Class 6: Movement and Editing

Notes for this week's class are bundled together with the notes for week 5 & week 7 here.

Movement

Tony Zhou showcases the role of different types of movement in the films of Akira Kurosawa. He makes a good point that movement tends to draw the eye more than any other anomaly in an image. He also provides a list of types of movements that can play a part in shots: (i) movement of nature; (ii) movement of groups (of people); (iii) movement of individuals (characters); (iv) movement of the camera (the one we focused on today); (v) movement of the cut (matching and contrasting movements).

A recent article on the balance between shot rhythm and cutting in Birdman, famed for its smooth, long-take photography. (See the section halfway down on Technique.)

Screen Direction

Another Tony Zhou piece, this time showing a recent sterling example of screen direction from Bong Joon-Ho's graphic novel adaptation Snowpiercer.

Editing

For more on Walter Murch: 6 principles.

Murch's books In the Blink of an Eye and The Conversations (actually Michael Ondaatje's book) are essential reading for aspiring editors.

This vimeo contributor provides solid, detailed expositions of the shot-by-shot rhythms of key film sequences. Here he tackles a sequence that tipped the hat to Sergei Eisenstein's 'Odessa Steps' scene, The Untouchables' train station shootout.

Much of this analysis of a critical sequence in Jaws brings it down to editing rhythm.

A recent article on editing Grand Budapest Hotel.

Intensified continuity editing is compared here to the older continuity editing system using two versions of the same story, both adapted by Hollywood. (The 'IC' idea is Bordwell's really, which is why so many of the links in this post are to his articles.)

Eye Trace

A thoughtful contribution of the path of the eye and how we can motivate those eyes towards different things. (Note in particular how viewers asking different questions see different details first.)

Films Covered in Week 6

Monday class: Ran, Solaris, Mic-macs, The Horse Whisperer, The Red Balloon, The 400 Blows, Shanhai Triad, The Godfather, Tree of Life, Remains of the Day, All the President's Men, Pride and Prejudice, Once Upon a Time in the West, F for Fake, Red Road, Colombiana, 2046, Undertow (nail in foot), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Untouchables, Walkabout, Trois Coleurs: Bleu. 

Some others were played on Tuesday: Vertigo, Psycho and Nostalgia. (Note: several of the above weren't played, due to the greater emphasis given to these three.) Also we started with Upstream Color.

Suggested reading (in addition to the above)

- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (chapters on editing)
- Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time
- Pudovkin, Film Technique
- Karen Pearlman, Cutting Rhythms

Class 5: The Camera and the Eye

We didn't talk much about the science of the eye - we compared the eye and the camera more in vaguer language. But if you want to put names on things, this video should suit you. And it turns out we're not the only ones doing this class.

A link for the slides referred to in this class and over the next few weeks.

Films featured in class this week included Solaris, Pride and Prejudice, 2046, Fallen Angels, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tokyo Story, Stalker, Vertigo, Mr Turner, Once Upon a Time in the West, Collateral, The Insider, Paris Texas, Planet Earth, Remains of the Day, Citizen Kane, Beyond the Hills, In the Mood for Love, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Manhattan. (Yes, a lot today.)

Opening vs Closing Images

There are so many films that you could have included here, but those Jacob Swinney selected tell a story. Similarity and dissimilarity can serve equally well when choosing the opening and closing images of your film. It depends what you most want to put in our minds.

Take the last two in the montage. John Ford's The Searchers (the empty doorway) explicitly recalls its opening with its finale - the ways in which the world and the characters have changed is effectively brought to mind. (Good image motif.) 

Brian Singer's The Usual Suspects works the other way. Those frames couldn't be more different. The first is as small a detail in that scene as they could find - Kayser Soze is concealed. The last shows Soze unmasked, for all to see.

People will Read Again

The two books I sent around the room today (actually, only in Monday's class) were Gustavo Mercado's Filmmaker's Eye, and Christopher Kenworthy's Master Shots. Joel asked about Werner Herzog's superb memoir, which is called A Guide for the Perplexed.

Visual Arcs: Discovering the Face

I referred to a film of my own which utilised the 'arc of unveiling', moving from viewing a character from behind to look them full in the face, and exploiting the mystery inherent in that journey. The film was Go Quickly, and the character was the father. He initially seems to be the film's antagonist, but as we come to see him more clearly for who he is, our feelings about what is going on should be shifting.

Depth of Field

The Illusion of Intention. A focus bump in a recent documentary is interpreted as a character's evasiveness.

Aspect Ratio

On the pitfalls of an aspect ratio too wide for your subject matter, consider this recent piece.

On the peculiarities of 4:3 and how Wes Anderson uses it in Grand Budapest Hotel.

On the 'infamous' (?) 1:1 aspect ratio of Xavier Dolan's Mommy.

Colour Palettes

A great recent video essay on the use of colour in Kimmy Schmidt.

To see a lot of colour palettes on regular basis, sign up to the RSS feed of Movies in Color.

Class 4: Sense of Place

Hello all. Our fourth class approaches, which means a couple of assessments draw nigh.

Friday March 13th (Task 1)

As noted in the subject outline, all groups must send me their Task 1 tomorrow by email. (Let's say before 9pm.) This will include one worksheet filled out for the group, as well as the 10 storyboards put together by each of member of the group. You were emailed an electronic version of the subject outline by Manuel on Monday March 2nd. You do not need to submit the actual photos for this stage, so don’t worry if you haven’t yet actually shot your presentation. Email me at the usual address.

Key things: 

1. Only one submission required per group

2. The submission must include the 10 storyboards for each group member, clearly labeled and numbered

3. Make sure in your submission that you clearly label the document - indicating what task it is, and who the two group members are. 

If for some reason it's too big to send by email -- if your scans of your storyboards err on the side of hi-res, for example -- I suggest sharing it with me via a Dropbox folder or a Google Drive folder.

Next Week Class Time (Task 2) - Monday 10am or Tuesday 10am

In your Story through Sound and Image class next week, you and your partner will be presenting your Task 2 Sense of Place Slide Presentation. 10 photos, scanned and arranged in powerpoint. Soundtrack is optional. You will be ‘running the projector’, so to speak, so you control how quickly or slowly the slides pass by. (Give that a bit of thought before the day.)

After you present the slides, we will as an audience try to piece together what we’ve just seen. We’ll then ask the presenting group to explain their intentions, and read their script. Interesting things emerge. 

We will need all presentations ready for the start of the class (ie. 10am Monday or 10am Tuesday). It’s a courtesy to your fellow filmmakers to be there to see their work if they are prepared enough to watch yours. You must present in your regular class time, unless you have permission to do otherwise. (And we would usually only grant that where a group was split over two classes.)

What's it all about?

If you're still to shoot your story, or perhaps even still to plan it, and you're overwhelmed by the detail and have forgotten what it's all about: Two people meet in a public place. Tell us a story with that at the core, and tell it visually. This is an exercise in visual storytelling. That's all. :)

When Formalism gets Realist Sound

Ouch.

Class 3: Drama Pitch

For this week's class, we'll be using the timeslot for the Drama Production pitches. Even if you're not doing that unit this semester, I suggest you attend and watch the pitches, as it will inform your own efforts in later semesters, and you'll get a sense of who is in the class around you.

Don't forget that in the following week, we will be playing our 'Sense of Place' slides in class, so you and your partner(s) should complete work this week. Email the completed slideshows (as powerpoint files, unless you've created a quicktime movie) to me a day before your class time.

You will also need to send me your group's version of Task 1, which includes answers to a number of questions, including a copy of your script, your shooting schedule, and, FOR EACH GROUP MEMBER, a set of storyboards that interpret your story. You will only end up shooting one set of 10 shots, but we need to see the plan each of you separately developed.

Unlike the actual presentation, you will not need to process anything in order to email me Task 1. So I'll stick to the submission date described in the subject outline -- send me your group's Task 1 by Friday 5pm of week 3 (March 14).

Remember, storyboards should be labeled, numbered, and while the drawing does not have to be draughtsman standard, the idea is that a reader will understand what is happening in each shot.

Things are getting busy. Let me know if you're having troubles with this. All the best in your work. :)

For posts on our previous classes, see Week 2 Film Style and Week 1 Mise en Scene.

And a bit of fun. If you want to see why Wes Anderson's films feel so neat, consider the role of symmetry in his framing. (Very formalist.)