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