticated stories, filmmakers need a way of suggesting (simultaneous) parallel action, that is, that two or more things are happening at the same time. This enables them to weave together several lines of action in the telling of their story. Parallel action is achieved through editing. The editing in Rear Window manipulates multiple lines of action: Thorwald’s trips to and from his apartment, the arrival home of the composer, the return home of Miss Torso, the comical response of the couple sleeping on their balcony in the rain, and Jeffries’s surveillance of all this and his reactions to it. The editing references each of these lines of action to the others by establishing relationships of time and location.
Without the use of parallel editing, that is, editing that interrelates multiple lines of action, filmmakers could not create complex narratives involving the actions of numerous characters, story lines, and subplots.
One especially important form of parallel action is cross-cutting . In cross- cutting, the editor goes back and forth, typically with increasing speed, between two or more lines of action. The Fugitive (1993) opens with a spectacular train wreck during which the fugitive (Harrison Ford) escapes from his jailers. The cross-cutting goes back and forth with increasing speed between shots of the oncoming train and the frenzied, panicked reactions of prisoners trapped inside a bus that has fallen across the tracks.
By cross-cutting shots of increasingly shorter duration, the editor creates an accelerat-ing tempo and speed and an increasing amount of tension.
Among the inferences viewers routinely draw across cuts are inferences of
simultaneous action. The cross-cut shots of the train and the frantic prisoners prompt the viewer to make an unambiguous interpretation: The train is about to smash the bus.
Filmmakers guide viewers in drawing these inferences by composing and editing shots to create a strong flow of action across the cuts. How is this accomplished?
THE PRINCIPLES OF CONTINUITY EDITING
As its name implies, continuity editing is a style of cutting that emphasizes smooth and continuously flowing action from shot to shot. Instead of noticing the abruptness of a cut in a popular movie, the viewer pays attention to story information and character relationships. Shots are joined so that the action flows smoothly over the cut.
The remarkable achievements of the continuity editing system are sometimes disparaged in discussions that describe the style as “transparent” or “invisible.” In reality, continuity editing is a highly constructed and accomplished style that creates an impression of realism and naturalism from carefully applied editing rules.
A Continuous Flow of Action
The goal of continuity editing is to emphasize the apparent realism and naturalness of the story and to minimize the viewer’s awareness of film technique and the presence 163
Editing: Making the Cut
of the camera. The remarkable achievement of continuity cutting lies in successfully meeting this goal. When viewers see a popular commercial film in the theater, they rarely notice details of camera position and movement. Instead, they are swept up by the story and the characters. There is a major paradox here. As viewers watch a movie, they see a rapid succession of individual shots on screen accompanied by an ever-changing series of camera positions and angles. What they see , therefore, is fragmentary and discontinuous. A film is assembled from hundreds of individual shots. Its structure is inherently fragmentary. What viewers experience , however, is the impression of a smoothly flowing, unbroken stream of imagery in which the story and the characters come convincingly to life. How is this apparent contradiction between the reality of what viewers see and the impression of what they experience explained?
The answer is that filmmakers have discovered methods of connecting their
shots that minimize the disruption of shot changes. In other words, continuity editing makes possible the impression of narrative wholeness and completeness.
Continuity editing also has helped make cinema very popular because it can be so easily understood. Films edited according to these principles do not pose difficult perceptual or interpretive challenges. Films can be edited so that they will be easy to understand and will therefore appeal to wide segments of the market.
Here lie the true achievements of the continuity system. The system emphasizes visual coherence and ease of comprehension. These are things that must be created in film. Because of the camera’s ever-changing angle of view, the potential in film for in-coherence and discontinuity is always much greater, and filmmakers accordingly have to strive very hard to achieve the opposite.
Case Study CASABLANCA
The Hollywood classic Casablanca (1942) provides
admitting some customers into the room where roulette
some representative sequences that display continuity
and gambling occur. Rick is filmed from behind, in the
editing codes in action. Among the most important
foreground, and the door to his casino is visible in the
codes of the continuity system are the following: the
background of the shot ( a ). This shot functions as the
use of a master shot to organize the subsequent cut-
master shot position for this scene. The master shot
ting within a scene, matching shots to the master, the
shows the spatial layout of a scene, all the characters’
shot-reverse-shot series with the eyeline match, and the
positions in relation to each other and to the set. The
180-degree rule.
master shot is typically filmed first, with all the action in
Casablanca is a wartime adventure film about
a scene from beginning to end photographed from this
heroic resistance against the Nazis, and it is also a
position. Then directors typically go back to film inserts,
lush romantic melodrama. Rick (Humphrey Bogart),
close-ups, and medium shots that will be cut with the
a nightclub owner, has come to Casablanca to get
master shot to create the fin
al edited scene and whose
over a disastrous love affair with Ilsa Lund (Ingrid
compositional elements will match with the master.
Bergman). Ilsa turns up unexpectedly one night in
Rick sees the doorman pausing in the entrance
Rick’s cafe and sets in motion the romantic fireworks
with several guests, awaiting his approval to enter
that move the plot along to its exciting conclusion.
the casino. Shot 2 ( b ) is an example of a matched
cut . The two compositions—the master shot and the
Matching to the Master Shot
medium close-up of the doorman and guests—match.
In the first scene illustrated here, one of the atten-
The camera’s angle of view is similar in each shot.
dants in Rick’s nightclub awaits Rick’s approval before
The only difference is that the camera is closer to the
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Editing: Making the Cut
characters in shot 2 ( b ). A second matching element is
characters are indeed looking at each other and that the
the positioning of the doorman and guests. They are
spaces they inhabit, though seen in different shots, are
oriented toward screen left, a similar position in both
connected. Often in a scene, characters are interacting
shots. The match here is so strong that a casual viewer
with each other but are presented in separate shots. The
does not notice the cut.
eyeline match helps to create continuity between the
separate images.
The Eyeline Match
In organizing the cut to shot 4, the master shot
The doorman glances off-frame left ( c ) (implying that he
remains important. What else, besides the eyeline
is looking at Rick, who is off-screen), and the film cuts
match, establishes that these characters are looking
to Rick in shot 4 ( d ) looking off-frame right. Each looks
at each other? It is the information viewers remember
in an opposing direction, one to the right, the other to
from the master shot about the spatial layout of the
the left, creating the impression that they are looking at
room. From the master shot, viewers know there is a
each other. This match is known as the eyeline match ,
direct line of sight from Rick’s table to the door and
and it is an important code used to link the spaces in
that Rick and the doorman have an unobstructed view
separate shots. The eyeline match establishes that two
of each other. The angles of their glances in shots
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
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Editing: Making the Cut
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)
( continued)
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Editing: Making the Cut
3 and 4 ( c, d ) match the information viewers were
Because filmmakers change camera positions and
given in the master shot.
angles from shot to shot, screen direction is some-
thing that must be established and maintained care-
The Master Shot and Viewer Perception
fully. Right and left must remain constant across shot
As viewers watch a movie, they are responding to
changes, but the potential for creating inconsistent
more than the information that is on-screen at any one
right and left orientations from shot to shot is very
moment. Viewers interpret shots by relating them to
great. The 180-degree rule specifies how this may be
the larger context of an edited scene. In this regard,
prevented.
the master shot furnishes viewers with a map or visual
Within any given scene, a line of interest or ac-
schema of the set or locale (a room in this scene from
tion can be drawn between the major characters. The
Casablanca). Using this schema, viewers integrate frag-
180-degree rule counsels filmmakers to keep their cam-
mentary details, like the composition of the shot ( b ),
eras on one side of this line from shot to shot within a
with their recollected sense of the layout of the room.
scene. If a filmmaker were to cross the line by cutting
Using master shots facilitates a viewer’s understanding
to a camera position taken on the other side of the line,
of the action of a scene.
the right–left coordinates on screen would be reversed.
Characters who were on screen right in one shot would
The Shot-Reverse-Shot Series
appear on screen left in the next.
In shot 5, a Nazi supporter tries to enter Rick’s casino
The 180-degree rule operates in the next scene
( e ). In shot 6 ( f ), the doorman and the German talk
in the film ( j–m ). Ugarte (Peter Lorre) comes into
outside the room, where Rick shortly joins them in
the casino to tell Rick that he has some “letters of
shot 7 ( g ). The cutting now goes into a brief shot-
transit” that guarantee their bearer safe passage from
reverse-shot series ( g–i ) as Rick and the German
Casablanca, and he asks Rick to keep them for him.
exchange words. The camera is positioned over the
As Ugarte talks to Rick, they are seated at the table.
shoulder of one character and then, in the reverse
The line of interest extends between them. Notice
shot position, over the shoulder of the other charac-
that the camera stays on the same side of the line in
ter. This series of alternating compositions is a stan-
all the subsequent shots ( k–m ). When both charac-
dard method for filming dialogue scenes. It creates
ters are in the shot, Ugarte is always on screen right
something of a ping-pong effect as the composition
and Rick is always on screen left despite the chang-
continually shifts into reverse shot positions. The cut-
ing camera positions. When a close-up isolates Rick,
ting is typically coordinated with the flow of dialogue
he is facing screen right, consistent with his position
so that, as speakers change, so does the camera
in the two-shot.
position. Should the camera shift into an extreme
Notice also that the line of interest is consistent
close-up isolating each character in a single shot, the
with the line of interest established in the previous
eyeline match would be employed. In shot-reverse-
scene with the doorman and guests. Rick sits at his
shot cutting, editing follows the flow of dialogue,
table in both scenes, and the camera positioning has
and the shifting camera positions mark the changes
kept Rick on screen left. In this sense, visual continu-
of speakers in the conversation. This emphasizes the
ity has been maintained from scene to scene because
dialogue and facilitates the viewer’s pickup of story
a consistent line of interest is used as the basis of the
information.
180-degree rule.
Scenes are dynamic, however, and filmmakers
The 180-Degree Rule
frequently need to define new lines
of action to fol-
The 180-degree rule is one of the most important
low changes of character positioning as the drama
codes of the continuity system. This rule is the founda-
unfolds. How does a filmmaker define a new line of
tion for establishing continuity of screen direction. The
action by crossing the existing one? There are several
right–left coordinates of screen action remain consis-
possible ways. A filmmaker may cut first to a series of
tent as long as all camera positions stay on the same
camera positions on or near the line before crossing
side of the line of action. Crossing the line entails a
it. A filmmaker may use a moving camera to cross the
change of screen direction.
line within a shot. Whatever strategy is employed, the
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Editing: Making the Cut
Camera #4
Camera #2
Camera #3
The Line
Camera #1
FIGURE 1
The 180-degree rule.
problems associated with maintaining or crossing the
ing and disorienting the viewer, particularly when it is
line raise issues about the relationship between visual
important to establish a coherent sense of a fixed visual
change and perceptual constancy in the represented
landscape. The viewer must understand that although
action on screen.
the camera’s angle of view may change, the layout of the
physical world on-screen remains constant. In other words,
Camera Position and Perceptual Constancies
if a character is shown standing at the bottom of a hill,
Filmmakers typically provide viewers with continuously
the character must seem to remain there, unless shown
changing visual perspectives on the action. They build
moving elsewhere, regardless of whether a high-angle or
a scene by cutting among different camera setups. The
a low-angle shot is employed, regardless of whether the
problem is how to create this variety without confus-
camera photographs that character from the left or right
( continued)
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Movies and Meaning- Pearson New International Edition Page 27